Advent Readings from Isaiah and Early Church Fathers

TABLE
OF CONTENTS
YEAR I
ADVENT & CHRISTMASTIDE ........................................................................................................ 93
SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................................. 94
A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH
The Call of Isaiah: Isaiah 6:1-13
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX
Sermo 1 in adventu Domini 1-6: CCCM IIA from Word in Season 1
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................................ 95
The Sign of Immanuel: Isaiah 7:1-17
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Isaiam 1.4 (PG 70, 204A-205D), tr. Norman Russell (2000)
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................................ 96
The Prophet’s son appointed as a sign: Isaiah 8:1-18
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD
Sermo 7 de adventu Domini (PL 183, 54-56), from Word in Season 1
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ...................................................................................... 98
Prince of peace: Isaiah 9:1-7
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST ODILO OF CLUNY
Sermo 10 (PL 142, 1019-1020), from Word in Season 1
THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................. 99
The Day of the Lord: Isaiah 10:5-21
A READING FROM A SERMON BY PETER OF BLOIS
FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................................. 100
Return of the remnant of the People of God: Isaiah 11:10-16
A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ....................................................................................... 101
The Day of the Lord: Isaiah 13:1-22
Sermo 3 in nat. S. Ioannis Baptistae (PL 185, 169-70), from Word in Season 1

2
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT ...................................................................................... 103
Death of the tyrant and the liberation of the people: Isaiah 14:1-21
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118 BY ST AMBROSE
Sermo 19, 30-32 (CSEL 63, 437-439), from Word in Season 1
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT ..................................................................................... 104
The Lord’s judgement on Edom: Isaiah 34:1-17
Sermo I in adventu Domini, 9-10; Opera omnia, 4 [1966] 167-169, from WS 1
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT ..................................................................................... 106
Return of the redeemed through the desert; Isaiah 35:1-10
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.
In Is. Lib. 3, t. 3 (PG 70, 749-754), from Word in Season 1
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................... 107
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH
Ruth’s faithfulness: Ruth 1:1-22
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ABBOT GODFREY OF ADMONT
Homiliae Festivals (PL 174, 1026-1028), from Word in Season 2
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT .................................................................................. 109
Meeting of Boaz and Ruth; Ruth 2:1-13
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE
In ps. 109, 1-3 (CCL 40, 1601-1603), from Word in Season 1
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT ........................................................................................ 110
Ruth returns to Naomi: Ruth 2:14-23
A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS
Adv. Haer. Lib.5,19,1; 20,2; 21,1 (SC 153, 248-250,260-264), fr. Word in Season 1
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT ................................................................................... 111
Dream and promise of Boaz: Ruth 3:1-18
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE
Sermo 277, 15-16 (PL 38, 1266-1267), from Word in Season 2
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT .......................................................................................... 112
Marriage of Boaz and Ruth: Ruth 4:1-22
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AMBROSE OF MILAN
In S. Luc III, 31-35 (SC 45, 123-124), from Word in Season 2
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ........................................................................................ 114
A READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES
Prophecy of the Prophet Nathan: 1 Chronicles 17:1-15
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON MICAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Cap. 7, 72 (PG 71, 774-775), from Word in Season 1
3
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ......................................................................................... 115
A READING FROM THE PROPHET MICAH
The nations go up to the mountain of the Lord: Micah 4:1-7
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Lib. 1, Oratio 2 (PG 70, 67-74), from Word in Season 1
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ................................................................................... 116
The Messiah will be Peace: Micah 5:1-8
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TRINITY BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
On the Trinity, Lib. 11, 36-40 (PL 10, 423-425), from Word in Season 1
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ...................................................................................... 118
The City of God awaits salvation: Micah 7:7-13
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST AUGUSTINE
De catechizandibus 4, 8, 8 (CCL 46, 128-129), from Word in Season
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................................ 119
Salvation in the remission of sins: Micah 7:14-20
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE INCARNATION BY ST ATHANASIUS
On the Incarnation, 7-9, from Word in Season 1
17TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 120
Consolations for the heart of Jerusalem: Isaiah 40:1-11
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Is. 3,4 (PG 70, 802-803), from Word in Season 1
18TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 121
The greatness of the Lord; Isaiah 40:12-18, 21-31
A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST LEO THE GREAT
Ep. 31, 2-3, from The Divine Office Vol. I
19TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 122
A New Exodus is promised: Isaiah 41:8-20
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN
Sermo 61a, 1-3 (CCL 23, 249.250-251), from Word in Season 1
20TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 124
The Lord alone is God, who proclaims Cyrus as liberator: Isaiah 41:21-29
Lib. 4, Oratio 4 (PG 70, 1035-1038), from Word in Season 1
21ST DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 125
Hymn to God the Saviour. The blindness of Israel: Isaiah 42:10-25
Sermo 1 in nativitate Domini (PL 142, 993-994), from Word in Season 1
4
22ND DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 126
The liberation of Israel: Isaiah 43:1-13
A READING FROM AN ANCIENT SERMON
Sermo 12 (PLS 4, 770-771), from Word in Season 1
23RD DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 127
The renewal of Israel: Isaiah 43:18-28
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST JEROME
Tract. In ps. 84 (CCL 78, 107-108), from Word in Season 1
24TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 129
Promises of redemption: Isaiah 44:1-8, 21-23
Sermo 12, 13-15 (CSEL 62, 258-260), from Word in Season 1
25TH DECEMBER, THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD ......................................................................... 130
The Root of Jesse: Isaiah 11:1-10
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT
St Leo the Great, Sermon 21 (1 On the Nativity) tr. Pluscarden.
THE CHRISTMAS OCTAVE: THE HOLY FAMILY .......................................................................... 131
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS
On the Christian life: Ephesians 5:21 – 6:4
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Oratio in natalem Christi diem (PG 56, 385-388), from Word in Season 1
SIXTH DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: 30TH DECEMBER ................................................ 132
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS
Christ, the Head of the Church; Paul his servant: Colossians 1:15 – 2:3
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON FIRST PRINCIPLES BY ORIGEN
On First Principles, Lib. 2, cap. 6, 1-2 (PG 11, 200-211), from Word in Season 1
SEVENTH DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: 31ST DECEMBER ........................................... 134
Our faith is Christ; Colossians 2:4-15
READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT
Sermon 6 On the Nativity, from The Divine Office Vol. I
OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, 1ST JANUARY .......................................... 135
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS
Christ like his brethren in all things: Hebrews 2:9-17
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Hom. 4 (PG 77, 991.995-996), from Word in Season 1
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 2ND JANUARY ............................................................................................. 136
New life in Christ: Colossians 2:16 – 3:4
Ferial Reading: A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT
On the Holy Spirit 26, 61.64, from The Divine Office Vol. I
5
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 3RD JANUARY ............................................................................................. 137
Life of the new man: Colossians 3:5-16
A READING FROM THE TREATISES ON ST JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE
In Ev Jo 17, 7-9 (PL 35), from The Divine Office Vol. I
BEFORE EPIPHANY: 4TH JANUARY ............................................................................................. 139
The Christian family: Colossians 3:17 – 4:1
A READING FROM THE FIVE ‘CENTURIES’ OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
Cent. 1, 8-13, from The Divine Office Vol. I
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 5TH JANUARY ............................................................................................. 140
Conclusion of the letter: Colossians 4:2-18
Sermon 194, 3-4, from The Divine Office Vol. I
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 6TH JANUARY, YEAR I ................................................................................. 141
The gentle servant of the Lord: Isaiah 42:1-8
Lib. 3, t. 5 (PG 70, 850-851), from Word in Season 1
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 7TH JANUARY, YEAR I ................................................................................. 142
The spirit of the Lord upon his servant: Isaiah 61:1-11
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AUGUSTINE
Sermon 13 On the Seasons, from The Divine Office Vol. I
EPIPHANY .................................................................................................................................. 143
The revelation of the glory of the Lord upon Jerusalem: Isaiah 60:1-22
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST LEO THE GREAT
Sermon 3, Epiphany, 1-3, 5, from The Divine Office Vol. I
MONDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ...................................................................................................... 145
The spirit of the Lord upon his servant: Isaiah 61:1-11
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS
Sermon 160, from The Divine Office Vol. I
TUESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ....................................................................................................... 147
The nearness of redemption: Isaiah 62:1-12
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY, ATTRIBUTED TO ST HIPPOLYTUS
On the Holy Theophany 2. 6-8, 10, from The Divine Office Vol. I
WEDNESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ................................................................................................. 148
Remembrance of God’s compassion in the people’s abandonment: Isaiah 63:7-19
A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST PROCLUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Or. 7, Theophany, from The Divine Office Vol. I
6
THURSDAY OF EPIPHANY .......................................................................................................... 149
Divine visitation is implored: Isaiah 64:1-12
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Com. In Jo. 5, 2 (PG 74), from The Divine Office Vol. I
FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY .......................................................................................................... 151
A new heaven and a new earth: Isaiah 65:13-25
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN
Sermon 100, Epiphany, from The Divine Office Vol. I
SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY .................................................................................................... 152
Universal salvation: Isaiah 66:10-14, 18-23
In Epiphania Solemnitate sermo VII, 1-3 (SC 22, 276-280), from Word in Season 2
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD ..................................................................................................... 153
The meek servant of God, the light of the nations: Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-19
A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN
Or 39, 14-16. 20, from The Divine Office Vol. I
ORDINARY TIME
WEEKS 1 to 17 ........................................................................................................................... 156
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 157
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE ROMANS
Greeting and Thanksgiving: Romans 1:1-17
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ROMANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Commentarius in Epistolam ad Romanos, Argumentum Epistolae; Joannis Chrysostomi Opera
Omnia (Paris 1837) 9: 461-5.
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 158
God’s anger against the wicked: Romans 1:18-32
A READING FROM THE CONFESSIONS OF ST AUGUSTINE
Confessions X.6; Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 159
The just judgement of God: Romans 2:1-16
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS BY ORIGEN
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 2.4.1, 5, 7; FoC 103 (2001) tr. Scheck
THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 160
The disobedience of Israel: Romans 2:17-29
A READING FROM THE MIRROR OF CHARITY BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX
Speculum Caritatis 10-11; Word In Season V

7
FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................................ 162
All men are under the power of sin: Romans 3:1-20
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AUGUSTINE
Expositio quarundam propositionum ex Epistola ad Romanos 13-18 (PL 35:2065-6); Word in
Season V
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 163
Righteousness which comes through faith: Romans 3:21-31
A READING FROM A SERMON BY THE VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
Parochial and Plain Sermons IV, 142-7; Word in Season V
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 164
Abraham justified by faith: Romans 4:1-25
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOHN BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Commentary on John X (PG 74:386-7); Word in Season V
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 165
Man’s justification through Christ: Romans 5:1-11
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST AUGUSTINE
Tractatus in Evangelio Johannis 32.9 (CCL 36:305-6); Word in Season V
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 166
The old and the new Adam: Romans 5:12-21
Commentary on Psalm 61 (PL 14:1224-5); Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 167
The baptized are configured to Christ: Romans 6:1-11
Commentary on Romans, V.8 (PG 14:1041-2); Word in Season V
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 169
Righteousness is to be observed: Romans 6:12-23
A READING FROM THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS BY ST AUGUSTINE
The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins 2.28.45-46; WSA (1997) tr. Teske
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 170
‘If it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin’: Romans 7:1-13
Sermon 153; WSA (1992) tr. Hill

8
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 171
‘I am carnal, sold under sin’: Romans 7:14-25
A READING FROM ON NATURE AND GRACE BY ST AUGUSTINE
from On Nature and Grace 53.61; WSA (1997) tr. Teske
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 172
Freed in the Spirit: Romans 8:1-17
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ROMANS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Homilies on Romans 14.3 (Bareille 16:36-8); Word in Season V
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 174
Certain glorification: Romans 8:18-39
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY THEODORET OF CYRRHUS
Commentary on the Song of Songs, 4 (PG 81:205-8); Word in Season V
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 175
The election and the sin of Israel: Romans 9:1-18
A READING FROM ST AUGUSTINE’S ANSWER TO 2 LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS
An Answer to the Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.6.16; WSA (1998) tr. Teske
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 177
The free omnipotence of the Creator: Romans 9:19-33
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA
Sermon 9 (PL 20:902-6); Word in Season V
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 178
One Lord of Jews and Gentiles: Romans 10:1-21
Sermon 153; WSA (1992) tr. Hill
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................... 179
God has not rejected Israel: Romans 11: 1-12
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS OF BLESSED WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
Commentary on Romans 6.11 (PL 180:658-9); Word in Season V
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 180
‘If the root is holy, so are the branches’: Romans 11:13-24
A READING FROM AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS
Adversus Haereses 5.9.4-10 (SC 153:122-6); Word in Season V

9
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 181
The future conversion of Israel: Romans 11:25-36
A READING FROM THE DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN
RELIGIONS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate 4; Word in Season V
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 182
New life in spiritual worship: Romans 12:1-21
A READING FROM THE CONFERENCES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN
Conference 14, 4-6; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 184
Various pieces of advice: Romans 13:1-14
Confessions VIII, 28-29; WSA (1997) tr. Boulding
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 185
Solicitude of the strong in faith towards the weak: Romans 14:1-23
Commentary on Romans 9.39.2-4; FoC 104 (2002) tr. Scheck
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 187
The example of Christ teaches tolerance: Romans 15:1-13
Conference 16.22-23; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramesy
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 188
The ministry and way of life of an Apostle: Romans 15:14-33
Commentary on Romans 10 (PG 14:1276-7); Word in Season V
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 189
Recommendations, greetings and doxology: Romans 16:1-27
Last Homilies 5 (Bareille 20:513-5); Word in Season V
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 191
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
Preface. Divisions among the faithful: 1 Corinthians 1:1-17
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST CLEMENT OF ROME
Letter to the Corinthians 49-50; Word in Season V

10
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 192
The foolishness of the Cross, the wisdom of God: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
A READING FROM A SERMON BY EUSEBIUS OF EMESA
Sermon 14.7-8; Word in Season V
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 193
Wisdom is revealed by the Spirit of God: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN
CHRYSOSTOM
Homilies on 1 Corinthians 7.1-2 (Bareille 16:393-6); Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 194
The duty of Ministers in the Church: 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
Letter to the Corinthians 46-48 (SC 167:176-80); Word in Season V
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 196
Exhortation against pride: 1 Corinthians 4:1-21
A READING FROM ON THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS BY ST AUGUSTINE
On the Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins 2.18.28-31; WSA (1997) tr. Teske
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................................ 197
Advice about immoral men: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
A READING FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) 606-618
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 198
Lawsuits with pagan judges: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS
Sermon 38 (CCL 24:217-9); Word in Season V
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 199
Living an immoral life: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF MACARIUS
Macarian Homilies 46.3-6 (PG 34:794-6); Word in Season V
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 201
Problems of marriage: 1 Corinthians 7:1-24
A READING FROM A LETTER TO ST EUSTOCHIUM BY ST JEROME
Letter 22, 20.2-21.7; ACW 33 (1963) tr. Mierow & Lawler.

11
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 202
On virginity and marriage: 1 Corinthians 7:25-40
Sermon 90.2-3 (CCL 138A:558-61); Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 204
On eating meat that has been sacrificed: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY ST AUGUSTINE
de Trinitate XIV. 1.1-2; WSA (1991) tr. Hill
THURSDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 205
Freedom and love of the Apostle: 1 Corinthians 9:1-18
Macarian Homilies 14 (PG 34: 569-73); Word in Season V
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................................ 206
Paul’s example: 1 Corinthians 9:19-27
A READING FROM THE INSTITUTES OF ST JOHN CASSIAN
Institutes 5.16.1-19.1; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 207
The story of Israel is a model for us: 1 Corinthians 10:1-14
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON PSALM 1 BY ST AMBROSE
Explanatio in Psalmo 1, 33 (CSEL 64:28-30); Word in Season V
SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 208
The table of the Lord and the table of demons: 1 Corinthians 10:14 – 11:1
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN
CHRYSOSTOM
Homilies Ad Corinthios 24.1-2 (PG 61:199-201); Word in Season V
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 210
Women in the assembly of the faithful: 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
de Trinitate XII.2.9-3.12; WSA (1991) tr. Hill.
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 211
The Lord’s Supper: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
A READING FROM CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION
Christ in His Mysteries, 2.18.1.

12
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 212
The varieties of gifts in the unity of the Body of Christ: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
de Trinitate XV; WSA (1991) tr. Hill.
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 213
Various functions of the members of the Body: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Sermon 272 On the Day of Pentecost. WSA (1993) tr. Hill
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 215
Love is the summit of all spiritual gifts: 1Corinthians 12:31b – 13:13
Speculum Caritatis 1.31 (CCM 1:51-2); Word in Season V.
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 216
Speaking in tongues, prophecy and interpretation: 1 Corinthians 14:1-19
Macarian Homilies, 33.1-2, 4 (PG 34:742-3); Word in Season V
SUNDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 217
On the use of gifts in the assembly: 1 Corinthians 14:20-40
A READING FROM THE BOOK DOMINUS VOBISCUM BY ST PETER DAMIAN
Liber Dominus Vobiscum, 5-6, 10 (PL 145:235-6, 239); Word in Season V
MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 219
The Resurrection of Christ, the hope of the faithful: 1 Corinthians 15:1-19
A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 147 BY ST AUGUSTINE
Enarratio In Ps. 147, 3 (CCL 40:2140-2141); Word in Season V
TUESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 220
The Resurrection of the dead and the coming of the Lord: 1 Corinthians 15:20-34
A READING FROM A TREATISE ON HOLY SCRIPTURE BY ST GREGORY OF ELVIRA
Treatise on Holy Scripture (PLS 1:458-9); Word in Season V.
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 221
Resurrection on the Last Day: 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
Sermon 117, 1-2, 4-6 (CCL 24A:709-12); Word in Season V
THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 222
Various advice and greetings: 1 Corinthians 16:1-24
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
De pauperibus amandis, Sermon 1 (PG:46:447-60); Word in Season V
13
FRIDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 224
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST JAMES
Rejoicing in trials: James 1:1-18
A READING FROM THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY BY DENYS THE AREOPAGITE
The Celestial Hierarchy, Ch 1; CWS (1987) tr. Luibheid.
SATURDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 225
Be not hearers only of the Divine Word: James 1:19-27
Institutes, 8.1.1-4.1; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey.
SUNDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 226
Beware of partiality towards appearances: James 2:1-13
A READING FROM A LETTER FROM ST AUGUSTINE TO ST JEROME
Letter 167, 3, 15-17, 21; ACW (2004) tr. Teske
MONDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 228
Faith recommended with works: James 2:14-26
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST CAESARIUS OF ARLES
Sermon 12, 5 (SC 175:408-10); Word in Season V
TUESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 229
Speech must be controlled: James 3:1-12
A READING FROM THE PASTORAL RULE BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Regula Pastoralis, 3.14 (PL 77:72-4); Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 230
On true and false wisdom: James 3:13-18
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION
Christ, the Ideal of the Monk, 2.17.4.
THURSDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 231
Roots of disagreements: James 4:1-12
Institutes, 12.6-8; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey
FRIDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 232
The imminent judgement of God: James 4:13 – 5:11
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 83 BY ST AUGUSTINE
Enarratio in Ps. 83 (CCL 39:1147-8); Word in Season V.
SATURDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 233
Various pieces of advice: James 5:12-20
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS BY ORIGEN
Homilies on Leviticus, 2.4-6; FoC (1990) tr. Barkley
14
SUNDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 235
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF SIRACH
Praise of Joshua and Caleb: Sirach 46: 1-12
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JOSHUA BY ORIGEN
Homily 1 on Joshua, l , 3, 5, 7; FoC (2002) tr. Bruce
MONDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 236
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
Called by God, Joshua urges the people to unity: Joshua 1:1-18
A READING FROM A TREATISE ON THE MYSTERIES BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
A Treatise on the Mysteries, 2.5-7 (SC 19bis 150-2); Word in Season V
TUESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 237
The harlot Rahab faithfully receives the spies with peace: Joshua 2:1-24
Tractates of Origen on Holy Scripture, 12:129-31, 139; Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 239
The People cross the Jordan and celebrate the Passover: Joshua 3:1-17; 4:14-19; 5:0-12
Homily 4 on Joshua, 1; The Divine Office III
THURSDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 241
The strongest city of the enemy is destroyed: Joshua 5:13 – 6:21
Homily 6 on Joshua, 4; The Divine Office III
FRIDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 243
The crime and punishment of Achan: Joshua 7:4-26
A READING FROM A DIALOGUE OF COMFORT BY ST THOMAS MORE
A Dialogue of Comfort, 1.9; Word in Season V
SATURDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 244
The People of God take possession of the land: Joshua 10:1-14; 11:15-17
Homily 11 on Joshua, 2-3 (SC 71:284-6); Word in Season V
SUNDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 246
The Covenant is renewed in the Promised Land: Joshua 24:1-7, 13-28
Sermons on the Subjects of the Day, 160-3; Word in Season V
MONDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 248
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE JUDGES
General view of the time of the Judges: Judges 2:6 – 3:4
Conference 4.3-4, 6.4-7.2; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
15
TUESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 250
Deborah and Barak: Judges 4:1-24
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 3.173-5; Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 251
The Call of Gideon: Judges 6:1-6, 11-24
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JUDGES BY ORIGEN
Homily 8 on Judges (PG 12:979-80); Word in Season V
THURSDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 253
Gideon conquers with a small army: Judges 6:33-35; 7:1-8, 16-22
Homily 8 on Judges (PG 12:986-88); Word in Season V
FRIDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 255
The People of God try to set up a King: Judges 8:22-23, 30-32; 9:1-15, 19-20
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LORD’S PRAYER BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
Homilies on the Lord’s Prayer (ACW 18:50-2); Word in Season V
SATURDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 256
Jephthah’s vow and victory: Judges 11:1-9, 29-40
A READING FROM ON THE DUTIES OF MINISTERS BY ST AMBROSE
De Officiis Ministrorum, 3.9 (PL 16:167); Word in Season V
SUNDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 258
The birth of Samson is announced: Judges 13:1-25
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JUDGES BY RABANUS MAURUS
Commentary on Judges, 2.20 (PL 108:1198); Word in Season V
MONDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 259
Treachery of Delilah and the death of Samson: Judges 16:4-6, 16-31
A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PAULINUS OF NOLA
Letter 2, 23.18, 21-2; Word in Season V
TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 261
A READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL
Hannah’s barrenness and her prayer: 1 Samuel 1:1-19
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON HANNAH BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
De Anna, Sermon 2.2; (Bareille 8:419-21); Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 263
Birth and dedication of Samuel: 1 Samuel 1:20-28; 2:11-21
De Anna, Sermon 3 (Bareille 8:419-21); (2003) tr. Hill
16
THURSDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 264
Condemnation of the House of Eli: 1 Samuel 2:22-36
A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PETER DAMIAN
Letter 61. 8-9; FoCMC 3 (1992) tr. Blum.
FRIDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 266
The Call of Samuel: 1 Samuel 3:1-21
Conference 2.13.12 - 15.3; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramse
SATURDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 267
Loss of the Ark of God and Eli’s death: 1 Samuel 4:1-18
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST ISAAC THE SYRIAN
‘The Second Part’, 11.4-12; (1995) tr. Brock
SUNDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 269
The Ark of God is returned to Israel: 1 Samuel 5:1-6:4, 10-12, 19 - 7:1
A READING FROM THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
The Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, 8 (PG 68:597-600); Word in Season V
Israel demands a King: 1 Samuel 7:15 – 8:22
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 55 BY ST AUGUSTINE
Enarrationes in Psalmos, 55.2; WSA (2001) tr. Boulding
TUESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 272
Saul is chosen and anointed as King: 1 Samuel 9:1-6, 14 – 10:1
Conference 17, 25.14-15, 18; 26; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 274
Saul the victor is acclaimed King by the people: 1 Samuel 11:1-15
A READING FROM A RETREAT FOR PRIESTS BY RONALD KNOX
A Retreat for Priests, 118-119; Word in Season V
THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 275
Samuel resigns as Judge in Saul’s presence: 1 Samuel 12:1-25
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Homilies on Ezekiel, 2.3.18-21 (CCL 142:250-3); Word in Season V
FRIDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 277
Saul, a sinner, is rejected by the Lord: 1 Samuel 15:1-23
A READING FROM A SERMON BY JOHN JUSTUS LANDSBERG
Opera Omnia, 3.386-8; Word in Season V
17
SATURDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 278
David is anointed King: 1 Samuel 16:1-13
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY FAUSTINUS LUCIFERANUS
On the Trinity, 39-40; The Divine Office III
SUNDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 280
David joins battle with Goliath: 1 Samuel 17:1-10, 23b-26, 40-51
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 3.48, 58-60; Word in Season V
MONDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 282
Saul’s envy towards David: 1 Samuel 17:57 – 18:9, 20-30
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST PETER DAMIAN
Letter 80, 10-13; FoCMC 3 (1992) tr. Blum.
TUESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 283
Friendship between David and Jonathan: 1 Samuel 19:8-10; 20:1-17
A READING FROM ON SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP BY ST AELRED
On Spiritual Friendship, 3; The Divine Office III
WEDNESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 285
Flight of David: 1 Samuel 21:1-10; 22:1-5
Enarrationes in Psalmos, 51.3-4; WSA (2001) tr. Bouldin
THURSDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 286
David and Abigail: 1 Samuel 25:14-24, 28-39
Conference 17, 25.1, 4-5; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
FRIDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 288
David shows himself merciful towards Saul: 1 Samuel 26:5-25
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON DAVID AND SAUL OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
De David et Saule, 3.6-7 (Bareille 8.513, 517-8); Word in Season V
SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 290
Saul in the presence of the medium at Endor: 1 Samuel 28:3-25
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL BY ORIGEN
Homily 5 on I Samuel; (1998) tr. Trigg.
SUNDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 291
A READING FROM THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL
Saul’s death: 1 Samuel 31:1-4; 2 Samuel 1:1-16
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY RUPERT OF DEUTZ
De sancta Trinitate et operibus eius (PL 167:1118-22);Word in Season V
18
MONDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 293
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL
David is anointed King of Judah in Hebron: 2 Samuel 2:1-11; 3:1-5
Enarrationes in Psalmos, 51.1-2; WSA (2001) tr. Boulding
TUESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 294
David rules over Israel. Jerusalem is captured: 2 Samuel 4:2 – 5:7
Macarian Homilies, 17.1-4 (PG 34:623-6); Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 296
The Ark is transferred to Jerusalem: 2 Samuel 6:1-23
A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 131 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
Sermon on Psalm 131 (CSEL 22:664-80); Word in Season V
THURSDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 298
Nathan’s messianic prophecy: 2 Samuel 7:1-25
A READING FROM THE CITY OF GOD BY ST AUGUSTINE
The City of God, 17.8 (CSEL 48:570-72); Word in Season V
FRIDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 300
David’s sin: 2 Samuel 11:1-17, 6-27
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 50 BY CASSIODORUS
Commentary on Psalm 50, 1-2; ACW (1990) tr. Walsh
SATURDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 301
David’s repentance: 2 Samuel 12:1-25
A READING FROM THE APOLOGY FOR THE PROPHET DAVID BY ST AMBROSE
Apologia prophetae David, 1.2, 5-7 (CSEL 32.2.301-3); Word in Season V.
SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 303
The rebellion of Absalom and the flight of David: 2 Samuel 15:7-14, 24-30; 16:5-13
Institutes, 8.7-9; ACW 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey
MONDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 305
The death of Absalom and David’s sorrow: 2 Samuel 18:6-17, 24 – 19:4
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 7 BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Homily on Psalm 7 (Bareille 9:41-2); Word in Season V.
TUESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 306
The census of the people and the building of the altar: 2 Samuel 24:1-4, 10-18, 24b-25
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 5:232-4; Word in Season V.
19
WEDNESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 308
The building of the Temple prepared by David: 1 Chronicles 22:5-19
Enarrationes in Psalmos, 126.2-3 (CSEL 40:1857-8); Word in Season V.
THURSDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 309
A READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS
David chooses Solomon to succeed him: 1 Kings 1:11-35; 2:10-12
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
Commentary on the Song of Songs, 7 (Jaeger 6:201-5); Word in Season V.
FRIDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 311
Inauguration of the reign of Solomon: 1 Kings 3:5-28
Sermon 10,1-2, 5; WSA (1990) tr. Hill
SATURDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 313
Solemn dedication of the Temple: 1 Kings 8:1-21
Conferences 13.12.5-8, 13.1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
SUNDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 315
Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the Temple: 1 Kings: 822-34, 54-61
A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY BY RUPERT OF DEUTZ
De sancta Trinitate et operibus eius, 24 (CCCM 22:1331-2); Word in Season V.
MONDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 316
The glory of Solomon in the presence of the Queen of Sheba: 1 Kings:10:1-13
A READING FROM HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT BY JEAN DANIÉLOU
Holy Pagans of the Old Testament, 122-5; Word in Season V
TUESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 318
Solomon’s sin. The rebellion and flight of Jeroboam: 1 Kings 11:1-4, 26-43
A READING FROM THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL BY ST JOHN OF THE CROSS
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, 8; Word in Season V
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 319
Division in the time of Rehoboam; the reign of Solomon’s son: 1 Kings 12:1-19
A READING FROM ON THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD BY ST BASIL OF CAESAREA
De Iudicio Dei (PG 31:213E-215A); tr. Clarke (1925)
THURSDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 321
Political and religious schism: 1 Kings 12:20-33
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 3. 65-68, 71; Word in Season V
20
FRIDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 322
The first deeds of Elijah the prophet in Ahab’s time: 1 Kings 16:29 – 17:16
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA
Sermon 25, 5-6 (SC 164:84-88); Word in Season
SATURDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 323
Elijah prevails against the priests of Baal: 1 Kings 18:16b-40
A READING FROM ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
On the Baptism of Christ (PG 46:592); Word in Season V
LENT .......................................................................................................................................... 326
ASH WEDNESDAY ...................................................................................................................... 327
On the fast that pleases God: Isaiah 58:1-12
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF CLEMENT OF ROME TO THE CORINTHIANS
Letter to the Corinthians 7:4-8:3, 8:5-9:1, 13:1-4, 19:2; from The Divine Office II
Thursday after Ash Wednesday ............................................................................................... 328
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY
The last words of Moses in Moab: Deuteronomy 1:1, 6-18
A READING FROM QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY BY THEODORET OF CYRRHUS
Questions on Deuteronomy 1 (PG 80:401-408); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY .............................................................................................. 330
Moses’ speech to the people: Deuteronomy 4:1-8, 32-40
Hom. de diabolo tentatore 2.6 (PG 49:263-264); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
Saturday after Ash Wednesday ................................................................................................ 331
Promulgation of the Ten Commandments: Deuteronomy 5:1-22
Adversus Haereses 4.16.2-5; from The Divine Office II
SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................. 333
God alone is to be worshipped: Deuteronomy 6:4-25
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AMBROSE
In psalmis 36.65-66 (CSEL 64:123-125); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 335
Israel, the Chosen People: Deuteronomy 7:6-14; 8:1-6
A READING FROM THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND VATICAN
COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 9-10; tr. Christopher O’Donnell

21
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 336
The sins of the people and the intercession of Moses: Deuteronomy 9:7-21, 25-29
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE
Letter 14.36-7; from The Divine Office I
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ......................................................................................... 338
God alone is to be chosen: Deuteronomy 10:12 – 11:9, 26-28
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PERFECTION BY BISHOP DIADOCHUS OF PHOTIKE
On Perfection 12,13,14; from The Divine Office I
THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................. 339
The Lord is to be worshipped in his one and only Temple: Deuteronomy 12:1-14
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS
St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 43 (PL 52:320, 322); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................... 341
Commandments concerning the remission of debts: Deuteronomy 15:1-18
A READING FROM THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF
ALEXANDRIA
The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, Bk. 8 (PG 68:573-576); from Word in
Season II, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................. 342
On celebrating the feasts: Deuteronomy 16:1-17
Adv. Haer. 4.18.1-2,4-5 (SC 100:596-598, 606, 610-612); from Word in Season I, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 344
On priests, Levites and prophets: Deuteronomy 18:1-22
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Jo. Ev., 3.3 (PG 73:428-433); from Word in Season I, 1st ed.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 345
Commandments concerning near kin: Deuteronomy 24:1 – 25:4
A READING FROM THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER VERITATIS SPLENDOR OF POPE JOHN PAUL II
Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor 19, 21-23
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 347
The profession of faith of the children of Abraham: Deuteronomy 26:1-19
A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST MARCION BY TERTULLIAN
Against Marcion II, 18-22 (CCL 1:495); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.

22
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .................................................................................... 349
A curse on the transgressors of the Covenant: Deuteronomy 29:1-5, 9-28
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST APHRAATES OF PERSIA
Sermon 12 (Easter) 8-9, 11 (PS 1:522-534); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 351
A promise of pardon after exile: Deuteronomy 30:1-20
A READING FROM A LETTER OF BARNABAS
Letter of Barnabas, 18:1-21:1 (SC 172:194-214); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 352
The last words of Moses: Deuteronomy 31:1-15, 23
On Joshua, Homily 2.1 (SC 71:116-118); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 354
On the death of Moses: Deuteronomy 32:48-52; 34:1-12
A READING FROM THE LIFE OF MOSES BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
The Life of Moses, 2.313-14, 319-21 (SC 1:131-135); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 355
The Son, heir of all things and exalted above the angels: Hebrews 1:1 – 2:4
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Heb. 2, 3 (PG 63:23-25); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 357
Jesus, the author of salvation, made like his brethren: Hebrews 2:5-18
A READING FROM THE PASCHAL HOMILIES OF ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Paschal Homilies 26.3 (PG 77:925); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 358
Jesus, the apostle of our confession: Hebrews 3:1-19
Sermon 66 (Good Friday 453) 3-4 (CCL 138A, 403-4); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 359
The promise of God’s rest: Hebrews 4:1-13
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD BY ST AMBROSE
On Flight from the World 6.36, 7.44, 8.45, 9.52; from The Divine Office II
Thursday, Third WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................ 360
Jesus Christ, our High Priest: Hebrews 4:14 – 5:10
A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST AMBROSE
Letter 63:47-50 (PL 16:1253-1254); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
23
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................. 362
An exhortation to more perfect listening: Hebrews 5:11 – 6:8
A READING FROM THE TREATISE CONTRA CELSUM OF ORIGEN
Contra Celsum III 59-61; tr. Chadwick (1953)
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 363
God’s faithfulness is our hope: Hebrews 6:9-20
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE
Enarrationes in Psalmos 85.1; from The Divine Office II
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 364
Melchizedek, the type of the perfect priest: Hebrews 7:1-11
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Glaphororum in Genesim 2.7-9 (PG 69:99-108); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 366
The eternal priesthood of Christ: Hebrews 7:11-28
St Augustine, First Exposition of Psalm 33.5-6; WSA (2000) tr. Maria Boulding
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 367
Christ’s priesthood in the New Covenant: Hebrews 8:1-13
Christ in his Mysteries, 2.16.5; from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .................................................................................... 368
Atonement in the Old Covenant is compared with that in the New Covenant: Hebrews 9:1-10
A READING FROM A TREATISE ON FAITH ADDRESSED TO PETER BY ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE
On Faith, To Peter 22.62 (CCL 91A:726,750-751); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 370
The New Covenant in Christ’s blood: Hebrews 9:11-28
A READING FROM THE HOMILY On THE PASCH BY ST MELITO OF SARDIS
Peri Pascha 36-37. 39-45 (SC 123:78-84); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 371
Our sanctification through Christ’s offering: Hebrews 10:1-10
Hom. de cruce et latrone 1.1-2 (PG 49:400); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 372
On perseverance in faith: Hebrews 10:11-25
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS BY ORIGEN
In Rom. 3.8 (PG 14:950-951); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
24
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................ 373
The expectation of judgement: Hebrews 10:26-39
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Heb. 21.2-3 (PG 63:150-152); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 374
The witness of the faith of the fathers: Hebrews 11:1-19
Paschal Homilies 5.7 (PG 77:492-497); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 376
The faithfulness of the patriarchs: Hebrews 11:20-31
A READING FROM THE FIRST CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION BY ST AUGUSTINE
First Catechetical Instruction, 31-32.39 (CCL 46:155-158,164); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ......................................................................................... 378
Examples of saints of the Old Testament: Hebrews 11:32-40
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
in Rom. 14.8 (PG 60:534-535); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 379
With Christ our leader let us hasten towards the struggle: Hebrews 12:1-13
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
in Heb. 28.2 (PG 63:195); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT .................................................................................................. 380
Approaching the mountain of the living God: Hebrews 12:14-29
A READING FROM a sermon by THE VENERABLE John Henry Newman
Parochial and Plain Sermons 1:6-7.13-14; from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 381
Daily life according to Christ: Hebrews 13:1-25
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
in Heb. 33.3-4 (PG 63:229-230); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
PASSION SUNDAY ..................................................................................................................... 383
The Servant of the Lord, suffering contradiction: Isaiah 50:4 – 51:3
Sermo Guelferbytanus 3 (PLS 2:545-546); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK ......................................................................................................... 384
The Servant of the Lord, an atoning victim: Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12
The Mirror of Charity 3.5: (PL 195:582); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
25
TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK .......................................................................................................... 386
A READING FROM THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
Jerusalem abandoned: Lamentations 1:1-12, 18-20
A READING FROM THE BOOK On the Holy Spirit by St Basil the Great
On the Holy Spirit 15.35; from The Divine Office II
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK ................................................................................................... 387
God’s anger against Jerusalem: Lamentations 2:1-9
Sermo 2, In ramis palmarum 1 (PL 185:130-131); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
THURSDAY OF HOLY WEEK ....................................................................................................... 389
The miserable condition of the city and a plea for help: Lamentations 2:10-22
A READING FROM THE HOMILY ON THE PASCH BY ST MELITO OF SARDIS
Peri Pascha 65-71; from The Divine Office II
FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK ............................................................................................................. 390
Mourning and Hope: Lamentations 3:1-33
A READING FROM THE BAPTISMAL CATECHESES OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Catechesis 3:13-19; from The Divine Office II
SATURDAY OF HOLY WEEK ....................................................................................................... 392
The prayer of the Prophet Jeremiah: Lamentations 5:1-22
A READING FROM AN ANCIENT HOMILY FOR HOLY SATURDAY
An ancient homily for Holy Saturday; from The Divine Office II
EASTER ...................................................................................................................................... 394
MONDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ................................................................................................. 395
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PETER
Greeting and thanksgiving: 1 Peter 1:1-21
A READING FROM on the pasch BY ST melito of sardis
On the Pasch 2-7, 100-103; The Divine Office II
TUESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ................................................................................................. 396
The life of the children of God: 1 Peter 1:22 – 2:10
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY BY ST BEDE ON THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PETER
Commentary on 1 Peter 2; The Divine Office II
WEDNESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ........................................................................................... 398
Christians are exiles in the world: 1 Peter 2:11-25
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY AN ANCIENT AUTHOR
Ancient Paschal Homily; The Divine Office II

26
THURSDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ............................................................................................... 399
The imitation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:1-17
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY ST HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM
Paschal Homily (SC 187:66-69); Word in Season III, 1st ed
FRIDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ..................................................................................................... 400
Awaiting the coming of the Lord: 1 Peter 3:18 –4:11
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND
On the Trinity, II.14 (PG 39:710-718); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
SATURDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ............................................................................................... 401
Exhortations to the Elders and to the faithful: 1 Peter 4:12 – 5:14
A READING FROM THE MYSTAGOGICAL CATECHESES OF ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM
Mystagogical Catecheses 2.4-6; The Divine Office II
LOW SUNDAY ............................................................................................................................ 403
The new life: Colossians 3:1-17
Sermon 8 in Octave of Easter; The Divine Office II
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 404
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Vision of the Son of Man: Revelation 1:1-20
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
In Apoc. (PL 169:841-842); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 406
To the Churches of Ephesus and Smyrna: Revelation 2:1-11
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT GEOFFREY OF AUXERRE
Abbot Geoffrey of Auxerre, On the Apocalypse, Sermon 11; CF 42 (2000) tr. Gibbons.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ......................................................................... 407
To the Churches of Pergamum and Thyatira: Revelation 2:12-29
A READING FROM CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES BY BD. COLUMBA MARMION
Christ in His Mysteries 2.18.2-3.
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 409
To the Churches of Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicia: Revelation 3:1-22
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION OF ST THOMAS MORE
A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation 3.26; Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................. 410
The vision of God: Revelation 4:1-11
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ST BEATUS OF LIÉBANA
In Apocalipsin, 3.3.1-2, 17-24, 28-30, 33-38 (ed. Sanders 1930); tr. Pluscarden.
27
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 412
The vision of the Lamb: Revelation 5:1-14
Sermon 34.1-3, 5-6; The Divine Office II
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................... 413
The Book of God is opened by the Lamb: Rev. 6:1-17
A READING FROM THE MORALS ON JOB BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Moralia 2.11 (SC 32:188-190); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................. 414
(A great multitude is marked with the Seal of God: Rev. 7:1-17
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium 6-8
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 416
The Seven Angels chastise the world: Rev. 8:1-13
Conferences 9.34.11-36.1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 417
The plague of locusts: Rev. 9:1-12
Adversus Haereses 5.2.2-3 (SC 153:30-38); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 418
The plague of war: Rev. 9:13-21
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST EPHREM
Sermo de Domino nostro 3-4.9 (Lamy 1:152-158.166-168); Word in Season III,1st ed.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ...................................................................................... 420
The vocation of the Seer is confirmed: Rev. 10:1-11
A READING FROM THE Sermons on the Song of Songs by Abbot Gilbert of Hoyland
Sermon 24 On the Song of Songs; CF 20 (1974) tr. Bruceland.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 421
Two invincible witnesses: Rev. 11:1-19
The City of God 20.8; Penguin (1972) tr. Bettenson.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 423
The portent of the Woman: Rev. 12:1-18
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST EPIPHANIUS OF SALAMIS
Homily 3 in Sanctam Christi Resurrectionem (PG 43:466-470); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
28
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 424
The two beasts: Rev. 13:1-18
Adversus Haereses 5.28.1-30.3
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 426
The victory of the Lamb: Rev. 14:1-13
Letter 31; FoCMC (1990) tr. Blum.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ......................................................................... 427
The harvest of the last time: Rev. 14:14 – 15:4
In Apoc. 9.15 (PL 169:1109-1110); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 429
The seven bowls of the wrath of God: Rev. 15:5 – 16:21
Commentary on St John’s Gospel 4.2; The Divine Office II
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................. 430
Babylon the Great: Rev. 17:1-18
A READING FROM THE THEOLOGICAL AND ECUMENICAL CHAPTERS OF ST MAXIMUS THE
CONFESSOR
Theological & Ecumenical Chapters 43-49 (PG 90:1084-1173); The Philokalia 2 (1981).
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 432
The destruction of Babylon: Rev. 18:1-20
A READING FROM THE ASCETICON OF ST BASIL THE GREAT
St Basil of Caesarea, Great Asceticon, Longer Response 6, tr. Pluscarden
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ..................................................................................... 434
The marriage of the Lamb proclaimed: Rev. 18:21 – 19:10
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE
In Ps. 148, 1-2 (CCL 40:2165-2166); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 435
The victory of the Word of God: Rev. 19:11-21
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN BY ORIGEN
In Joh. 2:46-49, 56-57, 59-61; FoC 80 (1989), tr. Heine.

29
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 436
The last battle of the Dragon: Rev. 20:1-15
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TWOFOLD RESURRECTION BY ARCHBISHOP BALDWIN OF
CANTERBURY
Tract. 4 (PL 204:429-431.441-442); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 438
The New Jerusalem: Rev. 21:1-8
Letter 66; FoC MC 3 (1992) tr. Blum.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 439
The vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb: Rev. 21:9-27
A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST BERNARD
In Cant. 27:6-7; CF 7 (1976) tr. Walsh.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ....................................................................................... 440
The river of the water of life: Rev. 22:1-9
Abbot Rupert of Deutz, In Apoc. 22 (PL 169:1206); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 442
The testimony of our hope: Rev. 22:10-21
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ABBOT ACHARD OF ST VICTOR
Sermon On the Coming of the Lord; CS165 (2001) tr. Feiss.
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ..................................................................................... 443
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF ST JOHN
The Word of Life and the Light of God: 1 John 1:1-10
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1st LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE
On 1 John 1:5-6 (SC 75:124-126); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 444
The new commandment: 1 John 2:1-11
On 1 John 1:9-12 (SC 75:132-144); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 445
Observing the will of God: I John: 2:12-17
On 1 John 2.8-14 (SC 75:166-181);Word in Season III, 1st ed.

30
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 446
The Antichrist: 1 John 2:18-29
On 1 John 3.1-5 (SC 75:186-194); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
THE ASCENSION ........................................................................................................................ 448
Ascending on high, he led captivity captive: Ephesians 4:1-24
On 1 John 10.9 (SC 75:432-436); Word in Season III, 1st ed
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ....................................................................................... 449
We are children of God: 1 John 3:1-10
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 450
Love for our brothers: 1 John 3:11-17
SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 451
The commandment of faith and love: 1 John 3:18-24
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 452
God loved us first: 1 John 4:1-10
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BERNARD
Letter 107.8-9 (PL 182:246-247); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 453
God is Love: 1 John 4:11-21
A READING FROM A DISCOURSE BY ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA
Discourse IV On the Image of God; Cistercian Studies 33 (1977) tr Wheeler.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ....................................................................... 455
This is the victory … our faith: 1 John 5:1-12
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST AUGUSTINE
Tract. 87.1 (CCL 36:543-544); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

31
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ........................................................................... 456
Prayer for sinners: 1 John 5:13-21
A READING FROM A SERMON ON THE LAST DISCOURSE BY BLESSED OGERIUS
Bd Ogerius of Locedio, Sermon 8.2-3 (S. Bernardi Opera [1667], 5:618-619); Word in Season III, 1st
ed.)
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 457
A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF ST JOHN
He who abides in this teaching, has the Father and the Son: 2 John
Tract. 92.1-2 (CCL 36:555-556); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ........................................................................... 458
A READING FROM THE THIRD LETTER OF ST JOHN
Let us walk in the Truth: 3 John
A READING FROM THE CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS OF ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM
Cat. 16.11-12, 16 (Rupp. 2:216-226); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
PENTECOST ............................................................................................................................... 460
Whoever receives the Spirit of God, they are children of God: Romans 8:5-27
Tract. 77.1-3 (CCL 138A:487-489); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
HOLY TRINITY ............................................................................................................................ 461
The great mystery of the will of God: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER TO SERAPION BY ST ATHANASIUS
Letter 1.28-30 (PG 26:594-595, 599); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
CORPUS CHRISTI ....................................................................................................................... 462
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS
They beheld God, and ate and drank: Exodus 24:1-11
A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST THOMAS AQUINAS
Opusculum 57 in festo Corporis Christi 1-4; Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SACRED HEART OF JESUS .......................................................................................................... 463
The love of God made manifest in Christ: Romans 8: 28-39
A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST BONAVENTURE
Opusculum 3.29-30, 47; The Divine Office III
ORDINARY TIME
WEEKS 18 to 34 ........................................................................................................................ 465
SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 466
The Lord reveals himself to Elijah: 1 Kings 19:1-9, 11-21
A READING FROM THE GNOSTIC CHAPTERS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
Gnostic Chapters 74-75; CWS (1985) tr. Berthold.

32
MONDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 467
Elijah, defender of justice for the poor: 1 Kings 21:1-21, 27-29
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON KINGS BY ST RABANUS MAURUS
Commentary on Kings (PL 109:217-218); Word in Season VI.
TUESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 469
(God’s plan for Ahab’s wicked reign is made plain: 1 Kings 22:1-9, 15-23, 29, 34-38)
Conference 1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 471
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES
Wondrous tale of God’s help given to the faithful King Jehoshaphat: 2 Chron. 20:1-9, 13-24
A READING FROM ST JEROME'S LETTER OF CONSOLATION TO HELIODORUS ON THE DEATH OF HIS
NEPHEW
Letter 60; The Loeb Classical Library (1933)
THURSDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 472
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS
The Assumption of Elijah: 2 Kings 2:1-15
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES TO THE PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Ad populo Antiochenum, homily 3.9; Word in Season VI
FRIDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 474
Elisha, prophet of the Kings of Judah and Israel in the war against Moab: 2 Kings 3:5-27
A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
De Sancta Trinitate 26 (CCLCM 22:1439-40) ; Word in Season VI
SATURDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 475
The son of the Shunammite: 2 Kings 4:8-37
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY BASIL OF SELEUCIA
Oratio 10 (PG 85:137-142); Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 477
Elisha’s miracles among the sons of the prophets: 2 Kings 4:38-44; 6:1-17
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUES OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Dialogues II, 3.13, 6.1-2, 8.8-9; tr. Zimmerman & Avery
MONDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 479
Elisha reveals the power of God to Naaman the Syrian: 2 Kings 5:1-19
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON LUKE BY ST AMBROSE
In Lucam, 4.49-50 (SC 45:170-171); Word in Season VI

33
TUESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 480
Elisha miraculously captures the enemies and mercifully frees them: 2 Kings 6:8-23
Sermons on the Subjects of the Day, 170-171, 179: Word in Season VI
WEDNESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 482
Samaria is miraculously freed from siege: 2 Kings 6:24-25, 32 – 7:16
A READING FROM ON THE DUTIES OF THE CLERGY BY ST AMBROSE
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.1; NPNF X (1989) tr. de Romestin
THURSDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 483
Jehu, through Elisha’s disciple, is adopted as King of Israel: 2 Kings 9:1-16, 22-27
Letter 66.3-5, to Countess Blanche, now a nun at Milan; FoCMC (1992) tr. Blum
FRIDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 485
Athaliah and Joash: 2 Kings 11:1-21
A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
De sancta trinitate et operibus eius, 38 (PL 167 1270-1271); tr. Pluscarden
SATURDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 487
The Reign of Joash in Israel. Death of the Prophet Elisha: 2 Kings 13:10-25
A READING FROM A POEM BY ST EPHREM
The Harp of the Spirit, 77-78, tr. Brock; Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 488
The Mystery of God’s Will: Ephesians 1:1-14
Adversus Haereses 3.20.2, 21.9-22.3; (1997) tr. Grant
MONDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 489
Paul’s prayer for the enlightenment of the faithful: Ephesians 1:15-23
Sermon 46; FoC 93 (1996) tr. Freeland & Conway
TUESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 491
Sinners are saved in Christ Jesus: Ephesians 2:1-10
De Natura et Gratia 3.3 – 6.6; WSA (1997) tr. Teske
WEDNESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 492
The Gentiles are reconciled with the Jews and with God: Ephesians 2:11-22
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PSALM 126 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
Treatise on Psalm 126, 7-9; (1950) tr. Sheppard
34
THURSDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 493
Paul, herald of the Mystery of God: Ephesians 3:1-13
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
On the Song of Songs, 8 (Jaeger, 6:254-7); Word in Season VI
FRIDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 494
Paul’s prayer that the faithful may know Christ’s love: Ephesians 3:14-21
Sermon 165, 1-5, 9; WSA (1992) tr. Hill
SATURDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 495
The Body of Christ is built up in unity: Ephesians 4:1-16
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH TO THE EPHESIANS
Ephesians, 1, 3-6, 8; ACW 1 (1946) tr. Kleist
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 497
Putting on the new man: Ephesians 4:17-24
Sermon 9.5-8; WSA (1990) tr. Hill
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 498
“Be imitators of God”: Ephesians 4:25 – 5:7
Conference XII 3.1-4.2; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 499
“Walk as children of the light”: Ephesians 5:8-21
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO MARCELLINUS OF ST ATHANASIUS
Letter to Marcellinus, 10-12, 14, 27-29; CWS (1980) tr. Gregg
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 500
The gifts of marriage: Ephesians 5:22-33
Sermon 341, 12-13; WSA (1995) tr. Hill
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 501
Domestic duties: Ephesians 6:1-9
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE SMYRNAEANS OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
To the Smyrnaeans, 6-9; ACW 1 (1946) tr. Kleist
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 502
The spiritual battle. Epilogue: Ephesians 6:10-24
A READING FROM THE LIFE OF ANTONY BY ST ATHANASIUS
The Life of Antony, 21-23, 26-28; CWS (1980) tr. Gregg
35
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 504
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO PHILEMON
The Apostle’s supplication for Onesimus: Philemon 1-25
Commentary on Psalm 118, 14.24-26 (CSEL 62:313-316); Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 505
Reigns of Amaziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel: 2 Kings 14:1-27
A READING FROM ON FIRST PRINCIPLES BY ORIGEN
Peri Archón, 4. 2; (1973) tr. Butterworth
MONDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 507
A READING FROM THE PROPHET AMOS
The judgements of the Lord on the nations: Amos 1:1 – 2:3
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL ON THE CHURCH IN THE
MODERN WORLD
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 37
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 509
The judgements of the Lord on Judah and Israel: Amos 2:4-16
A READING FROM THE TREATISE OF ST CYPRIAN ON THE LAPSED
De Lapsis 35-36: FoC 36 (1958) tr.Deferrari.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................... 510
The visitation of the Lord on Samaria and Bethel: Amos 3:1-15
A READING FROM A LETTER TO A LAPSED MONK BY ST BASIL
Letter 44, To a lapsed monk; NPNF 8 (1894) tr. Jackson
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 511
Against the women of Samaria and the worship of Israel: Amos 4:1-13
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST AMBROSE
On the Holy Spirit, 2.6; FoC 44 (1962) tr. Deferrari
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 513
Lamentations and warnings: Amos 5:1-17
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST JEROME
Letter 22; ACW 33 (1963) tr. Mieran
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 515
The Day of the Lord. Against worship and false confidence: Amos 5:18 – 6:14
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Homilies On Genesis, 1.10-12; FoC 74 (1985) tr. Hill

36
SUNDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 517
Visions of disasters: Amos 7:1-17
Oration 41 On Pentecost, 14; NPNF 7 (1989) tr. Brown
MONDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 518
Other Visions: Amos 8:1-14
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS OF ORIGEN
Homilies On Genesis, 16 (SC 7bis:382-384); Word in Season VI
TUESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 519
The salvation of the righteous: Amos 9:1-15
De Sancta Trinitate, 4 (PL 168:376-7); Word in Season VI
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 521
A READING FROM THE PROPHET HOSEA
The Prophet as a sign of God’s love for His people: Hosea 1:1-9; 3:1-5
Commentary on Romans (PG 14:1151-1152); Word in Season VI
THURSDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 522
The punishment of the Lord’s bride and her future reinstatement: Hosea 2:2, 4-24
Conferences, 13.7.1 - 8.3; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
FRIDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 524
The universal depravity of Israel, even among the priests: Hosea 4:1-10; 5:1-7
Homily 5 On Leviticus, 3.2-5; FoC 83 (1990) tr. Barkley
SATURDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 525
The vanity of insincere conversion: Hosea 5:15 – 7:2
Adversus Haereses, 4.17.4-6; The Divine Office III
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 526
Against kings, idolatry, treaties and worship: Hosea 8:1-14
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE STATUES BY S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Homilies on the Statues, 3.4-7; NPNF 9 (1889) tr. Stephens
MONDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 528
Exile and barrenness are foretold: Hosea 9:1-14
A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST PAULINUS OF NOLA
Letter 38: 3-4, 6 (CSEL 29:326-327); Word in Season VI.
37
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 529
Let idols and king be destroyed: Hosea 10:1-15
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HOSEA BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Commentary on Hosea (PG 71:253-256); Word in Season VI
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME................................................... 530
The Lord’s compassion for the unlovable: Hosea 11:1-11
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY PALAMAS
Homily 3 (PG 151:36); Word in Season VI
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 531
The final sentence of rejection: Hosea 13:1 – 14:1
A READING FROM ON THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID BY ST AMBROSE
On the Prayer of Job and David, 8.26 – 9.31; FoC 65 (1971) tr. McHugh
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 533
Call to conversion. Promise of salvation: Hosea 14:2-9
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HOSEA BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
Commentary on Hosea (PL 168:198-199); Word in Season VI
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 534
Reigns of Uzziah, Jotham and Ahaz in Judah: 2 Kings 15:1-5, 32-35; 16:1-8
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST CAESARIUS OF ARLES
Sermon 137.3-6 (CCL 103:567-568); Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 535
The Call of Isaiah: Isaiah 6:1-13
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX
Sermo de adventu Domini (SSOC 1:32-33); Word in Season VI
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 537
Reproaches against Jerusalem: Isaiah 3:1-15
Sermon 25.7-8 (CCL 41:338-339); Word in Season VI
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 538
Cursing the wicked: Isaiah 5:8-13, 17-24
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE
Sermon 5.5-6 (CCL 91A:922-923); Word in Season VI
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 539
(The Sign of Emmanuel in time of war: Isaiah 7:1-17)
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF ST BERNARD ON THE GLORIES OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER
Homilies on the glories of the Virgin Mother 2, 1-2.4; The Divine Office III
38
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 541
God’s anger against the kingdom of Israel: Isaiah 9:7 – 10:4
Sermon; The Divine Office III
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 542
Prophecies against Samaria and the princes of Judah: Isaiah 28:1-6; 2:1-11
St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Isaiah (PG 70:617-619); Word in Season VI
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 543
Prophecies about Samaria and Jerusalem: Micah 1:1-9; 2:1-11
St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 14.21-22; FoC 107 (2003) tr. Vinson
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 545
Jerusalem will be ruined because of the sins of her rulers: Micah 3:1-12
A READING FROM THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS
Hermas: The Shepherd, 11th Mandate, 4-8, 16-21 (SC 52:194-199); Word in Season VI
MONDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 546
The Lord in judgement contends with his people: Micah 6:1-15
Sermon 10.1-2 (PL 65:746-747); Word in Season VI
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 547
The end of the Kingdom of Israel: 2 Kings 17:1-18
A READING FROM THE ASCETICON OF ABBA ISAIAH
Abba Isaiah, Discourse 17 ; CS150 (2002) Chryssavgis & Penkett
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 549
The Origin of the Samaritans: 2 Kings 17:24-41
A READING FROM AGAINST THE PAGANS BY ST ATHANASIUS
Contra Gentes 2-3; tr. Thomson (1971)
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 550
The priestly account of King Hezekiah’s Passover: 2 Chronicles 29:1-2; 30:1-16
Sermon 59.5, 7; FoC93 (1996) tr. Freeland & Conway
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 552
The captivity of the Egyptians and the Ethiopians is announced: Isaiah 20:1-6
Letter 58; NPNF6 (1892) tr. Freemantle
39
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 553
The healing of Hezekiah and prophecy of the exile into Babylon: 2 Kings 20:1-19
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF PERFECTION OF BISHOP MARTYRIUS
Book of Perfection, 39-43; CS101 (1987) tr. Brock
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 555
Against the false confidence of the People of God: Isaiah 22:1-14
Sermon 167 (PL 52:637-638); Word in Season VI
MONDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 556
The futility of treaties with alien peoples: Isaiah 30:1-18
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY
Third Sermon for the Annunciation; CF 32 (1971) tr. MSB
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 557
Threats of the envoys of the King of the Assyrians against Jerusalem: 2 Kings 18:17-36
A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
Various Texts on Theology, 3.2, 3, 9-11; Philokalia 2 (1981) tr. Palmer etc.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................. 559
Hezekiah’s prayer, strengthened by Isaiah. Salvation of Jerusalem: 2 Kings 18:3 -19:19, 35-37
Institutes, 11: 1-3, 8-10; ACW 52 (2000) tr. Ramsey
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 561
Isaiah’s prophecies about the King of the Assyrians: Isaiah 37:21-35
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES OF ST AMBROSE ON THE PSALMS
On Psalm 48, 14-15; The Divine Office III
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 562
The reigns of Manasseh and Amon. Beginning of Josiah’s reign: 2 Kings 21:1-18, 23 – 22:1
A READING FROM THE GOOD OF PATIENCE BY ST CYPRIAN
The Good of Patience, 3-4; FoC 36 (1958) tr. Deferrari.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 564
A READING FROM THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH
The judgement of the Lord: Zephaniah1:1-7, 14 – 2:3
Sermon 38:10-11; WSA (1990) tr. Hill
SUNDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 565
Salvation is promised to the poor of Israel: Zephaniah 3:8-20
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH OF ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Commentarius in Sophoniam Prophetam, 43-44 (PG 71:1013-1017); tr Pluscarden
40
MONDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 567
A READING FROM THE PROPHET JEREMIAH
The Call of Jeremiah: Jeremiah 1:1-19
Conference 18, 13.1-5; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
TUESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 568
The infidelity of the People of God: Jeremiah 2:1-13, 20-25
A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS OF ST COLUMBANUS
Instruction 13; The Divine Office III
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 570
Invitation to conversion: Jeremiah 3:1-5, 19 – 4:4
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF JOEL BY ST JEROME
On Joel; The Divine Office III
THURSDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 571
The Destroyer coming from the north: Jeremiah 4:5-8, 13-28
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH BY ORIGEN
Homilies on Jeremiah, 1.3-4 (SC 232:198-202); Word in Season VI
FRIDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 573
A prophecy of illusory trust spoken of in the Temple: Jeremiah 7:1-20
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Homily 50.3-4; The Divine Office III
SATURDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 574
A condemnation of bad faith and a lamentation: Jeremiah 9:1-11, 16-21
Sermon 14A.2-3 (CCL 41:219-220); Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 576
(The discovery of the Book of the Law in Josiah’s time. Renewal of the Covenant and celebration of
Passover: 2 Kings 22:8, 10 – 23:4, 21-23
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:95-100, 104-5; Word in Season VI
MONDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 578
A READING FROM THE PROPHET NAHUM
God’s judgement on Nineveh: Nahum: 1:1-8; 3:1-7, 12-15a
A READING FROM AGAINST MARCION BY TERTULLIAN
Against Marcion 4.20; ANF 7 (1868) tr. Holmes

41
TUESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 579
The corruption of Judah. First captivity of Israel: 2 Chronicles 35:20 – 36:12
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:105-108; Word in Season VI
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 581
A READING FROM THE PROPHET HABAKKUK
Prayer in time of desolation: Habakkuk 1:1 – 2:4
Homilies De diversis, 5.1-4; The Divine Office III
THURSDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 582
Curses against the oppressors: Habakkuk 2:5-20
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
Letter to the Ephesians, 9, 12-13, 15-16; ACW 1 (1946) tr. Kleist
FRIDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 584
Oracles against the last kings of Judah: Jeremiah 22:10-30
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BASIL OF CAESAREA
Letter 236; cf. NPNF 8 (1894) tr. Jackson
SATURDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 585
Symbolic action: the broken flask: Jeremiah 19:1-5, 10 – 20:6
Homilies on Jeremiah, 19.12.2-14.4; FoC 97 (1998) tr. Smith
SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 587
Against false prophets: Jeremiah 23:9-17, 21-29
Asceticon, Longer Response 5; tr. Pluscarden
MONDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 588
The cup of the wrath of the Lord against the nations: Jeremiah 25:15-17, 27-38
Commentary on Psalm 118, 12.3-6; (1998) tr. Ni Riain
TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 590
The scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies is burned by the king: Jeremiah 36:1-10, 21-32
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH BY ST RABANUS MAURUS
Expositio super Ieremiam, 13 (PL 111:1073-75); Word in Season VI
WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 592
The vision of the two portions of the People of God: Jeremiah 24:1-10
In Isaiam, 5.2 (PG 70:1230-1231); Word in Season VI
42
THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 593
The yoke of Babylon borne by the People: Jeremiah 27:1-15
Homilies on Jeremiah, 1. 3-6; FoC 97 (1998) tr. Smith
FRIDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 594
Jeremiah and the false prophet: Jeremiah 28:1-17
A READING FROM ON THE SOUL AND RESURRECTION BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
On The Soul and Resurrection; SVSP (1993) tr. Roth, pp. 84-87
SATURDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 596
Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles of Israel: Jeremiah 29:1-14
A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTION OF BEGINNERS BY ST AUGUSTINE
The Instruction of Beginners, CUA Patr. Studs. 8:90-92; Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 597
(Jerusalem is captured and laid waste. The exile of Judah: Kings 24:20b – 25:13, 18-21)
In adventu, 10-11 (Opera Omnia 6.1.19-20); Word in Season VI
MONDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 598
Jeremiah in prison urges Zedekiah towards peace: Jeremiah 37:21; 38:14-28
A READING FROM THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT BY ST JOHN CLIMACUS
The Ladder of Divine Ascent 4 (abr.): CWS (1982) tr. Luibhead & Russell
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 600
Jeremiah in prison buys the field at Anathoth as a sign of hope: Jeremiah 32:6-10, 16, 24-40
Conferences 3.16-19; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 601
Promises of the restoration of Israel: Jeremiah 30:18 – 31:9
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH BY ST JEROME
Commentary on Jeremiah, 6.30 (PL 24:904-905); Word in Season VI
THURSDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 603
Salvation and a New Covenant are pronounced: Jeremiah 31:15-22, 27-34
A READING FROM ON REPENTANCE BY ST AMBROSE
On Repentance 2.5-6 (36-39, 41-44): NPNF10 (1989) tr. de Romestin
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 604
Jeremiah and the people after the city is captured: Jeremiah 42: 1-16; 43 4-7
Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8:127-8; Word in Season VI
43
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 606
A READING FROM THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
A vision of the glory of the Lord in the land of the exiles: Ezekiel 1:3-14, 22-28
A READING FROM THE MACARIAN HOMILIES
The Spiritual Homilies of Macarius, 1:1-3, 12 (PG 34:449-452, 461; Word in Season VI
SUNDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 607
The Call of Ezekiel: Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:11, 16-21
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Homily 9 on Ezekiel, tr. Pluscarden
MONDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 609
The destruction of Jerusalem is represented in symbolic action: Ezekiel 5:1-17
Enarr. in Ps. 125, 1-3 (CCL 40:1844-1846); Word in Season VI
TUESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 610
Judgement on sinful Jerusalem: Ezekiel 8:1-6, 16 – 9:11
A READING FROM FOUR CENTURIES ON LOVE BY ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
Four Centuries on Love, 2.31-33; Philokalia 2 (1981) tr. Palmer etc.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 612
The glory of the Lord abandons the condemned city: Ezekiel 10:18-22; 11:14-25
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL BY ST JEROME
Commentaria in Ezechielem 3.11 (PL 25:95, 100-101); tr. Pluscarden
THURSDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 614
The people’s journey into exile is presented in symbolic action: Ezekiel 12:1-16
Enarr. in Ps. 64, 1-3 (CCL 39:822-825); Word in Season VI
FRIDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 615
Prophecy against the false prophets: Ezekiel 13:1-16
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL BY ORIGEN
Homilies on Ezekiel, 2.1-3 (PG 13:682-685); Word in Season VI
SATURDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 616
The salvation of the righteous and the downfall of sinners: Ezekiel 14:12-23
Enarr. in Ps. 132, 1-5; WSA (2004) tr. Boulding
SUNDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 618
Jerusalem, the adulterous bride of God: Ezekiel 16:3, 5b-7a, 8-15, 35, 37a, 40-43, 59-63
City of God, 17.3.3; (1972) tr. Bettenson.
44
MONDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 619
A prophecy of ruin and reinstatement: Ezekiel 17:3-15, 9-24
Commentaria in Ezechielem 6 (PL 25:173-174); Word in Season VI
TUESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 621
Everyone receives retribution for their actions: Ezekiel 18:1-13, 20-32
Letter 7 To Venantia, 7-11; FoC 95 (1997) tr. Eno.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 623
(The story of Israel’s unfaithfulness: Ezekiel 20:27-44)
Adversus Haereses, 4.17.5-18.3; Pluscarden
THURSDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 624
The life of the prophet a sign for the people: Ezekiel 24:15-27
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW BY ORIGEN
Com. in Math., 12.1-3; ANF 10 (1995) tr. Patrick
FRIDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 626
Prophecy against the proud city of Tyre: Ezekiel 28:1-19
Homilies on Ezekiel, 13.1-2; tr. Pluscarden
SATURDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 627
Israel is the Lord’s flock: Ezekiel 34:1-6, 11-16, 23-31
Sermon 46, 1-2; The Divine Office III
CHRIST THE KING ...................................................................................................................... 629
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE APOCALYPSE
(A vision of the Son of Man in his majesty: Apocalypse 1:4-6, 10, 12-18; 2:26, 28; 3:5, 12, 20-21)
A READING FROM ON PRAYER BY ORIGEN
On Prayer 25; The Divine Office III
MONDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 630
The future renewal of the People of God: Ezekiel 36:16-36
A READING FROM ON TEACHING CHRISTIANITY BY ST AUGUSTINE
De doctrina Christiana, 3.48-49 (CCL 32:108-110); Word in Season VI
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 632
A vision of the death and resurrection of Israel: Ezekiel 37:1-14
On the Soul and Resurrection; SVSP (1993) tr. Roth, pp. 104-108
45
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 633
The union between Israel and Judah is represented: Ezekiel 37:15-28
Commentaria in Ezechielem, 11.37 (PL 25: 351-354); tr. Pluscarden
THURSDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 635
A vision of the Last Days: Ezekiel 38:14 – 39:10
A READING FROM THE SERMON ON GOG AND MAGOG OF ST EPHREM THE SYRIAN
Sermon on Gog and Magog 1, 5-8, 12; (1963) tr. Toal.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 636
A vision of the restoration of the Temple and of Israel: Ezekiel 40:1-4; 43:1-12; 44:6-9
Commentaria in Ezechielem (PL 25:434-437); Word in Season VI
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 638
The vision of the cleansing waters flowing from the Temple: Ezekiel 47:1-12
Sermon 256, 1.2.3; The Divine Office III
APPENDIX A: ALTERNATIVE READINGS: ................................................................................... 640
TUESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK ORD. TIME ................................................................................... 640
The Song of Deborah and Barak: Judges 5:1-31
HOLY TRINITY ............................................................................................................................ 641
St Athanasius, Letter 1.28-30 (PG 26:594-595, 599); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
CORPUS CHRISTI ....................................................................................................................... 642
St Thomas Aquinas, Opusculum 57 in festo Corporis Christi 1-4; Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SACRED HEART OF JESUS .......................................................................................................... 643
St Bonaventure, Opusculum 3.29-30, 47; The Divine Office
CHRIST THE UNIVERSAL KING ................................................................................................... 644
A READING FROM THE PROPHET DANIEL
A vision of the Son of Man receiving the Kingdom: Daniel 7:1-17, 23-27

46
YEAR II
ADVENT & CHRISTMASTIDE ...................................................................................................... 647
SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT ........................................................................................... 648
Reproving the people: Isaiah 1:1-18
A READING FROM THE CATECHESES OF ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM
Catechesis 15. 1-3, from The Divine Office vol. I
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT .......................................................................................... 649
The judgement and salvation of Zion; a gathering of the nations: Isaiah 1:21-27; 2:1-5
The Liturgical Sermons 3.7-13, tr. Berkeley & Pennington (2001), from Cistercian Fathers 58
Tuesday of the First Week in Advent ....................................................................................... 651
The judgement of God: Isaiah 2:6-22; 4:2-6
Oratio 45. 9,22,26,28, from The Divine Office vol. I
Wednesday of the First Week in Advent ................................................................................. 652
Against the Lord’s vineyard: Isaiah 5:1-7
Sermon 5 On Advent 1-3, from The Divine Office vol. I
Thursday of the First Week in Advent ...................................................................................... 653
Zion the refuge of the Moabites; the conversion of Ephraim: Isaiah 16:1-5; 17:4-8
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE DIATESSARON BY ST EPHREM
Commentary On the Diatessaron 18. 15-17, from The Divine Office vol. I
Friday of the First Week in Advent ........................................................................................... 654
The future conversion of the Egyptians and the Assyrians: Isaiah 19:16-25
A READING FROM THE PROSOLOGION OF ST ANSELM
The Prosologion 1, from The Divine Office vol. I
Saturday of the First Week in Advent ...................................................................................... 656
The watchman announces the destruction of Babylon: Isaiah 21:6-12
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE ADVANTAGE OF PATIENCE BY ST CYPRIAN
On the Advantage of Patience 13, 15, from The Divine Office vol. I
Sunday of the Second Week in Advent .................................................................................... 657
Against the pride of Jerusalem and of Shebna; Isaiah 22:8b-23
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA
Commentary on Isaiah 40, from The Divine Office vol. I

47
Monday of the Second Week in Advent .................................................................................. 658
The Lord is revealed on his day: Isaiah 24:1-18
A READING FROM THE LITURGICAL YEAR BY ABBOT PROSPER GUÉRANGER
The Liturgical Year, Advent, 198-200, from Word in Season 2
Tuesday of the Second Week in Advent .................................................................................. 659
The Kingdom of God; thanksgiving: Isaiah 24:19 – 25:5
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 48, from The Divine Office vol. I
Wednesday of the Second Week in Advent ............................................................................. 660
God’s banquet; the song of the redeemed: Isaiah 25:6 – 26:6
In Is. Lib. 3, t. 1 (PG 70, 563-566), from Word in Season 1
Thursday of the Second Week in Advent ................................................................................. 662
The song of the righteous; a promise of resurrection: Isaiah 26:7-21
Sermon 147, from The Divine Office vol. I
Friday of the Second Week in Advent ...................................................................................... 663
The vineyard of the Lord is cultivated again: Isaiah 27:1-13
In Is. Lib. 3, t.1 (PG 598-599), from Word in Season 1
Saturday of the Second Week in Advent ................................................................................. 664
God’s judgement on Jerusalem: Isaiah 29:1-8
A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED ISAAC OF STELLA
In Is. Lib. 4, oratio 2 (PG 70, 955-958), from Word in Season 1
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT .......................................................................................... 665
God’s judgement is announced: Isaiah 29:13-24
Sermon 293, 3, from The Divine Office vol. I
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ........................................................................................ 667
Future happiness is promised: Isaiah 30:18-26
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON CONTEMPLATING GOD BY ABBOT WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
On Contemplating God 9-11, from The Divine Office vol. I
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT, YEAR II ........................................................................... 668
Jerusalem’s salvation from the Assyrians: Isaiah 30:27-33; 31:4-9
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST BERNARD
Sermo 1 de Adventu Domini 7-8 (PL 183, 38-39), from Word in Season 1
48
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ................................................................................... 669
The Kingdom of true justice: Isaiah 31:1-3; 32:1-8
Adversus Haereses Bk 4, 20, 4-5, from The Divine Office vol. I
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ...................................................................................... 671
Salvation is promised; the expectation of those who believe: Isaiah 32:14 – 33:6
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum 3-4, from The Divine Office vol. I
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT ............................................................................................ 672
Future salvation: Isaiah 33:7-24
En. in Ps. 37, 13-14, from The Divine Office vol. I
17TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 673
The salvation of Israel through Cyrus: Isaiah 45:1-13
In Is. Lib. 4, oratio 2 (PG 70, 955-958), from Word in Season 1
18th December .......................................................................................................................... 675
(The Lord opposes the idols of Babylon: Isaiah 46:1-13)
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO DIOGNETUS
Epistle to Diognetus 8, 5-9, 6, from The Divine Office vol. I
19th December .......................................................................................................................... 676
Lament over Babylon: Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15
Adv. Haer. 3,. 20, 2-3, from The Divine Office vol.
20th December .......................................................................................................................... 678
God alone is the Lord of the future: Isaiah 48:1-11
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 49 BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
On Psalm 49 1-2 (Bareille, t.9, 286-288), from Word in Season 1
21st December .......................................................................................................................... 679
The new exodus: Isaiah 48:12-21; 49: 9b-13
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST LUKE’S GOSPEL BY ST AMBROSE
In Ev. Luc. 2, 19, 22-23, 26-27, from The Divine Office vol. I
22nd December .......................................................................................................................... 680
The restoration of Zion: Isaiah 49:14 – 50:1
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST LUKE’S GOSPEL BY ST BEDE
In Ev. Luc. 1, 46-55, from The Divine Office vol. I
49
23rd December .......................................................................................................................... 682
Salvation is promised to the children of Abraham: Isaiah 51:1-11
A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST THE HERESY OF NOETUS BY ST HIPPOLYTUS
Adv. Noetus 9-12, from The Divine Office vol. I
24th December .......................................................................................................................... 683
Jerusalem is evangelised: Isaiah 51:17 – 52:2, 7-10
Sermon 185, from The Divine Office vol. I
25TH DECEMBER, THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD ......................................................................... 685
The Root of Jesse: Isaiah 11:1-10
Sermon 192, 1 & 3. tr. Pluscarden.
The Octave of Christmas: Holy Family ...................................................................................... 686
On the Christian life in family and society: Ephesians 5:21 – 6:4
A READING FROM AN ADDRESS BY POPE PAUL VI
Address 5 January 1964, from The Divine Office vol. I
29TH DECEMBER ........................................................................................................................ 687
A READING FROM THE SONG OF SONGS
The Church, the Bride of Christ, desires the love of the King: Song of Songs 1:1-10
Sixth Day of the Octave of Christmas: 30th December ............................................................ 688
Dialogue between Lover and Beloved, clearly Christ and the Church: Song of Songs 1:11 – 2:7
Sermon 46 on the Song of Songs, tr. Kilian Walsh OCSO (1976), from Cistercian Fathers 7
Seventh Day of the Octave of Christmas: 31st December ....................................................... 689
The Bride hears the Bridegroom’s voice and searches for him: Song of Songs 2:8 – 3:5
Homily 5 on the Song of Songs (Jaeger 6, 140-159), from Word in Season 1
The Octave of Christmas: Mary, Mother of God ..................................................................... 690
Christ is like his brethren in all things: Hebrews 2:9-17
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO EPICTETUS BY ST ATHANASIUS
Letter to Epictetus 5-9, from The Divine Office vol. I
Before Epiphany: 2nd January ................................................................................................... 692
Christ desires the love of his Bride, the Church: Song of Songs 4:1 – 5:1

50
Memoria of SS Basil and Gregory Nazianzen: .......................................................................... 692
see Sanctoral for 2nd Nocturn Reading.
Ferial Reading: A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST BERNARD
Sermo 31 in Cant. 8-10 (Opera Omnia, Edit. Cist. 1 1957] 224-226), from Word in Season 1
Before Epiphany: 3rd January .................................................................................................... 693
The Bride seeks and praises the Bridegroom: Song of Songs 5:2 – 6:3
Commentary on the Song of Songs, 11 (Jaeger, 6.321-325), Word in Season vol. 2
Before Epiphany: 4th January .................................................................................................... 695
Praise of the Bride: Song of Songs 6:4 – 7:9
Sermo 27 in Cant., 6-7 (PL 183, 916-917), from Word in Season vol. 1
The last words of the Bride and a praise of love: Song of Songs 7:10 – 8:7
A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ABBOT JOHN OF FORD
Cantici Canticorum Sermones, Sermo 110, 13 (CCCM 18, 749), from Word in Season 2
The Servant of the Lord, Light of the nations: Isaiah 49:1-9
In Ps. 35, 4-5 (CCL 64, 52-54), from Word in Season vol. 1
The joys and the beauty of the reborn city: Isaiah 54:1-17
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES BY ST HIPPOLYTUS
Cap. 10, 33-34 (PG 16, 3452-3453), from Word in Season vol. 1
The Epiphany ............................................................................................................................ 700
The revelation of the glory of the Lord over Jerusalem: Isaiah 60:1-22
Sermo 3 in apparitione Domini (PL 195, 228-229), from Word in Season vol. 1
Monday after Epiphany Year II ................................................................................................. 702
The joys and the beauty of the reborn city: Isaiah 54:1-17
Sermon 34: 6 January 444 (Recension A), tr. Freeland & Conway (1996)
Tuesday after Epiphany ............................................................................................................ 703
An everlasting covenant is promised to all by the word of the Lord: Isaiah 55:1-13
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Sermo 203 (PL 38, 1035-1037), from Word in Season 2
51
Wednesday after Epiphany ...................................................................................................... 705
Foreigners and eunuchs are admitted into the house of the Lord: Isaiah 56:1-8
Tract. 36, 1-2 (CCL 138, 195-196), from Word in Season 1
Thursday after Epiphany ........................................................................................................... 706
The Lord is coming: Isaiah 59:15-21
Sermo 9 in die pentecostes (PL 142, 1015-1016), from Word in Season 1
Friday after Epiphany ................................................................................................................ 707
A READING FROM THE PROPHET BARUCH
Zion exhorts and consoles her children: Baruch 4:5-29
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST FAUSTUS OF RIEZ
Sermo 5 de epiphania 2 (PLS 3, 560-562), from Word in Season 1
Saturday after Epiphany ........................................................................................................... 709
The joy of the new Jerusalem: Baruch 4:30 – 5:9
A READING FROM A SERMON ATTRIBUTED TO ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN
Sermo 45, 1-3 (CCL 23, 182-183)
The Baptism of the Lord ........................................................................................................... 710
(The meek servant of the Lord, the light of the nations: Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-19)
Tractatus XII In Math. III, 13-15 (CCL 9A, 244-246), from Word in Season 2
WEEKS 1 to 17 ........................................................................................................................... 712
MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 713
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF GENESIS
The creation of heaven and earth: Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Adversus Haereses, 5.1.3, 6.1, 16.2; tr. Pluscarden
TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 715
The creation of man in Paradise: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-25
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST HILARY OF POITIERS
Tractatus Mysteriorum, (SC19:83-85); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 716
The sin of Adam: Genesis 3:1-24
A READING FROM ON REBUKE AND GRACE BY ST AUGUSTINE
On Rebuke and Grace, 27-31; WSA (1999) tr. Teske

52
THURSDAY OF the FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 718
The consequences of sin: Genesis 4:1-24
In Ps. 39, 11-14 (PL14:1061-1062); Word in Season VII
FRIDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 719
God’s judgement by the Flood: Genesis 6:5-22; 7:17-24
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS BY ORIGEN
Origen, Homilies on Genesis, 2.1, 3, 6; FoC 71 (1981) tr. Heine
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 721
The end of the Flood: Genesis 8:1-22
Sermon 361, 20-22 (PL 39:1610-1611); Word in Season VII
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 722
God’s covenant with Noah and his offspring: Genesis 9:1-17
A READING FROM HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT BY JEAN CARDINAL DANIÉLOU
Holy Pagans of the Old Testament, 78-80.83; Word in Season VII
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 724
The scattering of the human race: Genesis 11:1-26
Deuxième homilie sur Pentecôte 2 (Bereille 5.123-124); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 725
The call and blessing of Abraham: Genesis 12:1-9; 13:2-18
A READING FROM AGAINST EUNOMIUS BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
Contra Eunomium 3.2 (Jaeger 2.67-70); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 727
Abraham fights against the kings and is blessed by Melchisedech: Genesis 14:1-24
A READING FROM ON THE SACRAMENTS BY ST AMBROSE
de Sacramentis 4.3-4 FoC 44 (1963), tr. Deferrari
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 729
God’s covenant with Abraham who believed: Genesis 15:1-21
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS OF DIDYMUS THE BLIND
In Gen. 230, 233-4 (SC 244:188-90, 196-200); ACC 2 (2002) tr. Sheridan
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 730
Ishmael is born: Genesis 16:1-16
A READING FROM THE GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Glaphyrorum in Genesim, 3.79.9 (PG 69: 132-33); ACC 2 (2002) tr. Sheridan
53
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 731
The covenant between God and Abraham with the sign of circumcision: Genesis 17:1-17
Homilies on Genesis, 3.3-4, 6; FoC 71 (1981) tr. Heine
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 733
The promise of Isaac’s birth and Abraham’s intercession for Sodom: Genesis 18:1-33
Sermon 83.2, 4-5; FoC (1963) tr. Mueller
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 735
The destruction of Sodom: Genesis 19:1-17, 23-29
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST CLEMENT OF ROME TO THE CORINTHIANS
Corinthians, 9.1-4; 10.1-7; 11.1-2 (SC 167:114-118); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 737
Isaac is born: Genesis 21:1-21
Homilies on Genesis, 7.2 (SC 7:196-202); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 738
The sacrifice of Isaac; Genesis 22:1-19
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Hom. in Gen., 47.3-4 (PG 54:432-434); Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 740
Abraham sends a servant to find a wife for Isaac: Genesis 24:1-27
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY BISHOP JACOB OF SARUGH
Hom. sur les fiancailles de Rebecca (L’Orient Syrien 3.324-326); Word in Season VII)
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................... 741
Abraham’s servant finds a wife and leads her back to Isaac: Genesis 24:32-41, 49-67
Sermon 85.3-5; FoC 47 (1963) tr. Mueller.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 743
The death of Abraham. Esau and Jacob are born: Genesis 25:7-11, 19-34
Sermon 4.11-12, 14; WSA (1990) tr. Hill.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 745
Jacob is blessed by Isaac: Genesis 27:1-29
Glaphyrorum in Genesim, 3.5 (PG 69.172-173); ACC 2 (2002) tr. Sheridan
54
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 746
Esau is supplanted: Genesis 27:30-45
A READING FROM ON JACOB AND THE BLESSED LIFE BY ST AMBROSE
On Jacob and the Blessed Life, 3.10-12; FoC 65 (1971) tr. McHugh
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 748
Jacob’s flight and his dream: Genesis 28:10 – 29:14
Enarr. In Ps. 44.20 (CCL 38:508-509); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 750
Jacob flees from Mesopotamia; Genesis 31:1-18
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 85-87; Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 751
Jacob meet Esau and wrestles with God: Genesis 32:3-30
Hom. in Ez., 1.12 (PL 76:955); Word in Season VII
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 753
Jacob comes to Bethel and Mamre: Genesis 35:1-29
Glaphyrorum in Genesim, 5.4-5 (PG 69.284); ACC 2 (2002) tr. Sheridan
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 755
Joseph is handed over by his brothers: Genesis 37:2-4, 12-36
A READING FROM GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Glaphyrorum in Genesim, 6 (PG 69:3-4-5); Word in Season VII
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 757
Joseph in Egypt; Genesis: 39:1-23
Sermon 24.2 (SC 64:70-72); Word in Season VII
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 758
Pharaoh’s Dream: Genesis 41:1-17, 25-43
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ST PROCOPIUS OF GAZA
In Gen. (PG 87/1:468-469, 475-478); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 760
Joseph’s brothers go into Egypt: Genesis 41:56- 42:26
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF PROMISES BY QUODVULTDEUS OF CARTHAGE
Liber Promissionum, 1.30, 42 (SC 101:242-246); Word in Season VII
55
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 762
Joseph’s brothers go down to Egypt again: Genesis 43:1-11, 13-17, 26-34
Glaphyrorum in Genesim 4 (PG 69:324-5); Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 763
Joseph and Benjamin; Genesis 44:1-20, 30-34
A READING FROM ON JOSEPH BY ST AMBROSE
On Joseph, 10.56, 58, 60-66; FoC 65 (1972) tr. McHugh
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................................ 765
The reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers: Genesis 45:1-15, 21 – 46:7
Hom. in Gen. 15.5-6; FoC 71 (1982) tr. Heine
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 767
Jacob blesses his sons and dies; Genesis 49:1-33
A READING FROM ON THE PATRIARCHS BY ST AMBROSE
On the Patriarchs, 4.17-24; FoC 65 (1972) tr. McHugh
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 769
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS
Paul’s obligation to the Church in Thessalonica: 1 Thessalonians 1:1 – 2:12
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON 1 THESSALONIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Première Epître aux Thessaloniens (Bareille 19.184-6); Word in Season VII
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 770
The friendship between Paul and the Thessalonians: 1 Thessalonians 2:13 – 3:13
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
On Psalm 132; The Divine Office I.
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 772
A holy life and the hope of resurrection: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18
Adversus Haereses, 3.19.1, 3 - 3.20.1; The Divine Office I
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 773
The way of life of the sons of light: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-28
Enarr. In Ps. 37.14 (CCL 38.391-2); Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 774
A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS
Greeting and thanksgiving: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
The Letter to Diognetus, 4.4 – 5.5; Loeb (1913) tr. Lake
56
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................................ 776
The Day of the Lord: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17
De Civitate Dei, 20.19; tr. Bettenson
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 777
Exhortations and counsels: 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18
The Conferences, 18.10-11; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 779
A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
Thanksgiving amid tribulations: 2 Corinthians 1:1-14
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE PAULINE EPISTLES BY AMBROSIASTER
On the Pauline Epistles (CSEL 81:3.3.195-201); ACC 7 (1999) tr. Bray
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 780
Why the Apostle altered his journey: 2 Corinthians 1:15 – 2:11
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON 2 CORINTHIANS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Ep II ad Corinthios, (PG 74:921-3); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 782
Paul, the minister of a New Covenant: 2 Corinthians 2:12 – 3:6
Hom. in Lev. 1.1-4; FoC 83 (1990) tr. Barkley
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 783
The glory of the ministers of the New Covenant: 2 Corinthians 3:7 – 4:4
In Cant. 5.158-160; (1987) tr. McCambley
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 784
The frailty and confidence of the Apostle: 2 Corinthians 4:5-18
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST AMBROSE
In Ps. 43.89-90; The Divine Office III
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 786
Hope for the heavenly home. The ministry of reconciliation: 2 Corinthians 5:1-21
Confessions 10.43, 68-70; The Divine Office III
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 787
Paul’s tribulations and his exhortation to holiness; 2 Corinthians 6:1 – 7:1
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Hom in Ep. ad Cor. 13.1-2; The Divine Office III
57
SUNDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 788
The Apostle receives comfort from the Corinthians’ penitence:
2 Corinthians 7:2-16
A READING FROM THE LADDER OF ST JOHN CLIMACUS
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 7; CWS (1982) tr. Luibheid & Russell
MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 790
Paul asks for a contribution for Jerusalem: 2 Corinthians 8:1-24
Sermon 25.1; The Divine Office III
TUESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 791
The spiritual fruits of giving: 2 Corinthians 9:1-15
Sermons, 16.1-2 (CCL 138:61-62); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 793
The Apostle’s apologia: 2 Corinthians 10:1 – 11:6
A READING FROM ON JUDGEMENT BY ST BASIL OF CAESAREA
De Iudicio 84-86; tr. Clarke
THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 794
Against false apostles: 2 Corinthians 11:7-29
Sermon 299C.1-4; WSA (1994) tr. Hill.
FRIDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................. 796
The Apostle glories in his infirmities: 2 Corinthians 11:30 – 12:13
A READING FROM ISAAC, OR THE SOUL BY ST AMBROSE
Isaac, or the Soul 4.11-12, 16; FoC 65 (1972) tr. McHugh
SATURDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 797
The Apostle’s next visit for the correction of the Corinthians: 2 Corinthians 12:14 – 13:13
Letter to the Corinthians, I-III; Loeb (1912) tr. Lake
SUNDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 799
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE GALATIANS
Paul’s Gospel: Galatians 1:1-12
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS BY ST AUGUSTINE
In Gal., Preface; The Divine Office I

58
MONDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 800
The vocation and apostolate of Paul: Galatians 1:13 – 2:10
A READING FROM ON THE PRESCRIPTION OF HERETICS BY TERTULLIAN
De Praes. Haeret. 20.7-22.9 (CCL 1:202-4); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 802
The just man lives by faith: Galatians 2:11 – 3:14
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS BY ST JEROME
Commentary on Galatians, 1.2.15-16, 1.3.1; ACC (1999) tr. Edwards
WEDNESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 804
On the purpose of the Law: Galatians 3:15 – 4:7
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST AMBROSE
Letter 35, 4-6, 13; The Divine Office I
THURSDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 805
Divine inheritance and the freedom of the New Covenant: Galatians 4:8-31
Commentary on the Song of Songs, Prologue 3-7; (1987) tr. McCambley
FRIDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 807
Freedom in the life of Faith: Galatians 5:1-25
Sermon 163.2-3, 6, 12; WSA (1992) tr. Hill
SATURDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 808
Advice about charity and zeal: Galatians 5:25 – 6:18
Sermon 160.4-5 (PL 38:875-6); Word in Season VII
SUNDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................................ 810
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS
Greeting & thanksgiving: Philippians 1-11
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Phil. 1.3 (Bareille XVIII:459-460); Word in Season VII
MONDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................................... 811
Paul called for the defence: Philippians 1:12-26
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST COLUMBANUS
Instructio VIII.1-2 (PL 80:244-246); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................... 812
Exhortation to imitate Christ: Philippians 1:27 – 2:11
Sermon 264.1, 3, 6-7; WSA (1993) tr. Hill
59
WEDNESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 813
“Work out your salvation”: Philippians 2:12-30
Sermon 13.2-3 (CCL 41:177-179); Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 814
Paul’s example: Philippians 3:1-16
Conferences 1.4-5, 7.1; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
FRIDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................................. 816
“Stand firm in the Lord”: Philippians 3:17 – 4:9
Conferences 3.6.1-7.2; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
SATURDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 817
The generosity of the Philippians to Paul: Philippians 4:10-23
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST POLYCARP TO THE PHILIPPIANS
Ad Phil. 1, 3, 9-11; Loeb (1912) tr. Lake
SUNDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 819
Cyrus, Israel’s liberator: Isaiah 44:21 – 45:3
In Ps. 125.1 (Bareille IX:491-493); Word in Season VII
MONDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 820
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF EZRA
The people’s liberation and return from captivity. Restoration of worship: Ezra 1:1-8; 2:68-3:8
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON EZRA AND NEHEMIAH BY ST BEDE
In Esdram et Nehemiam (PL 91:812-813); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 822
Assaults against the rebuilding of the Temple: Ezra 4:1-5, 24 – 5:5
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 126 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
St Hilary of Poitiers, In Ps. 126.3-8 (CSEL 22:615-619); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 823
A READING FROM THE PROPHET HAGGAI
Exhortation to rebuild the Temple. The glory of the future Temple; Haggai 1:1-2:9
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HAGGAI BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Hag., 14; The Divine Office III
THURSDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 825
Future blessings, and the promises made by Zerubbabel: Haggai 2:10-23
De Civitate Dei 18.48; (1972) tr. Bettenson
60
FRIDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................................ 826
A READING FROM THE PROPHET ZECHARIAH
A vision of Jerusalem rebuilt: Zechariah 1:1:21
Hom. in Ez., 2.1.5 (CCL 142:210-212); Word in Season VII
SATURDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 828
Visions; exhortations to the exiles: Zechariah 2:5-17
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Zachariam Prophetam (PG 72:40); Word in Season VII
SUNDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 829
Prophecies spoken to Zerubbabel and to Joshua the High Priest: Zechariah 3:1 – 4:14
In Zachariam Prophetam (PG 72:64-65); Word in Season VII
Promises of salvation in Zion: Zechariah 8:1-17, 20-23
A READING FROM THE LADDER OF PERFECTION BY WALTER HILTON
The Ladder of Perfection, II.3; Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 832
The building of the Temple and the celebration of the Passover: Ezra 6:1-5, 14-22
In Esdram et Nehemiam Allegorica expositio, II.7 (PL 91:858); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 834
The mission of Ezra the Priest: Ezra 7:6-28
In Esdram et Nehemiam Allegorica expositio, II.9 (PL 91:860-861); Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 835
On marriages with gentiles: Ezra 9:1-9, 15 – 10:5
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST LEO THE GREAT
Tract. 43.1-4 (CCL 138A:251-255); Word in Season VII
FRIDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................................... 837
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH
Nehemiah is sent to the King in Judah: Nehemiah 1:1 – 2:8
Enarr. In Ps. 146.4-5 (CCL 40:2124-2125); Word in Season VII
SATURDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 839
Nehemiah prepares for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem: Nehemiah 2:9-20
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MICAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Michaeam prophetam, 3.35-36 (PG 71:689-703); Word in Season VII
61
SUNDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 840
The building of the wall; taunts and plots of the enemies: Nehemiah 4:1-23
Sermo 3 de Resurrectione Domini, 3.5 (SC 202:250, 256-258); Word in Season VII
MONDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 842
Nehemiah frees the poor from the oppression of the rich: Nehemiah 5:1-19
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE
Sermon (attrib.), (PLS 1:51-52); Word in Season VII.
TUESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 844
A solemn proclamation of the Law is made by Ezra: Nehemiah 7:73b – 8:18
In Esdram et Nehemiam, 3; (2006) tr. DeGregorio
WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 845
Penitential liturgy and prayer of the Levites: Nehemiah 9:1-2, 5-21
Conferences, 9.9, 11-15; ACW (1997) tr. Ramsey
THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 847
The continuation of the Levites’ prayer; Nehemiah 9:22-37
A READING FROM THE STROMATEIS OF ST CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
Stromateis, 7.7 (PG 9:450-1, 458-9); Word in Season VII
FRIDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 849
Dedication of the wall of Jerusalem: Nehemiah 12:27-47
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON MATTHEW BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Matth., XXV.3 (Bareille XII:40-42); Word in Season VII.
SATURDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 851
Repentance and Salvation: Isaiah 59:1-14
A READING FROM THE REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE OF JULIAN OF NORWICH
Revelations of Divine Love, 78; Word in Season VII
SUNDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 852
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
Exhortation to choose wisdom: Proverbs 1:1-7, 20-33
Commentary on the Diatessaron, 1.18-19; The Divine Office I
MONDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 853
How Wisdom may be found: Proverbs 3:1-20
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EXODUS BY ORIGEN
In Ex., 7.1, 3; FoC 71 (1982) tr. Heine
62
TUESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 855
The praise of eternal Wisdom: Proverbs 8:1-5, 12-36
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS OF ST ATHANASIUS
Against the Arians, 2.78, 81-2; The Divine Office I
WEDNESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 856
Wisdom and foolishness: Proverbs 9:1-18
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON PROVERBS BY ST PROCOPIUS
St Procopius of Gaza, On Proverbs 9; The Divine Office I
THURSDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 857
Various counsels: Proverbs 10:6-32
In Ps. 36, 65-66; The Divine Office I.
FRIDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 859
Man placed in the presence of the Lord: Proverbs: 15:8-9, 16-17, 25-26, 29, 33; 16:1-9; 17:5
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER OF ST JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE
On 1 John, 4; The Divine Office I
SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 860
Praise of the worthy woman: Proverbs 31:10-31
Sermon 37.1-2, 4, 25-26; WSA (1990) tr. Hill
SUNDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 861
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF JOB
Job is deprived of his goods: Job 1:1-22
A READING FROM THE MORALIA IN JOB OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Moralia in Job, 2.17.30-18.31 (SC 32:203-205); Word in Season VII
MONDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 863
Job, afflicted with sores, is visited by his friends: Job 2:1-13
Hom. in paralyticum demissum per tecta (PG 51:62-63); Word in Season VII
TUESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 864
The lament of Job: Job 3:1-26
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOB OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Job, 3.11-16, 20-23; ACC 6 (2006) tr. Simonetti & Conti.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 866
The speech of Eliphaz: Job 4:1-21
Confessions, 10.26.37-29.40; The Divine Office I
63
THURSDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 867
“Despise not the chastening of the Almighty”: Job 5:1-27
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOB BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND
In Job, 5.9-10, 21; ACC 6 (2006) tr. Simonetti & Conti
FRIDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 869
The response of the afflicted and abandoned Job: Job 6:1-30
A READING FROM THE MORALIA ON JOB OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Moralia in Job, 23.2 (PL 76:251); Word in Season VII
SATURDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 870
Job cries out in protest to the Lord for the weariness of his life: Job 7:1-21
A READING FROM THE MORALIA ON JOB BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Moralia in Job, 8.23, 26, 30, 34; ACC 6 (2006) tr. Simonetti & Conti
SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................................... 871
The common attitude is outlined by Zophar: Job 11:1-20
Moralia in Job, 10.1-4, 32; tr C.M. (1844) amended
MONDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 873
Job explains God’s dominion over all human wisdom: Job 12:1-25
Moralia in Job, 10.47-8; The Divine Office I
TUESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 874
Job appeals to the judgement of God: Job 13:13 – 14:6
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST ZENO OF VERONA
Sermon 15.2; The Divine Office I
WEDNESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 875
Baldad’s speech: the light of the wicked is put out: Job 18:1-21
A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE
Epistolae, 2.9, 15-18 (CCL 91:2-3); Word in Season VII
THURSDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 877
Despairing Job is roused to hope: Job 19:1-29
Letter to the Corinthians, 24.1-27.1; Penguin (1968) tr. Staniforth
FRIDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................................... 878
Eliphaz urges Job to seek peace with God: Job 22:1-30
Moralia on Job, 16.24-30; ACC 6 (2006) tr. Simonetti & Conti
64
SATURDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 879
Job answers that the wicked go unpunished: Job 23:1 – 24:12
Moralia in Job, 16.36-37, 39-44; ACC 6 (2006) tr. Simonetti & Conti
SUNDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 881
Wisdom is found with God alone: Job 28:1-28
Confessions, 1.1-2.2, 5.5; The Divine Office I
MONDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 882
Job laments his affliction: Job 29:1-10; 30:1,9-23
A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS OF ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA
Instructions, 7.1-2; The Divine Office I
TUESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 884
Job’s former integrity: Job 31:1-8, 13-23, 35-37
Moralia in Job, 22.17 (PL 76:237-238); Word in Season VII
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 885
Elihu speaks of the Mystery of God: Job 32:1-6; 33:1-22
Moralia in Job, 23.23-24; The Divine Office III
THURSDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 887
God confounds Job: Job 38:1-30; 39:31-35
Moralia in Job, 27 Praefatio (PL 76:445-6); Word in Season VII
FRIDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 888
Job subjects himself to the Divine Majesty: Job 40:6-24; 42:1-6
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS
De Trinitate, 12 (PL 10:467-8); Word in Season VII
SATURDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 890
Job is justified by God over his enemies: Job 42:7-17
Moralia in Job, Praefatio 13 (SC 32:135-6); Word in Season VII

65
LENT .......................................................................................................................................... 892
ASH WEDNESDAY ...................................................................................................................... 893
On the fast that pleases God: Isaiah 58:1-12
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Oratio 3 Adversus Iudaeos (PG 48, 867-868); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY ........................................................................................ 894
The oppression of Israel: Exodus 1:1-22
Sermon 48.1 (CCL 138A:279-280); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY .............................................................................................. 896
The birth and flight of Moses: Exodus 2:1-22
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL
On the Holy Spirit, 14.31 (SC 17bis:354-358); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY ........................................................................................ 897
The call of Moses and the Revelation of the Name of God: Exodus 3:1-20
The Life of Moses, 2.17-26 (SC 1:36-39); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................. 899
The Oppression of the People: Exodus 5:1 – 6:1
Sermon 205.1 (PL 38:1039-1040); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 900
Another Story of the Call of Moses: Exodus 6:2-13
Sermon 60.1-2 – Palm Sunday 445 (PL 54:342-343); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 902
The first plague of Egypt: Exodus 6:29 – 7:25
The Life of Moses, 2.31-36 (SC 1bis:40-41); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ......................................................................................... 903
The plague of darkness and announcement of the plague of the firstborn: Exodus 10:21 – 11:20
A READING FROM THE PHILOKALIA OF ORIGEN
The Philokalia (compiled by SS Basil and Gregory Nazianzen) 27.1.3-5; tr. G. Lewis (1911).

66
THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................. 905
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread: Exodus 12:1-20
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE PASSOVER BY ORIGEN
Treatise on the Passover 1, 3, 12-14, 26, 32; Ancient Christian Writers 54 (1992) tr. Daly.
FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................... 907
The plague of the firstborn: Exodus 12:21-36
A READING FROM A TREATISE UPON THE PASSION BY ST THOMAS MORE
On the Passion, Ch.1, Sermon 1; from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................. 908
The Hebrews depart; laws about Passover and the firstborn: Exodus 12:37-49; 13:11-16
Paschal Homilies 19.2 (PG 77:824-825); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 910
The journey as far as the Red Sea: Exodus 13:17 – 14:9
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON EXODUS BY ORIGEN
Homilies on Exodus 5.3-4; from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 911
The crossing of the Red Sea: Exodus 14:10-31
Catechesis XIX, On the Mysteries 1:1-4.9; from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 913
The rain of manna in the desert: Exodus 16:1-18, 35
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON EXODUS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Glaphyra in Exodum 2:3 (PG 69:456-457); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .................................................................................... 915
Water from the rock; the battle against Amalek: Exodus 17:1-16
Sermon 13.27-29 (1st Clairvaux Coll.); CF 58 (2001) tr. Berkeley & Pennington.
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 916
Judges are appointed under Moses: Exodus 18:13-27
Institutes 4.3, 7-9; Ancient Christian Writers 58 (2000) tr. Ramsey.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 918
Promise of the covenant and appearance of the Lord on Sinai: Exodus 19:1-19; 20:18-21
The Life of Moses, 2.162-66 (SC 1, 80-82); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
67
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 919
The Law is given on Sinai: Exodus 1-17
St Augustine, Sermon 9:1-3, 6-7, 14, 16; from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 921
Laws about the stranger and the poor; the Book of the Covenant: Exodus 22:20 – 23:9
A READING FROM THE DEGREES OF HUMILITY AND PRIDE BY ST BERNARD
Degrees of Humility and Pride 3.6 (Opera Omnia, 1963, 3:20-21); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 923
The agreement of the Covenant on Mount Sinai: Exodus 24:1-18
A Treatise upon the Passion, 4.1; from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 924
The golden calf: Exodus 32:1-20
A READING FROM ON THE DIVINE IMAGES BY ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS
On the Divine Images III. 4, 6, 8; (1996) tr. Andrew Louth
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 926
Moses is given the full revelation of God: Exodus 33:7-11, 18-23; 34:5-9, 29-35
On Psalm 118 17:26-29 (CSEL 62:390-392); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................... 928
The other Book of the Covenant: Exodus 34:10-28
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PRAYER BY TERTULLIAN
De oratione 28-29 (CCL 1:273-274); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................. 929
The building of the Sanctuary and the Ark: Exodus 35:30 – 36:1; 37:1-9
The Life of Moses 170, 173-175, 184-188; CWS (1978) tr. Malherbe & Ferguson
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 931
The Tabernacle is built; the Cloud of the Lord: Exodus 40:16-38
On John IV.4 (PG 73:620-621, 625); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 932
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
Consecration of the priests: Leviticus 8:1-17; 9:22-24
On John 11.8 (PG 74:505-508); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.
68
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 934
The Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16:2-28
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF BARNABAS
The Letter of Barnabas 7-8; Ancient Christian Writers 6 (1948) tr. Kleist.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .......................................................................................... 936
Commandments concerning one’s neighbour: Leviticus 19:1-18, 31-37
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA
On Conscience, 40-45 (SC 92:209-216); from Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .................................................................................... 938
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
Rewards and punishments are promised by God: Leviticus 26:3-17, 38-45
In Lev. 16:1-3, 4-5; Fathers of the Church 83 (1990) tr. G.W. Buckley.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 939
The laws of the Levites: Numbers 3:1-13; 8:5-11
A READING FROM AGAINST THE HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS
Adv. Haer. 4.14.2-3; 15, 1; from The Divine Office II.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT .............................................................................................. 941
The Cloud upon the Tabernacle and the silver trumpets: Numbers 9:15 – 10:10, 33-36
A READING FROM THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF
ALEXANDRIA
The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, 5 (PG 68:393-396); Word in Season II, 1st
ed.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT ........................................................................................ 943
The Spirit is poured out upon the elders and Joshua: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-30
Conference 3.6.1, 7.5-7; Ancient Christian Writers, tr. Ramsey.
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ................................................................................................ 945
The murmuring of Miriam and Aaron against Moses: Numbers 12:1-15
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON NUMBERS BY ORIGEN
In Num. 7.1-2 (SC 29:133-136); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 946
Scouts are sent into Canaan: Numbers 12:16 – 13:3, 17-33
A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST AUGUSTINE
Letter 140.13-15 (PL 33:543-544); Word in Season II, 1st ed.

69
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................... 947
The murmuring of the people and the intercession of Moses: Numbers 14:1-25
In Joh. 84.1-2 (CCL 36:536-538); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ......................................................................................... 949
The mutiny of Korah, Dathan and Abiram: Numbers 16:1-11, 16-24, 28-35
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TRINITY BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND
On the Trinity 2.13-14 (PG 39:691-698); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 951
Concerning the waters of Meribah and the bronze serpent: Numbers 20:1-13; 21:4-9
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS BY ST AUGUSTINE
In Gal. 22 (PL 35:2120-2121); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT .................................................................................................. 953
Balaam is called to curse Israel: Numbers 22:1-8, 20-35
In Rom. 4.10-11 (PG 14:997-999); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT ............................................................................................ 954
The Oracles of Balaam: Numbers 24:1-19
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN
Oration 45:23-24 (PG 36:653-656); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
PALM (PASSION) SUNDAY ......................................................................................................... 956
Against wicked kings; a righteous king, son of David, is promised: Jeremiah 22:1-9; 23:1-8
In Hebd. Sancta, sermon 36.1-2.4 (CCM 2A:294-295); Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK ......................................................................................................... 958
Jeremiah is in danger of death because of the oracle of the ruined temple: Jeremiah 26:1-15
Sermon 71.1-2 – Easter Vigil 443 (PL 54:386-387); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK .......................................................................................................... 959
Lamentation over the Lord’s vineyard: Jeremiah 8:13 – 9:8
A READING FROM ON THE VIRTUE OF PATIENCE BY ST CYPRIAN
On the Virtue of Patience 6-7 (CSEL 3:401-402); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK ................................................................................................... 961
The Prophet’s soul is poured forth: Jeremiah 11:18-20; 12:1-13
Sermon 70.3-5 – Good Friday 443 (PL 54,:382-384); Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
70
MAUNDY THURSDAY ................................................................................................................ 962
A lamentation of the Prophet; his call is repeated: Jeremiah 15:10-21
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST EPHREM OF SYRIA
Diatessaron 20.3-4, 6-7 (CSCO 145:201-204); Word in Season II, 2nd ed.
GOOD FRIDAY ........................................................................................................................... 964
The loneliness of the Prophet: Jeremiah 16:1-15
Sermon 59.4-6 – Weds in HWK 444 (PL 54:339-341); Word in Season II, 1st ed.
HOLY SATURDAY IN THE EASTER TRIDUUM ............................................................................. 965
The anxieties of the Prophet: Jeremiah 20:7-18
A READING FROM A BYZANTINE CANON FOR HOLY SATURDAY
From Mattins of Holy Saturday in The Lenten Triodion (1978)
EASTER ...................................................................................................................................... 967
MONDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ................................................................................................. 968
A READING FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
Appearances and Ascension of the Lord; Election of Matthias: Acts 1:1-26
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY ATTRIBUTED TO ST. HIPPOLYTUS
A Paschal Homily (SC 27: 116-118, 184-190); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ................................................................................................. 969
The Descent of the Holy Spirit and Peter’s First Address: Acts 2:1-21
A READING FROM ON THE PASCHAL SOLEMNITY BY EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA
On the Paschal Solemnity 4-5 (PG 24:698-699); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ........................................................................................... 971
Peter’s Proclamation of Jesus Crucified and Risen: Acts 2:22-41
Catechesis 21.1-3 (PG 33:1087-1091); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ............................................................................................... 972
The Fellowship of the First Community; the Healing of the Sick Man: Acts 2:42 – 3:10
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium 5-6; Word in Season III, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ..................................................................................................... 974
Peter’s Address on the Glorification of Jesus: 3:11 – 4:4
Catechesis 22.1. 3-6 (PG 33:1098-1106); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

71
SATURDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER ............................................................................................... 975
Peter and John before the Sanhedrin: Acts 4:5-31
A READING FROM AN EASTER SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY
Sermon 3 on the Resurrection 1-2 (PL 185:148-149); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
LOW SUNDAY ............................................................................................................................ 977
New Life in Christ: Colossians 3:1-17
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY BISHOP BASIL OF SELEUCIA
Paschal Homily (PG 28:1079-1082); World in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 978
The First Christian Community; Ananias and Sapphira: Acts 4:32 – 5:16
The Conferences 18.4.2-5.4; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 980
The Apostles before the Sanhedrin: Acts 5:17-42
The Asketikon, Longer Response 8; tr. Pluscarden
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ......................................................................... 982
Seven Men filled with the Holy Spirit are Chosen: Acts 6:1-15
Sermon 315, 1-3; WSA (1994), tr. Hill
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 983
Stephen begins a Sermon on the History of the Fathers: Acts 7:1-16
A READING FROM THE EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM BY ORIGEN
Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom, 41-42 (PG 11:618-619); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................. 984
The Story of Moses in Stephen’s Sermon: Acts 7:17-43
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1091-1095
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 986
End of Stephen’s Sermon and his Martyrdom: Acts 7:44 – 8:3
READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................... 988
Philip in Samaria. Simon the Magician: Acts 8:4-25
Sermon 34, 1-3.5-6 (CCL 41, 424-426); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
72
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .................................................................................. 989
Philip baptizes the Eunuch: Acts 8:26-40
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 991
The Calling of Saul: Acts 9:1-22
A READING FROM SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................ 992
Saul in Jerusalem. Peter’s Miracles: Acts 9:23-43
A READING FROM THE WRITING OF ST ANTHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA
On the Incarnation, 29-30; Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 994
Peter called into the House of the Centurion Cornelius: Acts 10:1-33
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ...................................................................................... 996
Cornelius baptized by the Holy Spirit. Peter’s Justification: Acts 10:34 – 11:4, 15-18
Exposition of Psalm 96, 13; WSA (2002) tr. Maria Boulding
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 997
Foundation of the Church of Antioch: Acts 11:19-30
A READING FROM ON CHRISTIAN PERFECTION BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
On Christian Perfection (Jaeger 8:174-177); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 998
Beheading of James and Freeing of Peter. Punishment of Herod: Acts 12:1-23
Sermon 53, 1-2 (CCL 23:214-216); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 1000
The Mission of Barnabas and Paul in the Work of the Gospel: Acts 12:24 – 13:14a
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF BISHOP EUSEBIUS OF EMESA
The Apostles and the Faith, 2:15-16; Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 1001
Paul’s Sermon in the Synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia: Acts 13:14b-43
A READING FROM ON THE SACRAMENTS BY St Ambrose
On the Sacraments 2:20-23, 3:1-2; (1972) tr. Yarnold
73
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ....................................................................... 1003
Paul and Barnabas turn to the Gentiles: Acts 13:44 – 14:7
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST PROSPER OF AQUITAINE
The Call of all Nations II.16; Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .......................................................................... 1004
Healing of the Cripple at Lystra. Going up to Jerusalem: Acts 14:8 – 15:4
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON AN EASTER HYMN OF ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN BY ST
DOROTHEUS OF GAZA
Discourse 16,167-169 (SC 92:462-464); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................ 1006
The Apostles deliberate; the Decision of the Council of Jerusalem: Acts 15:5-35
COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 19, 22
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE .......................................................................... 1008
Beginning of Paul’s Second Journey. Conversion of Lydia: Acts 15:36 – 16:15
A READING FROM ON THE MYSTERIES BY ST AMBROSE
On the Mysteries, 3.8-12, 15; 5.26-28; NPNF 2.10 (1989) tr. de Romestin
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 1010
Paul Beaten, Imprisoned and Miraculously Freed at Philippi: Acts 16:16-40
On the Paschal Solemnity 7.9.10-12 (PG 24:701-706); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 1011
Paul goes on to Athens: Acts 17:1-18
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST ANASTASIUS OF ANTIOCH
Oration 4, 1-2 (PG 89:1347-1349); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 1013
Paul speaks in the Areopagus of Athens: Acts 17:19-34
Sermon 150, 1-2, 4, 8-10; WSA (1992) tr. Hill
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ........................................................................... 1014
Paul is accused by the Jews at Corinth: Acts 18:1-28
A READING FROM THE LIFE IN CHRIST BY NICHOLAS CABASILAS
The Life in Christ, 4 (PG 150:582-583); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

74
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 1016
Paul at Ephesus. Conversions and Miracles: Acts 19:1-20
The Life in Christ, 3 (PG 150:574-575); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ..................................................................................... 1018
Rioting against Paul in Ephesus: Acts 19:21-40
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST AUGUSTINE
Letter 137, 16 (PL 33:523-524); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 1019
Breaking of Bread at Troas: Acts 20:1-16
A READING FROM THE FIRST APOLOGY IN DEFENCE OF THE CHRISTIANS BY ST JUSTIN MARTYR
First Apology, 66-67; Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................... 1021
From Miletus Paul summons the Elders of the Church at Ephesus: Acts 20:17-38
Commentary on John’s Gospel, 94.4-5 (PL 35:1869-1870); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 1022
Journey to Jerusalem. Agabus Prophesies.
Council of James and the Elders: Acts 21:1-26
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST. MAXIMUS OF TURIN
Sermon 56, 1-2 (CCL 23:224-225); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ................................................................................. 1024
Paul is attacked by a Violent Crowd: Acts 21:27-39
A READING FROM A SERMON ON THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
On the Ascension (Jaeger 9.1.323-327); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ........................................................................... 1025
Paul tells the Jews of his Conversion: Acts 21:40 – 22:21
Parochial and Plain Sermons, VI, 121-127; Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
THE ASCENSION ...................................................................................................................... 1027
Ascending on high, he led captivity captive: Ephesians 4:1-24
A READING FROM A SERMON ON THE ASCENSION BY ST LEO THE GREAT
Sermon 73; FoC 93 (1996) tr. Freeland & Conway

75
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ..................................................................................... 1028
Paul in the presence of the Sanhedrin: Acts 22:22 – 23:11
Sermon 74, 3-4 (CCL 138A:457-459); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 1030
The Jews’ plot against Paul: Acts 23:12-35
Sermon 74, 5 (CCL 138A:459-461); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................. 1032
Paul defends himself before Felix: Acts 24:1-27
Commentary on St John’s Gospel, 9 (PG 74:182-183); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ........................................................................... 1033
Paul appeals to Caesar and is summoned by King Agrippa: Acts 25:1-27
Commentary on St John’s Gospel, 11.11 (PG 74:559-562); Word in Season III.
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ........................................................................... 1035
Paul explains his cause in the presence of King Agrippa: Acts 26:1-32
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT
On the Holy Spirit, 9.22-23; The Divine Office II
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ..................................................................... 1037
Paul sails for Rome: Acts 27:1-20
COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 4, 12; Word in Season III, 1st ed.
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ......................................................................... 1039
Paul’s Encouragement and the Shipwreck: Acts 27:21-44
Commentary on St John’s Gospel, 10 (PG 74:434); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ............................................................................... 1040
Paul on the Isle of Malta. Journey to Rome: Acts 28:1-14
A READING FROM THE MIRROR OF FAITH BY BLESSED WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
The Mirror of Faith (PL 180:384); Word in Season III, 1st ed.

76
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE ......................................................................... 1042
Paul a captive in Rome: Acts 28:15-31
On the Trinity, 2.12 (PG 39:667-674); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
PENTECOST ............................................................................................................................. 1043
Whoever receives the Spirit of God, are children of God: Romans 8:5-27
A READING FROM A SERMON BY St Augustine
Sermon 271 (PL 38:1245-1246); Word in Season III, 2nd ed.
HOLY TRINITY .......................................................................................................................... 1045
A READING FROM THE ORATION ON HOLY BAPTISM BY ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN
Oration 40, 41-44: NPNF 2.7, tr. Browne & Swallow
CORPUS CHRISTI ..................................................................................................................... 1046
A READING FROM THE BULL TRANSITURUS OF POPE URBAN IV
The Bull Transiturus; tr. O’Connor (1988) from The Hidden Manna
SACRED HEART OF JESUS ........................................................................................................ 1048
A READING FROM CHRIST, THE IDEAL OF THE MONK BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION
Christ, the Ideal of the Monk, 2.17.5
WEEKS 18 to 34 ...................................................................................................................... 1050
SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1051
A READING FROM THE PROPHET OBADIAH
Prophecies against Edom; Obadiah 1:1-21
De Civitate Dei, 18.31; tr. Bettenson (1972)
MONDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1052
A READING FROM THE PROPHET JOEL
A plague of locusts, the sign of the coming of the day of the Lord God: Joel 1:1, 13 – 2:11
Oration 16, 6.12-14; NPNF7 (1883) tr. Browne & Swallow
TUESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 1054
The conversion of a people preparing for perfect blessedness: Joel 2:12-27
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOEL BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Comm. in Joelem 2; FoC 115 (2007) tr. Hill

77

WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1055

The Last Judgement: Joel 3:1 – 4:8
Comm. in Joelem 25 (PG 71:376-380); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1057
After judgement, eternal happiness: Joel 4:9-21
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOEL BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
Comm. In Joelem (PL 168:254-255); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 1058
A READING FROM THE PROPHET MALACHI
Prophecies about negligent priests and about rejection: Malachi 1:1-14; 2:13-16
A READING FROM THE ORTHODOX FAITH BY ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS
The Orthodox Faith, 4.13; FoC 37 (1958) tr. Chase
SATURDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1060
The Day of the Lord: Malachi 3:1 – 4:6)
De Civitate Dei, 18.35; tr. Bettenson (1972)
SUNDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1062
A READING FROM THE PROPHET JONAH
The call of Jonah, his flight and shipwreck: Jonah 1: - 2:1-2, 11
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 43 BY ST AMBROSE OF MILAN
In Ps. 43, 83-85 (PL 14:1183-1184, 1129-1139); Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1063
The conversion of the Ninevites and Jonah’s debate with God: Jonah 3:1 – 4:11
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JONAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
In Ionam 3.23; 4.29 (PG 71:631-638); Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1065
The salvation of Zion is promised: Zechariah 9:1 – 10:2
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST ANDREW OF CRETE
Oratio 9 In Psalmos; The Divine Office III
WEDNESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1066
The liberation and return of Israel: Zechariah 10:3 – 11:3
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND
In Zach. 10; FoC 111 (2006) tr. Hill

78

THURSDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1068

The parable of the shepherds: Zechariah 11:4 – 12:8
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY
In Cant., 2; The Divine Office III
FRIDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 1070
Salvation in Jerusalem: Zechariah 12:9 – 13: 9
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF BY ST AUGUSTINE
Sermon 277.16-17; WSA (1994) tr. Hill
SATURDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1071
The tribulations and glory of Jerusalem in the last time: Zechariah 14:1-21
Comm. In Zachariam (PG 72:252-256); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 1073
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES
The vanity of all things: Ecclesiastes 1:1-18
A READING FROM THE FOUR CENTURIES ON LOVE BY ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
Centuries on Love 1.1, 4-5;16-17;23-24;26-28;39-40; The Divine Office I
MONDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1075
The vanity of pleasure and of human wisdom: Ecclesiastes 2:1-3, 12-26
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
In Eccles. 2, 5; ACC (2005) tr. Hall
TUESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1076
A diversity of seasons: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ECCLESIASTES OF ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
In Eccl. 6 (PG 44:701-703); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1078
The vanity of riches: Ecclesiastes 5:9 – 6:8
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST JEROME
In Eccl. (PL 23:1057-1059); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1079
“Do not make yourself over wise” : Ecclesiastes 7:1 – 8:1
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND
In Eccl. 197.14 – 198.22, 209.26, 231.13; ACC (2005) tr. Wright

79
FRIDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 1081
The consolation of wisdom: Ecclesiastes 8:5 – 9:10
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST GREGORY OF AGRIGENTO
In Eccles. VIII, 6 (PG 98:1071-1074); Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1083
Advice about old age: Ecclesiastes 11:7 – 12:14
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST GREGORY
In Eccles. 10.2; The Divine Office I
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1085
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO TITUS
The mission of Titus; qualities and duties of elders: Titus 1:1-16
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON TITUS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Titum 2
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIRST OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 1086
Exhortations to the faithful: Titus 2:1 – 3:2
A READING FROM THE EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS OF ST CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
Cohortatio ad Gentes 1 (PG 8:59-63); Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1088
The bath of regeneration: Titus 3:3-15
In Lev. 4: 7, 3 - 8, 3; FoC 83 (1990) tr. Barkley
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1089
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PAUL TO TIMOTHY
The mission of Timothy; Paul the preacher of the Gospel: 1 Timothy 1:1-20
De catechizandis rudibus I, 6-8 (CCL 46:124, 126-128); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1091
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO TIMOTHY
An invitation to prayer: 1Timothy 2:1 – 3:2
COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 16
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 1092
On the ministers of the Church: 1 Timothy 3:1-16
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE TRALLIANS BY ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH
Ep. ad Trall. 1.1-3.2; 4.1-2; 6.1; 7.1-8.1 (from The Divine Office III)

80
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1093
On the teachers of error: 1Timothy 4:1 – 5:2
Ennar. In Ps. 39, 6 (CCL 38:428-429); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1095
On widows and elders: 1 Timothy 5:3-25
A READING FROM THE APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELICA TESTIFICATIO OF POPE PAUL VI
Evangelica Testificatio 3, 8, 53 (from Word in Season VIII)
MONDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 1096
On slaves and on false teachers: 1 Timothy 6:1-10
A READING FROM THE COMMONITORIUM OF ST VINCENT OF LERINS
Commonitorium, 1, 23; The Divine Office III
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1098
Final exhortation: 1Timothy 6:11-21
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT
Hom. in Ev. 17, 3, 14; The Divine Office III
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................. 1099
A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF ST PAUL TO TIMOTHY
Paul urges Timothy to be strong in the gift he has received: 2 Timothy 1:1-18
Ep. Ad Cor. 40-42; (1968) tr. Staniforth
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 1101
An exhortation to constancy in hardship and persecution: 2 Timothy 2:1-21
A READING FROM THE IMITATION OF CHRIST BY ST THOMAS À KEMPIS
De imitatione Christi, II, 12; Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1102
Dangerous times threaten: 2 Timothy 2:22 – 3:17
A READING FROM THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION OF THE SECOND VATICAN
COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum 11-12 (abridged)
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 1104
Paul’s final exhortation: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BASIL THE GREAT
Epist. 161.1-2 (PG 32:630-631); Word in Season VIII

81
SUNDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1105
A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF ST PETER
An exhortation concerning the way of salvation: 2 Peter 1:1-11
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER BY ST BEDE
In 2 Pet. 1:20-1:21; CS82 (1985), tr. Hurst
MONDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1106
The testimony of the Apostles and Prophets: 2 Peter 1:12-21
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE
Tract. In Joh. 35, 8 (CCL 36:321-322); Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1107
False teachers: 2 Peter 2:1-9
Macarian Homilies, 28; The Divine Office III
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 1109
A denunciation of sinners: 2 Peter 2:9-22
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST MATTHEW’S GOSPEL BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Matt. 33, 1-2; The Divine Office III
THURSDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1110
God is faithful to his promises: 2 Peter 3:1-10
A READING FROM THE SERMON ON MORTALITY BY ST CYPRIAN
On Mortality 18.24.26; The Divine Office III
FRIDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1111
An exhortation on waiting for the coming of the Lord: 2 Peter 3:11-18
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD OF THE SECOND
VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 38-39 (abridged)
SATURDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1113
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST JUDE
A denunciation of the wicked and an exhortation to the faithful: Jude 1-8, 12-13, 17-25
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JUDE BY ST BEDE
In Iudam 5, 20-24; CS 82 (1985), tr. Hurst
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1114
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF ESTHER
Repudiation of Vashti and choosing of Esther: Esther 1:1-3, 9-13, 15-16, 19; 2:5-10, 16-17
A Retreat for Priests, 169-170, 174-175; Word in Season VIII

82
MONDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 1116
The Jews in danger: Esther 3:1-15
A READING FROM THE DECLARATION OF THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN
RELIGIONS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate 4-5; Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1118
Haman seeks the destruction of all the Jews: Esther 4:1-16
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ESTHER BY BLESSED RABANUS MAURUS
Expositio in lib. Esther 7 (PL 109:654); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME................................................. 1119
The speech of Queen Esther: Esther 14:1-19
A READING FROM AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS BY ST AUGUSTINE
Contra duas eps. Pelagianorum, 1.19-20 (PL 44:168-169); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 1121
The king and Haman at Esther’s banquet. Haman is hanged: Esther 5:1-5; 7:1-10
Expositio in lib. Esther 13.14 (PL 109:662.670); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1122
The prayer of a penitent people: Baruch 1:14 – 2:5; 3:1-8
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE
Sermo 10.2-3 (CCL 91A:938-939); Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 1124
The salvation of Israel rests on wisdom: Baruch 3:9-15, 24 – 4:4
A READING FROM AGAINST THOSE UNWILLING TO CONFESS THE THEOTOKOS BY ST CYRIL OF
ALEXANDRIA
Against those unwilling to confess the Theotokos 7
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1125
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF TOBIT
The piety, spoliation and flight of Tobit: Tobit 1:1-22
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON TOBIT BY ST BEDE
Comm. in Tob. 1-3; (1997), tr. S. Connolly
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1127
The troubles of Tobit the righteous and his speech: Tobit 2:1 – 3:6
Sermon 41, 1-2; ACW 50 (1989) tr. Ramsey

83
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1128
Sarah’s misery and her prayers: Tobit 3:7-25
De Oratione, 8-11 (PG 11:442-448); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1130
Tobias undertakes a journey: Tobit 4:1-6, 16, 20-21; 5:1-14, 17-21
Confessiones, 10.34 (CSEL 34:265-267); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1132
Tobias and the angel make the journey; Tobit 6:1-17
Oratio 37, 19.1-12 (PG 36:286-291); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 1133
Tobias marries Sarah: Tobit 7:1 – 8:14
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BEDE
Homily 14 (CCL 122:95-96); Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1135
The return of Tobias to his father: Tobit 10:7b – 11:17
Sermo 73.3-5 (CCL 23:305-307); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1137
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF JUDITH
The people pray to God to remove their danger: Judith 2:1-12; 4:1-2, 9-15
A READING FROM ON PRAYER BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
De Precatione 6 (PG 64:462.466); Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1138
Achior tells the truth about Israel in Holofernes’ presence: Judith 5:1-24
A READING FROM THE ORATIONS ON EASTER BY ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN
2nd Oration on Easter 15-16; NPNF7 (1893) tr. Browne & Swallow
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1140
Achior is handed over to the men of Israel: Judith 6:1-7, 10 – 7:1, 4-5
VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 78

84
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1142
Judith is concerned for the safety of her people: Judith 8:1a, 9-14, 28-32; 9:1-6, 11-14
A READING FROM ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT
De Spiritu Sancto, 18-19; (1980) tr. Anderson
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1144
Judith in the presence of Holofernes: Judith 10:1-5, 11-16; 11:1-6, 18-21
Ep. II ad Gallami, 29-20 (CCL 91:207-208); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1146
Holofernes’ banquet: Judith 12:1 – 13:5
A READING FROM CONCERNING WIDOWS BY ST AMBROSE
Concerning Widows, 7; NPNF10 (1989) tr. de Romesty
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1148
The death of Holofernes and the thanksgiving: Judith 13:4-31
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST ANDREW OF CRETE
Hom. in annunciatione B. Mariae (PG 97:893.897-901); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1149
The Mystery of Divine Wisdom: Sirach 1:1-29
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTICUS BY BLESSED RABANUS MAURUS
Comm. In Ecclesiasticum, 1, 1-2 (PL 109:765-766); Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1151
Patience in temptation: Sirach 2:1-18
Sermon 38, 5.11 (CCL 41:5-6.11); Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1152
Dutifulness towards parents: Sirach 3:1-16
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
Sermo in epiphania 7 (Opera Omnia VI, 1. 26-27); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................... 1153
Humility and pride: Sirach 3:17 – 4:10
A READING FROM THE EXHORTATION TO HUMILITY OF MARTIN OF BRAGA
Exhortatio ad humilitatem, 4-7 (PL 72:40-42); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................... 1155
Divine retribution: Sirach 5:1 – 6:4
A READING FROM ON PERFECTION OF LIFE BY ST BONAVENTURE
De perfectione vitae ad sorores (unpubl. ms); Word in Season VIII
85
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1156
True friendship. The sweet yoke of wisdom: Sirach 6:5-37
A READING FROM ON SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX
De Spiritali Amicitia, II, 9-14 (CCCM I:303-305); Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................... 1158
Duties towards children, parents, priests, the poor: Sirach 7:18-36
Oratio, 14, 20-22, De pauperum amore (PG 35: 882-886); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1159
Against pride: Sirach 10:6-18
A READING FROM THE CHRISTIAN WAY OF LIFE BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
The Christian Way of Life (Jaeger VIII, 72-74); Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1160
Trust in God alone: Sirach 11:12-28
Conferences 6, 13-16; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
TUESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1162
The happiness of wisdom: Sirach 14:20 – 15:10
The Christian Way of Life (Jaeger VIII:75-77); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................. 1163
Man’s freedom: Sirach 15:11-20
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW BY ST PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS
Expositio in Matt. IV, VI: PL 120, 286-287 (from Word in Season VIII)
THURSDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1164
Man, the summit of all creation: Sirach 16:24 – 17:14
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ORIGEN
In Gen., 1, 13 (SC 7, 60-64); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1165
God is judge; an exhortation to conversion: Sirach 17:15-32
Revelations of Divine Love, 77; Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ..................................................... 1166
Wisdom in creation and in the history of Israel: 24:1-22
De Trinitate, 7.3; FoC 45 (1963) tr. McKenna
86
SUNDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1168
A good wife and a bad wife: Sirach 26:1-4, 9-18
A READING FROM THE APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION FAMILARIS CONSORTIO OF POPE JOHN PAUL II
Familiaris Consortio, 11-13.
MONDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1169
Hom. LXI in Matth. (Bareille XII, 506-509); Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1170
On lending, alms and riches: Sirach 29:1-13; 31:1-4
A READING FROM ON WORKS AND ALMSGIVING BY ST CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE
De opera et eleemosynis, 23-24, 26 (PL 4:643-646); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................... 1172
A demand for sincerity in the worship of God: Sirach 35:1-18
The Christian Way of Life, II (Jaeger VIII, 77-79); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1173
Knowledge of crafts is compared with wisdom of the scribe: Sirach 38:24 – 39:11
Ep. LIII ad Paulinum (PL 22:544-549); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1175
Divine praise in creation: Sirach 42:15-25; 43:27-33
Enarr. In Ps. 144, 13.15 (CCL 40:2098-2100); Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1176
A hymn of thanksgiving: Sirach 51:1-12
Enarr. In Ps. 90, II.2 (CCL 39:1267); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................... 1177
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF WISDOM
Praise of the wisdom of God: Wisdom 1:1-15
VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 14-15, 18 (abridged)
MONDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .................................................................. 1178
The foolish thoughts of the ungodly against the righteous: Wisdom 1:16 – 2:24
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE
Tract. In Joh. 12, 10-11 (CCL 36:126-127); Word in Season VIII
87
TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................... 1180
The righteous will possess the Kingdom: Wisdom 3:1-19
The Orthodox Faith 4.15; FoC 37 (1958) tr. Chase
WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1181
True and false happiness: Wisdom 4:1-20
Enarr. In Ps. 24, II, 17-19 (CCL 38:164-165); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1183
Corrupt men are condemned by God: Wisdom 5:1-23
Sermo 198.43; WSA (1997) tr. Hill
FRIDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................................... 1184
Wisdom is to be loved: Wisdom 6:1-25
A READING FROM THE DIVINE NAMES BY DENYS THE AREOPAGITE
The Divine Names (PG 3:865-868); Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1186
Wisdom, an image of God: Wisdom 7:15-30
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUES OF ANSELM OF HAVELBERG
Dialogues 1, 2 (SC 118:41-44); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................... 1187
Wisdom is desired by God: Wisdom 8:1-21
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ABBOT WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
Meditativae orationes X (PL 180:235); Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1188
A discourse on acquiring wisdom: Wisdom 8:21 – 9:18
VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 22
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1190
Our fathers were saved through wisdom: Wisdom: 10:1 – 11:4
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON WISDOM BY BLESSED RABANUS MAURUS
Comm. In Lib. Sapientiae, 2.7 (PL 109:718-719); Word in Season VIII

88
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1191
On the loving-kindness and patience of God: Wisdom 11:20b – 12:2, 11b-19
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY SEVERIAN OF GABALA
Homily: Revue des Études Byzantines 25 (1967) 230-232; Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1193
The wise man disapproves of idols: Wisdom 13:1-10; 14:15-21; 15:1-6
The Divine Names (PG 3:867-872); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................. 1194
The kindnesses of God towards his people: Wisdom 16:2b-13, 20-26
Tract. In Joh. 26.12; FoC 79 (1988) tr. Rettig
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1196
Passover night and the crossing of the Red Sea: Wisdom 18:1-15; 19:4-9
A READING FROM ON CONTEMPLATING GOD BY BLESSED WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
On Contemplating God, 10; CF 3 (1970) tr. Sr Penelope
SUNDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................... 1197
A READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE MACCABEES
The victory and pride of the Greeks: 1 Maccabees 1:1-25
Parochial & Plain Sermons VIII, 141-142.150-152; Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1199
The persecution of Antiochus: 1 Maccabees 1:41-63
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATIONS OF ST THOMAS MORE
Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulations; Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1200
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF THE MACCABEES
The martyrdom of Eleazar: 2 Maccabees 6:12-31
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF SAINT AMMONAS
St Ammonas the Hermit, Epist. 9.2-5 (PO 10:590-593); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................... 1202
The martyrdom of the seven brothers: 2 Maccabees 7:1-19
Sermon 300, 1-3.5-6 (PL 38:1377-1379); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 1204
The martyrdom of the seven brothers: the mother and the last son: 2 Maccabees 7:20-41
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST VALERIAN OF CIMIEZ
Hom. 18, 1.5 (PL 52:746.747-748); Word in Season VIII
89
FRIDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1206
The rebellion and death of Matathias: 1 Maccabees 2:1, 15-28, 42-50, 65-70
A READING FROM THE ADMONITION TO ENGLISH CATHOLICS BY WILLIAM CARDINAL ALLEN
Admonition to English Catholics; Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1207
About Judas Maccabeus: 1 Maccabees 3:1-26
A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 123 BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
In Ps. 123 (Bareille IX, 483-485); Word in Season VIII
SUNDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .............................................................. 1209
A READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF MACCABEES
The purification and dedication of the Temple: 1 Maccabees 4:36-59
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE PRELATES OF MAINZ BY ST HILDEGARD OF BINGEN
To the prelates of Mainz; Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1211
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF MACCABEES
Sacrifice for the dead: 2 Maccabees 12:32-45
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 49-50, 51; Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................. 1212
The end of Antiochus: 1 Maccabees 6:1-17
Enarr. In Ps. 18, 11, 14-15 (CCL 38:112-113); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1213
The death of Judas in battle: 1Maccabees 9:1-22
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE BLESSING OF DEATH BY ST AMBROSE
De bono mortis, 3, 9; 4, 15; The Divine Office III.
THURSDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1215
The young men of Israel are faithful in the palace of the king of Babylon: Daniel 1:1-21
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
De Trinitate et Operibus eius, XLII (PL 167:1499-1502); Word in Season VIII.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................................ 1217
The vision of the image and the stone; the eternal Kingdom of God: Daniel 2:26-47
Sermo 45.6-8; Word in Season VIII
SATURDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME .......................................................... 1218
The king’s golden statue; the youths thrown into the furnace: Daniel 3:8-12,19-23, 1, 68, 24-30
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON DANIEL BY ST HIPPOLYTUS
St Hippolytus of Rome, Comm. in Dan. II, 18-37 (SC 14:150-184); Word in Season VIII
90
CHRIST THE KING .................................................................................................................... 1220
The vision of the Son of Man accepting the kingdom: Daniel 7:1-17, 23-27
In Ioannis Evangelium II, 35 (PG 73:283-286); Word in Season VIII
MONDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1222
God’s judgement at Belshazzar’s feast: Daniel 5:1-2, 5-9, 13-17, 25-31
A READING FROM ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE BY THEODORET OF CYRUS
De Divina Providentia, 10, 52-54; Word in Season VIII
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ......................................................... 1223
Daniel is thrown into the lions’ den: Daniel 6:4-28
St Hippolytus of Rome, Comm. in Dan. III, 21-30 (SC 14:242-258); Word in Season VIII
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ................................................... 1226
Vision of the ram and the he-goat; victories and ruin of the Greeks’ kingdom: Daniel 8:1-26
St Hippolytus of Rome, Comm in Dan. IV, 26-27 (SC 14:316, 317); Word in Season VIII
THURSDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ...................................................... 1228
Daniel’s prayer in persecution: Daniel 9:1-4, 18-27
St Hippolytus of Rome, Comm. in Dan. IV, 38-39 (SC 14:340-343); Word in Season VIII
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1229
The vision of the man and the appearance of the angel; Daniel 10:1-21
Conferences, 8.13.1-3; ACW 57 (1997) tr. Ramsey
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ....................................................... 1231
The prophecy of the Last Day and of the Resurrection: Daniel 12:1-13
Parochial & Plain Sermons, IV, 222-224; Word in Season VIII

91

92
TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
PATRISTIC VIGILS READINGS
YEAR I
ADVENT & CHRISTMASTIDE
93
SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

THE CALL OF ISAIAH: ISAIAH 6:1-13
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train
filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face,
and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said:
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs
from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is
taken away, and your sin forgiven.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Hear
and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat,
and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without men, and the land is utterly desolate,
and the LORD removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And
though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains
standing when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.

SERMO 1 IN ADVENTU DOMINI 1-6: CCCM IIA FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
The present holy season which we call Advent directs our thoughts to our Lord’s twofold coming. We
have therefore a double reason for rejoicing because we are meant to derive from it a double benefit.
Advent calls to mind the two comings of our Lord: first the coming of the fairest of the sons of men
and the desire of all nations, so long awaited and so fervently prayed for by all the fathers when the
Son of God graciously revealed to the world his visible presence in the flesh, that is to say when he
came into the world to save sinners; the other that second coming to which we look forward no less
than did our fathers of old. While we await his return our hope is sure and firm, yet we also frequently
remind ourselves with tears of the day when he who first came to us concealed in our flesh will come
again revealed in the glory which belongs to him as Lord. Of that day the psalmist sings: God will
come openly; it is the Day of Judgment when Christ will come as judge in the sight of all.
Our Lord’s first coming was indeed known only to a small number of good people, but his
second will be evident to good and bad alike, as is known to us by the prophet’s
announcement: All flesh will see the salvation of God.
To speak more precisely, however, the day we are shortly to celebrate in memory of our Lord’s
birth brings him before us as a newborn child, that is to say it more expressly signifies the day and the
hour when he first came into the world, whereas the season we keep beforehand represents him to
us as the longed-for Messiah and reminds us of the yearning that filled the hearts of those holy
fathers of ours who lived before his coming.
94
How beautifully then at this season the Church provides that we should recite the words and recall
the longing of those who lived before our Lord’s first advent! Nor do we commemorate that desire of
theirs for a single day, but share it so to speak for a long period of time, because when something we
greatly love and long for is deferred for a while it usually seems sweeter to us when it does arrive.
It is our duty then to follow the example and recall the longing of the holy fathers and so inflame our
own souls with love and longing for Christ. You must understand that the reason why this season
was instituted was to inspire us to remember the desire of our holy fathers for our Lord’s
first coming, and through their example learn to have a great longing for the day when he
will come again. We should consider how much good our Lord did us by his first coming,
and how much more he will do for us by his second. This thought will help us to have a
great love for that first coming of his and a great longing for his return. And if our
conscience is not so perfect that we dare entertain such a desire, we ought at least to fear
his second coming and by means of that fear to correct our faults, so that if perhaps we
cannot help being afraid here and now, we shall at least be secure and fearless when he
comes again.
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

THE SIGN OF IMMANUEL: ISAIAH 7:1-17
In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah
the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not
conquer it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim”, his heart and the
heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the
conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, ‘Take heed, be quiet,
do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smouldering stumps of
firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with
Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and
terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabe-el as king in the midst of it,”
thus says the Lord GOD: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is
Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to
pieces so that it will no longer be a people.) And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of
Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”
Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as
heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear
then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall
call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and
choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land
before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. The LORD will bring upon you and upon
your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim
departed from Judah – the king of Assyria.”
95
IN ISAIAM 1.4 (PG 70, 204A-205D), TR. NORMAN RUSSELL (2000)
Some of those who have translated the divine Scriptures have rendered this text: ‘Behold a young
woman shall conceive.’ It seems to the Jews that the mother of the Lord should be indicated by the
expression ‘young woman’ rather than be called a virgin. For they think it possible to invalidate the
power of the mystery if she is called a young woman rather than a virgin. One may note their
ignorance on a number of levels. First, even if the virgin is called a young woman, that does not
exclude her from being a virgin. Secondly, they say that the prophet uttered these words about the
wife of Ahaz, so that we should take this to refer to the birth of Hezekiah. But, my friends, one might
say to them, who has called Hezekiah Emmanuel? Or how can it be proved that before he had
knowledge of good and evil he rejected wickedness and chose the good? We therefore say farewell to
their quibbling and welcome what is right and true, believing that in this prophecy God is indicating
the Holy Virgin to us.
For in this way there will truly be a miracle and a great sign, in both its depth and its height,
that has come about in accordance with the divine promise. For he who is from above, and is
by nature the only-begotten Son of God the Father, emptied himself and was brought forth
from a virginal womb according to the flesh, receiving his generation not from the human
emission of seed but from the power and energy of the Holy Spirit. For that is why it was said
to the holy Virgin by the mouth of the blessed Gabriel: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you. She will in consequence, he says, bear a son.
See how, in order to show that he was truly God as well as man, the prophet assigned to him
attributes that were both divine and human. For when he says that he was given food suitable
for infants, namely butter and honey, he is trying to assure us that he came to be in the flesh in
reality. Then he teaches that although he did indeed become flesh he was nonetheless as God
superior to sin, for he adds at once: For before the child knows good and evil, he will reject evil
and choose the good. For men who have not yet arrived at puberty cannot discern what is
vicious and what is good. This phrase therefore signifies that it belongs to the divine nature to
be irrevocably fixed on the good. This is also true of Christ as, though he came into being
according to the flesh through the Holy Virgin, he was holy as God both from the womb and
before it, seeing that he did not lose his own prerogatives on account of his human nature.
Neither did he ignore what pertains to human nature on account of the dispensation of the
Incarnation, in order that he might be believed to have become like us in reality, and might
sanctify this created nature of ours.
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

THE PROPHET’S SON APPOINTED AS A SIGN: ISAIAH 8:1-18
Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write upon it in common characters, ‘Belonging to
Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’” And I got reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of
Jeberechiah, to attest for me. And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then
the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; for before the child knows how to cry
‘My father’ or ‘My mother’, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away
before the king of Assyria.”
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The LORD spoke to me again: “Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that flow
gently, and melt in fear before Rezin and the son of Remaliah; therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing
up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and it
will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks; and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow
and pass on, reaching even to the neck; and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O
Immanuel.”
Be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed; give ear, all you far countries; gird yourselves and be
dismayed; gird yourselves and be dismayed. Take counsel together, but it will come to nought; speak
a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way
of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy, and do not fear what
they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear,
and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary, and a stone of offence, and a rock of
stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall
stumble thereon; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his
face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has
given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

SERMO 7 DE ADVENTU DOMINI (PL 183, 54-56), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
If we celebrate the Lord’s advent with grateful hearts we shall be doing no more than our duty, for
not only did he come to us but he came for our sake, having no need of anything we can give.
Moreover the very generosity with which he is pleased to treat us clearly shows up the measure of
our need, for just as the danger of an illness can be inferred from the cost of medicine, so the number
of infirmities is indicated by the diverse remedies required. Why should a variety of graces be
dispensed, if we did not suffer multiple distress?
It is certainly difficult within the compass of one sermon to detail all the needs we experience, but at
present three spring to mind; they are the principal ones and common to us all. There is no one to be
found among us who will not on occasion feel the need for counsel, for strengthening, and for
protection. Unquestionably, a threefold wretchedness is innate in human nature. All of us who dwell
in the region of the shadow of death, in weakness of body and exposed to temptation, will agree, if
we consider the matter carefully, that we labour wretchedly under this triple handicap. We are easily
led astray, feeble in our striving and frail when it comes to resistance. If we wish to distinguish
between good and evil we are deceived; if we attempt to do good we fai1; if we try to resist evil we
are overthrown and defeated.
The coming of a saviour was necessary, then; the presence of Christ is indispensable for men harassed
like this. O that he may so come to us in his gracious bounty that dwelling in us through faith he may
enlighten our blindness, abiding with us and taking the field for us protect and guard our frailty! If he
is in us who can ever deceive us? If he is with us, what can we still find too hard in him who
strengthens us? If he is for us, who is against us? He is a trusty counsellor incapable of deceiving or
being deceived, a mighty ally who does not grow weary, an effective champion who will swiftly crush
Satan under our feet and shatter all his stratagems.
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Christ is the Wisdom of God, so it is simple for him to instruct the ignorant; he is the Power of God, so
it is easy for him to restore those who sin and to rescue those in peril. Let us have recourse to this
great teacher in all our uncertainties, invoke this ready helper in all our labour, and commit our souls
to this trusty defender in all our struggles. He came into the world for this very purpose, so that by
living among us, with us and for us, he might enlighten our darkness, alleviate our toil, and ward off
the dangers that threaten us.
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

PRINCE OF PEACE: ISAIAH 9:1-7
But there will be no gloom for her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt
the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of
the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have
seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. Thou hast
multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy; they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest,
as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping
warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us
a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will
be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Of the increase of
his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to
establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for
evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

SERMO 10 (PL 142, 1019-1020), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
The light that was to enlighten the whole world was about to shine upon it, driving away the thick,
loathsome gloom of death and ignorance in which the author of darkness had enveloped it. And since
that light was eternal and incomprehensible, it was preceded by a number of shorter-lived luminaries
whose rays were more readily intelligible to men. I refer to our fathers of the Old Testament through
whose virtue, teaching, and example the Lord’s faithful people were enlightened and instructed and
the shadows of their age-old blindness dispersed, so that, if not entirely, at least in part, they would
be able to recognise the light when it shone upon them.
Not from themselves, nor from any other man did these lesser luminaries derive their light, but from
the Supreme Light itself. They were the ones who followed the path of God’s commandments, some
prior to the law, some under the law, some in the days of the judges, the kings, or the prophets but all
heralding the mysteries of our Lord’s birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension. And after them all
came John, the Lord’s forerunner, a beacon whose clear light led the people to the one whom the
patriarchs had proclaimed and the prophets foretold.
There are certain testimonies proclaimed by the Holy Spirit through the mouths of Isaiah and
Jeremiah which, though properly referring to the person of our Lord and Saviour, are also by the
Church’s divinely given authority and the consensus of the faithful fittingly applied to the forerunner.
But even more clearly has the Holy Spirit borne witness to John. The Gospel tells us how John was
filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb and leapt for joy in the presence of the
mother of his Lord, moved by no natural impulse but by the stirring of divine grace. Later John bore
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witness to Christ the Lord in the words: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world! And Christ in his own preaching gave testimony to John, saying: Among the sons of women
there has never arisen a greater than John the Baptist.
Calling him the greatest among those born of women, he drew attention to John’s constancy and
austere manner of life and declared him to be a prophet and more than a prophet. By his own divine
power Christ endowed John with privileges and graces in excess of all others, describing him, through
the lips of the prophet Malachi, as the messenger who was to go before him to prepare the path of
his salvation.
THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

THE DAY OF THE LORD: ISAIAH 10:5-21
Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff of my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against
the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like
the mire of the streets. But he does not so intend, and his mind does not so think; but it is in his mind
to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings? Is not
Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has
reached to the kingdoms of the idols whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and
Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?”
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem he will punish the arrogant
boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride. For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have
done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I have removed the boundaries of peoples, and
have plundered their treasures; like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones. My hand
has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as men gather eggs that have been forsaken so I
have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or
chirped.”
Shall the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields
it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! Therefore
the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a
burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One
a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. The glory of his forest and of his
fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him
that smote them, but will lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return,
the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY PETER OF BLOIS

Our task in this world, according to Saint Paul, is to live sober, upright, and godly lives as we look
forward to the coming of our blessed hope, the appearing in glory of almighty God.
The Lord’s coming is threefold. He came the first time in the flesh, the second time he comes to
the individual soul, a third coming will be at the Last Judgment. The first took place at midnight, the
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second occurs in the early morning, the third will be at noon. With reference to the first we have the
infallible words of the Gospel: A cry went up at midnight, ‘the Bridegroom is coming!’ From this I note
that the first coming was at midnight, the time when, in deep silence, night was pursuing its course.
Jew and Greek alike walked in darkness. Then came the bridegroom. A cry went up, shattering the
silence of the night. He who lights up the things that are hidden in the dark had come to dispel the
night and create the day. The prophets foresaw that the almighty Word was resolved to descend from
his royal throne. Realizing that Christ was to come, they broke that profound silence by bursting into
shouts of joy. Individually and in chorus the prophets raised their voices, and what a cry that was!
Our experience of the Lord’s second coming depends on whether we live in such a way as to make
him willing to come to us. If we love him we need have no fear; he will surely come and make his
home with us. However, there is always an element of uncertainty about this coming, whereas of the
third coming there is no doubt whatever. The only thing we do not know is when it will be. There is
nothing more certain than that we shall die, yet the hour of our death is unknown to us. Our only
security in this life comes from knowing that we are never safe. We vacillate between health and
sickness, good fortune and adversity. One minute we are alive, the next we are not. Death spares
neither age nor sex.
How blessed is he who can confidently say: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready! Having
gathered the fruit of grace from the Lord’s first coming, they will reap a harvest of salvation and glory
from the second; for the first opens up the way for the second, and the second prepares us for the
third. Lowly and unspectacular in his first coming, secret and gentle in his second, Christ will come
openly the third time, and his final coming will fill the world with dread. He came to us at his first
coming in order to come into us at the second, and he comes into us at his second coming in order
not to have to come against us at the third. At his first coming he showed mercy, in the second he
brings grace, at the third he will give glory, for Scripture says: The Lord will confer grace and glory.
FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

RETURN OF THE REMNANT OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD: ISAIAH 11:10-16
In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his
dwellings shall be glorious.
In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant which is left of his
people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath,
and from the coastlands of the sea.
He will raise an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not
be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim. But they shall swoop down upon the
shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They
shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. And the
LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt; and will wave his hand over the River with
his scorching wind, and smite it into seven channels that men may cross dryshod. And there will be a
highway from Assyria for the remnant which is left of his people, as there was for Israel when they
came up from the land of Egypt.
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Be ready to go and meet the Lord, O Israel, for he is coming. You too must be ready, for at a time
when you do not expect it the Son of Man will come. Nothing is more certain than that he is coming,
nothing more uncertain than when he is coming. So far is it from being our province to know the
times and seasons which the Father has appointed by his own authority, that not even to the angels
who stand in his presence is it granted to know that day and hour.
As for our own last day, it is most sure that this will come upon us, but most unsure when, or where,
or from what quarter it will come. All we know is that, as the traditional saying has it, ‘what is
knocking at the door of the elderly lies in ambush for the young’. Death which lurks in ambush is the
more to be feared in that it can the less be seen and guarded against. There is only one security, and
that is never to feel secure. Thus our fear, prompting us to watch ourselves carefully, keeps us always
prepared until fear gives way to security, not security to fear. How beautiful a thing it is, how blessed,
not merely to face death without anxiety, but through the testimony of a good conscience to triumph
gloriously in it! Then, alas, you will see people like me trembling, seeking a reprieve but not getting it,
wishing to buy the oil of repentance for a lamenting conscience but finding that there is not enough
time.
It belongs to our human condition, I know, to quail before the wrench of death, since even the perfect
are unwilling to have the old body stripped off and would rather wish to have the new body put on
over it; while those who are not conscious of any sin, knowing that they are not thereby justified,
must dread the verdict of which they are still ignorant. Yet whether my distress arises from my human
feelings or from my falling short in holiness or from my fear of judgment, I can say with the righteous
psalmist: You, O Lord, will be mindful of your mercy; you will display your tender love and faithfulness
and snatch my soul from the midst of the young lions. Then after my dismay sleep will come at once
and I shall find rest.
Do you, then, Lord, rise up to meet me as I run to meet you. Since I have not the strength to scale your
summits unless you stretch out your right hand to me whom your hands have made, rise to meet me,
and see whether there is any sinful way in me. If you find any sinful way at all, then take it from me;
grant me the grace to live by your law and lead me in the way of eternity, that is, in Christ who is the
way by which we journey and the eternity which is our journey’s end: an undefiled way and a blessed
dwelling place.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

THE DAY OF THE LORD: ISAIAH 13:1-22
The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
On a bare hill raise a signal, cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the
nobles. I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, have summoned my mighty men to execute
my anger, my proudly exulting ones.
Hark, a tumult on the mountains as of a great multitude! Hark, an uproar of kingdoms, of nations
gathering together! The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole
earth.
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Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all
hands will be feeble, and every man's heart will melt, and they will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will
seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in travail. They will look aghast at one another; their
faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make
the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their
constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its
light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride
of the arrogant, and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make men more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be
shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. And like a
hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, every man will turn to his own people, and
every man will flee to his own land. Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught
will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be
plundered and their wives ravished. Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no
regard for silver and do not delight in gold. Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no
mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendour and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew
them. It will never be inhabited or dwelt in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no
shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. But wild beasts will lie down there, and its houses will
be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there satyrs will dance. Hyenas will cry in
its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be
prolonged.

SERMO 3 IN NAT. S. IOANNIS BAPTISTAE (PL 185, 169-70), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Solomon advised,
Let your praise come from your neighbour’s lips, but how much happier and more glorious it is for
someone to be praised by the lips of his God! God cannot be deceived nor does he flatter. He is not
quick to praise anyone whom he sees could be puffed up by it, or whom he foresees will merit final
reprobation. You, as a human assessor, are rightly warned to praise no one in your lifetime, for just as
you cannot know another’s innermost heart, so you cannot foreknow the way he will end. Even in
your own case you must confess, though I am not conscious of any sin, this of itself does not justify
me. There are righteous and wise men whose actions are in the hand of God, and they do not know
whether they deserve love or hate; all things are kept in uncertainty against the future.
Happy is the man, then, who has come to know himself worthy of love by the declaration of
the judge. It is true that a testimonial to present righteousness does not relieve a fickle
man of all fear and misgiving about the future; nonetheless it is an unquestionable mark of
outstanding virtue and great perfection whenever that sovereign judgment of God deems
one still mortal fit for his commendation.
Assuredly it was a remarkable eulogy of Noah’s justice when the Most Just One said to him, I have
seen you to be just before me. It was a sign of Abraham’s high merit when God swore to him that for
his sake the promises made to him would be fulfilled. Again, what pre-eminent grace God vouched for
in Moses by being jealous on his behalf and routing those who were jealous of him! If anyone among
you is a prophet of the Lord, he said, I will appear to him in a vision or speak to him in a dream. But not
so with my servant Moses, the most faithful man in my whole household. I speak to him face to face,
plainly and not in riddles, and he sees God. Why then were you not afraid to disparage my servant
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Moses? Finally, who has there ever been to compare with David, over whom the Lord rejoices
because he has found a man after his own heart?
Yet however great they all were, these people and others, there is not one among them or among any
born of woman who, as he who was born of the Virgin testifies, is greater than John the Baptist. Even
though star differs from star in brightness, and in that dance of holy constellations which lit up the
night of this world before the rising of the true Sun there were some shone out with a marvellous
radiance, still there was not one in their whole company greater or more splendid than that morning
star, that burning and shining lamp which the Father prepared for his Anointed.
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

DEATH OF THE TYRANT AND THE LIBERATION OF THE PEOPLE: ISAIAH 14:1-21
The LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own
land, and aliens will join them and will cleave to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them
and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land as male
and female slaves; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who
oppressed them.
When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you
were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has
ceased, the insolent fury ceased! The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of rulers,
that smote the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with
unrelenting persecution. The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. The
cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no hewer comes up
against us.’ Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come, it rouses the shades to greet
you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.
All of them will speak and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are the bed beneath you, and
worms are your covering.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you
who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will
set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to
the depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who
made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its
cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own
tomb; but you are cast out, away from your sepulchre, like a loathed untimely birth, clothed with the
slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the Pit, like a dead body trodden
under foot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you
have slain your people.
“May the descendants of evildoers nevermore be named! Prepare slaughter for his sons because of
the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.”
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SERMO 19, 30-32 (CSEL 63, 437-439), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
How abundant is the grace of the Church, how great the rewards of a living faith! Since these invite
us, let us forestall the rising sun to greet Christ, the Sun of justice, before he can say: See, here I am.
He both wants and expects us to be there before him.
You can hear Christ’s desire and expectation expressed in his words to the angel of the church of
Pergamum: Repent, or I will soon come to you, and to the angel of Laodicea: Be zealous and repent.
See, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.
He will have no difficulty in entering; no barrier of closed doors was able to shut out his body after he
had risen from the dead. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he was present in the room where the Apostles
were gathered. He had already tested the Apostles; he wants now to test your zeal and devotion. In
time of persecution he may take the initiative; where all is tranquil, he wants you to be ready and
waiting for him.
Be on the watch before the sun is visible in the sky. Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, so that
Christ may shine on you. If you are vigilant you will receive Christ’s light before sunrise. Before
daybreak he will shine into the depth of your heart. Even as you say: My spirit watches for you in the
night, Christ will make the light of morning illuminate your nocturnal meditation on the word of God.
As you meditate, light will dawn. Seeing the light - not of the day but of grace - you will exclaim: Your
commandments are my light! When day finds you meditating on God’s word and the pleasant task of
prayer and psalmody delights your mind, you will once more say to the Lord Jesus: You fill both
morning and evening with joy.
In obedience to their master Moses, the Jewish people have the sacred Scripture recited
continuously, night and day, by elders appointed for this purpose. Ask an elder about anything else
and you will find this is his only skill: to recite the Scriptures in sequence. With the Jewish elders there
is no worldly conversation: Scripture alone is their occupation; voice follows voice in turn so that the
holy sound of God’s commandments knows no holiday. How then can you, a Christian, with Christ as
your master, take your sleep without fear of having it said to you: This people does not even honour
me with its lips. The Jewish people do so, but you do not. What a length of time you are sunk in sleep,
in secular affairs, in the cares of this life, in things of earth! At least divide your time between God and
the world. When you cannot carry out the business of this world in public and are hindered from
pursuing it by the darkness of night, give time to God, give yourself to prayer. To keep yourself from
dropping off to sleep, recite a psalm, cheat sleep with holy guile. In the morning hurry off to church,
offer the first fruits of your prayers, and after that, if the world and its needs call you, you will be able
to say: My eyes are watchful in the morning, to meditate on your words. Then you can attend to your
affairs with a serene mind.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

THE LORD’S JUDGEMENT ON EDOM: ISAIAH 34:1-17
Draw near, O nations, to hear, and hearken, O peoples! Let the earth listen, and all that fills it; the
world, and all that comes from it. For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against
all their host, he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter. Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. All the host of
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heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the
vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.
For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the
people I have doomed. The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the
blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a
great slaughter in the land of Edom. Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty
bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat.
For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. And the streams of
Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch.
Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up for ever. From generation to generation
it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the hawk and the porcupine shall
possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the
plummet of chaos over its nobles. They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be
nothing.
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of
jackals, an abode for ostriches. And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr shall cry to his
fellow; yea, there shall the night hag alight, and find for herself a resting place.
There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and gather her young in her shadow; yea, there shall the
kites be gathered, each one with her mate. Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of
these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them, his hand has portioned it out to them
with the line; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

SERMO I IN ADVENTU DOMINI, 9-10; OPERA OMNIA, 4 [1966] 167-169, FROM
WS 1
We must now give some thought to the timing of our Saviour’s visitation, for, as I am sure you know,
it was not at the beginning of time nor at some intermediate epoch that he came to us, but at the end
of the ages. This was no mere whim of his, but a wise disposition of providence that determined to
wait until the sons of Adam were experiencing their greatest need before he brought them help, since
he well knew how prone men were to ingratitude. Evening was already drawing on and the day was
almost over; the sun of justice had begun to sink beneath the horizon and now shed very little of its
light and warmth upon the earth, for the light of the knowledge of God had become feeble, and with
the increase of sin charity had grown cold. No longer were angels seen or prophetic voices heard; it
seemed as if the stiff-necked obduracy of the human race had driven both angels and prophets to
despair of intervening further in its affairs. But it was at this point that the Son of God announced:
See, I am coming! Well-timed indeed was the entrance of eternity upon the earthly scene, when
temporal prosperity was at its zenith. To give but one illustration, peace itself at that period was so
universal that it was possible for the decree of a single man to impose a general census upon the
whole world.
You already know who it is that comes, where he comes from and to whom, together with the why,
the wherefore, and the when. The one thing still to learn is the road by which he comes, and this we
must diligently search out so that we can run to meet him and give him a fitting welcome. However,
just as he once came on earth in the flesh to accomplish our salvation, so he comes daily in the spirit
to save each individual soul; the difference is that his first coming was visible to the eye, whereas the
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second is unseen. As Scripture says: Christ the Lord is the breath of life to us, and the hidden nature of
this spiritual coming is shown in the continuation of the same text: Under his shadow we shall live
among the nations. For this reason, even if you are too sick to go very far to meet the Lord, it is
appropriate for you to respond to the great physician’s visit by making an effort at least to raise your
head and lift yourself up a little to greet him on his arrival. The road pointed out to you is not a long
one; you do not have to cross the seas or pierce the clouds or climb mountains to meet your God.
Enter into your own soul and you will find him, for his word is near you; it is on your lips and in your
heart. Go down deep into your heart until you are stirred to compunction; make your confession, and
so at least turn your back on a conscience so defiled as to be unworthy of entertaining the author of
purity.
These are the thoughts I put before you in respect to the coming of our Lord to each individual soul
and the enlightenment his powerful presence brings us.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

RETURN OF THE REDEEMED THROUGH THE DESERT; ISAIAH 35:1-10
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it
shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
“Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He
will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame
man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the
wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground
springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and
rushes.
And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not pass over it,
and fools shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they
shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall
return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy
and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.

IN IS. LIB. 3, T. 3 (PG 70, 749-754), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Let the thirsty land rejoice, let the wilderness exult and flower like the lily. The desert regions of the
Jordan shall blossom and be glad. The glory of Lebanon is given to it and the honour of Carmel. My
people shall see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God.
In inspired Scripture it is usually the church drawn from the Gentiles that is described as barren and
sterile; the church, that is, which once existed among the pagans, the church which had not received
Christ, her spiritual bridegroom from heaven, and was still deprived of every blessing. Dry and thirsty,
she was like ground that brings forth thorns. Then Christ came to her. She took him to herself through
faith, and the divine stream that flows from him enriched her, for he is the fountain of life and a
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torrent of delight. It was he himself who said through one of the prophets: Behold, 1 visit them like
a river of peace and like a torrent pouring out on them the glory of the nations. After that she
was no longer sterile and barren, but had a husband and many children and bloomed with spiritual
flowers.
Let her who used to thirst rejoice greatly, says Scripture; let her flower like the lily and put forth
blossoms both beautiful and fragrant. We know from Paul that this was Christ’s fragrance, for
he wrote: To God, we have the fragrance of Christ.
The desert regions of the Jordan of which Scripture speaks are those bordering the river. The river
Jordan has been given to us Gentiles, or at least to those among us who have believed, and it is in our
territory. We have been baptized in it, and so as I said this sacred stream is ours.
To this desert, then, formerly parched but now watered by the renowned river Jordan, the glory of
Lebanon and the honour of Carmel have been given. Lebanon and Carmel are names often used for
Jerusalem and the temple of God itself. But the glory which once belonged to the holy city and the
temple of God has been given to the Church drawn from the Gentiles, and in it we have seen the glory
of the Lord and the majesty of God. The Jews treated the Lord as a mere man in no way superior to
other men but we have seen the majesty of his glory. We know that he is God - by divine dispensation
God made man, but nevertheless still God.
A pure highway shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way. By a pure highway, the prophet
means either the power of a life lived according to the Gospel or, alternatively, the purification
accomplished by the Spirit. For the Spirit cleanses human souls of their stains, frees them from sins,
and gives them mastery over whatever could pollute them. It is therefore rightly called a holy and
pure way. It is a way inaccessible to those as yet unpurified, for no one can live according to the
Gospel who has not first been enriched by the purification of holy baptism; nor therefore can any
unbeliever.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

RUTH’S FAITHFULNESS: RUTH 1:1-22
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in
Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man
was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and
Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and
remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They
lived there about ten years; and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was bereft of her
two sons and her husband.
Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in
the country of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from
the place where she was, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the
land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s
house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD
grant that you may find a home, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and
they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your
people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my
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womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old
to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should
bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from
marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD
has gone forth against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her
mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your
sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where
you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my
God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if
even death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she
said no more.
So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the
whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do
not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full,
and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has afflicted me and
the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the
country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ABBOT GODFREY OF ADMONT

HOMILIAE FESTIVALS (PL 174, 1026-1028), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
In the Book of Ruth, we can find something that may rather fittingly be applied to the Mother of God.
In her own person Ruth was quite praiseworthy; in her family she was conspicuous, being born of the
base and accursed people of Moab. She chose to leave her relatives and the land of her birth and to
reside in a land not her own. There, because of the great integrity of her life and habits, she was
joined in marriage to a distinguished man of the Israelite people, named Boaz, and by him she had a
son named Obed, who was father of the father of King David, of whose seed Christ, the Son of God,
was born.
The name ‘Ruth’ means ‘hastening’, and the name, we think, is suited to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who
was always ‘hastening’, that is, fervent in holy and good works. Ruth was descended from the base
and accursed race of the Moabites; Mary was born of that people whom the blame for original sin
had rendered ignoble and accursed. Ruth left her native land and her relatives in order to practice the
faith of her mother-in-law, and she resided in a land not her own. Mary left her native place and her
parents when, in order to remain faithful to God the Father and preserve her own chastity, she
separated herself from the common life of the world. She regarded herself as an exile and pilgrim in
this world, for she contemned everything that the present world loves, and she was hastening to
the only true and endless glory of the heavenly homeland. From the lineage of Ruth King David was
born; from the virginal flesh of the Virgin Mary was born our true David, of strong arm and comely
face, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the entire world has been saved.
Tamar, the ancestor of Boaz, prayed: Most merciful Judge, recognize in me faith and hope and love of
you. These are your gifts, which you have given to me; as best I could, with your help, I have
preserved them as a testimony to my salvation and have brought them back to you. Since these gifts
have been acknowledged by Judah, that is, by God the Father, the soul shall be received into the joys
of everlasting blessedness through him who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
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THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

MEETING OF BOAZ AND RUTH; RUTH 2:1-13
Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husbands, a man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name
was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field, and glean among the ears
of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favour.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she
set forth and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the part
of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from
Bethlehem; and he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless
you.” Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose maiden is this?” And
the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite maiden, who came back
with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, ‘Pray, let me glean and gather among the sheaves
after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, without resting
even for a moment.”
Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this
one, but keep close to my maidens. Let your eyes be upon the field which they are reaping, and go
after them. Have I not charged the young men not to molest you? And when you are thirsty, go to the
vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground,
and said to him, “Why have I found favour in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, when I am
a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death
of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native
land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD recompense you for what you
have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you
have come to take refuge!” Then she said, “You are most gracious to me, my lord, for you have
comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants.”
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

IN PS. 109, 1-3 (CCL 40, 1601-1603), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
God had a time for making his promises and a time for fulfilling them. His time for making promises
was from the days of the prophets until the coming of John the Baptist. His time for fulfilling them
was from then until the end of the world.
God is faithful and he has put himself in our debt, not by receiving anything from us but by promising
so much. Nor was a promise sufficient for him; he even bound himself in writing, giving us as it were a
pledge in his own hand. He wanted us to see from Scripture, when the time for fulfilment came, how
he was carrying out his promises one by one.
God promised us eternal salvation, everlasting bliss with the angels, an incorruptible inheritance,
endless glory, the joyful vision of his face, his holy dwelling in heaven, and after the resurrection from
the dead no further fear of dying. This is what he holds out to us at the end as the goal of all our
striving. When we reach it we shall ask for nothing more. But as to how we are to reach our final goal,
he revealed this too by promises and prophecies.
God promised men divinity, mortals immortality, sinners justification, outcasts glory. But because his
promise that we who are mortal, corruptible, weak and of low estate, mere dust and ashes, were to
be equal to the angels seemed incredible, God not only made a written covenant with us to win our
faith, but he also gave us a mediator of his pledge. This mediator was not a prince, an angel, or an
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archangel, but his only Son; through his own Son he meant both to show us and give us the way by
which he would lead us to the promised goal. He was not satisfied with sending his Son to show us
the way. He made him the way itself.
God’s only Son, then, was to come among us, take our human nature, and in this nature be born as a
man. He was to die, to rise again, to ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, and to
fulfil his promises among the nations. After that he was also to fulfil his promise to come again, to
demand what he had previously requested, to separate those deserving his anger from those
deserving his mercy, to give the wicked what he had threatened and the just what he had promised.
All this had to be prophesied, foretold, and impressed on us as an event in the future so that we
should not be terrified by its happening unexpectedly, but wait for it with faith.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

RUTH RETURNS TO NAOMI: RUTH 2:14-23
And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here, and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the wine.”
So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her parched grain; and she ate until she was satisfied,
and she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, Let her
glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for
her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.
So she gleaned in the field until evening; then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an
ephah of barley. And she took it up and went into the city; she showed her mother-in-law what she
had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked?
Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had
worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her
daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the
dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.” And Ruth the
Moabitess said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my servants, till they have finished all
my harvest.’” And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is well, my daughter, that you go out
with his maidens, lest in another field you be molested.” So she kept close to the maidens of Boaz,
gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

ADV. HAER. LIB.5,19,1; 20,2; 21,1 (SC 153, 248-250,260-264), FR. WORD IN SEASON 1
The Lord came visibly to his own domain, and was sustained by his own creation which he himself
sustains in being. By his obedience upon a tree he reversed the disobedience shown because of
another tree. The seduction to which the betrothed virgin Eve had miserably fallen victim was
remedied by the truth happily announced by the angel to Mary, another betrothed virgin.
As Eve, seduced by an angel, turned away from God by disobedience to his word, so Mary, receiving
the good news from an angel, bore God in her womb in obedience to his word; and as Eve had been
led to disobey God, so Mary was persuaded to obey him. Thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate
of the virgin Eve.
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Christ recapitulated all things in himself, including our war against the enemy. He challenged and
defeated him who in the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, and he crushed his head in
accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis: I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall lie in wait for your head, and
you shall lie in wait for his heel.
From that time on, he who was to be born of a virgin in the likeness of Adam was foretold as the one
who would lie in wait for the serpent’s head. This is the descendant to whom Paul refers when he says
in his letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the coming of the descendant to
whom the promise had been made. Paul is still more explicit when he says in the same letter: When
the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. The enemy would not have been
defeated fairly if his vanquisher had not been a man born of a woman, because it was through a
woman that he gained mastery over the human race in the beginning, and set himself up as our
adversary.
That is why the Lord proclaims himself the Son of Man, who recapitulates in himself that first man
from whom the race born of woman was formed: as by a man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage
of death, so also by a man’s victory we were to rise again to life.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

DREAM AND PROMISE OF BOAZ: RUTH 3:1-18
Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek a home for you, that it
may be well with you? Now is not Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens you were? See, he is
winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your
best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he
has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and
uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.” And she replied, “All that you say I will
do.”
So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had told her. And when
Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of
grain. Then she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and lay down. At midnight the man was startled,
and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I
am Ruth, your maidservant; spread your skirt over your maidservant, for you are next of kin.” And he
said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter; you have made this last kindness greater than
the first, in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do
not fear, I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of
worth. And now it is true that I am a near kinsman, yet there is a kinsman nearer than I. Remain this
night, and in the morning, if he will do the part of the next of kin for you, well; let him do it; but if he is
not willing to do the part of the next of kin for you, then, as the LORD lives, I will do the part of the
next of kin for you. Lie down until the morning.”
So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another; and he said,
“Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Bring the mantle you
are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley, and laid it
upon her; then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did
you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “These six
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measures of barley he gave to me, for he said, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-
in-law.’” She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will
not rest, but will settle the matter today.”

SERMO 277, 15-16 (PL 38, 1266-1267), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let us make every effort to purify our hearts,
exert ourselves to stay alert, and as far as in us lies gain this grace by constant prayer. And if we
wonder about external purity, the Lord tells us: Clean the inside, and then the outside will be clean
as well.
Some may think that Scripture refers to the body as much as to the heart, for it is written: All mankind
will see God’s salvation. How then can there be any doubt that the sight of God is promised to us,
unless there is doubt as to the meaning of God’s salvation. But since there is no uncertainty about
this, there is no doubt: God’s salvation is Christ the Lord. The divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ can be
seen by the eyes of the heart when they are pure, perfect, and full of God; and he was seen also in
the body according to the text: Afterward he was seen on earth and lived among men. Thus the
meaning of the text: All mankind will see the salvation of God is clear: let no one doubt that it means
that we shall see Christ.
Uncertainty remains, however, as to whether we shall see the Lord Christ in the body, or as the Word
who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God and who was God, and into this we must
inquire. All mankind will see God’s salvation is said to mean that all mankind will see God’s Christ. But
Christ was also seen in a body that was no longer mortal, a body that had undergone a spiritual
transformation. After his resurrection he himself said to those who saw and touched him: Handle and
see, for spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. This is how he will be seen: not only how
he was seen in the past but how he will be seen in the future. And then surely the words all mankind
will be more perfectly fulfilled. For people see him now, but not all people. On the Day of judgement,
however, when he comes with his angels to judge the living and the dead, when all who are in their
graves hear his voice and come forth, some rising to life, others to condemnation, they will see the
very form which he deigned to assume for our sake. Not only will the righteous see it but also the
wicked, both those on the right hand and those on the left, for even those who killed him will see him
whom they pierced.
All mankind, then, will see God’s salvation. Both those who see and he who is seen will be in the body
because it is in his real body that he will come to judge. But to those placed on his right and sent to
the kingdom of heaven he will show himself in the way he promised when he was already seen in the
body: Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and show myself to them.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

MARRIAGE OF BOAZ AND RUTH: RUTH 4:1-22
And Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, the next of kin, of whom Boaz had
spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here”; and he turned aside and sat down.
And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here; so they sat down.” Then he
said to the next of kin, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of
land which belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it, and say, Buy it in the
presence of those sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it,
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redeem it; but if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it,
and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from
the hand of Naomi, you are also buying Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the dead, in order to
restore the name of the dead to his inheritance.” Then the next of kin said, “I cannot redeem it for
myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem
it.”
Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a
transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting
in Israel. So when the next of kin said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz
said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of
Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the
Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in
his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from the
gate of his native place; you are witnesses this day.” Then all the people who were at the gate, and
the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house,
like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and be
renowned in Bethlehem; and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah,
because of the children that the LORD will give you by this young woman.”
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD gave her
conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not
left you this day without next of kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a
restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more
to you than seven sons, has borne him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and
became his nurse. And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been
born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Now these are the descendants of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron of Ram, Ram of
Amminadab, Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon, Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, Obed of
Jesse, and Jesse of David.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AMBROSE OF MILAN

IN S. LUC III, 31-35 (SC 45, 123-124), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
When Boaz, the great-grandfather of David, saw Ruth’s behaviour, her devotion to her mother-in-law,
her loyalty to her dead husband, and her fear of God, he chose her for his wife in accordance with the
law of Moses which bade him raise up offspring for his next of kin. That this marriage was symbolic is
shown by the blessing given by the elders: May the Lord make this woman who is about to come
into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May she make
you powerful in Ephrathah and renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house
of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young
woman. And Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and she bore Obed, the father of Jesse
and grandfather of David.
Matthew did well, then, when about to summon all nations to the Church through the Gospel, to
recall that the Lord who brings about this gathering of the nations was himself, in his human body, of
alien origin. Matthew thus made known that it was from this lineage that he would come who was to
summon the nations – he whom we desire to follow, we of alien origin who were gathered together
when we left our native land and said to whoever called us to worship the Lord, Paul, for example, or
any bishop: Your people shall be my people, your God my God. So did Ruth, like Leah and Rachel,
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forget her own people and her father’s house and, freeing herself from the fetters of the law, she
entered the Church.
What good reason there was for inserting Ruth’s name in the lineage of the Lord is shown by the
revelation of a still more profound mystery, for in the words: May the Lord give you power in
Ephrathah and make your name renowned in Bethlehem it is prophesied that Christ should be her
descendant. For what is this power if not that by which the Christ gathered together all the nations of
the world? Whence is this renown if not in the fact that Bethlehem became the Lord’s hometown
when he was born as a man. As the prophecy proclaims: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are
by no means least among the towns of Judah, for from you shall come the prince who will rule my
people Israel.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

PROPHECY OF THE PROPHET NATHAN: 1 CHRONICLES 17:1-15
Now when David dwelt in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of
cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.” And Nathan said to David, “Do all that
is in your heart, for God is with you.”
But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says
the LORD: You shall not build me a house to dwell in. For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I
led up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. In all places
where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I
commanded to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ Now
therefore thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the
pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; and I have been
with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for
you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people
Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and
violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my
people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I declare to you that the LORD will build
you a house. When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring
after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I
will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son; I will not take my
steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house
and in my kingdom forever and his throne shall be established for ever’” In accordance with all these
words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON MICAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

CAP. 7, 72 (PG 71, 774-775), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
The mystery of Christ is truly a matter for marvelling, and the excellence of it is beyond the wondering
utterance of anyone who knows the mercy shown to us. Habakkuk too, an inspired man of God, stood
in awe at the manner of the incarnation and cried out, Lord, I harkened to your tidings, and I was
afraid; I considered your works, and I marvelled. The only Son of God, who is in the form of God and
equal to God the Father, rich though he was in his divinity, made himself poor, that we might be
enriched by his poverty. So he willed to save the lost, strengthen the weak, bind up the shattered, give
life to the dead, purify the defiled, and adorn with the honour of being God’s children by adoption
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those who by nature were slaves. Let everyone hear the words: Who is God like unto you? For he is
good and forgiving and refrains from punishing the faults that stand against the remnant of his
inheritance. By this remnant are to be understood those few of Israel who have believed because by
not believing the majority are clearly heading for destruction. Christ said, He who believes in the Son is
not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in
God’s name.
God passes over our sins and overlooks our faults. He keeps no angry score against us. We were cast
out in Adam, but welcomed again in Christ. As by the transgression of one man many died, says
Scripture, so by the righteous deed of one man many will live. God has ceased to be angry, because he
is a God who wishes to show mercy. When he turned back to us again at the time of his incarnation it
was as though he sank all our sins into the sea.
And so, the prophet continues, since God promised to the holy fathers Abraham and Jacob that he
would multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, he will indeed give them what was promised.
They shall be called fathers of many nations, which evidently means that they are fathers not merely
to those who are counted among Abraham’s children because they are of Israelite blood, but also to
the children of the promise. The children of faith, both those who come from what are called the
uncircumcised and those who are circumcised according to the law, are fused together in a unity in
the Spirit. For it is written, Not all those who are of Israelite descent really belong to Israel; it is the
children of the promise who are reckoned as the true race. Now as many as are children of Abraham
by faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, and we can understand how this promise of blessing is
fulfilled by the grace bestowed in Christ, through glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for
endless ages. Amen.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

THE NATIONS GO UP TO THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD: MICAH 4:1-7
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be
established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills; and peoples shall
flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to
the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths.” For out
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between
many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig
tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our
God for ever and ever.
In that day, says the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away, and
those whom I have afflicted; and the lame I will make the remnant; and those who were cast off, a
strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and for
evermore.
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LIB. 1, ORATIO 2 (PG 70, 67-74), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
In the last days the mountain of the Lord will stand out clearly and the house of the Lord will be on
top of the mountain. It will be raised high above the hills, and all nations will stream toward it. This
prophecy came true for the benefit of the whole human race in the last days, that is to say, in the final
age of this world, when the Word of God, his only Son, appeared, born of a woman. Then, as Scripture
says, he presented to himself the Church, the spiritual Judea or Jerusalem, as a pure virgin without
stain or wrinkle or any other imperfection, holy and unblemished.
All nations will stream toward it and many peoples will come and say: Let us go up to the house of the
God of Jacob. He will teach us his way and we will walk in it. There is no need of a lengthy
argument to prove that, through faith, all nations have been brought together into the
Church. The fact speaks for itself. This great multitude of peoples was called together not by
instruction in the law, nor by the holy prophets, but by the secret working of God’s grace
enlightening their minds and making them long for Christ to save them.
First they climb the mountain and then they seek to have the word of God preached to them.
They promise to walk in the way the Lord, which is that of the Gospel, the entry to which is
through the purification accomplished by faith. For those seeking to learn the way of the Lord
must first renounce their past errors. We cannot long for something better until we reject
what we held before.
Who was their spiritual guide who brought them to a knowledge of the truth and persuaded
them to regard as ridiculous their old way of thinking and to adopt a new one? Who but God?
It was he who illumined their minds and hearts and led them both to say and to believe that
the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
The blessed prophet announced that the time was determined for the calling and the
conversion of the Gentiles. This would take place, he said, when the God of the whole world,
the universal King and Lord, judges all the nations and establishes justice among them.
Previously, injustice was rampant as the nations plundered one another and practised every
kind of cruelty and excess. But when such things are done away with, justice will be given us
by God. When Christ, who is peace, rules the nations all discord, strife, contention, and every
kind of oppression will be banished, together with the injuries that give rise to war and the
terrors that follow in its wake. The will of him who said, I leave you peace, my peace I give
you, will be victorious.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

THE MESSIAH WILL BE PEACE: MICAH 5:1-8
Now you are walled about with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike upon the cheek
the ruler of Israel.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come
forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore
he shall give them up until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth; then the rest of his
brethren shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of
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the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he
shall be great to the ends of the earth.
And this shall be peace, when the Assyrian comes into our land and treads upon our soil, that we will
raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; they shall rule the land of Assyria with
the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; and they shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land and treads within our border.
Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like
showers upon the grass, which tarry not for men nor wait for the sons of men. And the remnant of
Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the
forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and
tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TRINITY BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

ON THE TRINITY, LIB. 11, 36-40 (PL 10, 423-425), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
When all things are made subject to him, save the one who made them subject, then the Son himself
will be subject to the one who made all else subject to him, so that God may be all in all. The first
stage of the mystery is that all is made subject to the Son; the second is that the Son himself then
becomes subject to him who reigns in his glorious body, by the same dispensation he himself, now
reigning in bodily glory, will be subject to the one who subjected all else to him. We are subject to his
glorious body, in order that we may share in the glory by which he now reigns in the body; for our
bodies shall become like his.
The Gospels are not silent about the bodily glory of the reigning Lord. It is written that he said: Amen I
tell you, some those standing here will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his
kingdom. The bodily glory of him who comes was made known to the Apostles when the Lord stood
before them gloriously transfigured and showed the brilliance his body would have when he came to
rule. He promised the Apostles that they would share in his glory: The Son of Man will send his angels
to collect from his kingdom all who give scandal and all evildoers, and he will cast them into the fiery
furnace, where there will he weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just will shine like the sun in
their Father’s kingdom. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
But do not all of us have our natural bodily ears alert to hear what is said, and is not the Lord’s
warning about hearing therefore unnecessary? The Lord is referring, however, to a knowledge of the
mystery of his divine plan when he insists on our hearing his teaching. At the end of the world, then,
all who give scandal shall be removed from his kingdom. The Lord will reign in bodily glory and
remove every cause of scandal. And we shall resemble him in bodily glory in the Father’s kingdom,
where we shall be radiant as the sun, for when Christ was transfigured on the mountain he showed
the Apostles that such splendour is the raiment proper to his kingdom.
He will hand over the kingdom to God the Father: not in the sense that he will be handing over his
power, but in the sense that he will make us like himself in bodily glory and hand us over to God as his
kingdom. He will hand us over to reign with him, according to his words in the Gospels: Come, you
blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of world. The just,
then, shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, for the Son shall hand over to God, as his
kingdom, those he called into the kingdom and to whom he promised the blessedness proper to this
mystery when he said: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
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THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

THE CITY OF GOD AWAITS SALVATION: MICAH 7:7-13
But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a
light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads
my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I shall behold his
deliverance. Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD
your God?” My eyes will gloat over her; now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.
A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. In that day they
will come to you, from Assyria to Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from
mountain to mountain. But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their
doings.

DE CATECHIZANDIBUS 4, 8, 8 (CCL 46, 128-129), FROM WORD IN SEASON
The main reason why Christ came was so that men might learn how much God loves them; and that
they might learn this so as to glow with love for the God by whom they were first loved, and so as to
love their neighbour, following the direction and example of him who made himself their neighbour
by loving them at a time when they were not close to him but were wandering far from him. All divine
Scripture that was written before the Lord’s coming was written to announce that coming, and
whatever has since been committed to writing and invested with divine authority speaks of Christ and
teaches us love. In view of this, it is plain that on these two commandments of love for God and
neighbour rest not only the whole law and the prophets – which at the time of Christ were as yet the
only holy Scripture – but also all the books of divine writings which were later set apart for our
salvation and handed down to us.
Hence, in the Old Testament is hidden the New, and in the New Testament is revealed the Old. In
keeping with that hiddenness, those who live and understand according to the flesh have been made
subject to the fear of punishment, both then and now. In keeping with this revelation, on the other
hand, those who live and understand according to the Spirit are set free thanks to the gift of love. This
includes both those who in former times knocked devoutly at the door and had opened to them even
things that were hidden, and those who in our own times seek without pride so that they will not find
closed to them even things that were unhidden.
Therefore, since nothing is more opposed to love than envy, and the mother of envy is pride, the
same Lord Jesus Christ, God-man, is both the disclosure of divine love for us and the example of
human humility among us, in order that the swelling of our arrogance, great as it is, may be healed by
an even stronger antidote. For the proud human being is a great affliction, but the humble God is an
even greater mercy.
Keep this love before you then as a goal to which you refer all that you say, and whenever you speak,
speak in such a way that your listeners by hearing may believe, by believing may hope, and by hoping
may love.
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FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

SALVATION IN THE REMISSION OF SINS: MICAH 7:14-20
Shepherd thy people with thy staff, the flock of thy inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the
midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.
As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt I will show them marvellous things.
The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf; they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds, they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and
they shall fear because of thee.
Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his
inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again
have compassion upon us, he will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt cast all our sins into the
depths of the sea. Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as thou hast
sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE INCARNATION BY ST ATHANASIUS

ON THE INCARNATION, 7-9, FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Only the Word of the Father, who is exalted above all, could recreate all, suffer for all, and intercede
for all with the Father. Therefore, the incorporeal, incorruptible, immaterial Word of God entered our
world, although he was not far from it before. Indeed, no part of creation has ever been without him,
for even while remaining with his Father he has always filled all things everywhere. But now in his love
for us he has condescended to come and reveal himself.
He saw that the human race was perishing and that it was under the reign of death because of its
corruptibility. He saw the firm hold that corruptibility had on us as the penalty for our transgression
and that it would be monstrous for the law to come to nothing before ever having been fulfilled. He
also saw the unseemliness of what was happening, of his own creatures ceasing to exist. He saw the
excessive wickedness of the human race and how little by little it was mounting up against us and
becoming intolerable. He saw that all men were subject to death.
Therefore, he had mercy on our race and in his pity for our weakness he descended to our corruptible
condition. He could not allow death to have the mastery, for fear that creation should perish and his
Father’s work for the human race come to nothing. And so he took a body for himself, a body no
different from ours. For he did not wish simply to become embodied and to make himself visible. If he
had wished merely to become visible he could have manifested himself by means of some nobler
instrument. But no; he took a human body, and took it moreover from a spotless, immaculate virgin,
without the intervention of a man. He who is powerful and who created the whole universe fashioned
for himself in the Virgin a body to be his temple, making it his own as the instrument through which
he could be known and in which he could dwell.
Since all men were subject to death, after taking from us a body like ours he delivered it up to death
in the place of us all, offering it to the Father. He did this because of his love for us, so that we might
all die in him, for then the law imposing death on us would be abrogated.
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The Word knew that there was absolutely no way of delivering us from our state of corruptibility
except by dying. Since he himself, being immortal and the Son of the Father, was incapable of dying,
he took to himself a body which could die. Its participation in the Word who is above all would make it
worthy to die for all. Because of the Word dwelling in it, it would remain incorruptible and all others
would be freed from corruptibility by the grace of resurrection.
17 T H DECEMBER

CONSOLATIONS FOR THE HEART OF JERUSALEM: ISAIAH 40:1-11
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her
warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double
for all her sins.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway
for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven
ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower
of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely
the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O
Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his
arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

IS. 3,4 (PG 70, 802-803), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
In earlier days a life of moral excellence was a road difficult of access to nearly everyone and
evangelical behaviour a path untrodden. All minds were ruled by worldly and earthbound desires and
were swept away by the inordinate impulses of the flesh. But when God became man – or was made
flesh, as the Scripture says – he abolished sin in the flesh: he overthrew the principalities and powers
and the world rulers of this universe. He made our path to godliness into a level road on which
travelling is easy, where nothing is too steep or too high, and nothing lies down in a hollow: a road
smoothed out into a plain. All the devious tracks have been straightened.
But there is more: The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see the salvation of God,
because the Lord has spoken. The prophet says that the glory will be revealed, but how will this be
done? Christ is the only Son of the Father and the Word of God, subsisting as God and born of the
Father in a way no words can explain in the sublimity of the Godhead, far above all heavenly rulers,
authorities, thrones, and dominations and every title that can be given in this world or the next. He is
the Lord of glory, and we have come to recognize his glory even though formerly we did not know it,
because by becoming a man like us he revealed himself in his incarnation. He was revealed
who is equal in power to God the Father, equal to him in action and equal in glory; he was
revealed who upholds the universe by his mighty word, accomplishes miracles with ease,
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rebukes inanimate creation, raises the dead, and achieves without effort all the rest of his
wonderful works.
Thus the glory of the Lord has been revealed, and all flesh has beheld with wonder the salvation of
God; that is, the saving act of the Father who sent his Son from heaven to be our saviour and
redeemer. For since the law brought nothing to perfection and since the sacrifices that were only
types had no power to cleanse us from sins, we were made perfect in Christ, freed from every stain
and honoured by the gift of the Spirit who makes us by adoption sons of God. And in the intention of
the One who saves, the grace given in Christ will extend to all flesh; that is, to the whole human race.
18 T H DECEMBER

THE GREATNESS OF THE LORD; ISAIAH 40:12-18, 21-31
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a
balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as his counsellor has instructed him? Whom did
he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are
accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust. Lebanon would not
suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before
him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you
not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them
like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nought, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he
blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on
high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hid from the LORD, and my right is
disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting
God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is
unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even
youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD
shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint.
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A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST LEO THE GREAT
EP. 31, 2-3, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
It is of no avail to say that our Lord, the son of the Virgin Mary, was true and perfect man, if he is not
believed to be man of that stock from which the Gospel tells us he came. Matthew says: The book of
the genealogy of Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He then follows the order of Christ’s
human origin and traces the line of his ancestry down to Joseph, to whom the Lord’s mother was
betrothed. Luke, on the other hand, works backwards step by step; and traces his succession to the
first of the human race himself, to show that the first Adam and the last Adam were of the same
nature.
The almighty Son of God could have come to teach and justify men with only the outward appearance
of our humanity, exactly as he appeared to patriarchs and prophets. This he did when he wrestled
with Jacob, or entered into conversation, or when he did not refuse hospitable entertainment, and
even partook of the food set before him. Those outward appearances pointed to this man. They had a
hidden meaning which proclaimed that his reality would be taken from the stock of his forefathers.
Hence God’s plan for our reconciliation, formed before all eternity, was not realized by any of these
prefigurations. As yet, the Holy Spirit had not come upon the Virgin nor had the power of the Most
High overshadowed her. Only then, would the Word become flesh within her inviolate womb, in
which Wisdom would build a house for herself. Then, too, the creator of ages would be born in time
and the nature of God would join with the nature of the slave in the unity of one person. He through
whom the world was created would himself be brought forth in the midst of all creation.
If the new man, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, had not taken our old nature; if he, one in
substance with the Father, had not accepted to be one in substance with the mother; if he who was
alone free from sin had not united our nature to himself, – then men would still have been captive
under the power of the devil. We would have been incapable of profiting by the victor’s triumph if the
battle had been fought outside our nature.
But, by means of this marvellous sharing, the mystery of our rebirth shone out upon us. We are
reborn in newness of spirit through the same Spirit through whom Christ was conceived and born.
Consequently, the evangelist speaks of those who believe as those who were born, not of blood nor of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
19 T H DECEMBER

A NEW EXODUS IS PROMISED: ISAIAH 41:8-20
But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you
whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are
my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I
am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive
against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you, but you
shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. For I, the LORD your God,
hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.”
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Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the LORD; your Redeemer is the
Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you
shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; you shall winnow
them and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in
the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the
LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land
springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in
the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together; that men may see and know, may consider
and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created
it.

SERMO 61A, 1-3 (CCL 23, 249.250-251), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Even if I were to keep silence, my friends, the season would warn us that the birthday of Christ our
Lord is at hand. The year is coming to an end and forestalls the subject of my sermon. The depressing
shortness of the days itself testifies to the imminence of some event which will bring about the
betterment of a world urgently longing for a brighter sun to dispel its darkness. In spite of fearing that
its course may be terminated within a few brief hours, the world still shows signs of hope that its
yearly cycle will once more be renewed. And if creation feels this hope, it persuades us also to hope
that Christ will come like a new sunrise to shed light on the darkness of our sins, and that the Sun of
Justice, in the vigour of his new birth, will dispel the long night of guilt from our hearts. Rather than
allow the course of our life to come to an end with such appalling brevity, we are confident that he
will extend it by his powerful grace.
Since even the physical world informs us that our Lord’s birthday is at hand, let us follow the earth’s
example. I mean that as from Christmas Day onward the earth enjoys lengthening periods of daylight,
so we too should imitate it by growing in holiness. And as rich and poor alike share the same light of
Christmas, so we should share what we have with the needy and with strangers. From Christmas Day
onward the earth begins to throw off its nocturnal gloom, and we in our turn should curtail the
darkness of our greed.
So, my brothers, let us array ourselves in clear and shining garments to welcome the Lord’s birthday.
The garments I speak of are for the soul, not the body. Our care must be lavished on the precious
works of love, not on robes of silk. Beautiful clothes may cover our limbs, but they leave our
conscience unadorned. In fact, to parade about with one’s body splendidly attired brings a person
even greater disgrace if, in so doing, his heart is inwardly defiled. We must first ennoble our inward
desires, then our outward apparel will be beautiful. We must cleanse ourselves of spiritual stains if
our bodily raiment is to appear bright and shining. It is useless to wear dazzling clothes while our souls
are squalid with sin; a darkened conscience means that the whole body is plunged in gloom.
However, we have in our possession the means of washing away the stains from our conscience.
Scripture tells us: give alms, and then everything will be clean for you. How precious an injunction
this is! By giving alms with our hands, we are cleansed in our inmost hearts.
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20 T H DECEMBER

THE LORD ALONE IS GOD, WHO PROCLAIMS CYRUS AS LIBERATOR: ISAIAH 41:21-29
Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them,
and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come
hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and
terrified. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nought; an abomination is he who chooses you.
I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call on my
name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. Who declared it from the
beginning, that we might know, and beforetime, that we might say, “He is right”? There was none
who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. I first have declared it to Zion,
and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings. But when I look there is no one; among these there is
no counsellor who, when I ask, gives an answer. Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are
nothing; their molten images are empty wind.

LIB. 4, ORATIO 4 (PG 70, 1035-1038), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
In the book of Isaiah it is written: Behold, the virgin will be with child, and will give birth to a
son, and they will name him Emmanuel. Yet when blessed Gabriel revealed this mystery to the
holy Virgin who was to be the Mother of God, he said: Do not he afraid, Mary, for you have found
favour in God’s sight. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him
Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins. How is this? Does the message of the
holy angel contradict that of the prophet?
By no means. Speaking mysteries in the Spirit, the inspired Prophet foretold that God would be with
us, naming him “Emmanuel” in consideration of his divine nature and of the plan whereby he became
incarnate. The blessed angel on the other hand called him by a name that signified his function: he
has in fact saved his people, and on this account he is called “Saviour” This is how hosts of angels
announced the Good News to the shepherds at the time when he humbled himself to be born in the
flesh for our sake: Be not afraid, they said; today we bring you good tidings of a great joy for the
whole people: a saviour has been born this day in the city of David, and he is Christ the Lord.
Rightly then is he named Emmanuel, because being God by nature he became God-with-us when he
was made man. And yet he is also named Jesus, because being God, and being made man, he had the
task of saving the world.
So when he came forth from his mother’s womb (for according to the flesh he was truly born of her)
his name was conferred on him. It was inappropriate for God the Word to be named “Christ” before
his birth in the flesh: how should he be called Christ, the Anointed One, when he had not yet
been anointed? But when he was born as man, then there was given to him the name that
belonged to him in virtue of his human condition.
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Scripture says that his mouth was made into a sharp sword, and this is true as well. Elsewhere in the
same prophecy of Isaiah we are told, Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, truth will be his
vesture, and with the breath of his lips he will destroy the impious. God’s message from heaven, that
Good News proclaimed by the mouth of Christ, has become a sharp sword in play against the devil’s
tyranny, a sword to slay the rulers of this world of darkness and the spiritual of wickedness. For he
dispersed the mist of deceit and irradiated all human hearts with true knowledge of God. He sheared
off the sin of the world, justifying the impious by faith, filling those who draw near with the Holy Spirit
and making them sons of God. He instilled into them a strong and most valiant purpose, and put into
their hands the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, so that they might withstand the foes
who had once prevailed and run unhindered toward the prize of their heavenly calling.
21 S T DECEMBER

HYMN TO GOD THE SAVIOUR. THE BLINDNESS OF ISRAEL: ISAIAH 42:10-25
Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that
Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the coastlands. The LORD goes forth like a
mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself
mighty against his foes.
For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a
woman in travail, I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage;
I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. And I will lead the blind in a way that they know
not, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into
light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.
They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten
images, “You are our gods.”
Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my
messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD? He
sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. The LORD was
pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. But this is a people
robbed and plundered, they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become
a prey with none to rescue, a spoil with none to say, “Restore!” Who among you will give ear to this,
will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the
robbers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose law they would not obey? So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the might of
battle; it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it
to heart.

SERMO 1 IN NATIVITATE DOMINI (PL 142, 993-994), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Know that I am with you every day until the end of the world. If our Lord has promised to be
with his faithful people every day, we can expect him to be even closer to us on the day of his birth;
the greater our eagerness to serve him, the more we shall perceive his presence among us. Yes, he
who spoke through Solomon, saying: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, as the
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firstborn of all creation, and again; The Lord possessed me when his purpose first
unfolded, before the earliest of his works; from everlasting I was firmly established; he
who said through Isaiah: Do I not fill heaven and earth? – he it is who, in the mysterious plan of
his own providence, is born on earth and laid in a manger.
While Solomon’s words teach us that Christ was eternally in existence before the world began,
Isaiah’s declare that there is no place in the whole of creation from which he is absent. And if he exists
always and everywhere, he cannot be absent from ourselves. The testimony of the ancient prophets
to Christ’s eternal being and his boundless divine presence is indeed trustworthy. Our
Saviour himself tells the Jews in the Gospel: Before Abraham ever existed, I am. With God
the Father from all eternity, before Abraham existed (more accurately, before anything
existed) he had his eternal being; and yet he chose to be born in time from the stock of
Abraham – Abraham who was told by God the Father: In your descendants all the nations
of the earth will be blessed.
The blessed patriarch David was also granted privilege of a similar promise. Revealing to him hidden
secrets of his wisdom, God the Father told him: The fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.
These two received the promise of the Saviour’s coming more plainly than any of our other fathers,
and so they deserved to be given the first and most important place in the records of our Lord’s
ancestry according to the evangelist Matthew, the opening words of whose Gospel are: The
genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. With these sacred words of the
evangelist both the prophetic oracles and the apostolic preaching are in accord.
The man in the Gospel who was freed from the darkness of ignorance and enlightened by faith
addressed God’s Son as Son of David. Not only did he receive spiritual insight, but he also deserved to
have his bodily sight restored. Christ the Lord desires to be called by this name, knowing that there is
no other name by which the world can be saved. And if we ourselves wish to be saved by him who is
the one and only Saviour, each of us must also say to him: Lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
Amen.
22 N D DECEMBER

THE LIBERATION OF ISRAEL: ISAIAH 43:1-13
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not,
for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the
waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk
through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your
God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange
for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honoured, and I love you, I give men in return for
you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the
east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not
withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, every one who is
called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! Let all the nations
gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the
former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, It is true.
“You are my witnesses,” says the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know
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and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any
after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no saviour. I declared and saved and proclaimed,
when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” says the LORD. “I am God,
and also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder
it?”
A READING FROM AN ANCIENT SERMON

SERMO 12 (PLS 4, 770-771), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Now that the season has arrived for me to speak to you about the Lord’s incarnation and his coming
among us, it would not be right to let these days pass by in silence. Rejoice, Zion! Your King is
coming. Let Zion rejoice, I say; and by Zion I mean our own souls. Let our souls reject all that
is evil and fix their gaze on the blessings that are to come. See, he is coming to dwell among
you. To dwell among us? But who? None other than the God who would make us his own
possession, desiring to gather a people to himself and establish them as his chosen portion.
The God who would dwell in our midst is the subject of another prophetic text that reads: I
shall walk among them and dwell in their midst; I shall be their God and they will be my
people.
When he has established his dwelling place within us and taken full possession of our souls, he will
make our whole being holy, perfect, and blameless. Let him come then and take possession of those
he has redeemed; let him dwell in their hearts and complete the work he has begun in them; let him
go ahead of them, leading the way for them out of the land of Babylon. He will find his resting place
among us and be glorified in our midst when other people see our good works and glorify our heavenly
Father, whose sons we have become not through anything we have done to deserve it, nor on
account of our good deeds, but solely because of his mercy. Yes, it is through God’s mercy that we
have received our freedom and are counted among his adopted sons.
God is glorified among us when we grow in love and compassion, when we carry out his commands
and persevere in doing his will; these are the ways in which he is glorified. Now we know that the Lord
has been sent to us as our redeemer, our life, and our healing, bringing us his loving mercy and grace
beyond all our deserts. So when we see ourselves lifted up from the dust of the earth to receive a
heavenly prize, let all of us believers be glad of heart and rejoice, and, as living souls raised up from
the dead, let each one of us seek the Lord.
What return shall we make to the Lord for such blessings? All we can do is to bow our heads and beat
our breasts, saying with the publican: O God, be merciful to me a sinner! Rejoice, then, my friends, at
these great gifts of his, exult in such great blessings! Take care not to ascribe to yourselves the good
things you have received from him, for if you do, you will lose what you have. You must be convinced
that you possess nothing that you have not received. And if you have received it, do not boast as
though you had not. If you keep to this rule the gifts you have received will be preserved among you,
and anything you now lack will be granted to you in full.
23 R D DECEMBER

THE RENEWAL OF ISRAEL: ISAIAH 43:18-28
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert. The wild beasts will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the
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wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for
myself that they might declare my praise.
“Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not
brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honoured me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened
you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with
money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins, you
have wearied me with your iniquities.
“I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put
me in remembrance, let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your
first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore, I profaned the princes of
the sanctuary, I delivered Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.”
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST JEROME

TRACT. IN PS. 84 (CCL 78, 107-108), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
There are two peoples who believe in the one God, those of Gentile origin and the Jews. To the Jews
it was promised that a saviour would come, but to us who were outside God’s law no such promise
was made. This means that mercy has been shown to the Gentiles, but God has kept faith with the
Jews by sending them what he had promised. The promise made to the fathers has come to fulfilment
in their sons.
When the psalm says: Justice and peace have embraced it is telling us that mercy and truth have
made friends, and that means that Gentiles and Jews are now united under a single shepherd, Christ.
Truth has grown up from the earth. Jesus Christ said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Truth
incarnate has grown up from the earth, for Scripture says: There shall come forth a shoot from Jesse’s
stock, and out of his root a flower shall blossom: and another text says: God has wrought salvation in
the heart of the earth. These texts show us that the truth that has grown up from the earth is our
Saviour, born of Mary.
And justice looked down from heaven. That the Saviour should have mercy on his people was indeed
an act of justice. See what the Scripture says: O how just are God’s judgments and how unsearchable
his ways! On the one hand truth, that is, a saviour, has grown up from the earth, and on the other
justice looks down from heaven in the person of that same Saviour who is himself justice.
It is right and just for a potter to treat his works of art gently and for a shepherd to show compassion
on his flock And so, because we are the Lord’s people and the work of his own hands, he grew up
from the earth and looked down from heaven at one and the same time, in order to give full scope to
his justice and show pity to his handiwork
Finally, look at the words: The Lord will show his kindness, and you will hear a note of mercy, not of
harshness, in the word justice, because the very reason for justice looking down from heaven was to
show pity to his handiwork And our earth will yield its fruit. Truth has indeed grown up from the earth:
that is a historical fact. But when the psalm goes on to speak of the earth yielding fruit, the verb is in
the future tense. So do not be disheartened by the fact that Christ’s birth from Mary is an
unrepeatable event of the past. He is also born in us every day. Our earth will yield its fruit; we too
can give birth to Christ if we wish. Our earth will yield the fruit from which the bread of heaven is
made, the bread of which Jesus said: I am the bread of heaven.
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24 T H DECEMBER

PROMISES OF REDEMPTION: ISAIAH 44:1-8, 21-23
“But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the LORD who made you,
who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I
have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my
Spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. They shall spring up like grass amid
waters, like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’s’, another will call himself by
the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s’, and surname himself by the
name of Israel.”
Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am
the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it
forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to
be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my
servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud,
and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O
mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in
Israel.

SERMO 12, 13-15 (CSEL 62, 258-260), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
The divine Word, coming and knocking at the door of our soul, challenges our indolence and rouses
us from slumber. His desire is always to enter and make his home with us. It is our own fault,
therefore, if he does not always do so, or if, having once entered, he does not always stay with us.
Let your door stand open to receive him, unlock your soul to him, lay bare the hidden recesses of your
mind. Show him the coffers of innocence, the treasure house of peace; let him see how beautiful his
grace has made you. Throw wide the gate of your heart, run toward the sun whose unfailing light
shines on every man. That true light shines for everyone, but those who close their windows deprive
themselves of its eternal radiance. If you shut the door of your mind you shut out Christ. Though he
has the power to enter, he does not care to burst in uninvited or to force himself upon us against our
will.
Born of a virgin, Christ came forth from the womb to shed his light over the whole world, so that
everything might be illumined by his rays. His light is received by all who long to see the splendour of
that everlasting glory which no darkness can ever dim. Here, the sun of our daily experience is
succeeded by the darkness of night; but the sun of holiness knows no setting since wisdom can never
give place to evil.
Blessed is the soul at whose door Christ stands and knocks. Our door is faith; if faith is strong enough,
the whole house is safe. That is the door by which Christ enters. Let us be alert, then, otherwise the
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Bridegroom may come and find himself shut out, and so take his departure. But if your heart is
watchful, he will knock and ask you to open your door to him.
Our soul has its door, our soul has its gates – gates of which Scripture says: Swing back your gates,
captains of the guard; swing back, everlasting gates! Let the King of glory enter! Heaven must surely
lie within those souls whose gates are everlasting. If you will swing back the gates of your faith, the
King of glory will enter your house in triumphal procession, bearing the insignia of his own passion.
Holiness too has its gates. We find in Scripture those words that the Lord Jesus spoke through his
prophet: Open for me the gates of holiness, and that other text: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem; Zion,
praise your God, for he has strengthened the bars of your gates.
It is the soul, therefore, that has its door, its gates, and to this door and these gates Christ comes and
knocks. Open up to him; his desire is to enter, to find his bride watching and waiting for his coming.
25 T H DECEMBER, THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

THE ROOT OF JESSE: ISAIAH 11:1-10
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And
the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the
fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he
shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall
be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the
lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their
young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over
the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or
destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters
cover the sea.

ST LEO THE GREAT, SERMON 21 (1 ON THE NATIVITY) TR. PLUSCARDEN.
Rejoice, dearly beloved, for today our Saviour is born! There can be no place for sadness on the
birthday of life itself. For this day has swallowed up all fear of death, and in its promise of eternity has
replaced fear with joy. No one at all is excluded from today’s festive celebration, for there is a single
great cause of joy which applies to everyone alike. For our Lord is the destroyer of sin and death; and
since he found no one at all free from guilt, so he came in order to set all alike free. Let the Saint then
be filled with joy, for he is hastening to receive his palm. Let the sinner rejoice, for he is invited to
receive pardon. Let the gentile be filled with eager hope, for he is called to life.
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According to the inscrutable disposition of Divine Providence, so far beyond our capacity to fathom,
when the fullness of time had come, the Son of God took upon himself the nature of the human race,
in order to reconcile us with our Creator. He did this so that the devil, through whom death entered
the world, might be conquered in the very nature which he himself had conquered.
Thus the Word of God, the Son of God, who is himself God, in order to free mankind from eternal
death, became a man. He bent down in order to take our lowliness upon himself, yet without in any
way diminishing his own majesty. Remaining what he was he took upon himself what he was not. The
divine and human natures came together in him in such a way that the lower would not be
annihilated by the glory conferred upon it, nor the superior diminished by what it had assumed.
If Christ were not true God, dearly beloved, he could never have conferred upon us the remedy we
need. On the other hand, if he were not true man, he could have offered us no example for our
imitation. It was in recognition of this that on the day of his birth the exulting Angels first of all sang
Glory be to God on high; and then they announced: Peace on earth to men of good will. These Angels
could see the heavenly Jerusalem being constructed out of every nation on earth. If they, from their
lofty height, rejoice so much before this ineffable work of divine love, how much more ought we to be
glad, we who contemplate it from the lowliness of our mortality?
Dearly beloved, let us together give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit: for
in his great mercy and love he has made us a new creation. Let us put aside the old man with his
actions. Now that we have been made participants in the generation of Christ, let us renounce all
works of the flesh. O Christian: recognise your dignity! You have been made a sharer in the divine
nature! Do not then by an unworthy way of life return to your former wretchedness! You have been
snatched from the power of darkness, and transferred into the light and the Kingdom of God. You
have been made a temple of the Holy Spirit: do not by your behaviour drive him away again, and
subject yourself once more to the tyranny of the devil! For Christ who has redeemed you in mercy will
judge you in truth: he who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
THE CHRISTMAS OCTAVE: THE HOLY FAMILY

ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: EPHESIANS 5:21 – 6:4
Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the
Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is
himself its Saviour. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their
husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he
might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present
the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy
and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his
wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does
the church, 30 because we are members of his body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is a profound one,
and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as
himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother (this is the
first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the
earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord

ORATIO IN NATALEM CHRISTI DIEM (PG 56, 385-388), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Strange and wonderful is the mystery I behold. In my ears rings the sound of shepherds, not piping a
lonely melody but chanting a heavenly hymn. Angels carol, archangels celebrate with song and dance,
the cherubim sing hymns, the seraphim give praise, all of them keeping festival as they contemplate
God on earth and our nature in heaven. By divine decree he who dwells on high is now here below; by
God’s love those who dwell below are raised on high.
Bethlehem today is like heaven: instead of stars it has welcomed angels praising God. Everyone is
leaping for joy, so I too want to leap for joy; I want to dance, I want to join the festival; but as I dance I
do not pluck the lyre, nor carry pipes, nor kindle torches. Instead of musical instruments I bear
Christ’s swaddling clothes, for they are my hope, my life, my salvation; they are my pipe and my lyre.
Carrying them I come that endowed with eloquence by their virtue I may say with the angels, Glory to
God in the highest; and with the shepherds, Peace on earth for men on whom his favour rests.
Today he who was inexpressibly begotten by the Father is marvellously brought forth by a virgin for
my sake. In his nature he was begotten by the Father before all ages in a manner known only to the
One who engendered him; outside his nature he is today brought forth anew in a manner known only
to the Holy Spirit’s grace. His birth on high was real; his birth here below is real. He was truly begotten
as God from God and he is truly brought forth by the Virgin as man. In heaven he is the Father’s only
Son, Unique from the Unique; on earth he is the Virgin’s only Son, unique from her who is also
unique.
I know a virgin bore a son today and I believe that God begot a son before time was, but the manner
in which this happened I have learned to venerate in silence and I have been taught not inquisitively
to inquire by busy reasoning. Where God is concerned we should not regard the order of nature, but
believe in the power of the One at work therein.
SIXTH DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: 30 T H DECEMBER

CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH; PAUL HIS SERVANT: COLOSSIANS 1:15 – 2:3
He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or
authorities--all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all
things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from
the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased
to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making
peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his
body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,
provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel
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which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul,
became a minister.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s
afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the
divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery
hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. To them God chose to make
known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that
we may present every man mature in Christ. For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he
mightily inspires within me.
For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have
not seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all
the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, of Christ, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON FIRST PRINCIPLES BY ORIGEN

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES, LIB. 2, CAP. 6, 1-2 (PG 11, 200-211), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
When we reflect upon statements in holy Scripture concerning the majesty of our Lord and Saviour
and consider that he is called the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation, and that
in him all things visible and invisible were created: thrones, dominations, principalities, and powers, all
were created through him and for him; that before anything was created he already existed and he
holds all things in unity – when we reflect upon all this we cannot doubt that he is the one of
whom Scripture says: I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that might be
written about the glory and majesty of the Son of God. To put into writing everything that
relates to our Saviour’s glory would be impossible.
When we ponder these tremendous truths concerning the nature of the Son of God, we are struck
with profound amazement at one who is thus exalted above all others, stripping himself of his
majesty to become a man and live among men.
But of all the great and wonderful things related of our Saviour, what completely overwhelms the
human mind with wonder and is beyond understanding or conception by a weak mortal intelligence is
that the mighty Power of the divine Majesty, the very word of the Father, the very Wisdom of God in
whom everything visible and invisible was created, is believed to have been confined in a man who
appeared in Judea; that the Wisdom of God entered the womb of a woman, was born a baby and
cried like a baby; that he was troubled in the face of death, for he himself said: My heart is heavy,
even to the point of death; and, finally, that he was brought to what was regarded as the most
shameful of deaths, although he rose again on the third day.
When we thus see in him some marks of human frailty that make him seem no different from any
other man and others so divine as to befit none but the supreme and inexpressible nature of the
Godhead, the feeble human intellect is dumbfounded; it does not know in its amazement what to
hold on to or where to turn. If it thinks of God it sees a mortal man. If it takes Christ for a man, it
sees this man destroying the sovereignty of death and returning from among the dead with spoils
of victory.
This mystery, then, should be contemplated with the most profound awe and reverence. Both
natures have to be shown as really present in the one Christ. Nothing unworthy of it must be
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attributed to the impenetrable divine essence; nor on the other hand must the events of history be
regarded as mere illusions.
To make known these things to other people and to explain them in words is far beyond the power of
our rank, our intellect, or our language. I think it was beyond the ability even of the holy Apostles. It
may be that the entire creation of heavenly powers is unable to comprehend this mystery.
SEVENTH DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: 31 S T DECEMBER

OUR FAITH IS CHRIST; COLOSSIANS 2:4-15
I say this in order that no one may delude you with beguiling speech. For though I am absent in body,
yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him and
established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human
tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him
the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head
of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,
by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in
baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him
from the dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God
made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having cancelled the bond which
stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.
READING FROM A SERMON BY ST LEO THE GREAT

SERMON 6 ON THE NATIVITY, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The infancy which the Son of God did not think beneath his glory, grew over the years to mature
manhood. When the triumph of his passion and resurrection was completed, all the actions of
humility which were undertaken for us ceased. However, today’s feast renews for us the holy infancy
of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary. And as we adore the birth of our Saviour we find that we are
celebrating our own beginnings.
For the birth of Christ is the origin of the people of Christ, and the birthday of the head is the birthday
of the body. It is true that each of those who are called is allotted a particular place, and that all the
sons of the Church are separated from each other by intervals of time. However, just as all the faithful
together, born of the waters of baptism, are crucified with Christ in his passion, raised with him in his
resurrection, and given a place with him at the Father’s right hand in his ascension, so too, with him
they are born in this his birth.
Throughout the world, every one of the faithful is reborn in Christ, and leaving the path of his old
origins passes by rebirth into a new man. No longer is he reckoned among his human father’s stock
but among the seed of the Saviour, who became the Son of man in order that we might have the
power to be the sons of God.
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If he had not come down to us by this humility, no one could have come to him by any merits of his
own. Hence the very greatness of the gift conferred demands of us reverence worthy of its splendour.
As the blessed Apostle teaches, we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is
from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. He can in no other way be
rightly worshipped, except by offering him what he himself bestowed on us. But, in the treasury of
the Lord’s generosity what can we find more suitable to honour the present feast than the peace first
proclaimed by the angels’ chorus at the Lord’s nativity?
Peace it is that gives birth to the sons of God. Peace is the nurse of love, the mother of unity, the
repose of the blessed, and our eternal home. The real work and special blessing of peace is to join to
God those whom it sets apart from the world.
Let those then who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God,
offer to the Father the oneness of heart of peace-loving sons. Let all the members of adoption come
together in the first-born of the new creation, who came to do not his own will but the will of him who
sent him. The grace of the Father has not adopted as his heirs those who divided among themselves
and at odds with each other, but those who are one in mind and heart. Remodelled according to the
one image, they should have a spirit in conformity with it.
The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace. As Apostle says, He is our peace, who made us both
one. For, whether we be Jew or Gentile, through him we both have access in one Spirit to the
Father.
OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, 1 S T JANUARY

CHRIST LIKE HIS BRETHREN IN ALL THINGS: HEBREWS 2:9-17
But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and
honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for
everyone.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory,
should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those
who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, “I
will proclaim thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.” And again,
“I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature,
that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all
those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. For surely it is not with angels that
he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren
in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to
make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he
is able to help those who are tempted.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

HOM. 4 (PG 77, 991.995-996), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Mary, Mother of God, we salute you. Precious vessel, worthy of the whole world’s reverence, you are
an ever-shining light, the crown of virginity, the symbol of orthodoxy, an indestructible temple, the
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place that held him whom no place can contain, mother and virgin. Because of you the holy Gospels
could say Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
We salute you, for in your holy womb he, who is beyond all limitation, was confined. Because of you
the holy Trinity is glorified and adored; the cross is called precious and is venerated throughout the
world; the heavens exult; the angels and archangels make merry; demons are put to flight; the
devil, that tempter, is thrust down from heaven; the fallen race of man is taken up on high; all
creatures possessed by the madness of idolatry have attained knowledge of the truth; believers
receive holy baptism; the oil of gladness is poured out; the Church is established throughout
the world; pagans are brought to repentance.
What more is there to say? Because of you the light of the only-begotten Son of God has shone upon
those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death; prophets pronounced the word of God; the
Apostles preached salvation to the Gentiles; the dead are raised to life, and kings rule by the power of
the holy Trinity.
Who can put Mary’s high honour into words? She is both mother and virgin. I am overwhelmed by the
wonder of this miracle. Of course no one could be prevented from living in the house he had built for
himself, yet who would invite mockery by asking his own servant to become his mother?
Behold then the joy of the whole universe. Let the union of God and man in the Son of the Virgin
Mary fill us with awe and adoration. Let us fear and worship the undivided Trinity as we sing the
praise of the ever-virgin Mary, the holy temple of God, and of God himself, her Son and spotless
Bridegroom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 2 N D JANUARY

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST: COLOSSIANS 2:16 – 3:4
Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival
or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs
to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his
stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head,
from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with
a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged
to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
(referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines?
These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and
severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you
have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also
will appear with him in glory.
ND
MEMORIA OF SS BASIL AND GREGORY NAZIANZEN : SEE SANCTORAL FOR 2
NOCTURN READING.
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FERIAL READING: A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST
BASIL THE GREAT
ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 26, 61.64, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
If a man no longer lives according to the flesh, but is led by the Spirit of God and is called son of God
and is conformed to the image of God, he is described as a spiritual man. As the power of seeing is to
be found in the healthy eye, so the working of the Spirit is to be found in the purified soul.
The word is in the soul; sometimes as the thought of the heart, sometimes as spoken by the tongue.
So too the Holy Spirit is in the soul: at one time he joins with our spirit in bearing witness and cries out
in our hearts: Abba, Father; at another time he speaks on our behalf, as we are told: It is not you
who will be speaking: it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking in you.
Again, the Spirit is understood, in relation to the distribution of gifts, as a whole in its different parts.
We are all joined to one another as different parts of one body, and have different gifts in accordance
with the grace God has given us. Therefore, the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I do not need you’, nor
can the head say to the feet: ‘I do not need you.’ On the contrary, all the members together make up
the body of Christ in the unity of the Spirit, and mutually contribute the necessary service in
accordance with the gifts received.
God arranged the organs of the body, each one of them, as he chose; but these different parts have
the same concern for one another in accordance with their sympathetic interaction, born of the spirit
which they share. And so, if one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is
honoured, all the other parts share its joy. As parts in the whole, so are we, individually, in the Spirit,
because we were all baptized in one body into the one Spirit.
Just as the Father is seen in the Son, so the Son is seen in the Holy Spirit. Worship in the Spirit
suggests the activity of our intelligence, which is carried on, as it were, in the light, as may be learned
from the words spoken to the woman of Samaria. She was misled by the custom of her country into
the belief that God was worshipped in a place. Our Lord corrected her; he said that men must
worship in Spirit and in truth, and by ‘truth’ he clearly meant himself.
We speak of worship in the Son, which is worship in the one who is the image of God the Father.
Similarly we speak of worship in the Spirit, as the one who shows in himself the divinity of the Lord. So
then, to express it properly and in order, through the illumination of the Spirit we behold the radiance
of God’s glory, the Son; and through the Son, the stamp of God’s very being, we are brought to the
one to whom belong the stamp and the identical seal.
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 3 R D JANUARY

LIFE OF THE NEW MAN: COLOSSIANS 3:5-16
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once
walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul
talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its
practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its
creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
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Put on then, as Gods chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and
patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as
the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds
everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which
indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with
thankfulness in your hearts to God.
A READING FROM THE TREATISES ON ST JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

IN EV JO 17, 7-9 (PL 35), FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The Lord himself comes, the teacher of love, full of love, ‘shortening the word upon the earth’, as was
foretold of him. He shows that the law and the prophets depend on the two precepts of love.
What those two commandments are, brethren, recall with me. They ought to be most familiar, and
not come to mind just when they are mentioned by us; rather, they should never be blotted out from
your hearts. Always, at all times, reflect that you must love God and your neighbour: God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; your neighbour as yourself.
At all times these must be pondered, they must be meditated and retained, they must be practised
and fulfilled. The love of God comes first in the order of command, but the love of neighbour first in
the order of action. The man who would teach you this love in two commandments should not
commend to you first your neighbour and then God, but first God and then your neighbour.
You do not yet see God, but by loving your neighbour you gain the sight of God; by loving your
neighbour you purify your eye for seeing God, as John says clearly: If you do not love the brother
whom you see, how will you be able to love God whom you do not see?
You are told: love God. If you say to me: ‘Show me the one I am to love’, what shall I answer, except
what John himself says: No one has ever seen God? Do not think that you are altogether unsuited to
seeing God – no, for John states: God is love, and he who dwells in love is dwelling in God. Love your
neighbour therefore, and observe the source of that love in you; there, as best you can, you will see
God.
So then, begin to love your neighbour. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless
poor into your house; if you see the naked, cover him, and do not despise the servants of your
kinsfolk. If you do this, what will you obtain? Then shall your light break forth like the morning. Your
light is your God to you he is ‘morning light’, because he will come to you after the night of the world;
he neither rises nor sets, because he abides always.
By loving your neighbour and being concerned about your neighbour, you make progress on your
journey. Where is your journey, if not to the Lord God, to him whom we must love with all our heart,
and with all soul, and with all our mind? We have not yet reached the Lord, but we have our
neighbour with us. So then, support him with whom you are travelling so that you may come to him
with whom you long to dwell.
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BEFORE EPIPHANY: 4 T H JANUARY

THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY: COLOSSIANS 3:17 – 4:1
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God the Father through him.
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be
harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not
provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Slaves, obey in everything those who are your
earthly masters, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord.
Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you
will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be
paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
A READING FROM THE FIVE ‘CENTURIES’ OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

CENT. 1, 8-13, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The Word of God, born once on the level of the flesh, is always born willingly for those who desire it
on the level of the spirit, because of his love for men. He becomes an infant, forming himself in them
by the virtues; he manifests himself in just the measure of which he knows the one who is receiving
him is capable. It is not through any ill-will that he diminishes the manifestation of his own majesty; it
is rather that he weighs the capacity of those who desire to see him. And so, though the Word of God
is always manifested in the life of those who share in him, yet because the mystery is transcendent,
he remains always invisible to all.
Thus the holy Apostle, in wise consideration of the meaning of the mystery, says: ‘Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, and today, and forever’ – he knows that the mystery is always new, that the mind in
understanding it will never deprive it of its freshness.
Christ God is born, made man by the assumption of flesh endowed with an intelligent soul, he who
brought things from nothing into existence. A star from the east appears by day and guides the Magi
to the place the Word has taken flesh. This conveys a hidden meaning: it shows that the word of the
law and the prophets surpasses the experience of the senses, and guides the gentiles to the greatest
light of knowledge. The word of the law and the prophets, like a star devoutly observed, is a clear
guide to the knowledge of the incarnate Word for those who are called according to God’s purpose by
the power of grace.
God becomes perfect man, then, leaving aside no element of nature – except sin, and this does not
belong to nature. He offered his flesh as a bait, to provoke the insatiable dragon to devour the flesh
which he was greedily pursuing. This flesh would be poison to the dragon, destroying him utterly by
the power of the divinity in it. But it would be a medicine for human nature, restoring it to its original
grace by the power of the divinity in it.
By smearing the tree of knowledge with his poison of evil, the dragon destroyed man when he tasted
it. But having chosen to devour the Lord’s flesh, he too was destroyed, by the power of the divinity in
it.
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The great mystery of the divine incarnation always remains a mystery. In his essence the Word exists
personally in the Father to the full: how is he in his person essentially in the flesh? How can the same
person be God by nature and become fully man by nature, in no way deprived in either nature,
neither in the divine nature by which he is God, nor in ours by which he became man?
Only faith can grasp these mysteries, since it is the substance of things which are beyond intelligence
and reason.
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 5 T H JANUARY

CONCLUSION OF THE LETTER: COLOSSIANS 4:2-18
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; and pray for us also, that God
may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in
prison, that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak.
Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be
gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every one.
Tychicus will tell you all about my affairs; he is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and
that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is
one of yourselves. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you
have received instructions – if he comes to you, receive him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These
are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they
have been a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you,
always remembering you earnestly in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all
the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and
in Hierapolis. Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you. Give my greetings to the brethren at
Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among
you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from
Laodicea. And say to Archippus, See that you fulfil the ministry which you have received in the Lord.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my fetters. Grace be with you.

SERMON 194, 3-4, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
W hat man knows all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed in the
poverty of his flesh? Though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we
might become rich. When he made mortality his own and made away with death, he appeared in
poverty; but he promised riches, riches that were only deferred – he did not lose riches that were
taken way from him.
How great is the abundance of his goodness which he hides for those who fear him, which he perfects
for those who hope in him! Our knowledge is partial until what is perfect comes. To make us fit to
receive this perfection, he who is equal to the Father in the form of God and made like to us in the
form of a slave, transforms us to the likeness of God. The only Son of God, made son of man, makes
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many sons of men sons of God. The slaves, sustained by the visible form of the slave, he frees and
makes children so that they may see the form of God.
We are God’s children; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What are those measures of wisdom and
knowledge, what are those divine riches, except what is sufficient for us? What is that abundance of
goodness, except what fills us? Show us the Father, then, and it is sufficient for us.
In one of the psalms someone says to him from among us or within us or for us: I shall be filled when
your glory is manifested. He and the Father are one: whoever sees him sees the Father also. So then,
he, the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. He will bring us back, he will show us his face; and we
shall be saved, we shall be filled, he will be sufficient for us.
Until this happens, until he shows us what is sufficient for us, until we drink him as the fountain of life
and are filled, – until then we are exiles from him and walk by faith, until then we hunger and thirst
for justice, and long with a passion beyond words for the beauty of the form of God; – until then, let
us celebrate his birth in the form of a slave with humble devotion.
We are not yet able to contemplate the fact that he was begotten by the Father before the dawn, but
let our minds dwell on the fact that he was born of the Virgin during the hours of night. We do not yet
grasp that his name endures before the sun, but let us acknowledge his tent placed in the sun.
Though we still do not behold the only Son abiding in his Father, let us remember the Bridegroom
coming out from his bridal room. Though we are still unready for our Father’s banquet, let us
acknowledge the manger of our Lord Jesus Christ.
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 6 T H JANUARY, YEAR I

THE GENTLE SERVANT OF THE LORD: ISAIAH 42:1-8
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon
him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the
street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully
bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the
coastlands wait for his law.
Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the
earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in
it: “I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I
have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to
bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the LORD,
that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images.

LIB. 3, T. 5 (PG 70, 850-851), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
The Word of God, born of the Virgin, was and is eternally King and Lord of all, but when he became
man he made the limitations of humanity his own. For man he truly was; we must unhesitatingly
believe that he became like us. Consequently, when it is said that all power has been given to him,
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this means that it has been given to him in the human nature he assumed, not in his divine pre-
eminence in virtue of which he is the acknowledged Lord of all.
Christ is named ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ because by physical descent he was the blood relative of Jacob,
who received the new name Israel. I will help him, God says, and calls him his chosen one. For the
Father cooperated with the Son, performing the mighty works he did as works of his own power; and
Christ is in truth the chosen one, since he is the fairest of the sons of men and accepted as God’s
beloved. The Father rejoiced in him and declared: This is my beloved Son in whom 1 am well pleased.
In his human nature Christ was anointed and can be said to share in the Holy Spirit, even though he is
the giver of the Spirit and the sanctifier of all creation. This is shown clearly by the words, I have put
my Spirit upon him. The Gospel says that when Jesus was baptized the Spirit, in the form of a dove,
came to him from heaven and remained on him.
This anointing was to enable him to bring justice to the nations, which he did by condemning Satan,
their tyrant. Christ taught us this himself when he said: Now is the time for this world to be judged,
now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And 1, when I am lifted up form the earth, will draw all
things to myself. He passed sentence of destruction on Satan who had held this world in thraldom,
and by that righteous sentence saved those who had been deceived.
But he will not shout, says Scripture, or raise his voice, or let it be heard in the street. The Saviour and
Lord of all came to dwell among us in profound lowliness and humility, one might say without making
a sound, and he did no harm to anyone. He came in silence and peace, so as not to crush the bruised
reed or extinguish the smouldering wick.
What will his work be, what will he do for the nations? He will bring judgement to the truth. By
judgement the prophet seems to mean the law, for it is written about Israel and about God, the ruler
of all: You have established judgment and justice in Jacob. So now he will bring judgement, or the law
which was concerned with shadows and types, to the truth of the Gospel. Through the Gospel he has
shown the way of life that is pleasing to him and has changed worship according to the letter of the
law into worship in truth.
BEFORE EPIPHANY, 7 T H JANUARY, YEAR I

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD UPON HIS SERVANT: ISAIAH 61:1-11
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to
the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the
day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion – to
give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise
instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that
he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall be your ploughmen and vinedressers; but you
shall be called the priests of the LORD, men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall
eat the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory. Instead of your shame you shall have
a double portion, instead of dishonour you shall rejoice in your lot; therefore in your land you shall
possess a double portion; yours shall be everlasting joy.
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For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and
I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they
are a people whom the LORD has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks
himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its
shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

SERMON 13 ON THE SEASONS, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
My dearest brethren, today our Lord Jesus Christ, who is for ever the creator of all things, has become
saviour for us by being born of a mother. Today by his own free will he was born for us in time, that
he might lead us to the eternity of the Father. God was made man that man might become God; that
man might partake of the bread of angels, the Lord of angels was today made man.
Today the prophecy has been fulfilled: Pour down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds
rain justice: let the earth open, and let it bring forth a saviour. Therefore he who had made was
himself made that he who had been lost might be found. This is what man confesses in the Psalms:
Before I was brought low, I sinned. Man sinned, and was made the accused: God was born as man
that the accused might be freed. Man therefore fell down but God came down. Man fell pitifully, God
came down in pity: man fell through pride, God descended with grace.
My brethren, see what miracles and wonders are here. The laws of nature are changed in a man; God
is born, a virgin conceives without a man: the Word of God plays a husband’s part to one who knows
not a man: she becomes at the same time mother and virgin; made a mother and yet uncorrupted, a
virgin having a son, and yet not knowing a man, ever sealed, and yet not barren. For he alone was
born without sin whom she brought forth without a husband’s embrace, not by the desire of the
flesh, but by the obedience of the mind.
EPIPHANY

THE REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD UPON JERUSALEM: ISAIAH 60:1-22
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold,
darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and
his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of
your rising.
Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall
come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then you shall see and be radiant,
your heart shall thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the
wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of
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Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall
proclaim the praise of the LORD. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth
shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify my glorious
house.
Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows? For the coastlands shall wait for
me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and gold with them, for the
name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you. Foreigners
shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I smote you, but in my
favour I have had mercy on you. Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be
shut; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. For the
nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. The
glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who oppressed you shall
come bending low to you; and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you
the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic
forever, a joy from age to age. You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breast of kings;
and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze,
instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.
Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you
shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by
night; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no
more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your
days of mourning shall be ended. Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land for
ever, the shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. The least one shall
become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.

SERMON 3, EPIPHANY, 1-3, 5, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
God’s providence of mercy, having determined to save in the last days the world which was perishing,
fore-ordained the salvation of all nations in Christ. In this connection, countless descendants to be
begotten not by fleshly seed but by fertile faith, were promised of old to the most blessed patriarch
Abraham. This posterity was therefore compared to the stars in multitude so that the father of all
nations might hope not for an earthly but for a heavenly succession.
Let the whole pagan world enter into the family of the patriarchs, yes, let it enter, and let the children
of the promise receive in Abraham’s seed the blessing which his children according to the flesh
rejected. In the three Magi let all the nations worship the Author of the universe; and let God be
known, not in Judaea alone but throughout the whole world, so that everywhere his name may be
great in Israel.
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Schooled, then, dearly-beloved, by these mysteries of divine grace, let us celebrate with spiritual joy
the day of our first-fruits and the commencement of the nations, giving thanks to the merciful God
for making us fit to share the light which saints inherit, for rescuing us from the powers of
darkness, and transferring us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. For, as Isaiah prophesied the
people of the nations that sat in darkness, have seen a great light and they that dwelt in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shone. Of these he also says to the Lord,
nations which knew you not, shall call on you and peoples which were ignorant of you shall run
to you.
This is the day which Abraham saw and was glad, when he understood that the sons of his faith
would be blessed in his seed which is Christ, and foresaw that by believing he should be the father of
the nations, ‘giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also
to perform.
This is the day which David sang of in the psalms: All the nations you have made shall come and
worship you, O Lord, and glorify your name; and again, The Lord has made his salvation known; in the
sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
This indeed we know to be taking place ever since the three Magi were called from
their far-off land and were led by the star to recognize and worship the king of heaven
and earth. And surely their worship of him exhorts us to imitation; that, as far as we
can, we should be at the service of this grace which invites all men to Christ.
You ought to help one another, dearly-beloved, in this zeal, so that in the kingdom of
God, which is reached by right faith and good works, you may shine as children of the
light, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the
Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
MONDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD UPON HIS SERVANT: ISAIAH 61:1-11
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to
the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the
day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion – to
give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise
instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that
he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall be your ploughmen and vinedressers; but you
shall be called the priests of the LORD, men shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall
eat the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory. Instead of your shame you shall have
a double portion, instead of dishonour you shall rejoice in your lot; therefore in your land you shall
possess a double portion; yours shall be everlasting joy.
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For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and
I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they
are a people whom the LORD has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks
himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its
shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

SERMON 160, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The distinguishing marks of the Godhead were always clearly present in the very mystery of the Lord’s
incarnation. But today’s feast especially shows and reveals that God came into a human body so that
mortal man, who is continually in confusion and darkness, should not lose through ignorance what he
merited to have and possess through grace alone.
He who willed to be born for us, was unwilling that we should be ignorant of him. Hence, he chose
this way of revelation so that the great mystery of love would not become the occasion of a great
mistake.
Today the Magus, the wise man, finds weeping in a crib him whom he sought for shining in the stars.
Today the wise man reveres clearly revealed in swaddling clothes him whom he had long patiently
awaited unseen in the heavens.
Today the wise man ponders in profound amazement over what he sees there: heaven on earth,
earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, and him whom the whole universe cannot contain,
confined in a tiny body. And immediately on seeing, he professes with mystical gifts that he believes
and does not argue: he acknowledges God with frankincense, the King with gold, with myrrh the
mortal one destined to die. So it is that the Gentile, who was last, has become first: for then the belief
of the nations began from the faith of Magi.
Today Christ entered the riverbed of the Jordan, to wash away the world’s sin: John himself bears
witness that he came for this: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the
world. Today the servant holds the Lord, man holds God, John holds Christ: holds him, as about to
receive, not to grant forgiveness.
Today as the prophet says: The Lord’s voice is on the waters. What voice? This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
Today the Holy Spirit floats over the waters in the form of a dove, so that by this sign it might be
known that the world’s universal shipwreck has ceased, as the dove had announced to Noah that the
world’s flood had subsided. Nor does this dove carry a branch of the old olive, but it pours the whole
richness of the olive on the head of the author of the new anointing, in order to fulfil what the
prophet foretold: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above other
kings.
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Today Christ gives the beginnings of the signs from heaven, when he changes water into wine. But
water was to be changed into the mystery of the blood, so that Christ, from the goblet of his Body,
might give pure draughts to those who drink, to fulfil that saying of the prophet: My chalice which
inebriates me, how good it is.
TUESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

THE NEARNESS OF REDEMPTION: ISAIAH 62:1-12
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication goes
forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all
the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall
be called My delight is in her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall
be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be
silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes
Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty
arm: “I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your
wine for which you have laboured; but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the LORD, and those
who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway,
clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples. Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of
the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.” And they shall be called The holy people, The redeemed of the
LORD; and you shall be called Sought out, a city not forsaken.
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY, ATTRIBUTED TO ST

HIPPOLYTUS
ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY 2. 6-8, 10, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
Jesus came to John, and received baptism at his hands. Could anything be more wonderful? The
boundless river that gladdens the City of God is washed by a few drops of water. The source without
limits that engenders life for all mankind and is beyond all understanding is covered by the poor
waters of this world. He who is present everywhere and is absent nowhere, incomprehensible to the
angels and withdrawn from the gaze of man, has come to baptism as was his good pleasure, And
behold the heavens were opened to him, and a voice was heard saying: This is my beloved Son with
whom am well pleased.
One who is loved generates love, and an immaterial light generates light inaccessible. This is he who
is called the son of Joseph, and he is my only-begotten according to the divine essence. This is my
beloved Son. Hungry is he who nourished unnumbered thousands, toiling is he who refreshes the
toilers; he has nowhere to lay his head but controls all things by his hand; he suffers and yet heals all
suffering; he is buffeted by blows and presents the world with freedom; he is pierced in his side and
restores the side of Adam.
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But attend carefully to me, I pray, for I wish to return to the fountain of life, and contemplate the
fountain which gushes forth and brings its remedies. The Father of immortality sent his immortal Son
and Word into the world. He came to men to wash them with the Spirit. To regenerate us to
incorruptibility, of mind and body, he breathed into us the spirit of life, and clothed us with the
armour of incorruptibility.
If then a man has been made immortal, he will also be divine. If indeed he becomes divine by water
and by the Holy Spirit by regeneration from the font, he is also found to be joint heir with Christ after
the resurrection from the dead. Therefore I proclaim with the voice of the herald: Come, all ye tribes
of the nations, to the immortality of baptism. For this is the water combined with the Spirit – water by
which Paradise is watered, the earth is enriched, the plants receive increase of growth, the animals
bring forth young, and, to put it comprehensively, water through which man is reborn and made alive,
in which Christ was baptized; into which the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove.
For he who descends with faith into this laver of regeneration renounces the devil and commits
himself to Christ; he denies the enemy and confesses Christ to be God; he lays aside slavery, he puts
on adoption; he returns from his baptism gleaming like the sun, pouring out rays of righteousness,
and, what is the most important point, he is returning as a son of God and a joint heir with Christ. To
him be glory and power with his sacred, good and quickening Spirit, both now and always and
to all ages of eternity. Amen.
WEDNESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

REMEMBRANCE OF GOD’S COMPASSION IN THE PEOPLE’S ABANDONMENT: ISAIAH 63:7-19
I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD
has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel which he has granted them according to
his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, Surely they are my people,
sons who will not deal falsely; and he became their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and
the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up
and carried them all the days of old.
But they rebelled and grieved his holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself
fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is he who
brought up out of the sea the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his
holy Spirit, who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters
before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths? Like a horse
in the desert, they did not stumble. Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD
gave them rest. So thou didst lead thy people, to make for thyself a glorious name.
Look down from heaven and see, from thy holy and glorious habitation. Where are thy zeal and thy
might? The yearning of thy heart and thy compassion are withheld from me. For thou art our Father,
though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; thou, O LORD, art our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is thy name. O LORD, why dost thou make us err from thy ways and harden
our heart, so that we fear thee not? Return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy heritage. Thy
holy people possessed thy sanctuary a little while; our adversaries have trodden it down. We have
become like those over whom thou hast never ruled, like those who are not called by thy name.
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A READING FROM THE ORATIONS OF ST PROCLUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
OR. 7, THEOPHANY, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
Christ appeared to the world, and putting order into the disordered world he made it resplendent. He
took upon himself the sin of the world and cast down the enemy of the world. He sanctified the
founts of water, and enlightened the souls of men. He surrounded miracles with still greater miracles.
For today both earth and sea have shared between them the grace of the Saviour, and over the whole
world joy is spread, and today’s feast manifests a greater increase of miracles than the festival we
held before.
For in the former festival day of the Saviour’s nativity the earth was joining in the gladness, because
she carried the Lord in a crib; but on this present day of the Epiphany the sea leaped with the highest
joy and danced with delight – delighting indeed that it had received the blessing of sanctification in
the midst of Jordan.
In the former celebration an imperfect infant was exhibited witnessing to our imperfection, but on
the present festival day a full-grown man is to be seen, in obscure fashion pointing to him who being
perfect proceeds from the perfect God. There the King puts on the purple robe of a body; here the
fount forms round him a river as if to clothe him.
Come then and see new and overwhelming miracles: the sun of righteousness bathing in Jordan, the
fire immersed in water and God being sanctified by human ministry.
Today all creation resounding with hymns cries: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is he who comes at all times: for this is not the first time that he has come.
And now who is this? Speak more clearly, I pray, blessed David. God is the Lord, and he has given us
light. Nor does David alone as prophet speak thus, but in fact Paul the Apostle, agreeing with him in
his own testimony, says the following words: There has appeared the grace of God, bringing salvation
to all men, instructing us. Not to some men, but to all – to all, that is, both Jews and Greeks equally,
he pours out salvation through baptism, offering to all men a common blessing in baptism.
Come, see the strange and new flood, greater and more excellent than that in the days of Noah.
There the water of the flood destroyed the human race; but here the water of the baptism, by the
power of him who is baptized in it, has called back the dead to life. There the dove carrying the olive
branch in its beak denotes the fragrance of the sweet-smelling savour of the Lord Christ, but here the
Holy Spirit coming in the form of a dove reveals to us our merciful God.
THURSDAY OF EPIPHANY

DIVINE VISITATION IS IMPLORED: ISAIAH 64:1-12
O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at thy
presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make thy name
known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy presence! When thou didst
terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence. 4
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who
works for those who wait for him. Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness, those that
remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long
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time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds
are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one that calls upon thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid
thy face from us, and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.
Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy
hand. Be not exceedingly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, consider, we are
all thy people. Thy holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a
desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Wilt thou restrain thyself at these things, O LORD? Wilt
thou keep silent, and afflict us sorely?
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF

ALEXANDRIA
COM. IN JO. 5, 2 (PG 74), FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
When the Maker of the universe designed, in a beautiful arrangement, to gather up all things in Christ
and to restore again the nature of man to its pristine state, he promised along with the other gifts to
give it also the Holy Spirit abundantly, because in no other way could it be reinstated in a peaceful
and stable possession of good things.
He therefore defines the time when the Spirit will descend on us, that is the coming of Christ, and
promises saying: In those days (that is, of the Saviour), I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.
When the time of this munificence brought the Only-begotten upon earth with flesh – that is, made
man of a woman according to the holy Scripture – the God and Father began to give the Spirit again,
and Christ received the Spirit first as First-fruits of the renewed nature. John bore witness to this,
saying: I saw the Spirit descend from heaven, and it remained on him.
Christ is said to have received the Spirit, because he became man, and it was fitting for man to
receive. Although he is the Son of the God and Father, and begotten of his substance even before the
incarnation– or rather, before all ages – he does not take it amiss to hear the God and Father address
him after he became man: You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
For he says that he has today begotten him, who before all ages was God begotten of him, so that in
him he may receive us into sonship; for the whole human nature is found in Christ, because he is man.
Since the Father has his own Spirit, he is said to give it again to the Son, so that in him we may gain
the Spirit. For this reason therefore taking the seed of Abraham, as it is written, he was made like to
his brethren in every respect.
The Only-begotten therefore receives the Holy Spirit not for himself; for the Spirit is his, and is given
in him and through him, as we said before; but because he was man he had the whole nature in
himself, that he might renew it all and restore its integrity.
Besides what has been said, we must consider this too. For we shall see, if we use right reasoning and
the testimonies of Scripture, that Christ did not receive the Spirit for himself, but rather for us in
himself: for all good things flow through him also into us.
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FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH: ISAIAH 65:13-25
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold,
my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put
to shame; behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart,
and shall wail for anguish of spirit. You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord
GOD will slay you; but his servants he will call by a different name. So that he who blesses himself in
the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by
the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hid from my eyes.
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create
Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no
more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an
infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the child shall die a
hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and
inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my
chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for
calamity; for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their children with them.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt
or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.”

SERMON 100, EPIPHANY, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
In the Gospels, Scripture reports that the Lord made his way to the Jordan to be baptized, and that he
wished himself to be consecrated with heavenly mysteries in the same river.
Reason demands that after the birthday of the Lord, at the same period of the year, even though a
space of years intervened, this festival should follow, which I think ought also to be called a festival of
birth. Then he was born to men, today he is reborn in the sacraments; then he was born of a virgin,
today he is generated through a mystery.
Then when he is born in human fashion, his mother Mary fondles him in her bosom; now when he is
generated according to a mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice; for he says: This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; hear him. The mother therefore cherishes her offspring in
her soft lap, the Father attends on the Son with affectionate witness. The mother, I say, presents him
to the Magi for adoration; the Father manifests him to the nations for worship.
Therefore the Lord Jesus came to baptism, and willed to have his body washed with water.
Perhaps some one will say: ‘He who is holy, why did he wish to be baptized?’ Pay attention therefore!
Christ is baptized, not that he may be sanctified in the waters, but that he himself may sanctify the
waters, and by his own purification may purify those streams which he touches. For the
consecration of Christ is the greater consecration of another element.
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For when the Saviour is washed, then already for our baptism all water is cleansed and the fount
purified, that the grace of the laver may be administered to the peoples that come after. Christ
therefore takes the lead in baptism, so that Christian peoples may follow after him with confidence.
I understand the mystery: for the column of fire went first through the Red Sea, that the children of
Israel might tread the hazardous journey without fear; and it, itself, went first through the waters,
so that for those coming after it, it might prepare a way to pass. Which event, as the Apostle
says, was a symbol of baptism. Clearly baptism in some sort of way has been carried out when
the cloud overshadowed the men, and the wave bore them.
But the one who performed all these things was still the same Lord Christ, who as he then went
before the children of Israel in a pillar of fire, now by baptism goes before Christian peoples in the
pillar of his body. This is the very pillar I maintain which then supplied light to the eyes of those who
followed, and who now furnishes light to the hearts of believers; who then in the waves of the sea
made firm the pathway, and now in the laver strengthens the footprints of faith.
SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

UNIVERSAL SALVATION: ISAIAH 66:10-14, 18-23
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who
mourn over her; that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink
deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory.”
For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the
nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall suck, you shall be carried upon her hip, and dandled
upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in
Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and it
shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants, and his indignation is against his
enemies.
“For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and
they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send
survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the
coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory
among the nations. And they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the
LORD, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to my holy
mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their cereal offering in a clean vessel to
the house of the LORD. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
“For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the LORD;
so shall your descendants and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath
to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.”

IN EPIPHANIA SOLEMNITATE SERMO VII, 1-3 (SC 22, 276-280), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
Calling to mind all that has been accomplished by the Saviour of the human race will be of great profit
to us, beloved, if we set ourselves to imitate what we believe and venerate. Even his first moments
when the Son of God was born from his virgin mother can further our devotion. For the upright of
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heart behold in one and the same person both human lowliness and divine majesty. He who is seen in
the cradle as a newborn child is proclaimed by heaven and the heavenly hosts as their creator. This
child with its tiny body is the lord and ruler of the world. His mother holds in her bosom him whom no
limits can contain. But therein lies the healing of our wounds and the reversal of our abasement, for
without the union of such diversity humankind could never have been reconciled to God.
It is not without reason that when the brilliance of a new star led the three Magi to worship Jesus
they did not see him commanding demons, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, enabling the
lame to walk or the dumb to speak, or performing any other act pertaining to divine power. Instead,
they saw a child silently resting under his mother’s watchful care – a child who showed no sign of
power, but only the great marvel of humility.
So it was that the sight of this holy babe to whom the divine Son of God was united presented our
eyes with a teaching that was not yet proclaimed in our ears. For the whole victory of the Saviour by
which he overcame the devil and the world was begun in humility and consummated in humility. He
began his allotted days under persecution and he ended them under persecution. The child was
not without suffering, nor was he who was destined to suffer without the submissiveness of
childhood. For by a unique abasement of his majesty the only Son of God freely undertook to be
born as a human being and to be put to death by human beings.
If then almighty God has changed our wretched condition into a happy one by the singular grace of
his humility, and if he has destroyed death and the author of death by not refusing any of the
sufferings inflicted on him by his persecutors but calmly enduring in obedience to the Father the
cruelties of those who raged against him, how humble and patient should we not be who never suffer
any misfortune without deserving it? Thus the whole practice of Christian wisdom, beloved, consists
not in many words, nor in skilful argument, nor in a desire for praise and glory, but in the genuine and
voluntary humility which, in preference to any kind of power, our Lord Jesus Christ chose and taught
from his mother’s womb to his death upon the cross.
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

THE MEEK SERVANT OF GOD, THE LIGHT OF THE NATIONS: ISAIAH 42:1-9; 49:1-19
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon
him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the
street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully
bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the
coastlands wait for his law.
Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the
earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in
it: “I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I
have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to
bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the LORD,
that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images. Behold, the former
things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the
shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. And he
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said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have laboured in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my
recompense with my God.”
And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to
him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honoured in the eyes of the LORD, and my God
has become my strength – he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up
the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that
my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by
the nations, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate
themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Thus says the LORD: “In a time of favour I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the
desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, ‘Come forth’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear’. They
shall feed along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their pasture.”

OR 39, 14-16. 20, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
Christ is illumined, let us shine forth with him; Christ is baptized, let us descend with him, that we may
also ascend with him.
John baptizes, Jesus comes to him; perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the
whole of the old Adam in the water; and before this and for the sake of this, to sanctify Jordan. As he
is Spirit and flesh, so he consecrates us by Spirit and water.
John will not receive him: Jesus contends. I have need to be baptized by you, says the lamp to the Sun,
the voice to the Word, the friend to the Bridegroom; he that is above all those who are born of
women to him who is the First-born of every creature; he that leaped in the womb to him who was
adored in the womb; he who was and is the Forerunner to him who was and is to be manifested. I
have need to be baptized by you; add to this and for you; for he that he would be baptized by
martyrdom, or, like Peter, that he would be cleansed not only as to his feet.
But further – Jesus goes up out of the water; for with himself he carries up the world and sees the
heaven split open which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity, as the gates of Paradise
by the flaming sword.
And the Spirit bears witness to his Godhead, for he descends upon One that is like him, as does the
Voice from heaven (for he to whom witness is borne comes from thence) and like a dove seen in
bodily form it bestows honour on his body, since this is also God by being deified. And moreover, the
dove has from distant ages been wont to proclaim the end of the Deluge.
Let us however today venerate the Baptism of Christ, and let us celebrate the feast honourably.
Wash yourselves and keep yourselves clean. God rejoices in nothing so much as in the amendment
and salvation of men, on whose behalf is every word and all the sacraments. Be cleansed so that you
may be like lights in the world, a life-giving force to all other men, and stand as perfect lights
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beside that great Light, and learn the mystery of the illumination of heaven, enlightened by the
Trinity more purely and clearly, of which even now you are receiving in a measure the One Ray
from the one Godhead in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom be the glory and the power for ever and
ever. Amen.
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PATRISTIC VIGILS
READINGS
Year I
ORDINARY TIME: WEEKS 1 TO 17

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MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GREETING AND THANKSGIVING: ROMANS 1:1-17
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God. which he
promised beforehand through his Prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel concerning his Son, who
was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to
the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have
received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among
all the nations, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; To all God’s beloved in
Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the
world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that without
ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last
succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to
strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and
mine. I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have
been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the
Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish:
so I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for
faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ROMANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

COMMENTARIUS IN EPISTOLAM AD ROMANOS, ARGUMENTUM EPISTOLAE; JOANNIS
CHRYSOSTOMI OPERA OMNIA (PARIS 1837) 9: 461-5.
As I keep hearing the Letters of the Blessed Paul read, sometimes twice a week and often
three or four times when we are celebrating the memory of the Holy Martyrs, I rejoice and enjoy
hearing this spiritual trumpet, and my desire is inflamed. I recognise this voice which is so dear to
me and imagine him all but present to my sight and I see him conversing with me. But I am sad
that all people do not know this man as well as they ought. Some are so ignorant of him that they
do not even know for certain how many letters he wrote! And this comes not from inability, but
from their not having the will to be continually conversing with this holy man.
It is not through any natural ability or sharpness of wit that even I am acquainted with as much
as I do know, if I do know anything, but my knowledge comes from a constant use of his writings
and a great love for the man. For those who love know best what belongs to their beloved, as
they have them constantly in their thoughts. This is shown by the holy man himself to the
Philippians, when he says: It is right for me to feel thus about you, because I hold you in my
heart, in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel.
And so you too, if you are willing to apply yourselves to reading him with a ready mind, will need no
other help. For the word of Christ is true: Seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you.
For from ignorance of the Scriptures have the countless evils of our time arisen; from this ignorance
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the plague of heresies has broken out among us so violently; from this ignorance so many live
negligent lives. Just as men deprived of daylight would not walk straight, so those who do not look
to the shining of the Holy Scriptures must needs be frequently sinning as they are walking in the
worst of darkness.
So that this may not be the case with us, let us open our eyes to the bright shining of the Apostle’s
words; for this man’s tongue shone forth above the sun, and he abounded more than all the rest in
the word of doctrine. For such was this holy soul that he embraced the whole world and carried
about all men within himself. And he loved them more than any father loves his children, it was as if
he had begotten them all himself; for such is the grace of the Spirit that it exceeds the bonds of the
flesh.
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD’S ANGER AGAINST THE WICKED: ROMANS 1:18-32
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by
their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God
has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal
power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without
excuse; for although they knew God they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they
became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they
became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or
birds or animals or reptiles.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their
bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. Their women exchanged natural
relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were
consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in
their own persons the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper
conduct. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy,
murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty,
boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they
know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve
those who practice them.

CONFESSIONS X.6; WORD IN SEASON V
Wherever I look, heaven and earth and all that is in them tell me that I should love you, Lord; and they
cease not to tell it to all men, so that there is no excuse for them. But what is it that I love when I love
you? Not the beauty of any bodily thing, nor the order of seasons, not the brightness of light that
rejoices the eye, nor the sweet melodies of all songs, nor the sweet fragrance of flowers and
ointments and spices: not manna nor honey, not the limbs that carnal love embraces. It is not these I
love when I love God. Yet in a sense I do love light and melody and fragrance and food and embrace
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when I love my God - the light and the voice and the fragrance and the food and embrace in the soul,
when that light shines upon my soul which no place can contain, that voice sounds which no time can
take from me, I breathe that fragrance which no wind scatters, I eat the food which is not lessened by
eating, and I lie in the embrace which satiety never comes to sunder. It is this that I love, when I love
my God.
And what is the object of my love? I asked the earth and it answered: “I am not he”; and all things
that are in the earth made the same confession. I asked the sea and the depths and the creeping
things, and they answered: “We are not your God; seek higher.” I asked the winds that blow, and the
whole air with all that is in it answered: “Anaximenes was wrong; I am not God.” I asked the heavens,
the sun, the moon, the stars, and they answered: “Neither are we God whom you seek.” And I said to
all the things that throng about the gateways of the senses: “Tell me of my God, since you are not he.
Tell me something of him.” And they cried out in a great voice: He made us. My question was my
gazing upon them, and their answer was their beauty. I asked the whole frame of the universe about
my God and it answered me: “I am not he, but he made me.”
Surely this beauty should be self-evident to all of sound mind? Then why does it not speak to
everyone in the same way? Animals great and small see it, but cannot put a question about it; for in
them reason does not sit in judgement upon the evidence of their senses. But men can question it,
and so should be able clearly to see the invisible things of God understood by things which are made;
but they love created things too much and become subject to them, and subjects cannot judge. All
these things refuse to answer those who ask, unless they ask with power to judge. If one person
merely sees the world, while another not only sees but questions it, the world does not change its
speech – that is, its outward appearance which speaks – in such a way as to appear differently to the
two people; but it presents exactly the same face to each, saying nothing to the one, but answering
the other: or rather it gives its answer to all, but it is only understood by those who hear its outward
voice through their senses and compare it with the truth within themselves. For truth says to me:
“Your God is not heaven or earth or any corporeal thing.”
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE JUST JUDGEMENT OF GOD: ROMANS 2:1-16
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing
judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things. Do you suppose, O
man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the
judgment of God? Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience?
Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and
impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous
judgment will be revealed. For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by
patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for
those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.
There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the
Greek, but glory and honour and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the
Greek. For God shows no partiality.
All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under
the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God,
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but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what
the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that
what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their
conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my Gospel, God
judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS 2.4.1, 5, 7; FOC 103 (2001) TR. SCHECK
In the Scriptures a hard heart refers to a human mind which, like wax hardened by the cold of
wickedness, cannot receive the imprint of God’s image. Its opposite is a soft heart, which in the
Scriptures is called a heart of flesh. When someone knows what is good and does not do it, he is said
to be contemptuous of all good things because of the hardness of his heart. For hardness of heart
occurs when the mind has no feeling for a refined and spiritual understanding.
The day of wrath will be a day of vengeance and judgment, as is clear from many passages of
Scripture. But note that it will also be a day of revelation, when all things are to be revealed. Some
people want to know why this day has been fixed for the end of the world, so that everyone who has
died from the beginning to the end of time is held over for judgment on the last day. It is certain that
the real reasons for this are concealed in the secret mysteries of God, but we shall try to give some
explanation for it insofar as it is possible to do so in writing.
There are many who, when they leave this life, leave behind them seeds of good or evil that will
sprout after their deaths and become occasions either for salvation or for damnation for those who
are left behind. I would say, for instance, that this applies to all those philosophers who founded
depraved sects which are far from God, or who practised astrology, not to mention those among us
who promoted heresies by the books they wrote, or who have brought about divisions in the Church.
On the other side there is the work of the apostolic writings and the emergence through them of the
universal Church. These things will go on to the end of time, and therefore the judgment of God will
not be just until the final results are known. It may also be that the saints who are outside the body
and who dwell with Christ may be doing something and working on our behalf like the angels, who
minister to us for our salvation. On the other hand, perhaps sinners who have also left the body are
doing something in line with the disposition of their mind, like the fallen angels. These things too are
among the hidden things of God and have not been committed to writing. But they will be made
known on the day of wrath and revelation.
Now let us consider what is meant by the just judgment of God, in which he will reward each one
according to his works. First of all, we must reject the heretics who say that souls are good or evil by
nature and maintain instead that God will reward each one according to his deeds and not according
to his nature. Second, believers are to be instructed not to think that it is enough merely to believe;
they ought to realise that the just judgment of God will reward each one according to his works.
Finally even unbelievers are not excluded from this, if they do good.
THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DISOBEDIENCE OF ISRAEL: ROMANS 2:17-29
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will
and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are
a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of
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children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth – you then who teach others, will
you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must
not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who
boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, The name of God is
blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision
becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his
uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep
the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For he is
not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a
Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His
praise is not from men but from God.

SPECULUM CARITATIS 10-11; WORD IN SEASON V
Charity – a short word indeed, but with its meaning of perfect and unalloyed love it sums up the
whole human attitude to God and his creatures; or, to use our Lord’s own explanation, it is on charity
that all the Law and the Prophets depend. Surely for us, then, there can be no need to demand great
signs and miracles as the Jews were wont to do. For charity gives the soul a spiritual circumcision: the
delights of a never ending sabbath, the saving victims offered by the loving soul to God, the perfumed
incense and fragrant smoke of sacrifice – these are merely some of the fruits of charity when it is
firmly rooted in the soul. Yet none can flourish or even live in a soul where charity is not present.
The circumcision effected in the soul by charity is the complete casting off of our baser inclinations as
they affect both body and soul. The result is that the flames of lust are quenched and anger’s heat is
cooled. Tempering also the appetites of gluttony, charity further roots out all envy and banishes
completely the mother of all vices, pride. And it so soothes the sting of melancholy in the soul that
even accidie, that spiritual torpor which is the aftermath of melancholy, is waylaid. Yet another effect
of charity’s circumcision of the soul is that munificence cuts the shackles of graspingness so that
nothing – least of all the desire for wealth – can take God’s place in the soul’s devotion.
Surely no physical operation could have greater effect than this spiritual circumcision which
amputates vice, drains the pus of sin, removes the dead skin of original sin, and burns away the gan-
grene of long-standing evil. Then the mind is untroubled by fear or worry, for the calm of perfect love
reigns there. Lust’s evil desires can leave no stain, anger’s raging will never again sear the soul, nor
will pride inflate it with self-importance. Gone is the blinding desire for earthly glory together with the
heat of anger and the sting of ambition. No longer does the soul yearn for masses of worldly wealth,
no more can sadness make it downcast nor envy gnaw at it. For as Saint Paul tells us, when charity
reigns in the soul, there is no envy or double-dealing, no arrogance or self-centredness, no self-pity or
self-aggrandizement.
It is easy to see, then, that the circumcision of the soul destroys all evil at the same time as it purifies
all the senses of the body, just as the surgeon’s knife cores out a poisoned wound.
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FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ALL MEN ARE UNDER THE POWER OF SIN: ROMANS 3:1-20
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin
with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their
faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every man be false,
as it is written, “That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and prevail when thou art judged.” But if
our wickedness serves to show the justice of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict
wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if
through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a
sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? – as some people slanderously charge us with
saying. Their condemnation is just.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both
Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one
does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive. The venom
of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of
God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every
mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no human being
will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AUGUSTINE

EXPOSITIO QUARUNDAM PROPOSITIONUM EX EPISTOLA AD ROMANOS 13-18 (PL 35:2065-6);
WORD IN SEASON V
Some think that passages like: No one will be justified in God’s sight by the Law, for through the Law
comes knowledge of sin, must be intended as a reproach to the Law. Such passages need to be read
carefully, for otherwise the Apostle may seem either to condemn the Law, or to take away human
free will.
The Law is good because it forbids what ought to be forbidden and commands what ought to be
commanded. But when men imagine that they can fulfil the Law by their own strength without the
grace of their Saviour, this presumption proves useless, and in fact even harms them, for they are
then seized by a stronger desire to sin, and through their sins they also become transgressors. For
where there is no Law, neither is there transgression.
Therefore, let the prostrate sinner, knowing that he cannot rise by his own strength, implore the aid
of the Saviour. Then he will be given grace which will forgive past sins, assist his own efforts, bestow a
love of righteousness, and take away fear. Even after this happens, various desires of the flesh will
continue to battle against our spirit as long as we are in this present life, and will try to lead it into sin,
but the spirit, firmly established in the grace and love of God, will resist these desires and cease to sin.
For we sin not by having evil desires, but by consenting to them.
Another saying of the Apostle is relevant here: Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, to make you
obey its desires. He shows here that we still have evil desires, but by refusing to yield to them we
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prevent sin from reigning within us. These desires spring from our mortal condition, being inherited
from the original sin of the first man, to whom we owe our physical birth. Consequently, they will not
cease until we have earned the transformation promised us in the resurrection of the body, when
there will be perfect peace because nothing will resist us once we cease to resist God. This is the
teaching of the Apostle: The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of
righteousness. If then the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
Jesus Christ from the dead will give life even to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you.
Free will, then, existed perfectly in the first man; but in us, before we receive grace, free will does not
enable us to avoid sin, but only to want to avoid it. When we have grace, however, we not only want
to act rightly, but we can; not by our own strength, but by the help of the Saviour, who at the
resurrection will also grant us the perfect peace that results from good will, according to the text:
Glory to God in the highest, and peace to men of good will.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH COMES THROUGH FAITH: ROMANS 3:21-31
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the
Prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by
his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an
expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his
divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself
is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No,
but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. Or is
God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one;
and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their
faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS IV, 142-7; WORD IN SEASON V
The highest blessedness of any creature is to be under the Law, the highest glory is obedience. It is
our shame, not our privilege, that we do not obey as the angels do. Men speak as if the Gospel were
glorious, because it destroyed the law of obedience. No; it destroyed the Jewish Law, but not the holy
Law of God therein contained and manifested. And if that holy Word, which endures forever in
heaven, which is co-eternal with God, is a bondage to us, as it is by nature, so much the more shame
for us. It is our great sinfulness, not any inherent defect in the Law, which makes it a bondage; and
the message of the Gospel is glorious, not because it releases us from the Law, but because it enables
us to fulfil it – fulfil it (I do not say wholly and perfectly), but with a continual approximation to perfect
obedience, with an obedience running on into perfection, and which in the next world will rise into
and result in perfection. This is Saint Paul’s account of it, Being not without Law to God, he says, but
under the Law to Christ. Again, Not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, that is, that kind
of obedience to the Law to which he by himself attained, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
that high and spiritual obedience which faith in Christ, aided by the grace of Christ, enabled him to
accomplish.
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When then I say that religion, considered as a Law or code of morals, is a bondage, let no one
suppose me to countenance that presumptuous and unchristian spirit, which seems to exult in being
through Christ free (as it thinks) from the Law, instead of being bound and able through Christ to obey
it more perfectly. The glory of the Gospel is, not that it destroys the Law, but that it makes it cease to
be bondage; not that it gives us freedom from it, but in it; and the notion of the Gospel which I would
describe as cold and narrow is, not that of supposing Christianity a law, but of supposing it to be
scarcely more than a law, and thus leaving us where it found us.
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BY FAITH: ROMANS 4:1-25
What then shall we say about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was
justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture
say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now to one who works, his
wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who
justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David pronounces a blessing upon
the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose iniquities
are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon
his sin.”
Is this blessing pronounced only upon the circumcised, or also upon the uncircumcised? We say that
faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or
after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received
circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still
uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised
and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the father of the circumcised who
are not merely circumcised but also follow the example of the faith which our father Abraham had
before he was circumcised.
The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come
through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be
the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law
there is no transgression.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all
his descendants – not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of
Abraham, for he is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations” –
in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence
the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of
many nations; as he had been told, “So shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when
he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old,
or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the
promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was
able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. But the
words, it was reckoned to him, were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be
reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for
our trespasses and raised for our justification.
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COMMENTARY ON JOHN X (PG 74:386-7); WORD IN SEASON V
It is written in a book of Moses that Abraham believed in God and that his faith was counted as
righteousness and he was called a friend of God. How did he show his faith, and why was he called
God’s friend? He heard God say to him: Leave your own land and your kindred, and go to the land that
I will show you. When he was commanded to sacrifice his only son as a type of Christ, he learned
God’s hidden purpose. Hence the Saviour’s remark about him to the Jews: Your father Abraham
rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.
It was therefore through obedience and sacrifice that Abraham came to be called a friend of God, and
won his glorious crown of righteousness. Nor was this all; he was even deemed worthy to converse
with God, and he knew God’s plan, which was to be accomplished in the last days. For in the fullness
of time Christ died for us, he who was the truly sacred and holy sacrifice that takes away the sin of the
world.
But now see how events have repeated themselves for those who rise through faith to the friendship
of our Saviour Christ. They too heard the command to leave their country, and that they left it eagerly
we know from their own declaration that We have here no lasting city, but seek one that is to come,
whose builder and maker is God. For those who are citizens of heaven are strangers and sojourners on
earth; so great is their love for God that they have abandoned as it were their native land, and long
for the resting place above. The Saviour gave them a glimpse of this when he said to them: I am going
to prepare a place for you; and when I come again I will take you with me, so that where I am you may
be also. They heard the command to leave their kindred. How shall we show this? We will refer to
Christ’s own words: Anyone who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. There
can be no doubt that relationship with God comes before earthly and physical relationship, and that
among his followers love for Christ is far stronger than any other love. Blessed Abraham was
commanded to offer his own son to God as a fragrant odour; others, girded with the righteousness of
faith, are commanded to offer only themselves. Present your bodies, wrote the Apostle, as a living
sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God – that is your spiritual worship. Of these it is also written:
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, with its passions and desires.
Such people know the mystery that is in Christ, since they know the powers of the age to come, and
what will happen at the end of time, when they will receive the rewards of their labours, and the
recompense for their devotion to Christ. Thus, like Abraham, we shall be called righteous and friends
of God.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

MAN’S JUSTIFICATION THROUGH CHRIST: ROMANS 5:1-11
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of
sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope
does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
which has been given to us.
While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a
righteous man--though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for
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us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his
blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be
saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
we have now received our reconciliation.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST AUGUSTINE

TRACTATUS IN EVANGELIO JOHANNIS 32.9 (CCL 36:305-6); WORD IN SEASON V
To learn that the love of which we speak belongs to the Holy Spirit, listen to St. Paul, when he says,
The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Why, then, was it the will of the Lord, that he gave the Spirit only after his Resurrection, seeing what
great benefits are given to us when the Spirit is poured into our hearts? What is the meaning of this?
It was so that in our earnest desire for our own resurrection we should be detached from the world in
order to hasten towards God. Let us not set our hearts on anything here, where we are born, and
where we die. Rather, by love let us pass from hence, and through that love we have for God, dwell in
heaven through love. In our pilgrimage through this life let our hearts be set only on this, that we are
not to stay in this world for ever, but by living a good life, there shall be prepared for us a dwelling
place from which we will never depart. Our Lord Jesus Christ, since he is risen again, dies no more. As
St. Paul says, Death no longer has any dominion over him. This is where we must set our love.
See what the Lord has promised us, instead. Not earthly and temporal riches, not honour and power
in the world. For these things are given to evil men, so that good men may think less of them. He has
not promised bodily health, which he gives even to animals. Not a long life, for how can that be called
long, which comes to an end? He has not promised us believers long life, or old age, as if they were
something important. After all, people wish to live to old age, but when it comes, they find it a matter
for grumbling. He has not promised physical beauty, which disease, or that longed-for old age
destroy. People wish to be beautiful, and want to live to old age, but the two desires are not
compatible! If you live to be old, you will not be beautiful. When old ages comes, beauty flees away.
Flourishing beauty, and old age with its complaints are not found together in one body. Christ has
promised none of these things. Rather, what he has promised is that those who believe in him should
come to him and drink. From his heart flow streams of living water. He has promised us eternal life,
where we shall no longer be afraid, suffer no disturbance.
We shall never pass from thence, for there will be no dying or weeping for one who is dead, while at
the same time hoping for someone to succeed the person who has died. Such things he has promised
us: things which fill us with fervent love, the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is why it was not his good
pleasure to give us his Spirit until he had been glorified. In his Risen Body he shows us the life which
we do not yet possess, but which we hope to have through our own Resurrection.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE OLD AND THE NEW ADAM: ROMANS 5:12-21
Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to
all men because all men sinned – sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not
counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins
were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one mans trespass, much more have
the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And
the free gift is not like the effect of that one mans sin. For the judgment following one trespass
brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of
one mans trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the
abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads
to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by one
mans obedience many will be made righteous. Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign
through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 61 (PL 14:1224-5); WORD IN SEASON V
When our Lord Jesus assumed our human nature in order to purify it in his own person, his first task
was surely to destroy the primary infection of original sin. It was through disobedience and
challenging of God’s command that wrongdoing had crept in, and obedience had to be restored
before anything else if transgression was to be denied room in which to develop. It was through
disobedience that the canker of sin had spread, and therefore our Lord’s first duty as a good physician
must be to cut out the tumour at the roots, so that the surface of the wound may feel the healing
effect of his medicine. And so Jesus accepted obedience for himself in order to impart it to us. It was
only right that as through one man’s disobedience all men were reckoned as sinners, so through one
man’s obedience all should be reckoned just.
This means that those who maintain that Christ assumed our carnal nature but not our passions are
very far from the truth; indeed they contravene our Lord’s own intention by depriving him of his
manhood, for without human passions he could not be a man at all. Human nature without human
passions would incur neither merit nor guilt. What Christ had to take upon himself and heal was the
actual fountainhead of guilt, in order to stop up the source of transgression and any further outlets
for wrongdoing.
It was as man, then, that he was made weak, as man that he suffered, as man that we thought of him
in his sufferings; but he overcame his weaknesses instead of being overcome by them. It was for us he
suffered, not for himself. He was made weak not account of any sins of his own but on account of
our sins, so that by his stripes we might be healed. He took our sins upon himself both to
assume the burden of them and to purge them away, and because of this he shall obtain many
for his inheritance and share out the spoils of the strong. His acceptance of the burden of our sins
is bound up with their remission, his purging of them with their correction. And so in taking it
upon himself to suffer with us he took it upon himself to accept our own subjection; and
whereas his subjection of all things to himself is his divine prerogative, his own acceptance of
subjection belongs to the human nature he shares with us.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BAPTIZED ARE CONFIGURED TO CHRIST: ROMANS 6:1-11
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we
who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
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were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be
destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we
have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised
from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died
to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to
sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

COMMENTARY ON ROMANS, V.8 (PG 14:1041-2); WORD IN SEASON V
Pondering deeply on the Apostle’s words about being buried with Christ in Baptism we can gather
this: that just as no one who is still alive can be buried with someone who is dead, so no one who is
still alive to sin can through Baptism be buried with Christ who is dead to sin. Therefore those who are
hastening to Baptism take care that they die to sin beforehand, and are thus able to be buried with
Christ in Baptism; then they too will have the right to say, We always carry about in our body the
death of Jesus Christ, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus Christ may be manifested.
Now Paul himself shows how the life of Jesus Christ is manifested in the body when he says, I live, but
it is no longer I: it is Christ who lives in me. The Apostle John is saying the same thing when he writes
in his letter, Every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Of
course this does not imply that any person who has pronounced these syllables and uttered them in a
public profession of faith will be deemed to be moved by the Spirit of God; it refers rather to one who
has shaped his life in such a way, and borne such fruit in good works, as to demonstrate by the very
religious value of his actions and sensitivity that Christ has come in the flesh, has died to sin and is
alive to God.
Let us look now at a further saying of Paul’s: So that as Christ rose from the dead by the Father’s
glory, we too may walk in newness of life. If we have been buried with Christ in the sense already
mentioned – that is, by the fact that we have died to sin – then it certainly follows that as Christ rises
from the dead we too shall rise together with him; as he ascends to heaven we too shall ascend
together with him; as he sits at the right hand of the Father, we too shall be said to sit with him in
heaven. Indeed, the same Apostle teaches elsewhere: He has raised us with Christ, and made us sit
together with him in the heavenly places. Christ rose through the Father’s glory; if we too have died to
sin and been buried with Christ, if all who see our good works glorify our Father in heaven, then it can
rightly be said of us that we have risen with Christ by the Father’s glory, to walk in newness of life.
Let us walk then in newness of life, showing ourselves new every day to him who has raised us to life
with Christ; new, and, if I may so put it, daily more beautiful, as our faces reflect the radiance of
Christ. As we gaze on the glory of the Lord, in him let us be transformed into his likeness, for Christ,
having risen from the dead and from his earthly abasement, has ascended to the glorious majesty of
the Father.
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THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

RIGHTEOUSNESS IS TO BE OBSERVED: ROMANS 6:12-23
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your
members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been
brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not
know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you
obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks
be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the
standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become
slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as
you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your
members to righteousness for sanctification.
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you
get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that
you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification
and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
A READING FROM THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS BY ST

AUGUSTINE
THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS 2.28.45-46; WSA (1997) TR. TESKE
The Apostle refers to the law of sin as ‘sin’, when he says, Let sin, then, not reign in your mortal
body so that you obey its desires. It does not remain in the members of those who have been
reborn of water and the Spirit, as though it were not forgiven, once they received the full and
complete forgiveness of sins. Rather, it remains in the old condition of the flesh as something
overcome and destroyed, provided it does not to some extent revive through our consenting to what
is wrong and it is not recalled into its own kingdom and dominion.
The Apostle sharply distinguished the life of the Spirit, in whose newness the baptized are reborn
through the grace of God, from this old condition of the flesh in which this law of sin, or sin, has
already been forgiven. It was not enough for him to say that such persons were not in sin; he also
added that they were no longer in the flesh, even before they departed from this mortal life. He said,
But those who are in the flesh cannot please God; you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, provided that the Spirit of God dwells in you. And yet, those who apply its members to
good works make good use of this flesh, corruptible as it is, though they are not in this flesh, because
they neither think nor live in accord with it.
Believing married couples make good use even of that law of sin which remains in the old condition of
the flesh, though already forgiven, for, inasmuch as they are in the newness of Christ, they do not
allow lust to rule over them. But inasmuch as they still bring with them the old condition of Adam,
they bear children subject to death who need to be reborn for immortality. The law of concupiscence,
then, remains in the members, but, despite its remaining, its guilt is removed. It is removed in one
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who has received the Sacrament of rebirth and has begun to be renewed. But one who is born from
that old condition of concupiscence that remains needs to be reborn in order to be healed, because
believing parents who have been born in the flesh and reborn in the Spirit have begotten children in
the flesh. But how could children in any sense be reborn before they are born?
Do not be surprised that I said that, although the law of sin remains in concupiscence, its guilt is
removed by the grace of the Sacrament. For wicked thoughts, words, and deeds have passed away
and no longer exist in terms of any movement of the mind and body they involved. But though they
have now passed away and no longer exist, their guilt remains, unless it has been removed by the
forgiveness of sins. So, conversely, this law of concupiscence has not passed away, but still remains,
though its guilt is removed and no longer exists, when the full forgiveness of sins takes place in
Baptism. Just as, then, it is not surprising that the guilt of past thoughts, words, and deeds remains
prior to the forgiveness of sins, so it ought, conversely, to come as no surprise that after the
forgiveness of sins the guilt ceases, while the concupiscence remains.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

‘IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE LAW, I SHOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN SIN’: ROMANS 7:1-13
Do you not know, brethren – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law is binding on
a person only during his life? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he
lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she
will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband
dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to
another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we
were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear
fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that
we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should
not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not
covet. But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness.
Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died; the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me.
For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy,
and the commandment is holy and just and good.
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me
through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment
might become sinful beyond measure.

SERMON 153; WSA (1992) TR. HILL
The reading that I have undertaken to explain, with the help of God’s mercy, is this obscure and
troublesome passage of the Apostle’s letter, which is, however, very helpful and wholesome to those
who understand it rightly.
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For when we were in the flesh, he says, the passions of sins which came through the Law were working
in our members, to bear fruit for death. Here it seems that the Apostle is blaming and finding fault with
the Law of God. The Manichees say that the Law of God which was given through Moses was not in fact
given by God and is contrary to the Gospel. But read on, go a little further, listen to the whole passage
with patience; What therefore are we to say, he continues, that the Law is sin? Perish the thought. At a
stroke he has acquitted the Law and condemned its accuser. Perish the thought that the Law may be
sin. But I would never have known about sin, he goes on, except through the Law. For I would not know
about lust, unless the Law said: You shall not lust. Is the Law bad that says, You shall not lust? Not even
the most shameless of lechers will give me that answer. After all, even the most dissolute rakes blush
when they are rebuked for their behaviour; and when they are in the company of clean-living people,
they don’t dare to indulge in loose behaviour. So if you say that the Law is bad which says, You shall not
lust, it means you want to lust with impunity.
But seizing its opportunity, sin through the commandment worked in me every kind of lust. There was
less lust when you were sinning before hearing the Law; but now that the Law's barricades have been
set in place against you, the stream of lust has been checked a little as by a dam, but not dried up.
When there were no barriers it used to carry you along; now its pressure builds up, it bursts the
barriers and overwhelms you. But what are you to do, O man? The reason you haven’t been
victorious is that you have been presumptuously self-reliant. Your lust has conquered you because it
found you in a bad place; it found you in the flesh. Emigrate from there. Don’t panic, I haven’t told
you to die – or rather I have the nerve to say, yes, I have told you to die. If you have died with Christ,
seek the things that are above. While living in the flesh, don’t go on being in the flesh; start being in
the Spirit instead.
To heal sinners, the Saviour came from the virgin; he didn’t come to you the way you came, seeing
that he didn’t originate from the sexual appetite of male and female, not from that chain of lust.
Because of this he sets you free. Where did he find you? Sold under sin, lying in the death of the first
man, having guilt before you could have any free choice. He found you as a baby, but you have got
beyond your infant years, you've grown up: to the first sin you have added many more, you have
received the Law, you have turned out a transgressor. But don’t worry: Where sin abounded, grace
has abounded even more.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

‘I AM CARNAL, SOLD UNDER SIN’: ROMANS 7:14-25
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions.
For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that
the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that
nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do
not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no
longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of
God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and
making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will
deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of
myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
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FROM ON NATURE AND GRACE 53.61; WSA (1997) TR. TESKE
Let us now see whether Scripture says that the flesh is opposed to the baptized as well. Where and to
whom did the Apostle speak these words? The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh, for these are opposed to each other so that you do not do those things which you will. He
wrote them to the Galatians, I believe, the same people to whom he said, Did he who gave you the
Spirit and worked miracles among you do this because of the works of the Law or because of the
acceptance of the faith?. From these passages it is clear that he is speaking to Christians and to
people to whom God has given the Spirit; he is speaking, then, to those who have been baptized.
See, we have discovered that the flesh is opposed even to the baptized and they do not have that
ability which he says is inseparably implanted in nature. What has happened to his question, ‘How is it
possible that the flesh is opposed to anyone who has been baptized?’ The term ‘flesh’ in this passage,
in fact, refers not to the nature of the flesh, which is good, but to its defects. But no matter how he
might understand ‘flesh’, notice that the flesh is, nonetheless, opposed even to the baptized. How is it
opposed? So that they do not do what they will. See, the will is present in the human being; where is
that ability of nature? Let us admit that grace is necessary; let us cry out, Wretched man that I am!
Who will set me free from the body of this death? And our answer is: The grace of God through Jesus
Christ, our Lord.
After all, when one asks these people, as it is perfectly correct to do, ‘Why do you claim that apart
from the help of God’s grace a human being can be without sin?’, the question does not have to do
with the grace by which human beings were created, but with the grace by which they are saved
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Moreover, in prayer the faithful say, Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil. If they have the ability, why do they make this prayer? Or from what evil do they
ask to be set free if not especially from the body of this death, from which they are set free only by
the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. They do not ask to be set free from the substance of
the flesh which is good, but from the defects of the flesh from which human beings are not set free
without the grace of the Saviour, not even when they leave the body through the body's death. In
order to make this point, what did the Apostle previously say? I see another law in my members that
resists the law of my mind and holds me captive in the law of sin which lies in my members. See the
injury which the will’s disobedience has inflicted upon human nature. Let him pray to be healed! Why
does he expect so much from the ability of nature? It is wounded, injured, beaten, ruined; it is in need
of a true confession, not of a false defence. Let it ask, then, for the grace of God, not that by which it
is created, but that by which it is restored.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FREED IN THE SPIRIT: ROMANS 8:1-17
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law,
weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he
condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh
set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on
the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life
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and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to Gods law,
indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who
does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies
are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your
mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you live
according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will
live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of
slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba!
Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if
children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order
that we may also be glorified with him.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ROMANS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

HOMILIES ON ROMANS 14.3 (BAREILLE 16:36-8); WORD IN SEASON V
All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received does not enslave you
and make you afraid. No; you have received the Spirit of sonship so that you cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’
The baptized know the power of this word, for they are rightly instructed to use it for the first time
when they say the Lord’s prayer after their Baptism. You may ask if the Jews did not also call God
Father, if Moses did not say, You forsook the God who was your Father and if Malachi did not remind
those he was reproaching that they all had one Father and were created by one God. But despite
these and many similar texts, we never find them actually addressing God thus in prayer.
Yet this is how we, both priests and lay people, both rulers and subjects, are all commanded to pray.
Our Father is the first word we speak after our marvellous rebirth in Baptism. We have been taught
that as the Spirit gives the wisdom that enlightens the foolish, the power by which weak human
beings have raised the dead and cast out devils, the gifts of healing, of prophecy and of tongues, so
also the Spirit makes us sons of God. And just as we recognize the Spirit’s gift of prophecy from the
fact that those possessing it foretell the future, speaking not from their own knowledge but under the
inspiration of grace, so also we recognize the Spirit’s gift that makes us God’s sons from the fact that
he inspires whoever receives it to call God ‘Father’. In his desire to make us realize that we really are
sons of God, Paul made use of a Hebrew word. He said not only ‘Father’, but ‘Abba, Father’, which is
the word used in addressing a father by one who is in actual fact his son.
Then, after speaking of what we gain from our new way of life with its gift of grace and freedom, he
shows in still another way the dignity of divine adoption. He says: The Spirit of God joins with our spirit
to declare that we are sons of God. But if we are sons we are also heirs, heirs of God. And we are not
only heirs but something even greater: we are coheirs with Christ. See how he strives to bring us close
to the Lord! Since not all sons are heirs, he declares that we are both sons and heirs. And since not all
heirs have a very great inheritance, he shows the greatness of ours by saying that we are heirs of God.
If it is an inexpressible grace to be a son of God, think what it means to be also an heir! And if this is
something great, how much greater it is to be a coheir with God’s only Son!
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Then, to show that grace is not the only factor upon which this gift depends and at the same time to
make his words more credible, he continues: provided we suffer with Christ, in order that we may also
be glorified with him. In other words, if we share with him in what is painful, much more shall we
share in what is blissful. Since God bestowed such great blessings upon those who had no good deeds
to their credit, when he sees that they have endured trials and much suffering he can hardly fail to
repay them with even greater blessings.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CERTAIN GLORIFICATION: ROMANS 8:18-39
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be
revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the
creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope;
because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of
the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;
and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as
we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now
hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not
see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the
Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men
knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God.
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to
his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined
he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also
glorified.
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge
against Gods elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who
was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we
are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY THEODORET OF

CYRRHUS
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, 4 (PG 81:205-8); WORD IN SEASON V
Our Saviour wishes us to use the Cross as a sign in all our meditations and actions and imprint it as a
symbol of himself on everything we do or say, just as the portrait of a monarch is on all genuine royal
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coinage. It will not be difficult for you to do this, he says, if you continue in your love for me, because
love is as strong as death. As by God’s decree death conquers everything, so too does love overcome
all things, proving stronger even than death itself. Think of the Cross as a example to inspire you. If
the thought of it remains strong in your hearts, you will refuse to regard anything else as more
precious; or to let anything dishearten or discourage you. The sign of the Cross will put you in
communion with me.
Many waters, says Scripture, cannot quench love nor can rivers overwhelm it. All the holiest people in
the Old Testament as well in the New bear witness to this truth. Abraham’s love for God could not be
extinguished by his removing and settling in a foreign land nor by the hardship which poverty and
hunger brought nor by the taking away of his wife nor by the sacrifice of his son nor by the dispute
about wells. Nor could Isaac’s love be destroyed by the troubles which afflicted him. Nor was Jacob’s
love weakened by the unceasing labours and sorrows of his life. What could be more bitter than the
trials to which Joseph was subjected? He was sold by his brothers, deprived of the love of his parents
and the house of his fathers and forced into slavery. His purity earning him only calumny, he was
thrown into prison and subjected to innumerable hardships, yet in all these troubles his love for God
shone the brighter.
Then, passing over other saints, the blessed Paul will be enough to demonstrate to us the power of
love since he gave more proof of it than anyone else. What can separate us from the love of God? he
asks. Can tribulation, hardship or persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger or the sword? As Scripture
says, ‘For your sake we are being put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter.’ But in all these trials, he says, we have complete victory because of Christ’s love for us.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE ELECTION AND THE SIN OF ISRAEL: ROMANS 9:1-18
I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race. They are Israelites,
and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the
promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God
who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong
to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but “Through Isaac
shall your descendants be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the
children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants. For this is what the
promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also
when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet
born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might
continue, not because of works but because of his call, she was told, “The elder will serve the
younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will
have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So it
depends not upon mans will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I
have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be
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proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart
of whomever he wills.
A READING FROM ST AUGUSTINE’S ANSWER TO 2 LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS

AN ANSWER TO THE TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 4.6.16; WSA (1998) TR. TESKE
Why does God make certain men sheep and not others, since there is no partiality in him? This is
the question which certain people pose with more curiosity than mental capacity, and the
blessed Apostle answers, Who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Does the clay pot say to its
maker: Why have you made me so?. This is the question involving that depth at which, when he
tried to examine it, the same Apostle gasped and cried out, Oh the depth of the riches of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and unsearchable his ways! For
who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first given him
something so that he will be repaid? For from him and through him and in him are all things; to him be
glory for ever.
And so, let these people not dare to search out this unsearchable question, for in defending merit
before grace and, therefore, in opposition to grace, they want first to give God something so that they
will be repaid. They want first to give him something from their free choice so that grace might be
given to them in return as a reward. Let them understand with wisdom or believe with faith that they
received from him from whom are all things, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things,
even what they suppose that they first gave him. But as for the question why this one receives and
that one does not receive, when neither of them merits to receive and whichever of them receives
does not receive something owed to him, let them take measure of their powers and not search out
mysteries that are beyond them.
Let it suffice for them to know that there is no injustice in God. For when the Apostle found no merits
by which Jacob was preferred before God over his twin brother, he said, What then shall we say? Is
there injustice in God? Heaven forbid! For he said to Moses, I shall take pity on whom I shall take pity,
and I shall show mercy, to whom I shall show mercy. Therefore, it does not depend on the one who
wills or runs, but upon God who takes pity. Let his gratuitous mercy, then, be gratefully received, even
if this profound question remains unsolved. It is, nonetheless, solved to the extent that the Apostle
solved it, when he said, What if in wishing to show his anger and demonstrate his power, God
tolerated with great patience the vessels of anger which were made for destruction in order to make
known the riches of his glory toward the vessels of mercy which he prepared for glory. He does
not, of course, reveal his anger unless it is deserved so that there is no injustice in God, but his mercy,
even when it is offered without being deserved, is not injustice in God. From this the vessels of mercy
understand how gratuitously he shows them his mercy, because he reveals his deserved and
righteous anger to the vessels of anger with whom they form a common mass and share the same
grounds for their destruction. And let this answer suffice against those who want to destroy the
generosity of grace through the freedom of choice.
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WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FREE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR: ROMANS 9:19-33
You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, a
man, to answer back to God? Will what is moulded say to its moulder, Why have you made me thus?
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and
another for menial use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has
endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, in order to make known the
riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us
whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call ‘my
beloved’. And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’, they will be called
sons of the living God.”
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the
sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; for the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with
rigor and dispatch. And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us children, we would
have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is,
righteousness through faith; but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did
not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were
based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in
Zion a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall; and he who believes in him
will not be put to shame.”
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA

SERMON 9 (PL 20:902-6); WORD IN SEASON V
It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. We who were once Gentiles were
dogs, and the Jews of that time were the children; the Lord was therefore unwilling to take the
children’s bread and give it to the dogs. But once the heavenly bread itself came to his own domain,
and his own people did not accept him; once this same Lord of ours was acknowledged by the
Gentiles, who were formerly dogs, while the children barked blasphemy against him; and once these
same children cried out, We have no King but Caesar when Pilate objected to pronouncing sentence
of crucifixion against Christ whom he thought to be their King – then God once again said of them
through the Prophet: I begot children and brought them up, but they have scorned me.
But they shall be converted in the evening, as the Prophet says, and suffer hunger like dogs. The Jews
themselves will also be converted, but belatedly, in the evening of the world. For it is written: Though
the number of the sons of Israel be as the sands of the sea, a remnant of them will be saved. And the
Apostle Paul proclaims that the Jews will be stricken with blindness until the full number of the
Gentiles has entered in. They shall be converted at the end of the world and will hunger for the word of
God like the dogs that wanted to fill themselves with the crumbs that fell from their master’s table. The
Gentiles who were once dogs are thus adopted as children, while the children are compared to dogs. All
unbelievers are surely beasts, not indeed in their natures but by reason of their way of life; for when they
prospered people lacked wisdom; they became like ignorant beasts.
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Therefore, even though the Jews had acted impiously like the Gentiles, but with a greater measure of
guilt, Christ nonetheless continued to love them, not for their own sake but for the sake of their
righteous ancestors; though they were still unworthy, he called them children in order to convert
them; being compassionate and sharing the Father’s love for them he was unwilling hastily to deprive
them of himself, the heavenly bread and author of life, and give himself to the Gentiles, until the
latter by their steadfast faith should have put the unbelieving children to shame, and until he himself
should have come in the flesh to teach and instruct the children. He would chastise them with gifts of
healing; because they remained ungrateful, he would pass judgment on them by divine miracles;
since they disdained to be converted to the faith, he would condemn them. And when at last their
wickedness had reached its extreme in his Passion, he would, after his own resurrection, turn to the
Gentiles, give himself to them as the bread of life, and grant them the cup of the Holy Spirit to drink in
the water of Baptism.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ONE LORD OF JEWS AND GENTILES: ROMANS 10:1-21
Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness
that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that
comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to Gods righteousness. For
Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified.
Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it.
But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”
(that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from
the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word
of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is
justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. The Scripture says, “No one who believes in
him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord
of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For, “every one who calls upon the name of
the Lord will be saved.”
But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in
him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can
men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach
good news!” But they have not all obeyed the Gospel; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what
he has heard from us?” So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching
of Christ.
But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and
their words to the ends of the world. Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will
make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then
Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to
those who did not ask for me.”
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
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SERMON 153; WSA (1992) TR. HILL
When Saul was persecuting the Church he was stumbling over the stone of stumbling. Christ was
lying, lowly and humble, on the ground; he was also, to be sure, in heaven, his flesh that had been
raised from the dead having been lifted up there. But unless Christ were also lying on the ground, he
wouldn’t cry out to Saul, Why are you persecuting me?
But those now who stumbled over the stone of stumbling; what does the same Apostle say about
them? Because not from faith, he says, but as though from works. Because they, as though through
their own justice, stumbled at the stone of stumbling; as it is written: Behold, l am placing in Zion a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal; and whoever believes in him shall not be confounded.
Whoever believes in him, you see, will not have his own justice, which is from the Law, though the
Law is good; but he will fulfil that very Law not with his own justice but with that given by God.
So those men stumbled over the stone of stumbling and the rock of scandal. And he says about them,
Brothers, the good will of my heart and my prayer to God is for them unto salvation. The Apostle is
praying for those who don’t believe, that they may believe; for those who have turned away, that
they may turn back to God. You can see how not even this turning back or conversion happens
without God’s help. My prayer, he says, to God is for them unto salvation. For I bear them witness
that they have the zeal of God. Just as he too used to have it himself; he used to have the zeal of God.
But not according to knowledge. What’s this, not according to knowledge? For being ignorant of
God’s justice, and wishing to establish their own.
Remove yourself, remove, I repeat, yourself from yourself; you just get in your own way. If it’s you
that are building yourself, it’s a ruin you’re building. Unless the Lord has built the house, they have
laboured in vain, who build it. So stop wishing to have your own justice. It’s the Apostle Paul speaking;
those who love their own justice mustn't put the blame on me. Here’s where you can find him. Open
it, read, listen, see. Don’t have your own justice; the Apostle counts it as dung, even though it’s from
the Law, but still because it’s his own. For being ignorant of God’s justice, and wishing to establish
their own, they did not subject themselves to the justice of God.
Don’t think that just because you call yourself a Christian, you cannot for that reason stumble over
the stone of stumbling. When you disparage his grace, you stumble over him. It’s less serious to
stumble at Christ hanging on the Cross than at Christ seated in heaven. Let there be justice in you, but
let it be from grace, let it come to you from God; don’t let it be your own. This is what the Apostle
Paul preached: ‘Let it come to you from God.’ Sigh to obtain it, weep to obtain it, believe in order to
obtain it. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, he says, shall be saved.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD HAS NOT REJECTED ISRAEL: ROMANS 11: 1-12
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of
Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do
you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they
have killed thy Prophets, they have demolished thy altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.
But what is God’s reply to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the
knee to Baal. So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is
no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed
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to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave
them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very
day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs for ever.”
So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their trespass salvation has come
to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if
their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS OF BLESSED WILLIAM OF

SAINT-THIERRY
COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 6.11 (PL 180:658-9); WORD IN SEASON V
God’s people was the Jewish nation, to which belonged the adoption, the glory, the covenant, and the
Law. That people had been given all the signs that promised the Saviour. Well then, has that entire
nation been condemned? By no means! But the threshing floor has been winnowed and the mass of
grain has settled, while the chaff lies outside. If you see any Jews who are reprobate, they are chaff.
Those however who were foreknown and predestined have not been rejected. The rest, God says, are
mine. What does he mean by saying, The rest are mine? He means: I chose them because I saw that
they do not rely on themselves or on Baal. They have not degenerated, but are as I made them. Thus a
remnant has been saved, chosen by grace.
Christian, be on guard against pride. Even if you imitate the saints, attribute it all to grace because it
was grace and not your merits that caused you to be of the remnant. It is of this remnant that the
Prophet speaks. If you rely on your merits or works, then longer grace that is given to you but a
reward which you have earned. But if the choice is based on grace, then it is not due to your works;
otherwise grace would cease to be grace.
The words, chosen by grace, mean that we who were evil were to be good by the grace of him who
makes the choice. Grace does not find merits already there but creates them. What then? Israel did
not obtain what it sought. What did Israel seek that it did not obtain? Paul said earlier that though
Israel looked for a righteousness based on the Law it failed to fulfil the Law because it tried to do so
not by faith but by works. It followed the Law that prescribes works, and sought righteousness
therein, but did not find it. The elect, on the other hand, whether from among the Jews or from the
Gentiles, attained to it by following the law of grace, the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life. The
rest, however, because they refused to believe when they could have done so, were hardened, that is,
they became unable to believe. For those who freely sin are punished in their very freedom; just as
those who deliberately call false what is true are afterward unable to comprehend the truth. Such is
the reward not of simple ignorance but of deliberate bad will.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

‘IF THE ROOT IS HOLY, SO ARE THE BRANCHES’: ROMANS 11:13-24
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an Apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my
ministry in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection
means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the
dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
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But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place
to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is
not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, “Branches were broken off
so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you
stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the
natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity
toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness;
otherwise you too will be cut off. And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be
grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by
nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more
will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

ADVERSUS HAERESES 5.9.4-10 (SC 153:122-6); WORD IN SEASON V
To save us from forfeiting life by losing the Spirit who possesses us, and to exhort us to share in the
Spirit, the Apostle declares that it is impossible for flesh and blood to gain possession of the
kingdom of God. In other words: Do not deceive yourselves, for if the Word of God and the Spirit of
the Father do not dwell in you, and you lead a life of vanity and carelessness, as though you were
merely flesh and blood, you cannot obtain the kingdom of God.
He says this to prevent us from indulging our physical nature and spurning the grafting of the spirit,
for when you were a wild olive, he says, you were grafted into the cultivated olive and came
to share that olive’s rich sap. So just as with a grafted wild olive, if the graft fails to take it is cut
off and thrown into the fire, but if the graft is successful and the wild olive takes on the qualities of
the cultivated one, it develops into a fruitful olive, like one planted in a royal garden, so we too, if
faith leads us to reform and we receive the Spirit of God and produce the fruit of that Spirit, we too
shall be spiritual, as if planted in the garden of God; but if we spurn the Spirit and remain what we
were before, choosing to belong to the flesh rather than the Spirit, we would rightly be told: It is
impossible for flesh and blood to gain possession of the kingdom of God: in other words, no
wild olive will be admitted into God’s garden. Thus in comparing flesh and blood with the wild olive,
the Apostle has given us a wonderful picture of our nature and of the whole of God’s plan for us.
The olive, if neglected and left to grow for a time in some deserted spot, becomes a wild olive again
and produces poor fruit, but if it is taken care of once more and grafted, it returns to its earlier
fertility. And it is the same with us. We too may become careless and allow the bad fruit of worldly
desires to grow in us, and by our own fault fail to bear the fruits of righteousness. While we sleep the
enemy sows weeds, which is why the Lord commanded his disciples to be watchful. If, however, when
we have become barren of righteousness and as it were entangled in brambles, we are cared for
again and receive the word of God like a graft, we then return to our original nature, the nature
created in the image and likeness of God.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FUTURE CONVERSION OF ISRAEL: ROMANS 11:25-36
Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening
has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be
saved; as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and
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this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As regards the Gospel they are
enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their
forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to
God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient
in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy. For God has consigned all men
to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments
and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his
counsellor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him
and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.
A READING FROM THE DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-

CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, NOSTRA AETATE 4; WORD IN SEASON V
The Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to the mystery of God’s saving design, the
beginnings of her faith and her election are already found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the
Prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ, the sons of Abraham according to faith, are
included in the same patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church was mystically
foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of bondage.
The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through
the people with whom God in his inexpressible mercy deigned to establish the ancient covenant. Nor
can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been
grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by his Cross Christ,
our peace, reconciled Jew and Gentile, making them both one in himself.
Also, the Church ever keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen, who have the
adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenant and the legislation and the worship and the
promises; who have the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, the son of the Virgin
Mary. The Church recalls too that from the Jewish people spring the Apostles, her foundation stones
and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ to the world.
As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in
large number accept the Gospel; indeed, not a few opposed the spreading of it. Nevertheless, -
according to the Apostle, the Jews still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for he does
not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls he issues. In company with the Prophets and same
Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in
a single voice and serve him with one accord.
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

NEW LIFE IN SPIRITUAL WORSHIP: ROMANS 12:1-21
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good
and acceptable and perfect.
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For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he
ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God
has assigned him. For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the
same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion
to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his
exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy,
with cheerfulness.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly
affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the
Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of
the saints, practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep
with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the
lowly; never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of
all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge
yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the
Lord.” No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will
heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

CONFERENCE 14, 4-6; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
Practical perfection, or praktiké, which leads to the higher step of contemplation, is divided among
many professions and pursuits. For some people are completely set upon the remoteness of the
desert and on purity of heart, as we know Elijah and Elisha were in times past and the blessed Antony
and others were in our own day, pursuing the same chosen orientation and attaching themselves very
closely to God by the silence of the desert. Some have devoted every painstaking effort of theirs to
the instruction of the brothers and to the constant care of the cenobia, as we recall was the case
lately with Abba John. The kindly duty of welcoming strangers is attractive to some. This was how,
also in times past, the patriarch Abraham and Lot pleased the Lord, and lately there was the blessed
Macarius, a man of extraordinary gentleness and patience. He presided over a hostel in Alexandria in
such a way that he should not be considered inferior to any of those who pursued the remoteness of
the desert. Some choose the care of the sick, some are intent upon teaching, and others give alms to
the poor, and among great and noble men they have flourished by reason of their love and their
goodness.
Therefore it is beneficial and proper for each person, in accordance with the orientation that he has
chosen and the grace that he has received, to strive most zealously and diligently to attain to
perfection in the work that be has undertaken. He may praise and admire the virtues of others, but he
should never depart from the profession that he has once chosen, knowing that, according to the
Apostle, the body of the Church is indeed one, although its members are many, and that it has, gifts
differing according to the grace which has been given to us; whether prophecy, in proportion to our
faith; or service, in our serving; or he who teaches, in teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation.
Some members cannot claim for themselves the ministries of other members, for the eyes cannot
perform the function of the hands nor the nose of the ears. Therefore not all are Apostles, not all are
Prophets, not all are teachers.
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Those who are not yet established in the profession that they have undertaken are accustomed, when
they hear some people commended for their different virtues, to be so taken up with their praise that
they immediately desire to imitate their practices. In such cases human frailty inevitably expends its
efforts in vain. For it is impossible for one and the same person to shine simultaneously in all the
virtues that I have listed above. If someone wants to strive after all of them together, in his pursuit of
them he will of necessity not possess a single one completely, and he will suffer loss rather than make
gain as a result of this diversity and variation. For there are many ways that lead to God, and
therefore each person should finish the one that he has taken up, intent upon his course, so that he
may be perfect in his profession, whatever it may be.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VARIOUS PIECES OF ADVICE: ROMANS 13:1-14
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God,
and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists
what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good
conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and
you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for
he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.
Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid Gods wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For
the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very
thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due,
respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the
law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You
shall not covet”, and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your
neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation
is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then
cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as
in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling
and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its
desires.

CONFESSIONS VIII, 28-29; WSA (1997) TR. BOULDING
A huge storm blew up within me and brought on a heavy rain of tears. In order to pour them out
unchecked with the sobs that accompanied them, I arose and left Alypius; for solitude seemed to me
more suitable for the business of weeping. I withdrew far enough to ensure that his presence – even
his – would not be burdensome to me. This was my need, and he understood it, for I think I had risen
to my feet and blurted out something, my voice already choked with tears. He accordingly remained,
in stunned amazement, at the place where we had been sitting. I flung myself down somehow under
a fig-tree and gave free rein to the tears that burst from my eyes like rivers, as an acceptable sacrifice
to you. Many things I had to say to you, and the gist of them, though not the precise words, was: O
Lord, how long? How long? Will you be angry for ever? Do not remember our age-old sins. For by
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these I was conscious of being held prisoner. I uttered cries of misery: “Why must I go on saying,
‘Tomorrow ... tomorrow’? Why not now? Why not put an end to my depravity this very hour?”
I went on talking like this and weeping in the intense bitterness of my broken heart. Suddenly I heard
a voice from a house nearby – perhaps a voice of some boy or girl, I do not know – singing over and
over again, “Pick it up and read, pick it up and read.” My expression immediately altered and I began
to think hard whether children ordinarily repeated a ditty like this in any sort of game, but I could not
recall ever having heard it anywhere else. I stemmed the flood of tears and rose to my feet, believing
that this could be nothing other than a divine command to open the book and read the first passage I
chanced upon; for I had heard the story of how Antony had been instructed by a Gospel text. He
happened to arrive while the Gospel was being read, and took the words to be addressed to himself
when he heard, Go and sell all you possess and give the money to the poor: you will have treasure in
heaven. Then come, follow me. So he was promptly converted to you by this plainly divine message.
Stung into action, I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for on leaving it I had put down
there the book of the Apostle’s letters. I snatched it up, opened it and read in silence the passage on
which my eyes first lighted: Not in dissipation and drunkenness, nor in debauchery and lewdness, nor
in arguing and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh or the
gratification of your desires. I had no wish to read further, nor was there need. No sooner had I
reached the end of the verse than the light of certainty flooded my heart and all dark shades of doubt
fled away.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SOLICITUDE OF THE STRONG IN FAITH TOWARDS THE WEAK: ROMANS 14:1-23
As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he
may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who
abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him.
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands
or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand.
One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let
every one be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honour of the
Lord. He also who eats, eats in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who
abstains, abstains in honour of the Lord and gives thanks to God. None of us lives to himself, and none
of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether
we live or whether we die, we are the Lords. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might
be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall
all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall
bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So each of us shall give account of himself to
God.
Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block
or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is
unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean. If your brother is being injured by
what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for
whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food
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and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; he who thus serves Christ is
acceptable to God and approved by men. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual
upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is
wrong for any one to make others fall by what he eats; it is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do
anything that makes your brother stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God;
happy is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves. But he who has doubts is
condemned, if he eats, because he does not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith
is sin.

COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 9.39.2-4; FOC 104 (2002) TR. SCHECK
In the exposition of this epistle, we have repeatedly spoken about what it means to live in Christ and
what it means to die in Christ. We did this especially in that passage where we attempted to explain
the Apostle’s words, But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with
him. If we call to mind what was said in that passage, then the words the Apostle has set forth in the
present passage will become clearer: how none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For
no one provides a pattern of death for himself, he takes it from Christ who alone has died for sin, so
that he too, by imitation of Christ, can become estranged from sin and dead to it. Moreover, we do
not have the pattern of life from ourselves, but we have received it from the resurrection of Christ, as
the same Apostle says, In order that, as Christ rose again from the dead through the glory of the
Father, so also you might walk in newness of life.
So then, the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is attributed to
the Lord, since it began with him not with us. And for that reason, whether we live, we live to the Lord;
whether we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. He
calls “death” that by which we have died to sin, having been buried together with Christ and baptized
into his death. And he calls “life” that by which we have become strangers to this world. We who are
alive from the dead live not for ourselves, that is for the flesh, but for God, as Paul adds: For to this
end Christ died and lived, so that he might be Lord of the dead and the living.
He says that Christ has died, doubtless by the dispensation of suffering; but he lives through the
mystery of the resurrection. Whence also he has left a pattern for us: first of suffering and
mortification, then later of resurrection and newness of life. It is accepted that Christ’s dominion is
over all creation in two ways. First, as the Creator of all things and bearing authority over all things, he
holds all things under subjection by the force of his majesty and by the compulsion of power. In this
way he exercises lordship not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over bad and
apostate spirits, and over those whom Holy Scripture has designated as evil angels.
But there is another way by which, as the Good and the Son of the good Father, he does not want to
influence rational spirits toward obedience to his Law by compulsion, but he waits for them to seek
the Good willingly and come of their own accord. It is for this reason, after all, that he thinks it worthy
to go to death, so that he might leave behind a pattern of obedience and a type of dying for those
who are willing to die to sin and to the vices. Thus the Apostle writes in the present passage that the
reason he died and lived was that he might be Lord over both the living and the dead: of the living,
that is those who, by the pattern of his resurrection, lead a new and heavenly life on earth; of the
dead, doubtless those who carry around the mortification of Christ in their own body and who put to
death their own members that are on the earth.
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THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST TEACHES TOLERANCE: ROMANS 15:1-13
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each
of us please his neighbour for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is
written, “The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me.” For whatever was written in
former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the
Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in
such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that
Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the
promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is
written, “Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name”; and again it is said,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”; and again, “Praise the Lord, all Gentiles, and let all the peoples
praise him”; and further Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in
him shall the Gentiles hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that
by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

CONFERENCE 16.22-23; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMESY
Our Lord and Saviour instructed us thoroughly in the virtue of patience and mildness when he gave us
this formula for gospel perfection: If anyone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other as
well. In doing this he did not want us to follow it by mere lip service but to remove completely the
dregs of wrath from the inmost depths of the soul. Thus, if your outer right cheek has received a
blow, the inner man should also humbly offer his right cheek to be struck, suffering along with the
outer man. The inner man therefore submits its own body to the injustice of the striker, so that he
may not be disturbed even silently within himself at the blow dealt to the outer man.
Thus we shall conquer the attacker’s rage with our mildness, and thus we shall also fulfil the apostolic
words: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This can by no means be fulfilled by
those who utter words of mildness and humility in a proud spirit. They not only do not calm the fiery
rage that has been conceived; on the contrary, they cause it to flare up more in their own mind than
in that of their enraged brother. Yet, even if in some way they could remain gentle and calm, they
would never receive any fruits of righteousness thereby because they are claiming the glory of
patience for themselves by way of their neighbour’s loss. Thus they are very far indeed from that
apostolic love which does not seek what is its own but rather what belongs to others. For it does not
want riches in such a way as to make a profit for itself at its neighbour’s expense, nor does it
desire to acquire anything to someone else’s impoverishment.
It should certainly be known that, as a rule, he who submits his own will to his brother’s will acts a
stronger part than he who is more obstinate in defending and holding on to his own opinions. For the
former, in putting up with and tolerating his neighbour, obtains the status of one who is healthy and
strong; whereas the latter has the status of one who is somehow weak and sickly, who must be so
flattered and coaxed that even essential things must be changed for the sake of his calm and peace.
In this, to be sure, the strong man should not believe that his perfection is at all diminished, although
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by giving in he has somewhat mitigated his intended strictness. On the contrary he should realise that
he has gained much more by his tolerance and patience. For the apostolic precept has it: You who are
strong should bear with the infirmities of the weak, and: Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will
fulfil the Law of Christ. For one weak man never puts up with another weak person, nor will someone
who is sick be able to endure or heal someone else who is ailing in the same way. Rather, it is he who
is himself not subject to infirmity who bestows healing on the infirm. Rightly is it said to him:
Physician, heal yourself.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MINISTRY AND WAY OF LIFE OF AN APOSTLE: ROMANS 15:14-33
I myself am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all
knowledge, and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by
way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the
Gentiles in the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be
acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work
for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win
obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel
of Christ, thus making it my ambition to preach the Gospel, not where Christ has already been named,
lest I build on another mans foundation, but as it is written, “They shall see who have never been told
of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him.”
This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer
have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I
hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped on my journey there by you, once I have
enjoyed your company for a little. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem with aid for the
saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among
the saints at Jerusalem; they were pleased to do it, and indeed they are in debt to them, for if the
Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in
material blessings. When therefore I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been
raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain; and I know that when I come to you I shall come in the
fullness of the blessing of Christ.
I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with
me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and
that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by Gods will I may come to you
with joy and be refreshed in your company. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 10 (PG 14:1276-7); WORD IN SEASON V
I beg you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to help me with your prayers
to God. Who that reads of Paul asking the brethren in Rome to pray for him will be too proud to ask
for the Church’s prayers, even if those whose prayers they request seem to be lower in merit than
themselves? Here is Paul, endowed with the merits of an Apostle, urging not only the Romans but
even the Corinthians to pray for him! Observe, moreover, the strong religious obligation by which he
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binds them to do so: I beg you, he says, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to help
me with your prayers to God.
The Latin words for to help me with your prayers translate a much stronger Greek term which means
to strive together with me by your prayers. He thus reveals that his own prayer is a conflict, a struggle,
probably against those of whom he said: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against
principalities and powers, of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
heavenly places. For it is certain that just as all these powers are hostile to faith and opposed to
religion and make war on justice and truth and everything that is good, so too they obstruct and
oppose prayer.
If Paul thinks it necessary to ask the Romans to help him in this struggle, then clearly the struggle
involved in prayer is no minor one. The first way in which the demons and hostile powers obstruct
prayer is by trying to ensure that those who exert themselves in this struggle will be unable to lift up
hands that are clean and free from anger. Furthermore, even if those praying manage to be free from
anger, they will hardly avoid distractions, that is superfluous and empty thoughts. You will scarcely
find anyone who is not subject in prayer to some empty and irrelevant thoughts that turn aside and
interrupt the attention of the mind to God and carry it away by inappropriate reflections.
Prayer, then, is a mighty struggle. A mind always fixed on God contends with unwavering attention
against the enemies opposing it, who try to steal away the spirit of prayer by wandering thoughts. It
can then say in all honesty: I have fought the good fight; 1 have finished the race.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

RECOMMENDATIONS, GREETINGS AND DOXOLOGY: ROMANS 16:1-27
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae, that you may receive
her in the Lord as befits the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has
been a helper of many and of myself as well.
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom
not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house.
Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert in Asia for Christ. Greet Mary, who has
worked hard among you. Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners; they are
men of note among the Apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in
the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is
approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsman Herodion.
Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord,
Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus,
eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas,
and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and
all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet
you.
I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition
to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord
Christ, but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the simple-
minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I would have you wise as
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to what is good and guileless as to what is evil; then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under
your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.
I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.
Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our
brother Quartus, greet you.
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed
and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations, according to the command of the
eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God be glory for evermore
through Jesus Christ! Amen.

LAST HOMILIES 5 (BAREILLE 20:513-5); WORD IN SEASON V
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreae: she has been a helper to
many people, including myself. What are you saying, Paul – a woman has been your assistant, and you
are not ashamed, you do not blush to admit it? Far from being ashamed, he says, I am proud of it. My
Master was not ashamed to have a woman as his mother.
After this Paul praises another woman, and for the same reason. Salute Priscilla and Aquila, he
says. Notice the prominence given to the woman: they are a single couple, but the woman is placed
before the man. Paul did not say Aquila and Priscilla, but Priscilla and Aquila. Who were they? Tent-
makers, whose home was their workshop. But neither their trade nor their poverty was any barrier
for Paul. On the contrary, the blessed Apostle requested their hospitality, preferring their house to
any other in the city. Why did he do so? Not because of its pillars, its marble, its floor with mosaic
decorations, its roof of gold, its numerous slaves, but rather because it was a house which was free
from all these things. By hard and honest work this woman and her husband made their house a
Church; they were neither grasping nor greedy, but content simply to earn their living. And for all
these reasons Paul regarded their house as a suitable lodging.
And so that you may understand that he stayed there because he knew the virtue of this couple,
listen to his next words: They risked their necks for my life; it is not only I myself who am
grateful to them, but all the gentile Churches. Did you notice that nothing hindered them on
the path of virtue, neither the fact that one was a woman, nor their trade, nor their poverty? Did you
notice the warmth of their hospitality, and how they not only welcomed the Apostle to their table but
would have shed their blood for him? For what matter if they were not actually killed? They did everything
in their power; again and again they were ready at any time to die for Paul. For he did not say: They
squandered their money on me, or they opened their house to me, but gave first place to what was
greater than anything else, the sacrifice of life, so that he said in effect: They were willing even to die for
me.
Priscilla and Aquila gave up their possessions, their bodies and their very lives. Do you realize what a
great thing it is for a woman to love virtue, and for a man to live in poverty in a humble trade? Let us
vie with them and follow their example. Let us also despise the goods of this world, and give
everything we have to be among those whom God thinks well of. Then we too shall obtain the good
things of the life to come, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with
whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and forever. Amen.
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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PREFACE. DIVISIONS AMONG THE FAITHFUL: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-17
Paul, called by the will of God to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints
together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord
and ours:
I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,
that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge – even as the testimony
to Christ was confirmed among you – so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for
the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord.
I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be
no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it
has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarrelling among you, my brethren. What I
mean is that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas, or I
belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of
Paul? I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius; lest any one should say that
you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not
know whether I baptized any one else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the
Gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 49-50; WORD IN SEASON V
Let anyone truly possessed by the love of Christ keep his commandments. Who can express the
binding power of divine love? Who can find words for the splendour of its beauty? Beyond all
description are the heights to which it lifts us. Love unites us to God; it cancels innumerable sins, has
no limits to its endurance, bears everything patiently. Love is neither servile nor arrogant. It does not
provoke schisms or form cliques, but always acts in harmony with others. By it all God’s chosen ones
have been sanctified; without it, it is impossible to please him. Out of love the Lord took us to himself;
because he loved us and it was God’s will, our Lord Jesus Christ gave his life’s blood for us – he gave
his body for our body, his soul for our soul.
See then, beloved, what a great and wonderful thing love is, and how inexpressible its perfection.
Who are worthy to possess it unless God makes them so? To him therefore we must turn, begging of
his mercy that there may be found in us a love free from human partiality and beyond reproach. Every
generation from Adam’s time to ours has passed away; but those who by God’s grace were made
perfect in love have a dwelling now among the saints, and when at last the kingdom of Christ appears,
they will be revealed.
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Blessed are we, beloved, if love enables us to live in harmony and in the observance of God's
commandments, for then it will also gain for us the remission of our sins. Scripture pronounces
blessed those whose transgressions are pardoned, whose sins are forgiven. Blessed is the man, it says,
to whom the Lord imputes no fault, on whose lips there is no guile. This is the blessing given those
whom God has chosen through Jesus Christ our Lord. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE CROSS, THE WISDOM OF GOD: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-31
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I
will thwart. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not
God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know
God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to
Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men.
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many
were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame
the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and
despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human
being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God
made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written,
Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY EUSEBIUS OF EMESA

SERMON 14.7-8; WORD IN SEASON V
Supposing two men come to a city without food, money, or a change of clothes. Who do you think
would welcome them, where would they find an open door? Who would want to know them? What
sort of lodging would they find and where would they start to look for it? One must surely marvel at
the power of one who could send his disciples out in such a way, and at the faith of those whom he
sent.
What had these men to offer? What was their message? “He was crucified,” they said. The preachers
were Jews, men of lowly station, ignorant, illiterate, poor. Their teaching was about a Cross: hence
the need for faith. But power triumphs through difficulties. The Cross was proclaimed and temples
were destroyed; the Cross was proclaimed and kings were conquered; the Cross was proclaimed and
the worldly-wise were put to shame, pagan festivals were abolished, and pagan deities destroyed.
Why be so amazed that the Apostles were believed, or that they themselves could believe, and that
they returned home safely after being welcomed everywhere? But these are truly great marvels and
we should not fail to realize this. Unknown strangers, poorly dressed and without contacts, travelled
all over the world proclaiming someone who had been crucified, and offering a life of fasting in place
of drunkenness, and irksome self-restraint in place of sensuality. It can hardly have been easy for
those addicted to such vices to receive these exhortations to renounce them and live upright lives.
And yet whole peoples seized upon this teaching, whole nations embraced it.
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What was the treasure these men cherished? The power of the Cross. Before the crucifixion the
disciples did nothing, or if they did it was not known; but after the crucifixion they accomplished mar-
vels, that is to say, after the sacred blood had cancelled the bond that stood against us; after that
blood had cleansed us from our uncleanness; after death had been dealt a death-blow by a death; -
after God, through his humanity, had conquered him who was destroying humanity; after sin had
been put to death through obedience; after Adam had been restored to grace by the second Adam;
after error had been corrected through the Virgin.
The Apostles obeyed and their very shadows raised the sick, for Christ filled with his power those with
whom he dwelt. They were not what they were before, what we all were, but were clothed with
Christ. And as a bar of iron before heat is applied to it is cold and just like any other iron, but becomes
glowing hot when placed in a fire, laying aside its natural coldness and burning with heat itself, so
when mortal men are clothed with Jesus they perform the same works as he does. This is what Paul
teaches when he says: I live, but it is not I – he has undergone a blessed death – but Christ lives in me.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM IS REVEALED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD: 1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-16
When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words
or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was
with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in
plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not
rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of
this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which
God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if
they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen,
nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”, God
has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For
what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one
comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of
the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by
God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting
spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.
The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is
not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all
things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to
instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE

CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
HOMILIES ON 1 CORINTHIANS 7.1-2 (BAREILLE 16:393-6); WORD IN SEASON V
We impart the wisdom of God in a mystery. A mystery does not need to be proved, but simply
proclaimed. It would not be a wholly divine mystery if you added to it anything of your own. Besides,
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the reason it is called a mystery is that we cannot penetrate its depths: what we see is one thing,
what we believe is another. In this lies the very nature of our mysteries.
My reactions to them are therefore different from the reactions of an unbeliever. When I hear that
Christ was crucified I am filled with amazement at his love for us, but to the unbeliever this shows -
weakness. When I hear that Christ became a servant I am astonished at his solicitude for us, but to
the unbeliever this is a disgrace. When I hear that Christ died I marvel at his power, since he was not
conquered by death, but instead put an end to death. The unbeliever, however, sees Christ’s death as
a sign of helplessness.
The unbeliever regards the resurrection as pure fiction, but I accept the proven facts and venerate
God’s saving plan. In Baptism the unbeliever sees only water, but I perceive not only what meets the
eye, but also the purification of the soul by the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever thinks only the body is
cleansed, but I believe that the soul also is made pure and holy, and I am reminded of the tomb, the
resurrection, our sanctification, justification, redemption, adoption, and inheritance, of the kingdom
of heaven and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I judge outward appearances not by what I see but by the
eyes of the mind. When the body of Christ is mentioned, the words have one meaning for me,
another for the unbeliever.
Just as the letters on a page are meaningless to a child who has not learned to read, so it is with the
Christian mystery. Unbelievers are deaf to what they hear, whereas the experience of the Spirit
empowers believers to perceive its hidden meaning. Paul made this clear when he said: Our preaching
is obscure, but only for those on the way to perdition. Something proclaimed everywhere without
being understood by those lacking an upright spirit is undoubtedly a mystery. For to the extent that
we are able to receive it, it is revealed not by human wisdom but by the Holy Spirit. Rightly therefore,
is the mystery said to be a secret, for even we believers have not been given a completely clear and
accurate knowledge of it. As Paul said: Our knowledge and our prophesying are imperfect. We see now
as it were a dim reflection in a mirror, but then face to face. This is why he said: We impart the wisdom
of God in a mystery predestined by God before all ages for our glory.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DUTY OF MINISTERS IN THE CHURCH: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-23
But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I
fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for
you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and
behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, I belong to Paul, and another, I belong to Apollos, are
you not merely men?
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to
each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who
waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal,
and each shall receive his wages according to his labour. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are
God’s field, God’s building.
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and
another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other
foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each man’s work will become
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manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what
sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he
will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be
saved, but only as through fire.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys
God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.
Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a
fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, He
catches the wise in their craftiness, and again, The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.
So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or
life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 46-48 (SC 167:176-80); WORD IN SEASON V
Why are there quarrels among you, outbursts of anger, dissentions, fighting? Have we not one God,
one Christ, one Spirit of grace poured out upon us and one vocation in Christ? Why should we rend
and tear asunder the limbs of Christ? Why rise up against our own body, reaching such a point of
madness as to lose sight of the fact that we are members of one another? Remember the words of
Jesus our Lord: Woe to that man; it would have been better for him never to have been born than to
have caused one of my elect to stumble, better for him to have been thrown into the sea with a great
millstone hung about him than to have depraved one of my elect. Your bickering has depraved many; it
has cast many into doubt and all of us into grief. Yet your turbulence still persists!
Take up again the letter of the blessed Apostle Paul. What was it that he wrote to you at the
beginning, when you first heard the Good News? Truly, it was under the guidance of the Spirit that he
sent you that letter about himself and Cephas and Apollos, because you were engaged in partisan
strife even then. And yet those factions brought on you a lighter sin, for at least you were taking sides
in favour of accredited Apostles and of a man approved by them.
Let us put a speedy end to this and cast ourselves in tears at the Lord’s feet, begging him to be
graciously reconciled to us and to restore us to the noble and pure way of life that was ours, the way of
love for one another.
This is the gate of righteousness that opens onto life, just as it written: Open to me the gates of
righteousness; l will enter through them and give praise to the Lord. This is the Lord’s own gate,
through which the just shall enter. Many gates stand open, but the gate of righteousness is the gate of
Christ. Blessed are those who enter it and direct their course in holiness and justice, carrying out all
they have to do calmly. One may be full of faith, speak with power of the knowledge one has
received, be skilful in the interpretation of discourse, and chaste in conduct; but the greater one is
accounted, the more one is bound to be humble-minded, and to seek the common advantage rather
than one’s own.
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THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EXHORTATION AGAINST PRIDE: 1 CORINTHIANS 4:1-21
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small
thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not
aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light
the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will
receive his commendation from God.
I have applied all this to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you may learn by us not to
go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favour of one against another. For
who sees anything different in you? What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it,
why do you boast as if it were not a gift?
Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would
that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us
Apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the
world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak,
but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and
thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When
reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have
become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things.
I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though
you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ
Jesus through the Gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my
beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere
in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon,
if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the
kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a
rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
A READING FROM ON THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS BY ST

AUGUSTINE
ON THE PUNISHMENT AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS 2.18.28-31; WSA (1997) TR. TESKE
We men strive to find in our will some good that is ours and that we do not have from God, but I do
not know how one can find such a good. We have heard the words of the Apostle, when he was
speaking about human goods, After all, what do you have that you have not received? But if you
have received, why do you boast as if you have not received? But the path of reason, upon which
people like us can enter, presses each of us investigating this question not to defend grace in such a
way that we seem to destroy free choice and not to stress free choice in such a way that we are
judged ungrateful to the grace of God because of our wicked pride.
Some want to defend the words of the Apostle I mentioned by saying that we should attribute
whatever good will we have to God, because it could not exist in us if we did not exist. Why shouldn’t
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we attribute to God as its author whatever good will we have, since we have it from God alone that
we are anything at all? It would not, after all, exist, unless we existed in whom it is found? But in that
way one could also say that we should also attribute to God our bad will, because it could not exist in
a man, unless the man existed in whom it is found. God is the author of the existence of the man.
Thus, one would have to credit God with being the author of this bad will too, since it could not exist
if it did not have a man in which to exist. But it is utterly wrong to say that!
Hence, we must maintain not only that the choice of the will, which freely turns this way and that and
which belongs to the natural goods which a bad person can misuse, but also that the good will, which
already belongs to those goods which cannot be misused, can come to us only from God. Otherwise, I
do not know how we are going to defend the words of Scripture, After all, what do you have that you
have not received?. For, if we have from God a free will that can become either good or bad, while the
good will comes from us, what comes from us is better than what comes from God. If, then, the will is
either good or bad and if we certainly do not have a bad will from God, it remains that we have a
good will from God. Otherwise, I do not know what other gift of his we ought to rejoice in, when we
are made righteous by him. And for this reason, I believe, Scripture says, The will is prepared by the
Lord, and the Apostle also says, It is God, after all, who produces in you the willing and the action in
accord with good will.
Our turning away from God is our own doing, and this turning is an evil will. But our turning toward
God is something we cannot do unless he rouses us and helps us, and this turning is a good will.
Hence, what do we have that we have not received? But if we have received, why do we boast as if
we had not received? And for this reason, Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ADVICE ABOUT IMMORAL MEN: 1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-13
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among
pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to
mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced
judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are
assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to
Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out
the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal
lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven
of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this
world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But
rather I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of
immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber – not even to eat with such a one.
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
God judges those outside. Drive out the wicked person from among you.
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THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (1994) 606-618
From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father’s plan of divine salvation in his
redemptive mission. The desire to embrace his Father’s plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole
life, for his redemptive Passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. After agreeing to baptise him
along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world. By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering
Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes,
and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel’s redemption at the first Passover. Christ’s whole life
expresses his mission: to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
By embracing in his human heart the Father’s love for men, Jesus loved them to the end, for greater
love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In suffering and death his
humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of
men. Christ’s death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men,
through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the sacrifice of the New Covenant,
which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the blood of the
covenant which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices. First, it is a gift from
God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with
himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love
offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience. It is love to the
end that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and
satisfaction. No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and
offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once
surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind,
makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.
The Cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the one mediator between God and men. But because in his
incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, the possibility of being
made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery is offered to all men. He calls his
disciples to take up their cross and follow him, for Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example so
that we should follow in his steps. Apart from the Cross there is no other ladder by which we may get
to heaven.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

LAWSUITS WITH PAGAN JUDGES: 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1-11
When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous
instead of the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be
judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels?
How much more, matters pertaining to this life! If then you have such cases, why do you lay them
before those who are least esteemed by the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is
no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, but brother goes
to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?
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To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not
rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;
neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
in the Spirit of our God.

SERMON 38 (CCL 24:217-9); WORD IN SEASON V
I say to you: Do not resist an evil man. When Christ says this, he means that we should not repay one
offence with another but overcome it by virtue, thus extinguishing the fire of anger while it is still only
a spark, for if it becomes a full raging blaze it will not be put out without blood being shed. Anger is
overcome by mildness, rage is extinguished by gentleness, cruelty is subverted by goodness; patience
punishes impatience, the acceptance of insults halts strife, and humility overthrows pride. Therefore,
if you wish to overcome offences, take up the weapons not of rage but of religion. Now let us look
further and see the reason for this command.
When the sickness of sin, vice, wickedness and impiety entered the deranged souls of men and with
its savage rage drove out all knowledge, sense, and reason, it caused the nations of the world to flee
from God, follow demons, and worship creatures; to spurn the creator, desire evil and bring death to
the living. Consequently, the only way of healing the race was to send men, armed with all the
devotion and patience of the heavenly physician, who would endure the insults of their frenzied
fellows, put up with their curses, bear their blows, and let themselves be wounded by them, until they
could bring them back to sobriety and sense and thus enable them to seek God, flee demons, realise
their illnesses, desire healing, reject vice, acquire virtue, cease from wounding others, abhor
bloodshed, reject killing, and restore life.
I ask you, what greater madness, what fiercer rage, or even comparable delirium, than to strike the
cheek of a holy person, inflict a blow on the face of a gentle brother, vent grim spite against a
winning, peaceful countenance, strip men of their only garment, and, out of vile greed, pay no heed
to God, man, nature, or modesty; to commandeer the service of people going about their own work,
and find one’s solace in the sufferings of others? Therefore, since we know that those who do such
things suffer from a very severe derangement, let us obey Christ and with all the strength afforded by
religion let us put up with the bites and blows and burdens heaped on us by frenzied brethren; in this
way we may deliver them from punishment and win an everlasting reward for our patience.
Let us not refuse to accept from our fellow servants what our Lord deigned to accept from and for his
servants. He did not withdraw his face from their blows; to those who took his tunic and his coat he
gave his body as well; and when they imposed forced labour on him, he freely and gladly followed
them to death. Therefore, if the Lord thought it right that he should suffer, can a servant consider it
beneath him or her? If we think so, we are mistaken, brethren, we are mistaken; for those who will
not do what the Lord commanded will wait in vain for what he promised.
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

LIVING AN IMMORAL LIFE: 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
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All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be
enslaved by anything. 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! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body
with her? For, as it is written, “The two shall become one flesh.” 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.

MACARIAN HOMILIES 46.3-6 (PG 34:794-6); WORD IN SEASON V
When the soul is devoted to the Lord, and the Lord in mercy and love comes to her and is united with
her, and when her intention thereafter remains continually in the grace of the Lord, then the soul and
the Lord become one spirit, one unity, and one mind; and though her body is prostrate on the earth,
her mind lives wholly in the heavenly Jerusalem, mounting even to the third heaven, where it clings to
the Lord and serves him. And he, while sitting on the throne of majesty on high, in the heavenly city,
is wholly with the soul in her bodily existence. For he has placed her image above, in Jerusalem, the
heavenly city of the saints, and he has placed his own image, the image of the unspeakable light of his
godhead, in her body. He ministers to her in the city of the body, while she ministers to him in the
heavenly city. She has inherited him in heaven, and he has inherited her upon earth. The Lord
becomes the soul’s inheritance, and the soul becomes the inheritance of the Lord.
In heart and mind, sinners living in darkness can be far from the body, can live at a great distance
from it; they can travel in a moment of time to remote lands, so that often, while the body lies
stretched out upon the earth, the mind is in another country with its beloved, and sees itself as living
there. If then the soul of a sinner is so light and swift that his mind speeds without let or hindrance to
far-away places, how much easier it must be for the soul from whom the veil of darkness has been
lifted by the power of the Holy Spirit, whose mental eyes have been illuminated by heavenly light,
who has been completely delivered from shameful passions and made pure by grace, to be at once
wholly in heaven serving the Lord in Spirit, and wholly in the body serving him. The mental faculty of
such a soul is so greatly expanded that she is present everywhere, and can serve Christ wherever and
whenever she wishes.
Truly, the soul is a great and wonderful divine work. God created her according to the image of the
virtues of the Spirit, without any evil in her nature. He placed in her the laws of the virtues,
discernment, knowledge, understanding, faith, love, and the rest of the virtues, according to the
image of the Spirit. Even now the Lord is found and revealed to the soul in knowledge, understanding,
love and faith; he has placed in her intelligence, imagination, will, and reason to rule them. He has
given her the ability to come and go in a moment, and to serve him in thought wherever the Spirit
wills. In a word, he created her as one who was to become his bride and companion, so that he might
be united with her and she might be one spirit with him, according to the word of Scripture: whoever
is united to the Lord is one spirit with him. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROBLEMS OF MARRIAGE: 1 CORINTHIANS 7:1-24
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote. It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But
because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her
own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her
husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband
does not rule over his own body, but the wife does. Do not refuse one another except perhaps by
agreement for a season, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again,
lest Satan tempt you through lack of self-control. I say this by way of concession, not of command. I
wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one
of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they
cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with
passion.
To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband
(but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) – and that the husband
should not divorce his wife.
To the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to
live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he
consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is consecrated
through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your
children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate,
let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace. Wife,
how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will
save your wife?
Only, let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him.
This is my rule in all the churches. Was any one at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not
seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was any one at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him
not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping
the commandments of God. Every one should remain in the state in which he was called. Were you a
slave when called? Never mind. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.
For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when
called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brethren, in
whatever state each was called, there let him remain with God.
A READING FROM A LETTER TO ST EUSTOCHIUM BY ST JEROME

LETTER 22, 20.2-21.7; ACW 33 (1963) TR. MIEROW & LAWLER.
Concerning virgins, says the Apostle, I have no commandment of the Lord. And why? Because he too
was a virgin – not by compulsion but of his own free will. Nor should we pay any attention to those
who pretend that Paul had a wife. When he discusses continence and recommends perpetual
chastity, he says: For I wish that all were as I myself am; and later: But I say to the unmarried and to
the widows: It is good for them to remain single as I do. And in another passage: Do we not have the
right to be accompanied by a sister as a wife just like the rest of the Apostles? Why, therefore, does
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he not have a commandment of the Lord concerning virginity? Because that which is not taken by
force but is voluntary has more value. Because if virginity had been commanded, marriage would
seem to have been forbidden. And it would have been very hard to impose what is against nature and
to require of mankind the life of angels, and in a certain manner to condemn the plan of creation.
Under the Old Law there was a different conception of happiness. Blessed is he who has seed in Sion
and a family in Jerusalem, and cursed is the barren who did not bear children. And: Your children shall
be like olive plants, around your table. But now the saying is: Do not think that you are a dry tree; you
have an eternal place for sons and daughters in the heavens. Now the poor are blessed, and Lazarus is
preferred to the rich in his purple. Now he that is weak is the stronger. The world used to be empty
and – to say nothing of those who were types – the only blessing was that of children. But as the crop
gradually increased, a reaper was sent in. Elijah was a virgin, Elisha was a virgin, many sons of the
Prophets were virgins. To Jeremiah it is said: You shall not take a wife. Having been sanctified in the
womb, he was forbidden to take a wife as the time of the captivity drew near.
The Apostle says the same thing in other words: I think, therefore, that this is good for the present
necessity, that it is good for a person to remain as he is. What necessity is this that takes away the joys
of marriage? It is the shortening of the time: It remains that they also who have wives be as if they
had none. Nebuchadnezzar is near: The lion is come up out of his den. What end is to be served by
my marrying a wife who will become the slave of a most haughty King? Or children, of whom the
Prophet says, bewailing them: The tongue of the sucking child has stuck to the roof of his mouth for
thirst; the little ones have asked for bread, and there was none to break it unto them. So then, as we
have said, this virtue of continence used to be found solely in men, and Eve continuously bore
children in sorrow. But after a virgin conceived in the womb and bore for us a Son upon whose
shoulders is the government, God the mighty, the Father of the world to come, the curse has been
abrogated. Death came through Eve, life through Mary. And therefore a richer gift of virginity has
flowed upon women, because it began with a woman. Immediately after the Son of God set foot on
earth, he established a new household for himself, so that he who was adored by angels in heaven
might have angels also on earth.
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON VIRGINITY AND MARRIAGE: 1 CORINTHIANS 7:25-40
Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by
the Lords mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is well for a person to
remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not
seek marriage. But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a girl marries she does not sin. Yet those who
marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. I mean, brethren, the appointed time
has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those
who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not
rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as
though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away.
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how
to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and
his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord,
how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to
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please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote
good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
If any one thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and
it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry – it is no sin. But whoever is firmly established in
his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his
heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. So that he who marries his betrothed does well;
and he who refrains from marriage will do better.
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to
whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I
think that I have the Spirit of God.

SERMON 90.2-3 (CCL 138A:558-61); WORD IN SEASON V
Narrow and difficult is the way that leads to life. No one would set foot upon it, no one would advance
one step, if Christ himself had not opened the difficult entrance by making himself the way. So it is
that he who bids us make the journey also enables us to do so; he both persuades us to undertake
the labour and leads us to our rest. We make a vain pretence if we fail to follow the teaching of him in
whose name we glory, teaching which would not be burdensome and would free us from all perils if
only we loved nothing but what he commanded us to love.
For there are two kinds of love from which proceed all desires, and they are as different in nature as
they are in origin: the rational mind, which cannot exist without love, loves either God or the world. In
the love of God there can be no excess, but the love of the world is harmful in every way. We must
therefore cling inseparably to the good things that are eternal but, like passers-by, make use of those
that are temporal; then, as pilgrims hastening to our homeland, we shall use any worldly good fortune
that comes to us as a means to further our journey, not as an enticement to detain us. The time is
short. From now on those who have wives should live as though they had none; and those who mourn
as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; those
who buy should live as though they had no possessions, and those who have to deal with this world as
though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away.
But because the world attracts us by its beauty, abundance, and variety, it is not easy to turn away
from it unless, in the beauty of visible things, one loves the Creator rather than the creature; for when
the Creator says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with
all your strength, he shows that it is not his will that we should loosen the bonds of our love for him in
any respect whatever. And by joining to this precept love of our neighbour, he commands us to
imitate his own goodness, loving what he loves and doing what he does.
It is true that we are God’s field, God’s building, and neither is the one who plants of any importance,
nor the one who waters, but God who makes things grow. Nevertheless, in all his work he requires our
ministry and service, and desires us to be the stewards of his gifts, so that those who bear God's
image may do his will. This is why in the Lord’s prayer we say with great devotion: Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What do we ask for in these words but that God should
subject to himself those who are not yet subject to him, and that he should make men ministers of his
will upon earth, as he does his angels in heaven? In making this petition we show that we love God
and also our neighbour; our love is one and undivided, since our desire is that the servant should
serve, and the Master command.
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WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON EATING MEAT THAT HAS BEEN SACRIFICED: 1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up,
but love builds up. If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to
know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.
Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that
there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as indeed
there are many gods and many lords – yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all
things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through
whom we exist.
However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through being hitherto accustomed to idols, eat
food as really offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend
us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. Only take care lest this
liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if any one sees you, a man of
knowledge, at table in an idol’s temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat
food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom
Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you
sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of my brothers falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause
my brother to fall.

DE TRINITATE XIV. 1.1-2; WSA (1991) TR. HILL
Now it is the turn of wisdom to be discussed. I do not mean God’s Wisdom, which is undoubtedly
God; it is his only begotten Son that is called God’s Wisdom. What we are going to talk about is man’s
wisdom. This obviously means true wisdom which is in accordance with God and is in fact the true
and principal worship of him. In Greek this is the single noun theosebeia. Our people translated this by
‘piety’, as they too wanted to find a single noun for it. But piety is more usually called eusebeia in
Greek; and as theosebeia cannot be completely translated by one word, it is better to use two for it
and say ‘God’s worship’. That this is the wisdom of man, is proved on the authority of holy Scripture in
the book of God’s servant Job, where we read that God’s Wisdom said to man, Behold piety is
wisdom, while to abstain from evils is knowledge. So God himself is supreme Wisdom; but the worship
of God is man’s wisdom, and it is that which we are now talking about. As for the wisdom of this
world, it is folly with God; but concerning that wisdom which is the worship of God, holy Scripture
says, a multitude of wise men is the health of the world.
But what are we to do if the discussion of wisdom is the prerogative of the wise? Will we have the
nerve to profess wisdom, and if not will our discussion of it not be sheer impertinence? Will the
example of Pythagoras not frighten us off? Not daring to profess to be wise, he answered that he was
rather a philosopher, that is, a lover of wisdom. From him onward this name found favour among his
successors, so that however outstanding a man might seem to be, either in his own or other people's
opinion, as a teacher of matters that belong to wisdom, he would never be called anything but a
philosopher, a lover of wisdom. Or possibly the reason why none of these men dared to profess to be
wise was that they thought a wise man would be entirely without sin. But our Scriptures do not say
this, because they say, Rebuke a wise man and he will love you; and presumably they judge a man
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who is considered to be worthy of rebuke to have sin. Even so, I for one do not dare to profess to be
wise. It is enough for me that it is also the business of the philosopher, that is of the lover of wisdom,
to discuss wisdom, which even these old philosophers cannot deny. After all, they did not stop doing
this, even though they professed to be lovers of wisdom rather than wise men.
THURSDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FREEDOM AND LOVE OF THE APOSTLE: 1 CORINTHIANS 9:1-18
Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in
the Lord? If to others I am not an Apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship
in the Lord.
This is my defence to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink?
5 Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other Apostles and the brothers of
the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a
living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its
fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of
Moses, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is
concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the
ploughman should plough in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have
sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this
rightful claim upon you, do not we still more?
Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle
in the way of the Gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple
service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial
offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the Gospel should get
their living by the Gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this to secure any such provision. For I
would rather die than have any one deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the Gospel,
that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the
Gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a
commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the Gospel free of
charge, not making full use of my right in the Gospel.

MACARIAN HOMILIES 14 (PG 34: 569-73); WORD IN SEASON V
All the observable works which are done in this world are done in the hope of receiving a return for
the labours they involve. If there were no assurance that it would be profitable, work would be
pointless. The farmer sows his seed in the hope of a harvest, and this expectation encourages him in
his labour. As Saint Paul says, The ploughman ploughs in hope. A man marries in the hope of having
heirs. The merchant risks death at sea for the sake of gain. And it is the same in the kingdom of
heaven. People dedicate themselves to God in the hope that the eyes of their heart will be
enlightened. They withdraw from worldly activities and give themselves up to prayer and supplication,
waiting for the Lord to come and reveal himself to them and purify them from their sins.
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For they do not rely solely on their own labours and conduct to obtain what they hope for, namely,
that the Lord will come and dwell in them with the full experience and energy of the Spirit. And when
they experience the Lord’s goodness and delight in the fruits of the Spirit, and when the veil of
darkness is lifted and the light of Christ shines upon them to their unspeakable joy, they are
completely satisfied because they have the Lord with them in much love; they are like the merchant
we mentioned rejoicing in his gains. But even so they still have to struggle and they go in fear of the
robber spirits of wickedness causing them to grow slack and lose their labour before they obtain the
kingdom of heaven, the Jerusalem above.
Let us too, then, beseech God to strip off our old nature and clothe us in the heavenly Christ even
now, so that the joy of being led by him may bring us great tranquillity. For, in his desire to fill us with
longing for the kingdom, the Lord says: Without me you can do nothing.
Nevertheless he was able to enlighten many people through the Apostles. In spite of being merely
creatures, they fed their fellow-servants. Through their good example and teaching the Lord restored
to life minds that were dead and corrupted; for it is possible for one creature to nourish and give life
to another: though only creatures, the clouds, when so commanded, bring seeds of wheat or barley
to life. Like light coming in through a window and the sun shedding its radiance over all the world, the
Prophets were lights to their own house of Israel, but the Apostles are suns with rays reaching every
corner of the earth.
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S EXAMPLE: 1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-27
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the
Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law –
though not being myself under the law – that I might win those under the law. To those outside the
law I became as one outside the law – not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ –
that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have
become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the Gospel,
that I may share in its blessings.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that
you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable
wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I
pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

INSTITUTES 5.16.1-19.1; ACW 58 (2000) TR. RAMSEY
When the desire of the belly has been overcome, thanks to our delight in the beauty of heavenly
things, and, as in the Olympic disciplines, we have been declared neither slaves of the flesh nor men
of bad repute from having been tainted with vice, we ourselves shall be judged worthy to compete in
the higher contests. Once we have established our credentials in this way, we too shall be believed
capable of contending against the evil spirits, which deign to struggle only with the victorious and
with those who deserve to fight in the spiritual combat. For the very first thing that must be done in
every struggle, so to speak, is to destroy the impulses of the fleshly desires. For no one whose own
flesh has not been overcome will be able to compete lawfully, and he who does not compete lawfully
will certainly be unable to engage in the contest or to be victorious and win a glorious crown.
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Do you want to listen to the true athlete of Christ as he engages by lawful right in the combat? I do
not run, he says, in uncertainty. I do not fight as one beating against the air. But I chastise my body
and subject it to servitude, lest when preaching to others I be rejected myself. You see that he has
found the most important aspect of the struggle within himself – that is, in his own flesh; and you see
that he has linked the outcome of the fight solely to the chastisement of his flesh and the subjection
of his body. And so he does not run in uncertainty because, in looking upon the heavenly Jerusalem,
he is clear as to where his undeviating heart should be directed. He does not run in uncertainty
because, forgetting what is behind, he stretches himself out to what is before, pressing on to the goal,
to the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. Ever directing his mind’s gaze to this and
hastening to it with utter alacrity of heart, he cried out confidently: I have fought the good fight, I
have won the race, I have kept the faith. And because he knew that he had won the contest and the
spiritual struggle, he confidently adds these words: Now, a crown of righteousness has been set aside
for me, which the Lord, the just judge, will bestow on me on that day. And, in order to open to us as
well a similar hope of reward, if we should wish to imitate him in his strenuous race, he added: But
not only on me but on all who love his coming. Thus he declares that we shall have a part in his crown
on the day of judgment if we love the coming of Christ – not only when he will appear even to the
unwilling but also as he daily visits holy souls – and if we obtain victory in the contest by chastising our
bodies.
Victory in the contests is never wanting to the athlete of Christ as he dwells in the flesh, but the
stronger he grows through successive triumphs, the more demanding the series of struggles that
awaits him. For once he has subjected and conquered his flesh, how many enemy armies rise up
against the victorious soldier of Christ, spurred on by his triumphs! Otherwise the soldier of Christ
would yield to the slackness of peace, begin to forget his glorious struggles and contests, and be
deprived of the tributes of his prizes and the desserts of his triumphs.
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE STORY OF ISRAEL IS A MODEL FOR US: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-14
I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the
sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural
food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which
followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for
they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of
them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must
not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We
must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble,
as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as a
warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.
Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken
you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your
strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure
it.
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EXPLANATIO IN PSALMO 1, 33 (CSEL 64:28-30); WORD IN SEASON V
First drink from the Old Testament, so that you may drink from the New as well. You cannot drink
from the second without drinking from the first. Drink from the Old Testament to slake your thirst,
and from the New to quench it completely. Compunction is found in the Old Testament; joy in the
New.
Notice how the Lord, on his servants’ behalf, countered the wiles of the devil. With deceitful cunning
the devil beguiled one man in order to overthrow all mankind in his person; but with salutary food
Jesus redeemed all mankind, in order to restore with him all, even him who had been beguiled.
The Lord Jesus poured out water from the rock and everyone drank. Those who drank from the
symbol were satisfied, but those no drank from the reality were inebriated. That was a good
inebriation that steadied the walk of the sober mind; that was a good inebriation that watered the gift
of eternal life. Drink of this cup, then, of which the Prophet said: Your cup that inebriates, how noble
it is! Drink the cup of the Old Testament and of the New, for in both you drink Christ.
Drink Christ because he is the vine; drink Christ because he is the rock that poured out water. Drink
Christ because he is the fountain of life; drink Christ because he is the river whose running waters give
joy to the city of God, and because he is peace, and because out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water. Drink Christ to drink the blood which redeemed you; drink Christ to drink his words: the Old
Testament is his word; the New Testament is his word. Holy Scripture is drunk and swallowed when
the power of the eternal Word penetrates the depths of the mind and the virtue of the soul. In short,
we do not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Drink this word, but according to its own
order. Drink it first in the Old Testament; then hasten to drink it also in the New.
SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE TABLE OF THE LORD AND THE TABLE OF DEMONS: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:14 – 11:1
Therefore, my beloved, shun the worship of idols. I speak as to sensible men; judge for yourselves
what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The
bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we
who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel; are
not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to
idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to
demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of
the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
“All things are lawful”, but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful”, but not all things build up.
Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market
without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything
in it.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set
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before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. (But if some one says to you,
“This has been offered in sacrifice”, then out of consideration for the man who informed you, and for
conscience’ sake – I mean his conscience, not yours – do not eat it.) For why should my liberty be
determined by another mans scruples? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of
that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of
God. Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please all men in
everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE

CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
HOMILIES AD CORINTHIOS 24.1-2 (PG 61:199-201); WORD IN SEASON V
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? Do you seek, blessed
Paul, to rouse your hearer to a sense of reverence when you mention tremendous mysteries, and call
this fearful and awe-inspiring cup a cup of blessing? Yes, he replies, it is no small matter I have
touched on. For when I speak of blessing, I mean to unfold the whole treasure of God’s goodness to
us, and call to mind his wonderful gifts. It is in gratitude for these and all other such blessings that we
approach the Sacrament.
Why then, you Corinthians, asks Paul, is your behaviour so inconsistent? You praise God for having
delivered you from idols, and then you run back to their tables. The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not a communion in the blood of Christ? What great confidence and awe there is in these words!
Paul means that in the cup is the same blood that flowed from Christ’s side, and it is that of which we
partake. He called it a cup of blessing because, when we hold it in our hands, we raise our hearts to
God in wonder and amazement at his unspeakable gift. We praise him because Christ shed this very
blood so that we might not remain in error; and not only did he shed his blood, but he gave all of us a
share of it.
The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? The Apostle did not say ‘a
participation’, because he wanted to signify something more than this. For when we communicate it
is not merely a matter of sharing and partaking, but of being united. In the same way as a body was
united with Christ, so we are united with him by this bread. But why did he add, which we break? This
we can see is done at the Eucharist, but it was not so on the Cross; rather the contrary, for Scripture
says: Not a bone of his shall be broken. But although he did not suffer this on the Cross, he suffers it
now in his offering on your behalf; he allows himself to be broken so that all may be filled. Paul used
the phrase: a communion in the body; but there is a difference between communicants and the body
we receive in communion, and so he set about removing even this distinction, small as it might seem.
For after he had spoken of a communion in the body, he still sought to define his meaning more
accurately, and therefore added, Because there is one bread, we although many are one body.
Why then do I say ‘communion’? he asks. We are that very body. For what is the bread? It is the body
of Christ. And what do those who partake of it become? The body of Christ. Not many but one body.
Just as bread consists of many grains formed into a whole, so that the separate grains are invisible (for
although they are certainly there, they cannot be distinguished from the whole), in the same manner
are we united both with one another and with Christ. That is why the Apostle continued: for we all
partake of one bread. But if we all partake of the same bread, and all become the same body, why do
we not show the same love, and become one in that respect also? Formerly it was so, in the time of
our fathers, for Scripture says: The multitude of believers were of one heart and soul.
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MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WOMEN IN THE ASSEMBLY OF THE FAITHFUL: 1 CORINTHIANS 11:2-16
I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have
delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of
a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Any man who prays or prophesies with his
head covered dishonours his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled
dishonours her head – it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a woman will not veil herself,
then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her
wear a veil. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman
is the glory of man. (For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man
created for woman, but woman for man.) That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head,
because of the angels. (Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of
woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from
God.) Judge for yourselves; is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does
not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear long hair is degrading to him, but if a woman has
long hair, it is her pride? For her hair is given to her for a covering. If any one is disposed to be
contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do the churches of God.

DE TRINITATE XII.2.9-3.12; WSA (1991) TR. HILL.
Man having been made in the image of the supreme Trinity, that is in the image of God, should not be
understood as meaning that this image is to be found in three human beings. This is particularly so in
view of what the Apostle says about the man who is the image of God removing the covering from his
head while the woman is warned to wear it: The man ought not to cover his head, since he is the
image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. Now what are we to say to this? We
must see how this avoids contradicting what is written in Genesis: God made man to the image of
God; he made him male and female; he made them and blessed them. It says here that what was
made in the image of God is the same human nature that is realised in each sex, and this does not
exclude the female. For after saying God made man to the image of God, it says he made him male
and female. So how are we to take what we have heard from the Apostle?
The authority of the Apostle as well as plain reason assures us that man was not made to the image of
God as regards the shape of his body, but as regards his rational mind. God is not confined within the
limits of a body with features and limbs. Does not the blessed Apostle say, Be renewed in the spirit of
your mind, and put on the new man, the one who was created according to God; and even more
clearly elsewhere, Putting off the old man, he says, with his actions, put on the new who is being
renewed for the recognition of God according to the image of him who created him? If then we are
being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and if it is this new man who is being renewed for the
recognition of God according to the image of him who created him, then it is clear that man was not
made in the image of his Creator as regards his body or any old part of his consciousness, but as
regards the rational mind, which is capable of recognising God.
Now we are made sons of God through Baptism by this renewal, and when we put on the new man it
is of course Christ that we put on through faith. Would anyone exclude females from this association,
seeing that together with us males they are fellow heirs of grace; for the same Apostle says: You are
all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; for all who were baptized in Christ thereby put on Christ.
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There is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Surely this does not mean that female believers have lost their bodily sex? It is in the spirit of men’s
minds, where there is no sex, that they were made in the image of God and that they are being
renewed to the image of God who has no sex. Why is it then that the man ought not to cover his head
because he is the image and glory of God, while the woman ought to, as though the woman were not
being renewed in the spirit of her mind? Well, it is only because she differs from the man in the sex of
her body that her bodily covering could suitably be used to symbolise that part of the reason which is
diverted to the management of temporal things. This means that the human mind only remains the
image of God in the part which contemplates the eternal ideas: and it is clear that females have this
as well as males. So in their minds a common nature is to be acknowledged; but in their bodies the
different parts of the one mind are symbolised.
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LORD’S SUPPER: 1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-34
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for
the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you assemble as a church, I hear that there
are divisions among you; and I partly believe it, for there must be factions among you in order that
those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you meet together, it is not the Lords
supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and
another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of
God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No,
I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he
was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which
is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This
cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as
often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty
of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and
drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks
judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we
judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are
chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another – if any one is hungry, let
him eat at home – lest you come together to be condemned. About the other things I will give
directions when I come.
A READING FROM CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION

CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES, 2.18.1.
No Mass is celebrated, no communion made without our being enabled to remember that Jesus
delivered himself up to death for the redemption of the world. For, says St Paul, as often as you shall
eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come. Thus is
perpetuated, living and fruitful, until the end of time, the remembrance of Christ among those whom
he came to redeem by his immolation.
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The Eucharist is then truly the memorial that Christ has left to us of his Passion and his Death: it is the
testament of his love. Wherever the bread and wine are offered, wherever the consecrated Host is
found, there appears the remembrance of Christ’s immolation: do this for a commemoration of me.
The Eucharist recalls to us above all the memory of the Passion of Jesus. It was on the eve of his death
that he instituted it; he left it to us as the testament of his love.
But it does not exclude the other mysteries. See what the Church does. She is the Bride of Christ,
none knows better than she the intentions of her Divine Head; in the organisation of the public
worship which she renders to him, she is guided by the Holy Spirit. Now what does she say? Directly
after the Consecration, she first of all recalls the words of Jesus: As often as you do these things, you
shall do them in remembrance of me. And at once she adds, to show how closely she enters into the
sentiments of her Spouse: ‘Wherefore, O Lord, we your servants together with your holy people, in
memory of the blessed Passion of the same Christ Our Lord, and of his Resurrection from hell, also of
his glorious Ascension into Heaven offer unto your most excellent Majesty … the holy bread of
eternal life, and the chalice of everlasting salvation.’ After the mention of ‘the Ascension to the right
hand of the Father’, the Greeks likewise add, ‘that of the second and glorious coming of Christ’.
So then, although the Eucharist recalls the Passion of Jesus, it does not exclude the remembrance of
the glorious mysteries which are linked so closely to the Passion of which they are, in a sense, the
crown. Since it is the Body and Blood of Christ that we receive, the Eucharist supposes the Incarnation
and the mysteries which are founded upon or flow from it. Christ is upon the altar with the divine life
which never ceases, with his mortal life of which the historical form has doubtless ceased, but of
which the substance and merits remain, with his glorious life which shall have no end.
All this, as you know, is really contained in the Sacred Host and given in Communion to our souls. In
communicating himself to us, Christ Jesus gives himself in the substantial totality of his works and
mysteries, as in the oneness of his Person. Yes, let us say, with the Psalmist who sings in prophecy the
glory of the Eucharist, the Lord has made a remembrance of His wonderful works, being a merciful
and gracious Lord, he has given food to them that fear him. The Eucharist is like the synthesis of the
marvels of the love of the Incarnate Word towards us.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VARIETIES OF GIFTS IN THE UNITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when
you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. Therefore
I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!” and
no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same
Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To
each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit
the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to
another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working
of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another
various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are inspired by one
and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
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DE TRINITATE XV; WSA (1991) TR. HILL.
The Apostle Paul says: To each of us is given grace according to the measure of the donation of Christ,
and to show that the donation of Christ is the Holy Spirit he went on to add, That is why it says, he
ascended on high, he took captivity captive, he gave gifts to men. But it is public knowledge that when
the Lord Jesus had ascended to heaven after his resurrection from the dead he gave the Holy Spirit;
and being filled with it those who believed began to speak with the tongues of all peoples. And do not
let it worry you that he says ‘gifts’, not ‘gift’. He was quoting the text from a psalm: you have
ascended on high, you have taken captivity captive, you have received gifts among men.
Elsewhere he mentions many gifts, and then says, All these does one and the same Spirit achieve,
distributing them severally to each as he wills. The same word is found in the Letter to the Hebrews,
where it is written, God bearing witness with signs and portents and various mighty deeds and
distribution of the Holy Spirit. In this place too, after saying he ascended on high, he took captivity
captive, he gave gifts to men, he goes on, But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended
into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who ascended above all the heavens
that he might fill all things; and he gave some to be Apostles, some evangelists, some shepherds and
teachers. So there you have the reason why he talked about gifts. Just as he says elsewhere, Are all of
us Apostles, are all Prophets?, so here he added for the perfection of the saints toward the work of the
ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. This is the house which, as the psalm declaims, is
being built after the captivity; and this house is called the Church, because the body of Christ is built
out of those who have been delivered from captivity to the devil.
The Apostle Peter, speaking about Christ to the Jews who were moved in their hearts and saying,
What shall we do, brothers? said to them, Repent, and let each one of you be baptised in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And there is a
lot more scriptural evidence which all conspires to prove that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, in that
he is given to those who love God through him. But it would take far too long to collect it all. And
what could satisfy people anyway, if they are not satisfied by the evidence I have quoted?
Insofar as people now see that the Holy Spirit is called the gift of God, they must realize of course that
when they hear the phrase, the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are to recognize the same figure of speech
as in the phrase, in the stripping of the body of flesh. Just as the body of flesh is nothing but flesh, so
the gift of the Holy Spirit is nothing but the Holy Spirit. So he is the gift of God insofar as he is given to
those to whom he is given; but in himself he is God even if he is not given to anyone, because he was
God, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, even before he was given to anyone. Nor is he less than
the Father and the Son because they give and he is given: he is given as God's gift in such a way that
as God he also gives himself.
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VARIOUS FUNCTIONS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE BODY: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-31A
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many,
are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or
Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a
hand, I do not belong to the body”, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear
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should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body”, that would not make it any less a
part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were
an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each
one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many
parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”, nor again the head to
the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are
indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honourable we invest with the greater
honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable
parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior
part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one
another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church
first Apostles, second Prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers,
administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all Apostles? Are all Prophets? Are all
teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all
interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

SERMON 272 ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST. WSA (1993) TR. HILL
What you can see on the altar, you also saw last night; but what it was, what it meant, of what great
reality it contained the Sacrament, you had not yet heard. So what you can see, then, is bread and a
cup; that’s what even your eyes tell you; but as for what your faith asks to be instructed about: the
bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. It took no time to say that, and, perhaps, that
may be enough for faith; but faith desires instruction. The Prophet says, you see, Unless you believe,
you shall not understand. I mean, you can now say to me, “You’ve bidden us believe; now explain, so
that we may understand.”
Some such thought as this, after all, may cross somebody’s mind: “We know where our Lord Jesus
Christ took flesh from; from the Virgin Mary. He was suckled as a baby, was reared, grew up, came to
man’s estate, suffered persecution from the Jews, was hung on the tree, was slain on the tree, was
taken down from the tree, was buried; rose again on the third day, on the day he wished ascended
into heaven. That’s where he lifted his body up to; that's where he’s going to come from to judge the
living and the dead; that’s where he is now, seated on the Father’s right. How can bread be his body?
And the cup, or what the cup contains, how can it be his blood?”
The reason these things, brethren, are called Sacraments is that in them one thing is seen, another is
to be understood. What can be seen has a bodily appearance, what is to be understood provides
spiritual fruit. So if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle telling the faithful:
You are the body of Christ and its members. So if it’s you that are the body of Christ and its members,
it’s the mystery meaning you that has been placed on the table of the Lord; what you receive is the
mystery that means you. It is to what you are that you reply Amen, and by so replying you express
your assent. What you hear, then, is The body of Christ, and you answer, Amen. So be a member of
the body of Christ, in order to make that Amen true.
So why in bread? Let’s go on listening to the Apostle himself, who said when speaking of this
Sacrament: We being many are one bread, one body. Understand and rejoice. Unity, truth, piety,
love. One bread; what is this one bread? The one body which we, being many, are. Remember that
bread is not made from one grain, but from many. When you were being exorcised, it’s as though you
were being ground. When you were baptised it’s as though you were mixed into dough. When you
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received the fire of the Holy Spirit, it’s as though you were baked. Be what you can see, and receive
what you are.
That’s what the Apostle said about the bread. It’s the same with the wine. Just remind yourselves,
brethren, what wine is made from; many grapes hang in the bunch, but the juice of the grapes is
poured together in one vessel. That too is how the Lord Christ signified us, how he wished us to
belong to him, how he consecrated the Sacrament of our peace and unity on his table. Any who
receive the Sacrament of unity and do not hold the bond of peace, do not receive the Sacrament for
their benefit, but a testimony against themselves.
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

LOVE IS THE SUMMIT OF ALL SPIRITUAL GIFTS: 1CORINTHIANS 12:31B – 13:13
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I
deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist
on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when
the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like
a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have
been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

SPECULUM CARITATIS 1.31 (CCM 1:51-2); WORD IN SEASON V.
The Lord’s yoke is easy; the Lord’s burden is light. For what can be more agreeable, what more
delightful than to find that by renouncing the world we have been raised above it? As we stand on the
lofty height of a clear conscience, we have the whole world under our feet. When insults have no
effect on us, when persecutions and penalties have no terror for us, when prosperity or adversity has
no influence on us, when friend and foe are viewed in the same light, when we follow the example of
him who makes his sun rise on the wicked and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust
alike, do we not come close to sharing the serenity of God? All such dispositions spring from charity
and charity alone, in which is true peace and contentment; for it is the Lord’s yoke, and if we follow
his call to bear it our souls will find rest, because his yoke is easy and his burden light.
Charity is patient and kind, it is not jealous or boastful, it is not conceited or rude. The other virtues are
to us as a carriage bearing the weary traveller, as provisions fortifying the wayfarer, as a lamp for
those in darkness, or as arms for combatants. But charity, although it must be present in all the other
virtues, is yet in a special way rest for the weary, shelter for the traveller, fullness of light for one who
arrives, and a glorious crown for the victor.
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For what is faith but the carriage that bears us to our native land? What is hope but the food we take
for our journey through life’s hardships? And those other virtues of temperance, prudence, fortitude
and justice – what are they but the weapons given us for the struggle? But when death has been
swallowed up by that perfection of charity which is achieved in the vision of God there will be no
more faith, because faith was the preparation for that vision, and there will be no need to believe
what we see and love. And when we embrace God with the arms of our charity, there will be no
more hope, for there will be nothing left to hope for. And as for the other virtues, temperance is
our weapon against lust, prudence against error, fortitude against adversity, justice against
injustice. But in charity there is also perfect chastity, and so no lust for temperance to combat; in
charity there is the fullness of knowledge, and so no error for prudence to guard against; in
charity there is true blessedness, and so no adversity for fortitude to overcome; in charity all is
peace, and so there is no injustice for justice to withstand.
Faith is not even a virtue unless it is expressed by love; nor is hope unless it loves what it hopes for.
And if we look more closely, do we not see that temperance is only love that no pleasure can seduce;
that prudence is only love that no error can mislead; that fortitude is only love courageously enduring
adversity, and that justice is only impartial love mitigating the injustices of this life? Charity therefore
begins with faith, is exercised through the other virtues, but achieves perfection in itself.
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SPEAKING IN TONGUES, PROPHECY AND INTERPRETATION: 1 CORINTHIANS 14:1-19
Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one
who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters
mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, he who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and
encouragement and consolation. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies
edifies the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. He who
prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless some one interprets, so that the church
may be edified.
Now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how shall I benefit you unless I bring you some
revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the
harp, do not give distinct notes, how will any one know what is played? And if the bugle gives an
indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9 So with yourselves; if you in a tongue utter speech
that is not intelligible, how will any one know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There
are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning; but if I do not
know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to
me. So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building
up the church.
Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue,
my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray
with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. Otherwise, if you bless
with the spirit, how can any one in the position of an outsider say the Amen to your thanksgiving
when he does not know what you are saying? For you may give thanks well enough, but the other
man is not edified. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all; nevertheless, in church I
would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a
tongue.
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MACARIAN HOMILIES, 33.1-2, 4 (PG 34:742-3); WORD IN SEASON V
Our prayer should not be a matter of going through habitual bodily motions, crying out, keeping
silence, or kneeling, but of sober attending, waiting for God to come and visit the soul by means of all
its openings and paths and senses. Then whether it is fitting to be silent or to call out and pray with
loud cries, the mind will be concentrated on God. Just as when the body works at some task it is
entirely occupied with the work and all its members help one another, so too should the soul be
totally concentrated on offering its petition and love to the Lord; it should not be distracted by
wandering thoughts, but entirely bent upon waiting for Christ. Then he will enlighten it, teaching it
the right way to petition him, giving it pure prayer which is spiritual and worthy of God, and enabling
it to worship in spirit and in truth.
When the Lord sees that to the best of its ability the soul recollects itself, always seeking the Lord
night and day, and crying out to him according to his command to pray without ceasing, he will
vindicate it as he promised, cleansing it from the evil within it, and will present it to himself as a bride
without spot or blemish. Now if you believe this to be true, as indeed it is, examine yourself to see
whether your soul has found its guiding light, and the real food and drink which is the Lord. If not,
seek night and day that you may receive it. When you see the sun, seek the true Sun, for you are
blind. When you behold the light, look into your soul to see whether you have found the true and
good Light. For all visible things are but shadows of realities pertaining to the soul. We have another
person within us besides the one who is seen; we have eyes that Satan has blinded, and ears that he
has deafened, and Jesus came to make this inner person healthy. To him, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, be glory and power forever. Amen.
SUNDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON THE USE OF GIFTS IN THE ASSEMBLY: 1 CORINTHIANS 14:20-40
Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature. In the law it
is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and
even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus, tongues are a sign not for believers but for
unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church
assembles and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are
mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to
account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God
and declare that God is really among you.
What then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a
tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If any speak in a tongue, let there
be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no one to
interpret, let each of them keep silence in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three
Prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting by, let
the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged;
and the spirits of Prophets are subject to Prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not
permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire
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to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
What! Did the word of God originate with you, or are you the only ones it has reached?
If any one thinks that he is a Prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to
you is a command of the Lord. If any one does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So, my
brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should be
done decently and in order.
A READING FROM THE BOOK DOMINUS VOBISCUM BY ST PETER DAMIAN

LIBER DOMINUS VOBISCUM, 5-6, 10 (PL 145:235-6, 239); WORD IN SEASON V
The Church of Christ is united by a bond of mutual love so strong that not only is it a single entity
subsisting in many members, but in each member it is also mysteriously present in its plenitude. So it
is that the entire universal Church is rightly said to be the one and only bride of Christ, and each
person, through the mystery of the Sacrament, is believed to be the Church in its fullness. One in all
and entire in each, holy Church is single in the plurality of its members thanks to the unity of faith,
and manifold in each of them thanks to the bond of charity and the diversity of charisms, for they all
come from One.
Although holy Church is thus diversified by the multiplicity of its members, it is nevertheless entirely
fused into one by the fire of the Holy Spirit; and therefore even though its various parts seem to be
spatially separated from one another, the mystery of its interior unity is in no way diminished; for the
love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. This
Spirit, therefore, is undoubtedly both one and multiple, one in majestic essence, multiple in diverse
gifts; he fills the Church, and causes it to be both one in its universal extension, and whole in each of
its parts. The secret of this indivisible unity was revealed by the Word when, speaking of his disciples,
he said to the Father: Not for them alone do 1 pray but for those also who through their word will
believe in me. May they all be one; as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in
us, so that the world may believe it was you that sent me. I, for my part, have given them the glory
which you gave to me, so that they may be one as we are one. If those who believe in Christ are
one, then through the mystery of the Sacrament the entire Body is present where bodily eyes see
but a single member. Solitude prevents no one from speaking in the plural; nor is it inappropriate
for the multitude of believers to speak in the singular, for through the power of the Holy Spirit,
who is present in each and fills all, it is clear that the solitude is full of people and the multitude
forms a unity.
Our holy Fathers regarded this intimate relationship and communion of believers in Christ as so
certain that they included it in the creed stating the Catholic faith, and commanded us frequently to
call it to mind along with the other basic elements of Christian belief. For immediately after we say: “I
believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church” we add: “the communion of saints”. Thus in the very act by
which we bear witness to the God in whom we believe, we also affirm the communion that marks the
Church which is one with him. For this communion of saints in the unity of faith is such that, because
they believe in one God, are reborn in one Baptism, and are strengthened by the one Holy Spirit, they
are admitted, through the grace of adoption, into the one everlasting life.
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MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, THE HOPE OF THE FAITHFUL: 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-19
Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the Gospel, which you received,
in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast – unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in
accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more
than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared
also to me. For I am the least of the Apostles, unfit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On
the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is
with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no
resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;
if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found
to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if
it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If
Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men
most to be pitied.

ENARRATIO IN PS. 147, 3 (CCL 40:2140-2141); WORD IN SEASON V
If our hope in Christ is for this life only, of all mankind we are the most wretched. There is, then,
another life. Gaze with the eyes of faith on the future life, for the sake of which you believed and
were signed with the sign of him who lived an earthly life in order to show you how lightly you should
esteem the life you used to love and how earnestly you should hope for the life in which you used to
disbelieve.
Rouse your faith and turn the eyes of faith to the last things and the world to come, where we shall
rejoice after the Lord’s Second Coming, after the Judgment, after the kingdom has been delivered to
the saints. Think of that life and that life’s leisure, beloved. Our life then will not be storm-tossed. It
will be a life of leisure, a leisure full of nothing but pleasantness. There will be no vexations to disturb
us, no fatigue to tire us, no storm clouds to trouble us.
What will be our occupation in that life? To praise God, to love and to praise: to praise by loving, and
to love by praising. Blessed are they who dwell in your house: they shall praise you forever and ever.
Why, if not because they shall love you forever and ever? Why, if not because they shall gaze upon
you forever and ever? If we remember that we are members of the Saviour, if we yearn and
persevere, we shall see and rejoice. The citizens of that city will all be purified, and none there will be
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subversive or disturbers of the peace. The enemy who now hinders us from reaching that homeland
can lay no snares for anyone there, for entrance is denied him. If he is now barred from the breasts of
believers, how much more will he not be barred from the city of the living? My brethren, I ask you,
what will it be like in that city, when it is such a joy even to speak of it now? We must prepare our
hearts for that future life. Those who do so are detached from everything in this present life, and this
detachment enables them to look forward with confidence to that day which the Lord bade us await
with fear and trembling.
TUESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD AND THE COMING OF THE LORD: 1 CORINTHIANS 15:20-34
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as
by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so
also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his
coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the
Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put
all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. “For God has put all things in
subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection under him”, it is plain
that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son
himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to
every one. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are
not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why am I in peril every hour? I protest,
brethren, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if,
humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Come to your right
mind, and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

TREATISE ON HOLY SCRIPTURE (PLS 1:458-9); WORD IN SEASON V.
The Son of God clothed himself in human flesh and in that flesh suffered and rose from the dead, in
order to show in his own body what our resurrection will be like. This is why he is called the mediator
between God and mankind, for while living in heaven, he preserves as his own the human nature
entrusted to him. Moreover, he possesses this human nature as a universal pledge: just as in Christ
flesh and blood already possess the kingdom of God, so we too, when we rise from the dead in that
same flesh, shall obtain the kingdom of God through Christ.
God formed the human body with his own sacred hands, treating it as his very own work, and
breathed into it a soul in the likeness of his own life; he then set it over his whole creation to dwell in
it as its ruler and make it fruitful. In addition he fortified it through his Sacraments and teaching, and
gave it eternal life in the resurrection. Thus, the body is washed so that the soul may be purified; the
body is anointed so that the soul may be consecrated; the body is signed so that the soul may be
saved; the body is overshadowed by the laying on of hands so that the soul may be enlightened by
the Holy Spirit; the body eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ so that the soul may feed itself
on God. In the time of reward, therefore, these two that have been united in their actions are not to
be separated.
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Look, moreover, at how for our consolation the whole of nature rehearses the future resurrection.
The sun sets and then is born again; the stars disappear and then return; the flowers die and come to
life again. So it will be with the bodies of the dead in their graves. As trees hide their greenery in
winter and display their withered branches, so all things that die are preserved and raised to life
again. Much more then is this true of men, who were given mastery over everything that dies, so that
they might have mastery also over everything that rises to new life. This is why the Son of God clothed
himself in human nature and raised it from the dead.
Therefore, since the resurrection of the body is certain, and since punishment awaits the faithless
while the faithful have the promise and hope of a heavenly kingdom, it remains for us to devote
ourselves to good works and persevere in all holiness, faith, and uprightness, so that we may rise not
to punishment but to glory.
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

RESURRECTION ON THE LAST DAY: 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-58
But some one will ask, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? You foolish
man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to
be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has
chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men,
another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are celestial bodies and there are
terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There
is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs
from star in glory.
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It
is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a
physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus
it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But
it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the
earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of
the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the
image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brethren:
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and
this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the
mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up
in victory. “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” The sting of death is sin, and
the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
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SERMON 117, 1-2, 4-6 (CCL 24A:709-12); WORD IN SEASON V
Today we have heard from the blessed Apostle that there were two founders of the human race,
Adam and Christ; two men alike in body but unlike in dignity; completely similar in physical makeup
but totally dissimilar in origin. He says that the first man, Adam, became a living soul; the last
Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first was made by the second from whom he also received
the breath of life; the second was his own creator and fashioner, for he did not look for life from
another, but was himself the sole source of life for everyone. The first was moulded from the
common earth; the second came forth from the blessed womb of the Virgin. In the first earth became
human; in the second human nature was raised to divinity. What more can I say? It was the second
Adam who stamped his own image upon the first when he created him. That is why he assumed the
role of the first Adam, so that what he had fashioned in his own image should not perish.
There was then a first Adam and a last Adam. The first had a beginning, the last is unbounded, for the
last Adam is in fact the first, as he himself says: I am the first and the last. I am the first, because I
have no beginning; I am the last, because I have no end. But it is not the spiritual that comes
first, says the Apostle, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The earth exists before the fruit,
though it is of less value than the fruit. The earth exacts toil and sighs, whereas the fruit provides
nourishment and vitality. Rightly does the Prophet glory in such fruit when he says: Our earth has
brought forth its fruit. What sort of fruit? Clearly, that of which he says elsewhere: A son, the
fruit of your body, I will place upon my throne.
The first man, says the Apostle, being made of the earth is earthly; the second who comes from
heaven is heavenly. The earthly man is the pattern for earthly people; the heavenly man for heavenly
people. But how is it possible to receive a nature with which one is not born? How if not by ceasing to
be what we were and persevering in what we have become through rebirth? For this, my friends, the
heavenly Spirit fructifies the virginal womb of the font with the invisible communication of his
radiance, so that it may bring forth as heavenly offspring, and transform into the likeness of their
Creator, those who had sunk into a miserable earthly condition because they were fashioned from
slime.
Therefore, now that we have been reborn and refashioned in the image of our Creator, let us do as
the Apostle says: As we have borne the image of the earthly man, so let us also bear the image of the
heavenly man. Let us be completely like our Creator, not in the majesty which belongs to him alone,
but in the innocence, simplicity, gentleness, patience, humility, and friendliness which he has deigned
to share with us.
THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VARIOUS ADVICE AND GREETINGS: 1 CORINTHIANS 16:1-24
Now concerning the contribution for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are
to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may
prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those
whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also,
they will accompany me.
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I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I
will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may speed me on my journey, wherever I go.
For I do not want to see you now just in passing; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord
permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to
me, and there are many adversaries. When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you,
for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Speed him on his way in
peace, that he may return to me; for I am expecting him with the brethren.
As for our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brethren, but it was not at
all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.
Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
Now, brethren, you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they
have devoted themselves to the service of the saints; I urge you to be subject to such men and to
every fellow worker and labourer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus,
because they have made up for your absence; for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give
recognition to such men.
The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send
you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brethren send greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.
Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

DE PAUPERIBUS AMANDIS, SERMON 1 (PG:46:447-60); WORD IN SEASON V
Plenty of strangers wander the roads, and everywhere we see their outstretched hands begging for
help. Their home is the open air; they shelter in porticos, streets, and deserted corners of the
marketplace, lurking in nooks and crannies like owls, and clothed in tattered rags. Their food is
whatever they may get from a passer-by, and they drink from the fountains with animals, using the
hollow of their hands as a cup. Their storeroom is their pockets if these are not too torn to hold
anything. For a table they use their knees pressed together; their bed is the pavement, and to bathe
they have simply a river or pool which God gives for the use of everyone. Such is the rough,
wandering path they follow, not because their life was like that from the start, but because misfor-
tune has driven them to it.
You can help them through your fasting. Be generous to your brothers who are in trouble, giving to
the hungry what you deny yourself, and making a fair distribution in the fear of God. By prudent self-
control reconcile two contrary conditions, your surfeit and another's hunger. Let reason open the
doors of the rich, and good advice lead the needy to the gates of the prosperous. Remember too that
many of the poor are ill and bed-ridden. Let all keep a watchful eye on their neighbours, and let no
one deprive you of the care of even one of them, thus stealing the treasure out of your very hands.
Embrace everyone you find in distress; value such a person like gold. Look after him in his sickness as
you would look after yourself, as you would care for your wife, your children and servants, and the
whole of your household.
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Anyone who is both poor and ill is doubly in need of assistance. The poor who are able-bodied can
take themselves to the houses of the rich and beg from door to door, or sit at the crossroads and
appeal to all who pass by. But those crippled with illness are hidden away in cramped and obscure
lodgings, like Daniel in the lions’ den, and there they wait for you, with your devotion and love, as
Daniel waited for Habakkuk. By almsgiving, then, follow the Prophet’s example: without hesitation go
with all speed to the help of the needy and provide them with food. A gift is no loss. Have no fear, for
almsgiving yields a plentiful harvest. Give alms and you will fill your house with sheaves of blessings.
FRIDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

REJOICING IN TRIALS: JAMES 1:1-18
James, a servant of God and of the LORD Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greeting.
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith
produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and
complete, lacking in nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching,
and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of
the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.
Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of
the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower
falls, and its beauty perishes. So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life
which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted
by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is
tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives
birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to
change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits
of his creatures.
A READING FROM THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY BY DENYS THE AREOPAGITE

THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY, CH 1; CWS (1987) TR. LUIBHEID.
Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.
But there is something more. Inspired by the Father, each procession of the Light spreads itself
generously toward us, and, in its power to unify, it stirs us by lifting us up. It returns us back to the
oneness and deifying simplicity of the Father who gathers us in. For, as the sacred Word says, from
him and to him are all things.
Let us, then, call upon Jesus, the Light of the Father, the true light enlightening every man coming into
the world, through whom we have obtained access to the Father, the light which is the source of all
light. To the best of our abilities, we should raise our eyes to the paternally transmitted
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enlightenment coming from sacred Scripture and, as far as we can, we should behold the intelligent
hierarchies of heaven and we should do so in accordance with what Scripture has revealed to us in
symbolic and uplifting fashion. We must lift up the immaterial and steady eyes of our minds to that
outpouring of Light which is so primal, indeed much more so, and which comes from that source of
divinity, I mean the Father. This is the Light which, by way of representative symbols, makes known to
us the most blessed hierarchies among the angels. But we need to rise from this outpouring of
illumination so as to come to the simple ray of Light itself.
All this accounts for the fact that the sacred institution and source of perfection established our most
pious hierarchy. He modelled it on the hierarchies of heaven, and clothed these immaterial
hierarchies in numerous material figures and forms so that, in a way appropriate to our nature, we
might be uplifted from these most venerable images to interpretations which are simple and
inexpressible. For it is quite impossible that we men should, in any immaterial way, rise up to imitate
and to contemplate the heavenly hierarchies without the aid of those material means capable of
guiding us as our nature requires. Hence, any thinking person realizes that the appearances of beauty
are signs of an invisible loveliness. Order and rank here below are a sign of the harmonious ordering
toward the divine realm. The reception of the most divine Eucharist is a symbol of participation in
Jesus. And so it goes for all the gifts transcendently received by the heavenly beings, gifts which are
granted to us in a symbolic mode.
The source of spiritual perfection provided us with perceptible images of these heavenly minds. He
did so out of concern for us and because he wanted us to be made godlike. He made the heavenly
hierarchies known to us. He made our own hierarchy a ministerial colleague of these divine
hierarchies by an assimilation, to the extent that is humanly feasible, to their godlike priesthood. He
revealed all this to us in the sacred pictures of the Scriptures so that he might lift us in spirit up
through the perceptible to the conceptual, from sacred shapes and symbols to the simple peaks of
the hierarchies of heaven.
SATURDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

BE NOT HEARERS ONLY OF THE DIVINE WORD: JAMES 1:19-27
Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the
anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank
growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your
souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes
himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law,
the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be
blessed in his doing.
If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s
religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans
and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
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INSTITUTES, 8.1.1-4.1; ACW 58 (2000) TR. RAMSEY.
In the fourth struggle the deadly poison of anger must be totally uprooted from the depths of our
soul. For as long as it resides in our hearts and blinds our mind’s eye with its harmful darkness, we
shall be able neither to acquire the judgment of a proper discretion nor to possess a good
contemplative vision, because, as it is said, my eye has been disturbed by anger. Nor shall we share in
wisdom, even though we seem to be declared wise in the opinion of all, because anger reposes in the
breast of the foolish, and we shall certainly be unable to attain to a life of immortality, although we
seem to be considered prudent in the understanding of men, because anger destroys even the
prudent. And we shall not be able to be untouched by harmful disturbances nor be free of sin, even
though no one ever causes us annoyance, because the passionate man begets quarrels, and the
wrathful man digs up sins.
We have heard that some people try to excuse this most destructive disease of the soul by attempting
to excuse it by a detestable interpretation of Scripture. They say it is not harmful if we are angry with
wrongdoing brothers, because God himself is said to be enraged with those who do not want to know
him or who, knowing him, disdain him. For example: The Lord was angry and enraged against his
people. And when the Prophet prays: Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor in your anger correct
me. They do not understand that, in their eagerness to concede men the opportunity for pernicious
vice, they are mixing the injustice of fleshly passion into the divine limitlessness and the source of all
purity.
For if these things that are said of God are to be accepted according to the letter and with a carnal
and crass understanding, then he of whom it is said: Behold, he who watches over Israel will neither
slumber nor sleep also sleeps, since it is said: Arise, Lord, why do you sleep? And he stands and sits,
since it is said: Heaven is my seat, and the earth is a footstool for my feet – he who measures the
heavens with his palm and encloses the earth in his fist. And he gets drunk with wine, since it is said:
And the Lord rose up as if from slumber, like a strong man drunken with wine – he who alone has
immortality and dwells in inaccessible light.
I pass over ignorance and forgetfulness, which we read are frequently attributed to him in Holy
Scripture, and also bodily parts, which are described in terms of human shape and arrangement –
namely, hair, head and nose, eyes and face, hands and arm, fingers, belly, and feet. If we wished to
take all of this in a crude literal way, it would be necessary to think of God as formed of bodily parts
and a bodily shape. But far be it from us to say such a wicked thing.
And so, since these things cannot without horrible sacrilege be literally understood of him who is
declared by the authority of Holy Scripture to be invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, inestimable,
simple, and uncomposite, the disturbance of anger (not to mention wrath) cannot be attributed to
that immutable nature without monstrous blasphemy
SUNDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

BEWARE OF PARTIALITY TOWARDS APPEARANCES: JAMES 2:1-13
My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if
a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby
clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “Have a
seat here, please”, while you say to the poor man, “Stand there”, or, “Sit at my feet”, have you not
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made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved
brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the
kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor man. Is it
not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme
that honourable name which was invoked over you?
If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”,
you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said,
“Do not commit adultery”, said also, “Do not kill”. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have
become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of
liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over
judgment.
A READING FROM A LETTER FROM ST AUGUSTINE TO ST JEROME

LETTER 167, 3, 15-17, 21; ACW (2004) TR. TESKE
How, I ask you, are we to understand the words, Whoever has observed the whole Law, but offends on
one point, has become guilty of all? Is a man who commits theft, or even someone who says to a rich
man, Sit here, but to a poor man, You, stand over there, also guilty of murder, adultery and sacrilege?
But if he is not, how has someone who offends on one point become guilty of all?
To summarise, virtue is the love by which one loves what should be loved. This is greater in some, less
in others, and not at all in still others, but it is not so perfect in anyone that it cannot be increased in
him as long as he lives. But as long as it can be increased, then of course that which is less than it
ought to be comes from a vice. Because of that vice, there is not a righteous man on earth who will do
good and not sin. On account of that vice, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. On its account, however much progress we make, we must also say, forgive us our
trespasses, though all our sins have been forgiven in Baptism.
Since this is so, how does someone become guilty of all the commandments if he who has observed
the whole Law offends on one of them? Is it perhaps because the fullness of the Law is love that one
who acts against that love on which all the commandments depend rightly becomes guilty of all? No
one sins except by acting against that love, because you shall not commit adultery, you shall not
commit murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment is summed up in
these words: you shall love your neighbour as yourself. Yet no one loves his neighbour without loving
God, so that he pours out his love as much as he can upon his neighbour whom he loves as himself in
order that his neighbour might love God. And for this reason a man who has observed the whole Law
becomes guilty of all the commandments if he offends on one of them, because he acts against the
love on which the whole Law depends.
But why are the sins not said to be equal? Is it perhaps because a man acts against love more when he
sins more gravely and that he acts against love less when he sins less gravely? And does he sin more
or less and by that very fact become guilty of all the commandments, but more guilty by sinning more
gravely or by sinning against more commandments, less guilty by sinning more lightly or against fewer
commandments? And yet even if he sins against one commandment, is he guilty because he acts
against that love on which all depend?
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If there is something in this that offends your learning, please write back and warn me and do not
hesitate to correct me. For in the name of the Lord and with his help your teaching has contributed to
the growth of the literature of the Church in the Latin language more than had ever before been the
case. I especially ask that if you know any other way in which this statement, Whoever has observed
the whole Law, but offends on one point, has become guilty of all, can be better explained, you be so
good as to share it with us.
MONDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FAITH RECOMMENDED WITH WORKS: JAMES 2:14-26
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?
If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be
warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith
by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works,
and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons
believe – and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is
barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the
Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not
by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she
received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is
dead, so faith apart from works is dead.

SERMON 12, 5 (SC 175:408-10); WORD IN SEASON V
Not all who say to me: Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my
Father in heaven.
Pay careful attention, for according to this text it is useless for people to say they have faith, if what
they promise in words they fail to fulfil in deeds. As Scripture says: If you have made a vow to God, do
not be slow in fulfilling it; for a faithless and foolish promise displeases him. It is much better not to
make a vow, than after making it to break your promise. And so that we may clearly recognise that
this is true even in regard to ourselves and our own servants, let anyone tell me if it is enough for him
that his servant calls him master all day long, and never stops singing his praises, and yet does none of
the work he has ordered him to do. Well then, if words without deeds are unacceptable to us, how
much more useless will faith without works be in the sight of God?
What we must fear above all is being so sure of receiving God’s mercy that it never occurs to us to
fear his justice. That would not be faith. Nor would it be faith to be so afraid of his justice that we
despair of his mercy. And so, since God is not only merciful but also just, we must believe he is both.
Our fear of his justice must not make us despair of his mercy; nor must our love of his mercy cause us
to forget his justice. We must neither wrongly hope nor wrongly abandon hope. It would be wrongly
hoping to think that one deserved mercy without repenting or doing good works; and it would be
wrongly abandoning hope not to believe that after doing good works one would receive mercy.
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And so what we have to watch out for and fear above all is the belief that faith without works can
suffice us. Let us rather fear the saying of the Apostle James: Just as the body without a soul is dead so
faith without works is dead.
TUESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SPEECH MUST BE CONTROLLED: JAMES 3:1-12
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged
with greater strictness. For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he
says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses
that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Look at the ships also; though they are so great
and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot
directs. So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by
a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole
body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of
reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can
tame the tongue--a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with
it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and
cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh
water and brackish? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt
water yield fresh.
A READING FROM THE PASTORAL RULE BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

REGULA PASTORALIS, 3.14 (PL 77:72-4); WORD IN SEASON V
The tongue should be prudently restrained, but not completely tied up. It is written: Whoever is wise
will keep silence until the right moment. In other words, when it is seen that speech would be
opportune the censorship of silence is relaxed, and an effort made to speak some appropriate word.
Elsewhere it is written: There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak. Different circumstances
should be prudently judged; the tongue should not be unprofitably loosened in speech when it ought
to be restrained; nor should it indolently withhold speech when it could speak with profit. Reflecting
well upon these things, the psalmist says: Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, and a door of discretion
before my lips. He does not ask for a wall to be set before his lips but a door, in other words,
something that can be opened and closed. We must take care to learn, then, when we should
discreetly and at the proper time open our mouths to speak, and when we should keep them closed
and preserve a fitting silence.
On the other hand, those given to talkativeness should be made to realise how great is their plunge
from rectitude when they fall into using a flood of words. For the mind of man is like water: when
enclosed it raises itself to higher levels, seeking the heights from which it descended; but when
released it loses itself, being uselessly dispersed through the lower levels. For all the words wasted
when the censorship of silence is relaxed are like so many streams carrying the mind away from itself.
The result is that it becomes incapable of returning within to knowledge of itself: it is so dissipated by
talkativeness that it cannot enter the secret place of deeper thoughts. By not enclosing itself within
the defences of watchfulness, it lays itself completely open to the blows of the enemy who lies in wait
for it.
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Very often slothfulness in guarding against idle words proves to be our downfall, for little by little we
come to utter harmful ones. At first we enjoy talking about other people’s affairs; then through
detraction we belittle the lives of those we discuss; and finally we break out into open slander. Under
this provocation quarrels arise, hatred is kindled, and peace of heart is destroyed.
This is why James says: Let everyone be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and why Truth himself warns
us that on the Day of judgment people will have to render an account for every idle word they have
spoken. An idle word is one for which there is no real necessity, or any kind intention of being helpful.
If then an account is to be demanded for idle words, let us consider what penalty is in store for
talkativeness involving the additional sin of speaking injurious words.
WEDNESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON TRUE AND FALSE WISDOM: JAMES 3:13-18
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness
of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be
false to the truth. This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual,
devilish. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and
good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity. And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by
those who make peace.

CHRIST, THE IDEAL OF THE MONK, 2.17.4.
As to faults against charity, they are of two kinds. The first are faults of weakness, whereby the will is
taken by surprise: movements of temper or impatience, unkind words, heat in discussion. It is such as
these that the great Patriarch so well names “thorns of scandal”. These slight frictions “are wont to
arise”, he adds, above all in a rather numerous community. Such faults are not grave, because they
generally arise without premeditated intention.
On these occasions, when we are the object of them, we ought not to be touchy. If we take these
little failings in a high and mighty way, if we turn over in our mind the offence that has been done to
us, we shall always live in trouble; even to think of it once is once too often. Our holy Lawgiver wishes,
like St Paul, that we should very readily forgive one another these small offences. He wishes the
Abbot, the father of the monastic family, to sing the Pater Noster from beginning to end in the choir
twice a day during the Divine Office in order that in asking God to forgive us our faults, we may
thereby be ready likewise to forgive our brethren.
Other faults which in the long run can become grave, because they are deliberate, are those of wilful
coldness towards anyone, the cherishing of resentment, prolonged indifference, and other forms of
evil which St. Benedict names in order to combat them in his list of the tools of good works: “Not to
give way to anger; not to harbour a desire of revenge; not to foster guile in one’s heart; not to give
false tokens of friendship.” Such faults are too contrary to the spirit of Jesus for it to be necessary to
insist more upon this.
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We need a forcible reminder that such failings in charity paralyse the soul and hinder spiritual
progress. And what is the reason for this great wrong thus done to oneself? It is that Christ Himself is
the object of this coldness, this resentment. If you wound me in one of my members, the eye or the
hand, it is myself you wound. Now, says St. Paul, you are the body of Christ, and individually members
of it. This language is that of faith. Do we live by this faith? Do we always reflect that all we think, all
we say, all we do against our neighbour, we do and say against Christ himself? If our faith is weak, we
do not live by these truths; we easily offend our neighbour and, in him, Christ in person.
THURSDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ROOTS OF DISAGREEMENTS: JAMES 4:1-12
What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in
your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight
and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask
wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an
enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is in vain that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the
spirit which he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the
proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he
will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter
be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt
you.
Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his
brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of
the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who
are you that you judge your neighbour?

INSTITUTES, 12.6-8; ACW 58 (2000) TR. RAMSEY
It is very clearly shown from scriptural examples that, although the disgrace of pride is last in the
order of battle, it is nonetheless first in terms of origin and is the source of all sins and misdeeds.
Unlike the other vices, it does not do away merely with its opposite virtue – that is, humility – but is
actually the destroyer of all the virtues together. It also afflicts not only the mediocre and the small
but especially those who stand at the summit of strength. For so the Prophet says of this spirit: His
foods are choice. Hence, although blessed David guarded the recesses of his heart with great care - so
that he boldly declared to him from whom the secrets of his conscience were not hidden: Lord, my
heart has not grown proud, nor have my eyes been lifted up; neither have I walked in great matters,
nor in marvels beyond me. If I did not feel humble - he knew nonetheless how difficult it was even for
the perfect to keep up this guard. He did not presume on his own effort alone but, in order to be able
to escape unharmed this enemy’s dart, he prayerfully implored the Lord’s help saying: Let the foot of
pride not come upon me. And he was frightened lest there befall him what was said of the proud: God
is set against the proud.
How great the evil of pride is, that it deserves to have as its adversary not an angel or other virtues
contrary to it but rather God himself! For it must be noted that it is never said of those who are
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caught up in the other vices that the Lord resists them, or that the Lord is set against the gluttonous,
or fornicators, or the angry, or the avaricious; this is true of the proud alone. For those vices only turn
back upon wrongdoers or seem to be committed against those who have a part in them - that is,
against other men. This one, however, of its very nature touches God, and therefore it is specially
worthy of having God opposed to it.
And so God, the Creator and Physician of the universe, knowing that pride is the cause and source of
our maladies, saw to it that contraries would be healed by contraries, so that what had collapsed
through pride would rise again through humility. For the one says: I will go up to heaven. But the
other says: My soul has been humbled to the ground. The one says: I will be like the Most High; the
other, although he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and humbled
himself and became obedient unto death. The one says: I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
The other says: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
If we understand the cause of the original fall and the foundations of our salvation, and by whom and
how the latter were laid and the former came about, we shall learn from the fall of the one and the
example of the other how we are to escape such a horrible death as that of pride.
FRIDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE IMMINENT JUDGEMENT OF GOD: JAMES 4:13 – 5:11
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year
there and trade and get gain”; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you
are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills,
we shall live and we shall do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have
rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be
evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out;
and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth
in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned,
you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain. You also be
patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble, brethren, against
one another, that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the doors. As an example
of suffering and patience, brethren, take the Prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we
call those happy who were steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen
the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
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ENARRATIO IN PS. 83 (CCL 39:1147-8); WORD IN SEASON V.
When we are afflicted and oppressed, it is in order that instead of being swept away by love of things
worldly, secular, and temporal, things fleeting and doomed to perish, things that make us suffer
torments, tribulations, and many temptations in this life, we might now begin to seek a peace which
this life or this earth cannot give. Then the Lord will become for us what the Scriptures say he is, a
refuge for the poor.
But who are the ‘poor’? Those who live as though they were destitute, without resources, without
help, without anything on this earth upon which they can rely. To such poor people God is present.
For even if they have plenty of money, they are mindful of what the Apostle says: Tell the rich of this
world not to be proud or to put their trust in wealth, which is so uncertain. Considering now unreliable
are the things that gave them pleasure before they came to the service of God, that is, before they
entered the presses of tribulation, they see that their wealth brings with it the pressure of worry
about its management and preservation; and if they yield a little to desire so as to love this wealth,
instead of enjoying it they are filled with fear. For what is so unreliable as something that can roll
away? It is quite fitting that coined money should be round, since it refuses to stay in one place. Such
men, then, in spite of their possessions, are poor. On the other hand, those who have nothing but
desire possessions are counted among the reprobate rich. God, after all, is concerned not about our
property but about our will.
The poor, then, are destitute of all worldly riches because, even though they be surrounded by
wealth, they realize how unreliable it is. They cry to God, for they have nothing in this world to delight
or hold them but are subject to many tribulations and temptations. They are in the presses, as it
were, and emit streams of wine and oil. What is this wine, this oil, but good desires? For their desire
for God remains. They no longer love the world: they love him who made heaven and earth. They love
him, but are not yet with him. The satisfaction of their desire is delayed so that the desire may
intensify; it intensifies so that it may be capable of receiving God. For it is no small thing that God
intends for those who desire, and no little training is required if we are to be able to receive so great a
good. God’s gift will not be something he has made, but himself, who made all things. Train
yourselves, then, to embrace God; long practised be your desire for what you will possess without
end.
SATURDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VARIOUS PIECES OF ADVICE: JAMES 5:12-20
But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let
your yes be yes and your no be no, that you may not fall under condemnation.
Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you
sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up;
and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and
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pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its
effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain,
and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven
gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him
know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and
will cover a multitude of sins.

HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS, 2.4-6; FOC (1990) TR. BARKLEY
Perhaps the hearers of the Church may say, generally it was better with the ancients than with us,
when pardon for sinners was obtained by offering sacrifices in a diverse ritual. Among us, there is only
one pardon of sins, which is given in the beginning through the grace of Baptism. After this, no mercy
nor any indulgence is granted to the sinner. Certainly, it is fitting that the Christian, for whom Christ
died, has a more difficult discipline. For the ancients, sheep, he-goats, cattle, and birds were killed and
fine wheat flour was moistened. For you, the Son of God was killed. How could it please you to sin
again? And yet, lest these things not so much build up your souls for virtue as cast them down to
despair, you heard how many sacrifices there were in the Law for sins. Now hear how many are the
remissions of sins in the Gospel.
First is the one by which we are baptised for the remission of sins. A second remission is in the
suffering of martyrdom. Third, is that which is given through alms. For the Saviour says, but
nevertheless, give what you have and, behold, all things are clean for you. A fourth remission of sins is
given for us through the fact that we also forgive the sins of our brothers. For thus the Lord and
Saviour himself says, If you will forgive from the heart your brothers’ sins, your Father will also forgive
you your sins. But if you will not forgive your brothers from the heart, neither will your Father forgive
you. And thus he taught us to say in prayer, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us. A fifth forgiveness of sins is when someone will convert a sinner from the error of his way.
For thus divine Scripture says, Whoever will make a sinner turn from the error of his way will save a
soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
There is also a sixth forgiveness through the abundance of love as the Lord himself says, Truly I say to
you, her many sins are forgiven because she loved much. And the Apostle says, Because love will cover
a multitude of sins. And there is still a seventh remission of sins through penance, although admittedly
it is difficult and toilsome, when the sinner washes his couch in tears and his tears become his bread
day and night, when he is not ashamed to make known his sin to the priest of the Lord and to seek a
cure according to the one who says, I said, ‘I will proclaim to the Lord my injustice against myself,’ and
you forgave the impiety of my heart. What the Apostle James said was fulfilled in this: But if anyone is
sick, let that person call the presbyters of the Church, and they will place their hands on him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and if he is in
sins, they will be forgiven him.
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SUNDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PRAISE OF JOSHUA AND CALEB: SIRACH 46: 1-12
Joshua the son of Nun was mighty in war, and was the successor of Moses in prophesying. He
became, in accordance with his name, a great saviour of God’s elect, to take vengeance on the
enemies that rose against them, so that he might give Israel its inheritance.
How glorious he was when he lifted his hands and stretched out his sword against the cities!
Who before him ever stood so firm? For he waged the wars of the Lord.
Was not the sun held back by his hand? And did not one day become as long as two?
He called upon the Most High, the Mighty One, when enemies pressed him on every side, and the
great Lord answered him with hailstones of mighty power. He hurled down war upon that nation, and
at the descent of Beth-horon he destroyed those who resisted, so that the nations might know his
armament, that he was fighting in the sight of the Lord; for he wholly followed the Mighty One.
And in the days of Moses he did a loyal deed, he and Caleb the son of Jephunneh: they withstood the
congregation, restrained the people from sin, and stilled their wicked murmuring.
And these two alone were preserved out of six hundred thousand people on foot, to bring them into
their inheritance, into a land flowing with milk and honey.
And the Lord gave Caleb strength, which remained with him to old age, so that he went up to the hill
country, and his children obtained it for an inheritance; so that all the sons of Israel might see that it is
good to follow the Lord.
The judges also, with their respective names, those whose hearts did not fall into idolatry and who did
not turn away from the Lord – may their memory be blessed!
May their bones revive from where they lie, and may the name of those who have been honoured live
again in their sons!

HOMILY 1 ON JOSHUA, L , 3, 5, 7; FOC (2002) TR. BRUCE
Our Lord gave the name that is above every other name to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For this
name that is above every other name is Jesus, and because this is the name that is above every other
name, for many generations it was given to no one. But in the Book of Exodus I find the name of
Jesus, or Joshua, for the first time, and I want to consider closely when it was first given.
Scripture says, Amalek came and was fighting against Israel, and Moses spoke to Jesus in Raphidim.
This is the first mention of the name Jesus. Moses said, Choose mighty men for yourself from among
all the sons of Israel, and go out and fight tomorrow with Amalek. Thus we first become acquainted
with the name Jesus when we see him as the leader of the army; not as one with whom Moses joined
his leadership, but the one to whom Moses granted primacy. Moses was not able to choose mighty
men. Therefore, when I become acquainted with the name Jesus for the first time, I also immediately
see the symbol of a mystery. Indeed Jesus leads the army.
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To what do all these things lead us? Obviously to this, that the book does not so much indicate to us
the deeds of Jesus, or Joshua, the son of Nun, as it represents for us the mysteries of Jesus my Lord.
For he himself is the one who assumes power after the death of Moses; he is the one who leads the
army and fights against Amalek. Thus Moses is dead; for the Law has ceased, because, the Law and
the Prophets extend only up to John.
Moses did not say, Let the sun stand still, nor command the greatest elements as Jesus did. Jesus says,
Let the sun stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Aijalon. Scripture adds to this and
says, Never in this way did God listen to a man. Not only at that time did my Jesus make the sun to
stand, but also, and in a much greater way at his coming. When we wage war against our enemies
and fight against principalities and powers and rulers of these dark things, against the spirits of
wickedness in the heavens, the sun of our righteousness constantly stands by and never, at any time,
deserts us or hastens to go down. For he himself says, behold I am with you for all days. He is not only
with us for a doubled day, but he is with us for all days until the end of the age until we prevail over
our adversaries.
In the time of Moses it was not said, as in Jesus’ time, the land rested from wars. It is certain also that
this land of ours, in which we have struggles and endure contests, will be able to rest from battles and
by the strength of the Lord Jesus alone. Within us indeed are all those breeds of vices that continually
attack the soul. Within us are the Canaanites; within us are the Perizzites; here are the Jebusites. In
what way must we exert ourselves, how vigilant must we be or for how long must we persevere, so
that when all these breeds of vices have been forced to flee, our land may rest from wars at last?
MONDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CALLED BY GOD, JOSHUA URGES THE PEOPLE TO UNITY: JOSHUA 1:1-18
After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’
minister, “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people,
into the land which I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot
will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as
far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going
down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your
life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and of good
courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my
servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good
success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall
meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for
then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Have I not
commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the
LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, “Pass through the camp, and command the
people, ‘Prepare your provisions; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to
take possession of the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.’”
And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, “Remember the word
which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, ‘The LORD your God is providing you a
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place of rest, and will give you this land.’ Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in
the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but all the men of valour among you shall pass
over armed before your brethren and shall help them, until the LORD gives rest to your brethren as
well as to you, and they also take possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving them;
then you shall return to the land of your possession, and shall possess it, the land which Moses the
servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise. And they answered Joshua, All
that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed
Moses in all things, so we will obey you; only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with
Moses! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you
command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.”
A READING FROM A TREATISE ON THE MYSTERIES BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

A TREATISE ON THE MYSTERIES, 2.5-7 (SC 19BIS 150-2); WORD IN SEASON V
After God had spoken at length to Moses and told him to do everything on earth in accordance with
the model he had seen on the mountain, Moses gave the name ‘Jesus’ to the man previously known
as Hoshea who was to lead the people on their journey to the promised land. Having been
commanded to arrange everything according to the model in the heavenly vision, Moses gave to the
future leader the name already stored up in heaven for the eternal leader.
For as the one was head of the synagogue, the other is head of the Church. As the one was the guide
to the promised land, the other is the guide to the land we are to inherit, of which the Lord said:
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the land. As the one came after Moses, the other comes
after the Law. As the one was ordered to renew the rite of circumcision with a stone knife, the Lord,
who is both cornerstone and sharp word that pierces to the division of the soul, inaugurates the
spiritual circumcision of the heart. As the one divided the water, the other divides peoples, for he
says: I have not come to bring peace but division.
How evident and complete the division of the waters was, since one part stood still while the other
flowed away to the sea, leaving the river bed dry and the Ark of the Lord with its priests occupying the
ground between! This figure teaches us that at the coming of the Ark of the Lord, that is, at the Lord’s
coming in the flesh, one part of the people would separate itself from the current of sin and its own
death, while the other part would flow into the sea, that is, would share in this world’s condemnation.
TUESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE HARLOT RAHAB FAITHFULLY RECEIVES THE SPIES WITH PEACE: JOSHUA 2:1-24
And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land,
especially Jericho.” And they went, and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and
lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, Behold, certain men of Israel have come here tonight
to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring forth the men that have
come to you, who entered your house; for they have come to search out all the land.” But the woman
had taken the two men and hidden them; and she said, “True, men came to me, but I did not know
where they came from; and when the gate was to be closed, at dark, the men went out; where the
men went I do not know; pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” But she had brought them
up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. So the men
pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords; and as soon as the pursuers had
gone out, the gate was shut.
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Before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, “I know that the LORD
has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the
land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea
before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were
beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard it, our
hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any man, because of you; for the LORD your God is he
who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now then, swear to me by the LORD that as I have
dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my fathers house, and give me a sure sign, and
save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our
lives from death.” And the men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours,
then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the LORD gives us the land.”
Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so
that she dwelt in the wall. And she said to them, “Go into the hills, lest the pursuers meet you; and
hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your
way.” The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours which you have
made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this scarlet cord in the window
through which you let us down; and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your
brothers, and all your fathers household. If any one goes out of the doors of your house into the
street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we shall be guiltless; but if a hand is laid upon any one
who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then
we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath which you have made us swear.” And she said,
“According to your words, so be it. Then she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the
scarlet cord in the window.”
They departed, and went into the hills, and remained there three days, until the pursuers returned;
for the pursuers had made search all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men came down
again from the hills, and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that
had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, “Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands; and
moreover all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of us.”

TRACTATES OF ORIGEN ON HOLY SCRIPTURE, 12:129-31, 139; WORD IN SEASON V
Although Rahab is described as a harlot, she nonetheless prophetically signified the virginal Church
and foreshadowed what was to come at the end of the ages, for she alone was protected and kept
alive when all others perished. So too when God told the Prophet Hosea: Take to yourself a wife who
is a harlot, the woman prefigured the Church that comes together out of the nations, since it was
from the harlotry of the nations and their fornication with idols – Scripture says, They have gone
fornicating after other gods; – that a people was to be gathered together. Ekklesia, the Greek word for
Church, means “a gathering of the people”.
For Christ has bestowed great grace, great virtue, great forgiveness, and great felicity on the Church
drawn from the Gentiles in order that, being restored to integrity through observance of the Law and
sanctified by the blessings of the Gospel, this Church that was at one time base and despicable might
become the chaste spouse of the one Holy Spirit. It is washed in the sacred bath and cleansed of its
filthy stains, and so changes from a sinful harlot into a virgin – as the Lord himself said to the Jews:
The harlots will enter the kingdom of heaven before you. United to the holy body of Christ by faith and
cleansed by the sanctifying and life-giving bath, the Church is said to lead the way into the kingdom
of heaven.
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Rahab, a type of the Church, hung a scarlet cord from her window as a sign of her promised safety,
thus signifying that the Passion of Christ is the salvation of the nations. Therefore, just as only the
house of Rahab and its residents were saved by the sign of the scarlet cord when Jericho was razed
and burned and its king slain, so when this world is consumed by fire and the devil is slain, none will
be saved for eternal life except those within the house of the Church, which will be marked by the
scarlet sign, the blood of Christ.
WEDNESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PEOPLE CROSS THE JORDAN AND CELEBRATE THE PASSOVER: JOSHUA 3:1-17; 4:14-19;
5:0-12
Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim, with all the people of Israel; and they came
to the Jordan, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went
through the camp and commanded the people, “When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD
your God being carried by the Levitical Priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it,
that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a
space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come near it.” And Joshua
said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” And
Joshua said to the Priests, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and pass on before the people.” And
they took up the Ark of the Covenant, and went before the people.
And the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may
know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And you shall command the Priests who bear the
Ark of the Covenant, When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in
the Jordan.” And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD
your God.” And Joshua said, “Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will
without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the
Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the
earth is to pass over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of
Israel, from each tribe a man. And when the soles of the feet of the Priests who bear the Ark of the
LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be
stopped from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”
So, when the people set out from their tents, to pass over the Jordan with the Priests bearing the Ark
of the Covenant before the people, and when those who bore the Ark had come to the Jordan, and
the feet of the Priests bearing the Ark were dipped in the brink of the water (the Jordan overflows all
its banks throughout the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a
heap far off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the sea of the
Arabah, the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over opposite Jericho. And while all
Israel were passing over on dry ground, the Priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD
stood on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.
On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they
had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.
And the LORD said to Joshua, “Command the Priests who bear the Ark of the testimony to come up
out of the Jordan.” Joshua therefore commanded the Priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” And when
the Priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and
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the soles of the Priests feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their
place and overflowed all its banks, as before.
The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in
Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.
While the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of
the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. And on the morrow after the passover, on that very day,
they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased on
the morrow, when they ate of the produce of the land; and the people of Israel had manna no more,
but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

HOMILY 4 ON JOSHUA, 1; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
At the Jordan the Ark of the Covenant was carried at the head of the people of God. And when the
Priests and the Levites halted, the waters held back and heaped up, as if out of respect for God’s
ministers, thus allowing the people of God a safe crossing. We Christians should not be surprised to
read about the things that were done for an earlier people. For in Baptism we too have passed
through the waters of the Jordan and God has promised us far greater and higher blessings: we have
been promised a passage through the very air itself.
Listen to what Paul has to say about the just: We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. There is nothing whatever for the just man to fear,
because the whole of creation is at his service.
Listen too to what God promises the just by the mouth of the Prophet: When you walk through fire,
the flame shall not consume you, for I am the Lord your God. So we see that the just man is able to go
everywhere in safety and that every creature gives him the service that is his due. But you must not
think that these things happened only in earlier times and that nothing of this sort will happen to you
who are now listening to these stories. In fact, all things come true in you in a mystical way. When you
left the darkness of idolatry and were anxious to reach the understanding of the divine Law, you
began your exodus from Egypt.
When you were numbered among the catechumens and first undertook to obey the laws of the
Church, you crossed the Red Sea. As you halt each day on your journey through the desert, you
devote some time to listening to God’s Law and looking on the face of Moses, unveiled for you by the
glory of the Lord. And if you come to the spiritual waters of Baptism and in the presence of the Priests
and Levites, are initiated into those great and awe-inspiring mysteries (which are familiar to those
who have the right to know about them), then you too will cross the Jordan through the ministry of
the Priests. You will enter the promised land, where Jesus, following Moses, takes you in his charge,
and becomes your leader on this new journey.
Mindful of all these great signs of God’s power, how the sea was parted for you and how the river
waters stood still, you will turn to them and say: What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that
you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? And you will hear the divine
answer: The earth has trembled at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who
turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
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THURSDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE STRONGEST CITY OF THE ENEMY IS DESTROYED: JOSHUA 5:13 – 6:21
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood before him
with his drawn sword in his hand; and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our
adversaries?” And he said, “No; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And
Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and said to him, “What does my lord bid his
servant?” And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Put off your shoes from your feet;
for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel; none went
out, and none came in. And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given into your hand Jericho, with
its king and mighty men of valour. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around
the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. And seven Priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’
horns before the Ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the Priests
blowing the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the rams’ horn, as soon as you hear the
sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will
fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.” So Joshua the son of Nun
called the Priests and said to them, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and let seven Priests bear seven
trumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark of the LORD.” And he said to the people, “Go forward; march
around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the Ark of the LORD.”
And as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven Priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’
horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the Ark of the Covenant of the
LORD following them. And the armed men went before the Priests who blew the trumpets, and the
rear guard came after the Ark, while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the
people, “You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth,
until the day I bid you shout; then you shall shout.” So he caused the Ark of the LORD to compass the
city, going about it once; and they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp.
Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the Priests took up the Ark of the LORD. And the seven
Priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark of the LORD passed on, blowing the
trumpets continually; and the armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the Ark
of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city
once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same
manner seven times: it was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at
the seventh time, when the Priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout; for
the LORD has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for
destruction; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the
messengers that we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when
you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for
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destruction, and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are
sacred to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.” So the people shouted, and the
trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a
great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight
before him, and they took the city. Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women,
young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword.

HOMILY 6 ON JOSHUA, 4; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Jericho is surrounded and must be captured. But how is Jericho captured? No sword is drawn, no
battering ram is used against it, no spear is brandished. Only the priestly trumpets are brought up,
and they cause the walls of Jericho to collapse.
In Scripture we often find Jericho standing for the world. For example, in the Gospel story of the man
on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho falling among thieves, it is clear that the man represents Adam
driven from Paradise into the exile of this world. And when Jesus went to Jericho and restored the
sight of the blind men, they represented all those who in this world suffer from the blindness of
ignorance, to whom the Son of God comes. So this Jericho, by which we understand this world, is
going to collapse, for the consummation of the age has long been forecast by the Sacred Books.
But how is this consummation going to come about? By what means? At the sound of the trumpet, we
read. What trumpet? Paul gives you the solution to this mystery. Listen to what he says: The trumpet
will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable. For the Lord himself will descend from
heaven with the archangel’s call, and with the sound
of the trumpet of God. So it is then that Jesus Our Lord will conquer Jericho with trumpet blast and
destroy it, And the only survivors will be the harlot and all her household. The Lord Jesus will come, he
says, and he will come with trumpet blast.
May he save that one woman who welcomed the men he sent to spy out the land, who received his
Apostles in faith and obedience and hid them in the roof, and may he give this harlot a share with the
house of Israel. But we must not go over this story again and reproach her for this sin of the past. She
was once a harlot but now she is joined to Christ, a chaste virgin to one chaste spouse. Listen to what
the Apostle says about her: I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one
husband. And he was also speaking of her when he said: We ourselves were foolish, disobedient, led
astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures.
Do you want to know more about how the harlot ceased a harlot? Then listen again to Paul: Such
were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
in the Spirit of our God. To enable her to escape the destruction of Jericho the spies gave her the
surest sign of safety, the scarlet rope. For it is through the blood of Christ that this whole Church is
saved, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
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FRIDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CRIME AND PUNISHMENT OF ACHAN: JOSHUA 7:4-26
So about three thousand went up there from the people; and they fled before the men of Ai, and the
men of Ai killed about thirty-six men of them, and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim,
and slew them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
Then Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the Ark of the LORD until the
evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, O
Lord GOD, why hast thou brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the
Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what
can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the
inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth; and
what wilt thou do for thy great name?”
The LORD said to Joshua, “Arise, why have you thus fallen upon your face? Israel has sinned; they
have transgressed my Covenant which I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted
things; they have stolen, and lied, and put them among their own stuff. Therefore the people of Israel
cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they have
become a thing for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things
from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says
the LORD, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in the midst of you, O Israel; you cannot stand
before your enemies, until you take away the devoted things from among you.” In the morning
therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes; and the tribe which the LORD takes shall come
near by families; and the family which the LORD takes shall come near by households; and the
household which the LORD takes shall come near man by man. And he who is taken with the devoted
things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the Covenant of
the LORD, and because he has done a shameful thing in Israel.’”
So Joshua rose early in the morning, and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was
taken; and he brought near the families of Judah, and the family of the Zerahites was taken; and he
brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was taken; and he brought near his
household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah,
was taken. Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and render
praise to him; and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” And Achan answered
Joshua, “Of a truth I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw
among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold
weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them, and took them; and behold, they are hidden in the earth
inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the
silver underneath. And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the people
of Israel; and they laid them down before the LORD. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the
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son of Zerah, and the silver and the mantle and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters, and his
oxen and asses and sheep, and his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of
Achor. And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.
And all Israel stoned him with stones; they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. And
they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day; then the LORD turned from his
burning anger. Therefore to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.”
A READING FROM A DIALOGUE OF COMFORT BY ST THOMAS MORE

A DIALOGUE OF COMFORT, 1.9; WORD IN SEASON V
Well-deserved tribulation comes upon some people through their own undoubted deed of which they
are well aware, as when sickness overtakes us after gluttonous feasting, or when we are punished for
something that is obviously our own fault. These tribulations and others like them, even though they
may seem to contain no comfort because it hurts to think that we have brought them on ourselves,
may yet be a comfort to us if we consider that they may bring us healing if we wish them to.
For there are undoubtedly many who without tribulation would live and die in their deadly sin. In
tribulation, however, they feel their own frailty so keenly, and the false flattering world failing them,
that they wholeheartedly turn to God and call for mercy. Taking their trouble humbly, by grace they
make a virtue of necessity and a medicine of their malady, and make a right godly end.
Consider well the story of Achan whose sacrilege committed at the great city of Jericho made God
take a great vengeance upon the sons of Israel. Afterward God told them the reason for it and bade
them seek out the offender by lots, and the lot fell upon the very man that did it. When it fell first
upon his tribe, and then upon his family, and then upon his house, and finally upon his person, he
might well consider that he was apprehended and taken against his will; but yet at the good
exhortation of Joshua, My son, give glory to the God of Israel, and make your confession to him. Tell
what you have done and do not hide it, he humbly confessed the theft, and meekly accepted his death
for it, and I have no doubt that he had both strength and comfort in his pain, and died a very good
man. If tribulation had never come his way, he might have been in danger of never having a just
remorse for his deed in all his whole life, and of dying wretchedly and going to the devil eternally.
Thus this thief made a good medicine of his well-deserved pain and tribulation.
Consider the well converted thief that hung at Christ’s right hand. Did not he, by his patient suffering
and humble acknowledgment of his fault in asking forgiveness of God, while being content to suffer
for his sin, make of his just punishment and well-deserved tribulation a very good and special
medicine to cure him of all pain in the other world, and win him eternal salvation?
And so I say that this kind of tribulation, though it seem the most degrading and quite comfortless, is
yet, if we will so make it, a truly marvellous and wholesome medicine, and may therefore be to
anyone that will take it in this way a great cause of comfort and spiritual consolation.
SATURDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PEOPLE OF GOD TAKE POSSESSION OF THE LAND: JOSHUA 10:1-14; 11:15-17
When Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it,
doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had
made peace with Israel and were among them, he feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city,
like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty. So Adoni-
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zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of
Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying, “Come up to me, and help me, and let us smite Gibeon; for
it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel.” Then the five kings of the Amorites, the
king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon,
gathered their forces, and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon, and made war
against it.
And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, “Do not relax your hand from
your servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that
dwell in the hill country are gathered against us.” So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people
of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour. And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them,
for I have given them into your hands; there shall not a man of them stand before you.” So Joshua
came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. And the LORD threw them into a
panic before Israel, who slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of
the ascent of Beth-horon, and smote them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. And as they fled before
Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down great stones from
heaven upon them as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died because of the
hailstones than the men of Israel killed with the sword.
Then spoke Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the men of
Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand thou still at Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley
of Aijalon.” And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on their
enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and did not
hasten to go down for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the
LORD hearkened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.
As the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he
left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.
So Joshua took all that land, the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the
lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland from Mount Halak, that rises
toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he took all their
kings, and smote them, and put them to death.

HOMILY 11 ON JOSHUA, 2-3 (SC 71:284-6); WORD IN SEASON V
When people ally themselves with the Word of God, let them not doubt that they will immediately
have enemies and that their former friends will turn to foes. Not only must they expect this from
men; they must also know for sure that the evil powers and wicked spirits are ready to respond in the
same way. Those therefore who seek the friendship of Jesus should realise that they will have to face
much hostility, The Apostle Paul confirms this statement when he says: All who wish to live a godly life
in Christ will suffer persecution. Solomon says the same thing: My son, when you enter the service of
God, prepare yourself to be tested.
The Gibeonites, however lowly, are still under siege today because of their friendship with Jesus; this
is true even though they are only wood-cutters and water-carriers. In other words, even though you
are the least in the Church, you will be attacked by the five Kings for belonging to Jesus.
But Jesus and the leaders of Israel do not abandon or spurn the Gibeonites; on the contrary they
assist them in their weakness. Does it not seem to you that these things happen among us, and that
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this is what the Apostle commands when he says: Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, be
patient with all, and elsewhere: You who are stronger must support the weak in their infirmity. In this
way, then, Jesus with his leaders and generals is present to those who for his name’s sake are
attacked by hostile powers; not only does he help them in battle, but he also lengthens the day, and
by prolonging the time of light, delays the coming of darkness.
We should like to show, if we can, how our Lord Jesus Christ prolonged the light and extended the day
in order to save humankind and destroy the hostile forces.
Once the Saviour had come the world was already at its end. He himself said: Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. But he delayed the day of consummation, he held it off and forbade its
appearance. For God the Father saw that the salvation of the nations could come only through him,
and therefore he said to him: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the
ends of the earth as your possession.
And so, until the Father’s promise is fulfilled, until the Churches increase by the addition of the
various peoples and all the fullness of the nations enter them so that then at last all Israel may be
saved, the day will be prolonged and its end postponed, nor shall the sun ever set. On the contrary, as
long as the Sun of Justice pours into believing hearts the light of his truth it will always be morning.
SUNDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE COVENANT IS RENEWED IN THE PROMISED LAND: JOSHUA 24:1-7, 13-28
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the
judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all
the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates,
Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father
Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring
many. I gave him Isaac; and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to
possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued
Egypt with what I did in the midst of it; and afterwards I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers
out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and
horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the
Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to
Egypt; and you lived in the wilderness a long time.
“I gave you a land on which you had not laboured, and cities which you had not built, and you dwell
therein; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant.
“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which
your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if you be unwilling to
serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the
region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my
house, we will serve the LORD.”
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went,
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and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the LORD drove out before us all the
peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land; therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”
But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God;
he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods,
then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people
said to Joshua, “Nay; but we will serve the LORD.” Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses
against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”
He said, “Then put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD,
the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we
will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances
for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a
great stone, and set it up there under the oak in the Sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said to all the
people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD
which he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”
So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

SERMONS ON THE SUBJECTS OF THE DAY, 160-3; WORD IN SEASON V
We are told that Joshua did not accomplish all the work that was to be done, but left a remnant of it
to those who came after him. And yet in one sense he did it all, for all these Kings and their land did
Joshua take at one time. And, accordingly, he divided out even the country which he had not
conquered; for what he had done involved and secured, as far as God’s aid was necessary, the doing
of the rest. Behold, he says, I have divided unto you by lot these nations which remain, to be an
inheritance for your tribes … And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you …Be ye
therefore very courageous.
And so in like manner Christ has done the whole work of redemption for us; and yet it is no
contradiction to say that something remains for us to do: we have to take the redemption offered us,
and that taking involves a work. We have to apply his grace to our own souls, and that application
implies pain, trial and toil in the midst of its blessedness. He has suffered and conquered, and those
who become partakers in him undergo in their own persons the shadow and likeness of that Passion
and victory. In them, one by one, is acted out over again and again the history of the Son of God, so
that as he died they die to sin – as he rose again, so they rise again to righteousness; and in this
imitation of his history consists their participation in his glory. He truly has planted us in the land of
promise, and has given our enemies into our hands; but they are still in it, and they have to be
expelled from it; and as the Israelites after Joshua’s death entered into a truce with them instead of
obeying his command, so we too, after our Lord’s departure instead of making that righteousness our
own, which he has of his free grace imputed to us at the first, too often are content with the nominal
imputation, and think it enough that he has divided out the nations which remain, careless
about fulfilling his directions in destroying them.
Though Joshua is a figure of Christ and his followers in that he is a combatant and a conqueror, in one
point of view he plainly differs from them. He was commanded to use worldly weapons in his warfare;
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but of ours Saint Paul says, the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but possess divine
power to demolish fortresses. Such is the rule of our warfare. We advance by yielding; we rise by
falling; we conquer by suffering; we persuade by silence; we become rich by bountifulness; we inherit
the earth through meekness; we gain comfort through mourning; we earn glory by penitence and
prayer. Heaven and earth shall sooner fall than this rule be reversed; it is the Law of Christ’s kingdom,
and nothing can reverse it but sin. As Achan could cause the defeat of the armies of Israel, so sin,
indeed, of whatever kind, may disturb this divine provision, but nothing else. Let us pray that we may
all of us be kept pure from sin; let us pray that at last, when we are well stricken with years, we may
be a Joshua, not gifted with riches of this world, but with a name better than that of sons, the
eternal God for our refuge, and underneath the everlasting arms.
MONDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GENERAL VIEW OF THE TIME OF THE JUDGES: JUDGES 2:6 – 3:4
When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take
possession of the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the
elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the LORD had done for Israel. And
Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten years. And
they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim,
north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and
there arose another generation after them, who did not know the LORD or the work which he had
done for Israel.
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals; and they
forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they went
after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed down
to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. They forsook the LORD, and served the Baals and the
Ashtaroth. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers,
who plundered them; and he sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they
could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was
against them for evil, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them; and they were in
sore straits.
Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the power of those who plundered them.
And yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed
down to them; they soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had
obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. Whenever the LORD raised up
judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all
the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who
afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse
than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them; they did not drop
any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and
he said, Because this people have transgressed my Covenant which I commanded their fathers, and
have not obeyed my voice, I will not henceforth drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua
left when he died, that by them I may test Israel, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the
LORD as their fathers did, or not. So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he
did not give them into the power of Joshua.
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Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had no
experience of any war in Canaan; it was only that the generations of the people of Israel might know
war, that he might teach war to such at least as had not known it before. These are the nations: the
five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt on
Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as the entrance of Hamath. They were for the
testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he
commanded their fathers by Moses.

CONFERENCE 4.3-4, 6.4-7.2; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
Three reasons have been handed down by our forebears for this mental barrenness of which you
speak. It comes either from our own negligence or from an attack of the devil or as the Lord’s design
and trial.
But there is a twofold reason for the design and trial. First, so that, by being forsaken by the Lord for a
short while and humbly seeing the frailty of our spirit, we may not become proud because of any
previous purity of heart which has been granted us by his visitation; and so that, by proving to us that
when we are forsaken by him we cannot regain that condition of joy and purity by any effort of our
own, we may understand that even our previous joy of heart was conferred on us not by our own
doing but by his condescension, and that present joy must be sought anew from his grace. The
second reason for this trial is to put to the proof our perseverance and desire, and also to manifest in
us with what yearning of heart and earnestness of prayer we must look for the visitation of the Holy
Spirit when he has left us. For it seems to be the case that whatever is in the habit of being poorly
guarded is believed to be able to be easily retrieved.
We read something like this in mystical fashion in the Book of Judges with respect to the
extermination of the spiritual nations that are opposed to Israel: These are the nations that the Lord
forsook, so that by them he might instruct Israel, so that they might grow accustomed to fighting with
their enemies. God did not begrudge Israel their peace nor look with malice upon them, but he
planned this conflict in the knowledge that it would be beneficial. Thus, constantly oppressed by the
onslaught of the nations, they would never feel that they did not need the Lord’s help. Hence they
would always meditate on him and cry out to him, and they would not lose their ability to fight and
their training in virtue. For frequently security and prosperity have brought low those whom
adversities cannot overcome.
We also read in the Apostle that this conflict has been set in our members too for our advantage: For
the desire of the flesh is against the spirit, and that of the spirit against the flesh. But these are
opposed to one another, so that you may not do what you want to do. Here you have conflict deeply
rooted in our body, so to say, according to the design of the Lord. For how can whatever is true in
each case and admits of no exceptions be considered other than attributable by nature to the very
stuff of humanity after the fall of the first man? This conflict, which is beneficial in some way, has
been put in us by the Creator’s design, provoking and compelling us to a better condition. If it were
removed there is little doubt that a dangerous repose would take its place.
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TUESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DEBORAH AND BARAK: JUDGES 4:1-24
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, after Ehud died. And the
LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his
army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-ha-goiim. Then the people of Israel cried to the LORD for
help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty
years.
Now Deborah, a Prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit
under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the people
of Israel came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abino-am from
Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you, Go, gather your
men at Mount Tabor, taking ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. And I
will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabins army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and
his troops; and I will give him into your hand.” Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if
you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road
on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a
woman.” Then Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. And Barak summoned Zebulun and
Naphtali to Kedesh; and ten thousand men went up at his heels; and Deborah went up with him.
Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of
Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Za-anannim, which is near Kedesh.
When Sisera was told that Barak the son of Abino-am had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera called out
all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth-
ha-goiim to the river Kishon. And Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD
has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the LORD go out before you?” So Barak went down from
Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots
and all his army before Barak at the edge of the sword; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled
away on foot. And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-ha-goiim, and all the army
of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.
But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace
between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael came out to meet Sisera,
and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into
the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, “Pray, give me a little water to drink; for
I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her,
“Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is any one here’? say, ‘No.’” But
Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and
drove the peg into his temple, till it went down into the ground, as he was lying fast asleep from
weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael went out to meet him, and said to
him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent; and there
lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.
So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. And the hand of the
people of Israel bore harder and harder on Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of
Canaan.
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PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 3.173-5; WORD IN SEASON V
So perish all thine enemies, O Lord! But let thy friends be like the sun as it rises in its might. And the
land had rest for forty years.
What a contrast do these words present to the history which goes before them! It came to pass, says
the Sacred Writer, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly
drive them out. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer … Neither did
Zebulon drive out the inhabitants of Kitron … Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho.
Here is the picture of indolence and unfaithfulness leading to cowardice, to apostasy, and to national
ruin.
On the other hand, consider, by way of contrast, the narrative contained in the chapter which ends
with the text. Ephraim and Benjamin, Machir and Zebulon, Issachar and Naphtali, rousing, uniting,
assailing their enemies, and conquering; conquering in the strength of the Lord. Their long captivity
was as nothing, through God’s great mercy, when they turned to him. In vain had their enemies trod
them down to the ground; the Church of God had that power and grace within it, that whenever it
could be per¬suaded to shake off its lassitude and rally, it smote as sharply and as effectively as
though it had never been bound with the new ropes of the Philistines. So it was now. Awake, awake,
Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of
Abinoam. Such was the inspired cry of war: and it was obeyed. In consequence the Canaanites were
discomfited in battle and fled; and the land had rest for forty years. Here is a picture of manly
obedience to God’s will - a short trial of trouble and suffering – and then the reward, peace.
What the Old Testament especially teaches us is this: that zeal is as essentially a duty of all God’s
rational creatures, as prayer and praise, faith and submission; and, surely, if so, especially of sinners
whom he has redeemed; that zeal consists in a strict attention to his commands – an intense thirst for
the advancement of his glory – a shrinking from the pollution of sin and sinners – an indigna¬tion, nay
impatience, at witnessing his honour insulted – a quick¬ness of feeling when his name is mentioned,
and a jealousy how it is mentioned – a fullness of purpose, an heroic determination to yield him
service at whatever sacrifice of personal feeling – a carelessness of obloquy, or reproach, or
persecution, a forgetful¬ness of friend and relative, nay, a hatred (so to say) of all that is naturally
dear to us, when he says, Follow me. These are some of the characteristics of zeal. Such was the
temper of Moses, Phineas, Samuel, David, Elijah; it is the temper enjoined on all the Israelites,
especially in their conduct toward the abandoned nations of Canaan. The text expresses that temper
in the words of Deborah: So perish all thine enemies, O Lord! But thy friends be like the sun as it rises
in its might.
WEDNESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL OF GIDEON: JUDGES 6:1-6, 11-24
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand
of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed over Israel; and because of Midian the
people of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves and the
strongholds. For whenever the Israelites put in seed the Midianites and the Amalekites and the
people of the East would come up and attack them; 4 they would encamp against them and destroy
the produce of the land, as far as the neighbourhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and
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no sheep or ox or ass. For they would come up with their cattle and their tents, coming like locusts for
number; both they and their camels could not be counted; so that they wasted the land as they came
in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the people of Israel cried for help to the
LORD.
Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the
Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man
of valour.” And Gideon said to him, “Pray, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this befallen us?
And where are all his wonderful deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD
bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.” And
the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of
Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan
is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” And the LORD said to him, “But I will be
with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.” And he said to him, “If now I have found
favour with thee, then show me a sign that it is thou who speakest with me. Do not depart from here,
I pray thee, until I come to thee, and bring out my present, and set it before thee.” And he said, “I will
stay till you return.”
So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the
meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and
presented them. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put
them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD reached
out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and
there sprang up fire from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel
of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD; and
Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” But the
LORD said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to
the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the
Abiezrites.

HOMILY 8 ON JUDGES (PG 12:979-80); WORD IN SEASON V
The Midianites are said not to have prevailed over the Lord’s people as long as that people obeyed
the Lord’s commandments. But when they began to be heedless of the divine commandments the
hand of their enemies grew stronger and more powerful against them. It was bodily enemies that
rose up against the first people of God when they transgressed; against us, however, who are called
the Israel according to the Spirit, it is undoubtedly a spiritual enemy that arises. When we fail to heed
the commandments of God, when we spurn Christ, the hand of the demon, grows stronger against
us; then, when grace deserts us, we too are handed over to the enemy.
But let us see what happened to those who were handed over for their sins. They sowed the land, but
because they had been handed over to the enemy on account of their sins, they reaped a harvest of
corruption. Let us consider how the same thing can happen to us, who are the Israel according to the
spirit. There are times when we sow, and the enemy cannot spoil the seed we plant or ambush us as
we cultivate it. There are other times, however, when the seed we sow is ruined. Let the Apostle Paul
instruct us on the difference between the two sowings. Here is what he says: He who sows to his own
flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal
life.
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He, then, who sows to his own flesh is the one whose seed the Midianites ruin. His crop is destroyed
and he perishes. But the Midianites cannot destroy the seed of him who sows to the Spirit. The hostile
forces cannot go up into the fields of the Spirit, nor can they desecrate the new spiritual fields of
those who do not sow their seed in thorny ground but take new unploughed fields for themselves.
A further remark is called for. I wish to warn both you and myself of the care to be taken of the seed
and the diligence to be expended on spiritual fruits. Not infrequently men labour mightily in spiritual
works and bear abundant fruits and fill their barns with the produce of their uprightness and store
away many good works in the secure chamber of their conscience. Afterward, however, they become
negligent; after their labours they lapse into pleasure seeking and extravagance. Then lust takes
control, and all the seeds of their good works, all the fruits of their holy labour, are ruined. For when
sin creeps in and captures men’s minds so that they no longer heed God’s commandments and
willingly climb the steep path of virtue, everything that was gathered into the barns of conscience is
lost. We must therefore heed the warning of the sacred Scriptures when they say: keep a close guard
over your heart.
THURSDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GIDEON CONQUERS WITH A SMALL ARMY: JUDGES 6:33-35; 7:1-8, 16-22
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and crossing
the Jordan they encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the LORD took possession of
Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. And he sent
messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent
messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they went up to meet them.
Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped
beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the
valley.
The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their
hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ Now
therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return
home.’” And Gideon tested them; twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.
And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; take them down to the water and I will
test them for you there; and he of whom I say to you, ‘This man shall go with you’, shall go with you;
and any of whom I say to you, ‘This man shall not go with you’, shall not go.” So he brought the
people down to the water; and the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one that laps the water with his
tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself; likewise every one that kneels down to drink.” And the
number of those that lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men; but all the
rest of the people knelt down to drink water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred
men that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand; and let all the others go
every man to his home.” So he took the jars of the people from their hands, and their trumpets; and
he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp
of Midian was below him in the valley.
And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all
of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, “Look at me, and do
likewise; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who
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are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, ‘For the LORD and
for Gideon.’”
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the
beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and
smashed the jars that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the
jars, holding in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and they
cried, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” They stood every man in his place round about the
camp, and all the army ran; they cried out and fled. When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the
LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow and against all the army; and the army fled as far as
Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.

HOMILY 8 ON JUDGES (PG 12:986-88); WORD IN SEASON V
The Lord said to Gideon: Make a proclamation for all the people to hear that anyone who is faint-
hearted and afraid is to return home. Today also the leader of our host, our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ cries out to his soldiers: No one who is faint-hearted and afraid may come to my
wars. That is what he is saying, though in other words, in the Gospel text: Anyone who does not
take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. By these words is not Christ obviously
separating and dissociating from his camp those who are faint-hearted and afraid?
All of you, therefore, who wish to follow Christ in his warfare and desire to be in his camp,
put far from you any timidity, banish any fear, so that you may be his soldiers, and say
confidently: Even if an army encamped camp against me my heart would not fear. Even if war broke
out against me still I would trust.
The thought of such warfare should not dishearten us, for it presents nothing difficult or hard or
impossible. Do you wish to know how easy it is to carry out Christ’s bidding for those who do battle
with faith? Even women frequently win the victory in this army, for the battle is fought not with bodily
muscle but with strength born of faith. Earlier in this book of Judges we read of the victory of
Deborah, and of how, though she was a woman, she did not suffer from a woman’s fear. Shall I
remind you of Judith, that high-minded lady, that noblest of women? When the cause was almost lost
she did not hesitate to go alone to its defence and alone to risk herself and her life in order to slay
cruel Holofernes; she went to war not in armour or on steeds of battle or weighed down with the
weapons on which soldiers rely, but with strength of soul and the confidence of faith, and she
destroyed the enemy by resolution and courage. A woman restored the freedom of her country,
which men had lost.
But I need not invoke the example of those far distant from us in the past. With our own eyes we have
often seen women and still youthful maidens endure the torments of tyrants in witness to their faith.
What is needed in those who do battle for the truth and for God is courage not of body but of spirit.
For victory is to be sought by the darts of prayer, not by iron javelins, and it is faith that enables one
to endure the combat. Hence the holy Apostle teaches the soldiers of God the proper armour for this
kind of warfare: Stand fast, then, in the breastplate of righteousness, your loins girt with the truth;
receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit; above all, take the shield of faith by
which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. And let your feet be shod with zeal for
the gospel of peace. Thus armed, take up the standard of Christ’s Cross and follow him.
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FRIDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PEOPLE OF GOD TRY TO SET UP A KING: JUDGES 8:22-23, 30-32; 9:1-15, 19-20
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also; for
you have delivered us out of the hand of Midian.” Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and
my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.”
Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was
in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died
in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s kinsmen and said to them and
to the whole clan of his mother’s family, “Say in the ears of all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is
better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’
Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” And his mother’s kinsmen spoke all these words
on his behalf in the ears of all the men of Shechem; and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for
they said, “He is our brother.” And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-
berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. And he went to
his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, upon one
stone; but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. And all the citizens of
Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of
the pillar at Shechem.
When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and cried aloud and
said to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. The trees once went
forth to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive tree, Reign over us. But the olive tree said
to them, ‘Shall I leave my fatness, by which gods and men are honoured, and go to sway over the
trees?’ And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come you, and reign over us.’ But the fig tree said to them,
‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to sway over the trees?’ And the trees said to
the vine, ‘Come you, and reign over us.’ But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine which cheers
gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?’ Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘Come you, and
reign over us.’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you,
then come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the
cedars of Lebanon.’
“If you then have acted in good faith and honour with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then
rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you; but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and
devour the citizens of Shechem, and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the citizens of Shechem,
and from Beth-millo, and devour Abimelech.”
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LORD’S PRAYER BY ST GREGORY OF

NYSSA
HOMILIES ON THE LORD’S PRAYER (ACW 18:50-2); WORD IN SEASON V
There is one true and perfect power which is above all things and governs the whole universe. But it
does not rule by violence and tyrannical dictatorship, which enforces the obedience of its subjects
through fear and compulsion. For virtue must be free from the fear of a taskmaster, so as to choose
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the good by a voluntary act, since it is a principle that all that is good should be subject only to the
power that gives life.
Now since human nature was deceitfully led astray from the discernment of the good, the inclination
of our free will has been directed to the opposite and our life subjected to every base thing; our
nature has been mixed up with death in a thousand ways, for every form of evil is, as it were, a way of
death for us. Since, then, we are hard pressed by such tyranny and become slaves to death through
the assaults of the passions, which attack us like executioners and enemies in war, we rightly pray
that the kingdom of God may come to us. For we cannot escape the wicked dominion of corruption
except the life-giving power take over the government in its place.
So if we ask that the Kingdom of God may come to us, the meaning of our request is this: I would be a
stranger to corruption and liberated from death; would that I were freed from the shackles of sin and
that death no longer lorded it over me. Let us no more be tyrannised by evil so that the adversary
may not prevail against me and make me his captive through sin. But may thy kingdom come to me,
so that the passions which still rule me so mercilessly may depart from me, or rather may be
altogether annihilated.
Thy kingdom come. By this sweet word we obviously offer God this prayer: Let the opposing battle
front be broken and the hostile phalanx destroyed. Bring to an end the war of the flesh against the
spirit and let the body no longer harbour the enemy of the soul. Oh let them appear, the royal force,
the angelic band, the thousands of rulers, the myriads of those who stand on thy right hand, that a
thousand warriors may fall on the front of the enemy! Strong, indeed, is the adversary, formidable,
yea, invincible to those bereft of thy help. Yet only as long as one is fighting alone; when thy kingdom
comes, the pangs and sighs of sorrow vanish, and life, peace, and rejoicing enter instead.
SATURDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEPHTHAH’S VOW AND VICTORY: JUDGES 11:1-9, 29-40
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. Gilead was the
father of Jephthah. And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they
thrust Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son
of another woman.” Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob; and
worthless fellows collected round Jephthah, and went raiding with him.
After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel. And when the Ammonites made war against
Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob; and they said to Jephthah,
“Come and be our leader, that we may fight with the Ammonites.” But Jephthah said to the elders of
Gilead, “Did you not hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now
when you are in trouble?” And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned to
you now, that you may go with us and fight with the Ammonites, and be our head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead.” Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with
the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head.”
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and
passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. And
Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If thou wilt give the Ammonites into my hand, then
whoever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the
Ammonites, shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer him up for a burnt offering.”
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So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his
hand. And he smote them from Aroer to the neighbourhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as
Abel-keramim, with a very great slaughter. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of
Israel.
Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with
timbrels and with dances; she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And
when he saw her, he rent his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low,
and you have become the cause of great trouble to me; for I have opened my mouth to the LORD,
and I cannot take back my vow.” And she said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to
the LORD, do to me according to what has gone forth from your mouth, now that the LORD has
avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done
for me; let me alone two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my
virginity, I and my companions.” And he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she
departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And at the end of
two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had made.
She had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year
by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
A READING FROM ON THE DUTIES OF MINISTERS BY ST AMBROSE

DE OFFICIIS MINISTRORUM, 3.9 (PL 16:167); WORD IN SEASON V
Our sentiments should be pure and sincere so that we can speak with simplicity, have a holy mastery
over our bodies, and not deceive a brother with dishonest words or the promise of anything
shameful. If such a promise is made it is better not to keep it than to do anything dishonourable.
People often bind themselves by oaths and even though they realize they should not have done so
they fulfil their promise because they have sworn. Herod acted in this way when he made a shameful
promise to reward a dancer and then cruelly fulfilled it. It was shameful to promise a kingdom for a
dance; cruel to slay a Prophet out of respect for his oath. How much better it would have been to
have broken his oath – if indeed an oath sworn by a drunkard in his cups, a promise given by a
weakling amid troops of dancers, had any binding force. The Prophet’s head was carried in on a dish,
and this was regarded as honourable when in fact it was madness!
Nor shall I ever be convinced that the chieftain Jephthah’s promise to sacrifice the person who met
him on his doorstep when he returned home was not imprudent. He repented of his vow when it was
his daughter that met him. Then he tore his garments and said: Alas, my daughter, you have
ensnared me, you have become a cause of sorrow for me. Out of a devout fear and dread he
sorrowfully fulfilled his cruel promise. A cruel promise it was, and a very bitter fulfilment, which
grieved even him who made it. From then on it was commanded and decreed that the daughters of
the Israelites should go into mourning for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days in each
year.
I cannot condemn a man who thought it necessary to do as he had vowed; but surely it was a
wretched necessity that required a father to slay his daughter. It is better not to vow than to vow
something that he to whom the vow is made does not wish to be done.
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The maiden said to her grieving father: Do to me as you have said. But she asked for two months
during which she might wander in the mountains with her companions and bewail her virginity which
was foreordained to death. The tears of her contemporaries did not deter the girl nor their grief sway
her nor their laments hold her back. The appointed day did not pass nor the hour go unheeded. She
returned to her father like one returning to fulfil a vow; she freely spurred him on when he delayed,
and of her own will she turned what would have been an unwilling act of impiety into a devout
sacrifice.
SUNDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BIRTH OF SAMSON IS ANNOUNCED: JUDGES 13:1-25
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them
into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his
wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to
her, “Behold, you are barren and have no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore
beware, and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for lo, you shall conceive and
bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth; and
he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” Then the woman came and told her
husband, “A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of
God, very terrible; I did not ask him whence he was, and he did not tell me his name; but he said to
me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; so then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing
unclean, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.’”
Then Manoah entreated the LORD, and said, “O, LORD, I pray thee, let the man of God whom thou
didst send come again to us, and teach us what we are to do with the boy that will be born.” And God
listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the
field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. And the woman ran in haste and told her husband,
“Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” And Manoah arose and went
after his wife, and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?”
And he said, “I am.” And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s
manner of life, and what is he to do?” And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to
the woman let her beware. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her
drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe.”
Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Pray, let us detain you, and prepare a kid for you.” And the
angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food; but if you make ready
a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the
LORD.) And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that, when your words
come true, we may honour you?” And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name,
seeing it is wonderful?” So Manoah took the kid with the cereal offering, and offered it upon the rock
to the LORD, to him who works wonders. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar,
the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and
they fell on their faces to the ground.
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The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was
the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” But
his wife said to him, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering
and a cereal offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things
as these.” And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson; and the boy grew, and the LORD
blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshta-
ol.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JUDGES BY RABANUS MAURUS

COMMENTARY ON JUDGES, 2.20 (PL 108:1198); WORD IN SEASON V
Let me summarise briefly everything that is said about Samson. Samson, who in his day was a Nazirite
of the Lord, is allegorically a type of Christ; first, because his birth was foretold by an angel; secondly,
because he was called a Nazirite and delivered Israel from its foes; and, finally, because he overthrew
their Temple, causing many thousands of people who had mocked him to perish.
As the birth of Samson was foretold by an angel, so the Lord’s bodily birth was foretold by the
Prophets, as well as by the angel who said to Mary: Hail, Mary, full of grace; you have conceived in
your womb and will bear a son, and you shall call him ‘Emmanuel’, for he shall save his people from
their sins.
The name ‘Samson’ means ‘sun’. But our Redeemer too is called ‘sun’; listen to how the Prophet thus
names the Lord Jesus: The sun of righteousness shall rise over you, and there will be healing in its
wings. The Lord Jesus is truly the Sun of Righteousness, for he enlightens the minds of all believers
with heavenly light. He is the true Nazirite and Holy one of God, and it is only by analogy with him that
this other man was called a Nazirite.
When Samson was travelling to the wedding he encountered a roaring lion. As he travelled to a
foreign people in quest of a wife, a lion came out to meet him and he killed it. Who should we see
foreshadowed by Samson if not Christ who, when about to gather the Church from among the
Gentiles, said: Rejoice, for I have overcome the world.
What does it mean that Samson took honey from the mouth of the slain lion except that, as we
ourselves see, the nations of the earthly kingdom who formerly raged against Christ have lost their
savagery and, moved by the sweetness of the Gospel preaching make their votive offerings? Also
significant is what we see in Samson’s own person: he killed few in his lifetime, but countless were the
enemies he slew when he died by destroying the Temple. So too the Lord in his lifetime rescued few
from the arrogance of unbelief, but he rescued many when the temple of his body was destroyed;
and those Gentiles who were arrogant and whom he bore with in his lifetime, he laid low by his death.
MONDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TREACHERY OF DELILAH AND THE DEATH OF SAMSON: JUDGES 16:4-6, 16-31
After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the
Philistines came to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies, and by
what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to subdue him; and we will each give you
eleven hundred pieces of silver.” And Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me wherein your great
strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”
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And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to
death. And he told her all his mind, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have
been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I
shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
When Delilah saw that he had told her all his mind, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines,
saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his mind.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up
to her, and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep upon her knees; and she called a
man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his
strength left him. And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep,
and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” And he did not know that the LORD
had left him. And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza,
and bound him with bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head
began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice;
for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” And when the people saw him,
they praised their god; for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our
country, who has slain many of us.” And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that
he may make sport for us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he made sport before them.
They made him stand between the pillars; and Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let
me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” Now the house was full of
men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three
thousand men and women, who looked on while Samson made sport.
Then Samson called to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen
me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two
eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars upon which the house rested, and he leaned his
weight upon them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, “Let
me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords and
upon all the people that were in it. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than those
whom he had slain during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and
brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshta-ol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had
judged Israel twenty years.
A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST PAULINUS OF NOLA

LETTER 2, 23.18, 21-2; WORD IN SEASON V
Samson’s blindness, by which he lost his bodily but not his spiritual eyes, enlightens me to right
understanding, so that by his example I may know which eyes I should prefer to have. For Samson
would not have called upon the Lord to lend aid to his strength if his inward eyes had not been sound.
It is possible that once Samson had recovered the strength of his hair to achieve the mystery to come,
he ceased to long for the recovery of his lost sight, because the strength of heavenly grace, so healthy
in inward vision, did not need bodily sight.
Accordingly we should follow this example and train our senses on the Lord, blinding our bodily eyes
by turning away from the things of the world. It was the eyes of the body which the Prophet longed to
lose when he said: Turn away my eyes that they may not behold vanity. And the Lord himself
preferred blindness to the seeing eyes of the Jews when he said: If you were blind, you should not
have sin.
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Let us recall the loss with which those in Paradise had their eyes opened, eyes which had a clear
vision of God as long as they were closed to sin. They experienced shame in their puberty only when
through the sin of their transgression they lost the purity of a good conscience, the light of which had
clothed them. To use one’s eyes for the purposes of darkness, therefore, and to blind them to
heavenly things by keeping them bent on things of earth, is to lose one’s real sight. The soul is given
clear sight to behold God by the blindness with which it holds the world in contempt. For all that is in
the world, says Scripture, is the concupiscence of the eyes; and because of this the Apostle teaches us
to close our vision to this world and to open it to Christ, who enlightens every one who comes into this
world.
The Apostle rouses us from our vision of immediate things to look up to eternal ones, saying: Seek not
the things which are in this world, for the form of this world is passing away. And again Paul says: Seek
the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. In the words of Ecclesiastes:
All things under the sun are vanity. And by the same token, truth lies beyond the sun. So, too, those
who reside in the truth, though their physical dwelling is within the world, lie outside the world in
their heavenly conversatio. Their spirit flies forth, and they mount and go beyond the dancing stars or
the poles of the heavens; they rise higher than the elements, not being subject to material things or
to the wearing out of the elements. Their life is joined to Christ and they are above the world, abiding
in him who is the blessed God over all ages.
TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HANNAH’S BARRENNESS AND HER PRAYER: 1 SAMUEL 1:1-19
There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was
Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives;
the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children,
but Hannah had no children.
Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts
at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were Priests of the LORD. On the day when
Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters; and,
although he loved Hannah, he would give Hannah only one portion, because the LORD had closed her
womb. And her rival used to provoke her sorely, to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her
womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to
provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her,
“Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to
you than ten sons?”
After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the Priest was sitting on the seat
beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD,
and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the
affliction of thy maidservant, and remember me, and not forget thy maidservant, but wilt give to thy
maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his
head.”
As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her
heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard; therefore Eli took her to be a drunken
woman. And Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you.” But
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Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman sorely troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong
drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. Do not regard your maidservant as a
base woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” Then Eli
answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him.” And
she said, “Let your maidservant find favour in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and
her countenance was no longer sad.
They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at
Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.

DE ANNA, SERMON 2.2; (BAREILLE 8:419-21); WORD IN SEASON V
As Hannah continued praying in the presence of the Lord, says Scripture, Eli watched her
mouth. The writer bears witness here to two virtues in the woman: her perseverance in prayer and
her attentiveness. He refers to the first by saying, She continued, and to the second by adding, in the
presence of the Lord; for we all pray, but not all of us pray in the presence of the Lord. Though
our bodies may be in an attitude of prayer and our mouths babbling some pious formula, can we
really claim to be praying in the presence of God when our minds are wandering hither and thither in
home and market-place? Those people pray in the presence of the Lord who pray with complete
recollection; who, having no worldly attachments, have removed from earth to heaven and banished
all human preoccupations, just as this woman did then. Recollecting herself completely and
concentrating her mind, she called upon God in her deep distress.
But why does Scripture say she continued praying when actually her prayer was very short? She
made no long speeches, she did not spin out her plea to great length, but spoke few and simple
words. What then could the writer have meant by saying, She continued? Surely he meant that she
said the same thing over and over again; she spent a long time ceaselessly repeating the same words.
That indeed is how Christ also commanded us to pray in the Gospels. When he told his disciples not to
pray like the Gentiles and not to use empty repetitions, he also taught them the right way to pray,
showing them that it is not a multiplicity of words but mental alertness that wins us a hearing.
Why then, you may ask, if prayer should be brief, did Christ tell them a parable to show that it should
be continuous? There was a widow, he said, who by her persistent requests, by her going to him again
and again, overcame a cruel and inhuman judge who neither feared God nor regarded other people.
And why does Paul also urge us to keep praying, to pray without ceasing? Is it a contradiction to
tell us not to make long speeches, and yet to pray continually?
No; there is no contradiction – God forbid! The two commands are in complete agreement. Christ and
Paul commanded us to make our prayers short, and to say them frequently, at brief intervals. For if
you spin out your words to any length you are often inattentive, and so give the devil freedom to
approach and trip you up and divert your mind from what you are saying. But if you pray continuously
and frequently, repeating your prayer at brief intervals, you can easily remain recollected and fully
alert as you pray. That indeed is just what this woman did, not making long speeches but drawing
near to God frequently, at brief intervals. That is true prayer, when its cries come from the depths of
one’s being.
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WEDNESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

BIRTH AND DEDICATION OF SAMUEL: 1 SAMUEL 1:20-28; 2:11-21
In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have
asked him of the LORD.”
And the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and to pay
his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will
bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the LORD, and abide there for ever.” Elkanah her
husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him; only, may the
LORD establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him. And
when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of
flour, and a skin of wine; and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh; and the child was
young. Then they slew the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you
live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD. For this
child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me my petition which I made to him. Therefore I have lent
him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.”
And they worshiped the LORD there.
Then Elkanah went home to Ramah. And the boy ministered to the LORD, in the presence of Eli the
Priest.
Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they had no regard for the LORD. The custom of the Priests
with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the Priest's servant would come, while the
meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle,
or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the Priest would take for himself. So they did at Shiloh
to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the Priest’s servant would
come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the Priest to roast; for he will not accept
boiled meat from you, but raw.” And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then
take as much as you wish”, he would say, “No, you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.”
Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD; for the men treated the
offering of the LORD with contempt.
Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy girded with a linen ephod. And his mother used to
make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer
the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “The LORD give you children by
this woman for the loan which she lent to the LORD”; so then they would return to their home.
And the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the
boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.

DE ANNA, SERMON 3 (BAREILLE 8:419-21); (2003) TR. HILL
So Hannah went up to transplant the fine shoot; and just as hardworking farmers sow in the earth the
seeds of cypresses and other such trees, then when they see the seed grown into a tree do not leave
it in the same soil but pull it up from there and transfer it to another spot, so that the fresh soil may
welcome it into its bosom and make available its own resources for the root’s nourishment, so this
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woman also did. That is to say, the child that against all hope was sown in her womb she transferred
from her home and planted in the Temple, where there were constant sources of spiritual irrigation.
You can see the inspired statement being fulfilled in their case which David uttered in singing thus,
Blessed the man who did not walk in the counsels of the unholy, did not take his place in the way of
sinners, nor take a seat in pestilence; instead, his pleasure is in the Law of the Lord, and he will
meditate on his Law day and night, and he will be like the tree planted on water courses, producing his
fruit in due season. You see, it was not a case of his coming to freedom from vice after experience of
vice, but of his choosing virtue right from infancy; far from having a share in gatherings notorious for
godlessness, from his very childhood he advanced from his mother’s breast to a different breast of a
spiritual kind. As a tree bedewed with constant moisture rises up to a great height, so this man
reached the summit of virtue, by drinking constantly from attention to the divine sayings.
Let us note, however, how she planted him; let us follow the woman, let us enter into the Temple
with her. She went up with him, the text says, to Shiloh with a three year-old heifer. Then the double
offering occurred: one was irrational, a heifer, the other rational; while the priest sacrificed the
former, the woman offered the latter – or, rather, the woman’s sacrifice was better than the sacrifice
the priest offered. She was, in fact, a priestess in her very being, imitating the Patriarch Abraham and
rivalling him for preeminence: whereas he took his son and descended, she let hers stay permanently
in the Temple – or, rather, he also made the offering in a broad sense; not in the fact that he took no
life, but in the fact that he saw to its completion in his will. Do you see the woman rivalling the man?
Do you see there was no obstacle on the part of nature to her emulating the Patriarch?
Let us note, however, how she offered him. She approached the priest and said to him, ‘It is I, sir –
may you live long – I am the woman who was standing in your presence in praying to the Lord for this
child. I prayed to the Lord, and he granted the request I made of him. I lend him to the Lord all the days
of his life to serve the Lord. She did not say, ‘I am the woman you reproached for drunkenness and
intoxication – God showed you I am not drunk; it was rash of you to accuse me.’ She reproached the
priest with none of these sharp remarks; instead, she replies with great mildness, mentioning only
God’s beneficence.
THURSDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CONDEMNATION OF THE HOUSE OF ELI: 1 SAMUEL 2:22-36
Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the
women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And he said to them, “Why do you do
such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons; it is no good report that
I hear the people of the LORD spreading abroad. If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for
him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the
voice of their father; for it was the will of the LORD to slay them.
Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favour with the LORD and with men.
And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, “Thus the LORD has said, ‘I revealed myself to
the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh. And I chose him
out of all the tribes of Israel to be my Priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod
before me; and I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honour
your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people
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Israel?’ Therefore the LORD the God of Israel declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of
your father should go in and out before me for ever’; but now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me;
for those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold,
the days are coming, when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that
there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the
prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house for
ever. The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and
grieve his heart; and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this which shall
befall your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the
same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful Priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart
and in my mind; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed for
ever. And every one who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf
of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray you, in one of the Priest’s places, that I may eat a morsel of
bread.’”

LETTER 61. 8-9; FOCMC 3 (1992) TR. BLUM.
Eli, because he was aware of his sons’ sins yet did not correct them with the sharpness that they de-
served, fell backwards from his seat, broke his neck, and died, when these sons were killed in battle
by the Philistines. Then the Ark of the Lord was captured by the enemy, and four thousand fell in the
first encounter while, afterwards, thirty thousand more were killed by the Philistines. Eli did indeed
reprimand his sons and correct them, but with the mild leniency of a father and not with the severity
and authority of a High Priest: Why, he said, Do you do these things? I hear from all the people how
wickedly you behave. Have done with it, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear. For as Scripture
relates, he had heard how they had slept with women who were serving at the entrance of the
Tabernacle. Moreover, those whom he saw as enemies of God, in his death he recognised to be his
sons; and those he should have violently attacked with the sword, he lightly patted on the head like a
flattering father.
It was not so with Moses, that faithful servant in the household of the Lord, and the teacher of the
noble Phinehas. Taking his place at the gate of the camp, he said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Come
here to me. And the Levites all rallied to him. He said to them, These are the words of the God of
Israel: ‘Arm yourselves, each of you, with the sword. Go through the camp from gate to gate and back
again. Each of you kill his brother, his neighbour, and his friend.’ After twenty-three thousand men had
been slain, Moses said, Today you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, because you have turned
each against his own son and his own brother and so brought a blessing upon yourselves.
Obviously, just as they who corrected sins were worthy of receiving a blessing, so too those who dealt
lightly with sinners were likely to be cursed, as the Prophet said, A curse on him who withholds his
sword from bloodshed. One surely withholds his sword from bloodshed if he refrains from inflicting
fitting punishment on the wicked. He who fails to correct, when it is possible far him to do so, makes
himself guilty of the other’s fault. And so a man of God, who was thought to have been Phinehas, said
to Eli whom I mentioned above, This is the word of the Lord: ‘Why do you show disrespect for my sac-
rifices and for my Temple-offerings that I have ordained, and honour your sons more than me?’
Therefore, if Eli perished with his sons, together with such a vast number of others, only because he
did not correct his two sons as harshly as they deserved, what sort of sentence, do we think, will be
given those who preside at the bench of justice in an ecclesiastical court and remain silent when
confronted with the recognized crimes of evil men?
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FRIDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL OF SAMUEL: 1 SAMUEL 3:1-21
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in
those days; there was no frequent vision.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see, was lying down in
his own place; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple
of the LORD, where the Ark of God was. Then the LORD called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I
am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down
again.” So he went and lay down. And the LORD called again, “Samuel!” And Samuel arose and went
to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am,
for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel,
“Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for thy servant hears.’” So Samuel went
and lay down in his place.
And the LORD came and stood forth, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said,
“Speak, for thy servant hears.” Then the LORD said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in
Israel, at which the two ears of every one that hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfil against Eli all
that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I tell him that I am about to
punish his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God,
and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall
not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for ever.”
Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel was afraid
to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” And
Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also,
if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing
from him. And he said, “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.”
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all
Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a Prophet of the LORD. And the
LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the
LORD.

CONFERENCE 2.13.12 - 15.3; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSE
Abba Moses taught that, despite the bad example of the other old man, not only are someone’s
openly confessed sins not to be reproached, but also that the pain of a suffering person is not to be
despised. Therefore do not let the ignorance or shallowness of one old man or of a few deter you. The
clever enemy misuses their grey hairs to deceive the young. But everything should be revealed to the
elders without any embarrassment, and from them one may confidently receive both healing and
example. Thanks to them we shall experience the same assistance if we aim at nothing by our own
judgment.
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It is evident that this understanding is greatly pleasing to God, for we find this same instruction even
in Holy Scripture. Thus, the Lord did not desire of himself to teach the boy Samuel through divine
speech, once he had been chosen by his own decision, but he was obliged to return twice to the old
man. He willed that one whom he was calling to intimate conversation with himself should even be
instructed by a person who had offended God, because he was an old man. And he desired that one
whom he judged most worthy to be selected by himself should be reared by an old man so that the
humility of him who was called to a divine ministry might be tested and so that the pattern of this
subjection might be offered as an example to young men.
Also, when Christ himself called and spoke to Paul, even though he could have revealed to him the
way of perfection then and there, he willed to send him to Ananias and he ordered him to learn the
way of truth from him when he said: Rise and enter the city, and there you will be told what you must
do. Him too he sent to an old man, then, and determined that he must be instructed by his teaching
rather than by his own. Otherwise what might have been rightly done with regard to Paul would have
given a bad example of presumption to those who came after him, since each individual would
conclude that he too should be trained in similar fashion under the guidance and by the teaching of
God alone rather than by the instruction of his elders.
The Apostle himself teaches that this presumption is to be utterly detested. He says that he went up
to Jerusalem for this reason alone – so that in a kind of private and familial session he might
communicate with his fellow Apostles and predecessors the Gospel which he was preaching to the
Gentiles, lest perhaps I might be running or might have run in vain. Who, then, would be so
presumptuous and blind as to dare to trust in his own judgment and discretion when the vessel of
election testifies that he needed to confer with his fellow Apostles? From this it is clearly proven that
the Lord shows the way of perfection to no one who has the means of being educated but who
disdains the teaching and the instruction of the elders, as it is said: Ask your father and he will declare
it to you, your elders, and they will tell you.
SATURDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

LOSS OF THE ARK OF GOD AND ELI’S DEATH: 1 SAMUEL 4:1-18
And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines; they encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines
encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel
was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when
the troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD put us to rout today before
the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that he may come
among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” So the people sent to Shiloh, and brought
from there the Ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the Cherubim; and the
two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the covenant of God.
When the Ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that
the earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does
this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the Ark of the
LORD had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid; for they said, “A god has come into the
camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can
deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with
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every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage, and acquit yourselves like men, O Philistines, lest
you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; acquit yourselves like men and fight.”
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home; and there
was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. And the Ark of God
was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.
A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes rent
and with earth upon his head. When he arrived, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the road watching, for
his heart trembled for the Ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the
city cried out. When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man
hastened and came and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set, so that he
could not see. And the man said to Eli, “I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle
today.” And he said, “How did it go, my son?” He who brought the tidings answered and said, “Israel
has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the people; your two
sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of God has been captured.” When he
mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate; and his neck
was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST ISAAC THE SYRIAN

‘THE SECOND PART’, 11.4-12; (1995) TR. BROCK
The limitless power of God dwells in the Cross, just as it resided in an incomprehensible way in the Ark
which was venerated amidst great honour and awe by the Jews.
What then was in the Ark to make it so awesome and filled with all manner of power and signs, apart
from the Jar of Manna and the Tablets of the Law which Moses wrote, and Aaron’s staff which
sprouted? Did not Moses and the people prostrate before the Ark in great awe and trembling? Did
not Joshua son of Nun lie stretched out on his face before it from morning until evening? Were not
God’s fearful revelations manifested there as if to provide honour for the object, seeing that the
;
Shekhinah of God was residing in it? This Shekhinah, which now resides in the Cross, has departed
from there and has resided mysteriously in the Cross.
Satan himself with all his tyranny is in terror of the form of the Cross when it is depicted by us against
him. And listen to what is greater than all these things: in the ministry of the Old Testament, for all
the signs and wonders that took place, they were unable to eradicate even the smallest kind of sin;
whereas in the ministry that takes place with the Cross, sin has become like a spider’s web on which a
heavy object is hung and it no longer succeeds in standing up. And as for death, which had been so
fearful for human nature, now even women and children can hold up their heads against it. Death
which reigns over all has now proved easier, not only for believers, but also for pagans as well: fear of
it has been greatly diminished from what had been the case previously.
In front of that wooden construction in which it is said that God’s Shekhinah existed, adoration was
offered up continuously to God by Moses and all the people. Here too, in the case of the Cross, the
moment this form of the Cross is depicted on a wall or on a board, or is fashioned out of some kind of
material, it is filled with the divine power and becomes a place of God’s Shekhinah, even more so than
the Ark. Just as the ministry of the New Covenant is more honourable before God than the things
which took place in the Old Covenant, just as there is a difference between Moses and Christ, so is
this form of the Cross much more honourable because of the honour of the Man whom the Divinity
took from us for his dwelling.
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SUNDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE ARK OF GOD IS RETURNED TO ISRAEL: 1 SAMUEL 5:1-6:4, 10-12, 19 - 7:1
When the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they carried it from Ebenezer to Ashdod; then the
Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And
when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the
ground before the Ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they
rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the
Ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off upon the threshold;
only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house
of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
The hand of the LORD was heavy upon the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with
tumours, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said,
“The Ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us; for his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon
our god.” So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we
do with the Ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the Ark of the God of Israel be brought
around to Gath.” So they brought the Ark of the God of Israel there. But after they had brought it
around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the
men of the city, both young and old, so that tumours broke out upon them. So they sent the Ark of
God to Ekron. But when the Ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have
brought around to us the Ark of the God of Israel to slay us and our people.” They sent therefore and
gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the Ark of the God of Israel,
and let it return to its own place, that it may not slay us and our people.” For there was a deathly
panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there; the men who did not die
were stricken with tumours, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
The Ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for
the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the Ark of the LORD? Tell us with what
we shall send it to its place.” They said, “If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it
empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to
you why his hand does not turn away from you.” And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we
shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumours and five golden mice, according to the
number of the lords of the Philistines; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords.”
The men did so, and took two milch cows and yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at
home. And they put the Ark of the LORD on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the
images of their tumours. And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one
highway, lowing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the
Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
And he slew some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked into the Ark of the LORD; he
slew seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had made a great slaughter
among the people.
And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the Ark of the LORD, and brought it to the house of
Abinadab on the hill; and they consecrated his son, Eleazar, to have charge of the Ark of the LORD.
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A READING FROM THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF
ALEXANDRIA
THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, 8 (PG 68:597-600); WORD IN SEASON V
The Ark is for us a figure and image of Christ. For if we consider the way in which God’s only-begotten
Son became man, we shall see that the Word of the Father dwelt in the Temple which he received
from the Virgin as in the Ark. For the whole fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him in bodily form, as
Scripture says. And the testimonies placed in the Ark were the word of God.
Moreover, the wood of the Ark was incorruptible, being adorned both within and without by the
purest and finest gold, just as Christ’s body was incorruptible, being preserved incorrupt, as by gold,
by the power and glory of the indwelling Word, and by the nature and life-giving action of the Holy
Spirit. Therefore Christ too is said to give life. For the Word of God the Father, being life by nature, by
the power of his own Spirit restored his own Temple to life, making it incorruptible. As Saint Paul says,
his body did not experience corruption. Moreover, he himself said to the Jews in reference to his own
body: Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And Peter adds his witness: He was put
to death in the body but raised to life in the Spirit.
Gold, then, is a symbol of the great brilliance of the Godhead, which was, as it were, inlaid in the
sacred body, and which endowed it with its own glory and incorruptibility in an ineffable manner
known only to that divine nature which is beyond all understanding. For if in time to come the
righteous will shine like the sun in the Father's kingdom, what will be the glory of Christ himself?
Surely its brilliance is beyond all our powers to conceive or describe. Then, too, the poles by which the
Ark was carried were of gold and so were the rings that held them in place, and everything in it was of
gold. For those around Christ share his glory, and are, as it were, attached to him and serviceable
through love and sanctity. Such were the blessed disciples, who received divine power from him, and
shared so abundantly in his glory and majesty, that they were able to work miracles.

ISRAEL DEMANDS A KING: 1 SAMUEL 7:15 – 8:22
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and
Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home
was there, and there also he administered justice to Israel. And he built there an altar to the LORD.
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his first-born son was
Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. Yet his sons did not walk in
his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him,
“Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us
like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.”
And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Hearken to the voice of the people in
all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king
over them. According to all the deeds which they have done to me, from the day I brought them up
out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now
then, hearken to their voice; only, you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king
who shall reign over them.”
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So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking a king from him. He said,
“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them
to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself
commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his
harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your
daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards
and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your
vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and
maidservants, and the best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the
tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king,
whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No! but we will have a king
over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us
and fight our battles.” And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in
the ears of the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Hearken to their voice, and make them a king.”
Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

ENARRATIONES IN PSALMOS, 55.2; WSA (2001) TR. BOULDING
Who is this people mentioned in the title of this psalm, who moved far away from the saints over the
writing of a title? It is the mention of a title that gives us the clue to the identity of the people. At the
time of the Lord’s Passion, when he was about to be crucified, a certain title was penned, and it was
inscribed in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. On reading this title the Jews were indignant, and said to Pilate,
Do not put “The King of the Jews”; put “He said, I am the King of the Jews.” But another psalm rightly
warns, Do not tamper with the title that has been inscribed; and Pilate therefore retorted, What I have
written, I have written. But the Jews continued to be angry and persisted in their blasphemy,
protesting, We have no king but Caesar, and so they moved far away from the saints by taking offence
at the title.
Let all those who acknowledge Christ as their King, and desire to have him ruling over them, draw
near to the saints and bind themselves inseparably to the holy people. But let those others move
further off from the saints, those who by disputing the title have rejected God as King and chosen a
mere man as their King instead. Any race that finds its full satisfaction in human sovereignty, and
refuses to have the Lord reign over it, is far removed from the saints. What it has rejected is a
subjection to God’s lordship that would have enabled his subjects themselves to exercise dominion
over their wayward desires.
Do not suppose, brothers, that such a refusal is to be observed in the Jews alone. They stood as a kind
of primordial example, so that their conduct might show up plainly what we must all avoid. They
openly refused to have Christ as their King, and chose Caesar instead. Caesar is indeed sovereign, but
only as a man over other men to regulate the affairs of men. There is another King for the things of
God. There is a King with responsibility for temporal life, but another for the life of eternity; an earthly
King, but a heavenly King too: an earthly King who is subject to the heavenly King, and a heavenly King
who is sovereign over all. They sinned, therefore, not in acknowledging Caesar as their King, but in
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rejecting the kingship of Christ. So too today many people refuse to have Christ as their King, even
though he is enthroned in heaven and his reign is universal. And these are the very people who harass
us.
Against people of this sort the present psalm gives us strength. It is necessary for us to go on bearing
with them to the very end; we should not have to put up with them if it were not for our good. Every
trial we undergo is designed to prove us, and all such probation is fruitful. We are for the most part an
unknown quantity to ourselves; we do not know what we can bear and what we cannot.
TUESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAUL IS CHOSEN AND ANOINTED AS KING: 1 SAMUEL 9:1-6, 14 – 10:1
There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath,
son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth; and he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome
young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; from his
shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
Now the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul his son, “Take one of the servants
with you, and arise, go and look for the asses.” And they passed through the hill country of Ephraim
and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the
land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not
find them.
When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us go
back, lest my father cease to care about the asses and become anxious about us.” But he said to him,
“Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man that is held in honour; all that he says
comes true. Let us go there; perhaps he can tell us about the journey on which we have set out.”
So they went up to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them
on his way up to the high place.
Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed to Samuel: “Tomorrow about this time I will
send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people
Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have seen the affliction of my
people, because their cry has come to me.” When Samuel saw Saul, the LORD told him, “Here is the
man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall rule over my people.” Then Saul approached Samuel in
the gate, and said, “Tell me where is the house of the seer?” Samuel answered Saul, “I am the seer;
go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go
and will tell you all that is on your mind. As for your asses that were lost three days ago, do not set
your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not
for you and for all your father’s house?” Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the
tribes of Israel? And is not my family the humblest of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why
then have you spoken to me in this way?”
Then Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the
head of those who had been invited, who were about thirty persons. And Samuel said to the cook,
“Bring the portion I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Put it aside.’” So the cook took up the leg and
the upper portion and set them before Saul; and Samuel said, “See, what was kept is set before you.
Eat; because it was kept for you until the hour appointed, that you might eat with the guests.”
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So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed
was spread for Saul upon the roof, and he lay down to sleep. Then at the break of dawn Samuel called
to Saul upon the roof, “Up, that I may send you on your way.” So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel
went out into the street.
As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to pass on
before us, and when he has passed on stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you
the word of God.”
Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said, “Has not the LORD
anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the LORD and
you will save them from the hand of their enemies round about. And this shall be the sign to you that
the LORD has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.”

CONFERENCE 17, 25.14-15, 18; 26; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
We should not cling stubbornly to our promises, but they should be tempered by reason and
judgment. What is better should always be chosen and preferred and we should pass over without
any hesitation to whatever is proven to be more beneficial. This invaluable judgment also teaches us
above all that, although each person’s end may be known to God before he was born, he so disposes
everything with order and reason that he determines all things not only by his power or in accordance
with his foreknowledge but, based upon the deeds of human beings at the time, he either rejects
them or daily pours out grace upon them or turns them away.
The choosing of Saul demonstrates that this is so. Although, indeed, the foreknowledge of God could
not be ignorant of his miserable end, he chose him from among many thousands of Israelites and
anointed him King. In doing this he rewarded him for his deserving life at the time and did not take
into consideration his future sin. And so, after he became reprobate, God as it were repented of his
choice and complained of him with, so to speak, human words and feelings, saying: I repent that I set
up Saul as King, because he has forsaken me and not carried out my words.
In the case of Judas, the power of the prophetic curse was clearly fulfilled. For, once he had
committed the crime of betrayal, he killed himself by hanging, lest after his name was blotted out he
turn again to repentance and deserve to be enrolled with the righteous in heaven. For there is no
doubt that even the name of Judas was written in the book of the living at the time when he was
chosen by Christ, and that he heard along with the others: Do not rejoice because the demons are
subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. But since he was corrupted by
the plague of avarice and was cast down from a heavenly enrolment to earthly things, it is
appropriately said of him and of others like him by the Prophet: Lord, let all those who abandon you
be confounded. Let those who depart from you be written in the earth, because they have abandoned
the Lord.
Even if we have bound ourselves by a vow at the instigation of anger or some other passion, which
indeed must never be the case with a monk, nonetheless the alternatives should be weighed, and the
thing that we have decided upon should be compared with the other option, and after more mature
reflection we should unhesitatingly go over to what is preferable. For it is better to go back on our
word than to suffer the loss of something good. We do not recall that the reasonable and proven
fathers were ever hard and inflexible in decisions of this sort but that, like wax before a fire, they were
softened by reason and by the intervention of more salutary counsel and unhesitatingly yielded to
what was better.
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WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAUL THE VICTOR IS ACCLAIMED KING BY THE PEOPLE: 1 SAMUEL 11:1-15
Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to
Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On
this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus put disgrace
upon all Israel.” The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days respite that we may send
messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give
ourselves up to you.” When the messengers came to Gibe-ah of Saul, they reported the matter in the
ears of the people; and all the people wept aloud.
Now Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen; and Saul said, “What ails the people, that they
are weeping?” So they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. And the spirit of God came mightily
upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. He took a yoke of oxen, and
cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers,
saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the
dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. When he mustered them at
Bezek, the men of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. And
they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead:
‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.’” When the messengers came and
told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give
ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” And on the morrow Saul
put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch,
and cut down the Ammonites until the heat of the day; and those who survived were scattered, so
that no two of them were left together.
Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we
may put them to death.” But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD
has wrought deliverance in Israel.” Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and
there renew the kingdom.” So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the
LORD in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the LORD, and there Saul and all the men
of Israel rejoiced greatly.

A RETREAT FOR PRIESTS, 118-119; WORD IN SEASON V
King Saul had a genuine vocation if ever man had one. It was no selfish ambition, it was no rash
presumption, that made him undertake the leadership of the Israelites, at a time when they had been
crushed in battle by the Philistines, their powerful neighbours on the seaboard to the south and west
of them. Only a short time before, the Ark of God had been taken in battle, and it seemed as if the
chosen people had been altogether deserted by Providence. He was called quite unmistakably when,
as a young man, he went to visit the Prophet Samuel on a simple domestic errand, to recover some
asses belonging to his father that had gone astray. Samuel was warned of his visit by a divine
revelation, and greeted him with the words, Upon whom is the desire of all Israel?
There, then was his vocation; and in accordance with that divine command Samuel proceeded there
and then to anoint him, in private; his unction, corresponding to the ordination of a priest, came from
God’s favoured Prophet. Nor was God slow to supply him with the graces he needed in his new state
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of life; as he went back to his father’s house, he fell in with a company of wandering prophets and
suddenly began to prophesy with the rest; the validity of the unction he had received was guaranteed
by inspiration. And finally, when Samuel collected all Israel, and cast lots between them tribe against
tribe, family against family, man against man, the lot fell upon Saul. Could there be any doubt that this
man had a true mission from God?
And here’s another thing; all that we are told about Saul at that time seems to give promise of a
successful reign. When the lots were being cast, he went away and hid himself; he was at last dragged
reluctantly to his coronation. He was not evidently, an ambitious man, he did not try to force God’s
hand in any way, he did not enter upon his duties in any light-hearted spirit. Greatness was thrust
upon him. He began his reign by undertaking a punitive war against the Ammonites, in which he
swept everything before him. It really looked, now, as if Samuel could sing his Nunc dimittis: Israel had
found a King, and that King was the right man in the right place.
Perhaps this is one of the most mysterious of all God’s dealings in the economy of grace – that he
knows beforehand the history of every soul, knows exactly who will fail him, who will not manage to
rise to the full heights of their vocation; and yet he calls them. Nay, it appears that he has a whole
programme mapped out for them, of the things they are meant to do for him, if they will only be true
to their vocation - though he knows that they will not. You have not kept the commandments of the
Lord, Samuel tells Saul; if you had done thus, the Lord would have established your kingdom over
Israel forever. We know from other references that God had, before this, promised the kingdom to
Judah; Saul’s vocation, therefore, was only a conditional one. God knew that Saul would be a failure,
and yet he called him to be a success. That is a terrible thing to think of.
THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAMUEL RESIGNS AS JUDGE IN SAUL’S PRESENCE: 1 SAMUEL 12:1-25
And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have hearkened to your voice in all that you have said to me,
and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walks before you; and I am old and gray,
and behold, my sons are with you; and I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I
am; testify against me before the LORD and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose
ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I
taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.” They said, “You
have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.” And he said to them,
“The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found
anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.”
And Samuel said to the people, “The LORD is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought
your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before
the LORD concerning all the saving deeds of the LORD which he performed for you and for your
fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried to
the LORD and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and
made them dwell in this place. But they forgot the LORD their God; and he sold them into the hand of
Sisera, commander of the army of Jabin king of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into
the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them. And they cried to the LORD, and said,
‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth;
but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee.’ And the LORD sent
Jerubbaal and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies
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on every side; and you dwelt in safety. And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites
came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us’, when the LORD your God was
your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the
LORD has set a king over you. If you will fear the LORD and serve him and hearken to his voice and not
rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will
follow the LORD your God, it will be well; but if you will not hearken to the voice of the LORD, but
rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you and your
king. Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it
not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain; and you shall
know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking
for yourselves a king.” So Samuel called upon the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day;
and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.
And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die;
for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” And Samuel said to the people,
“Fear not; you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the
LORD with all your heart; and do not turn aside after vain things which cannot profit or save, for they
are vain. For the LORD will not cast away his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased
the LORD to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin
against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only
fear the LORD, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done
for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, 2.3.18-21 (CCL 142:250-3); WORD IN SEASON V
My dear brethren, I urge you to meditate seriously on the word of God, and not to think lightly of the
writings which your Creator has bequeathed to us. Beyond all doubt they afford warmth to hearts
which would otherwise be numb with cold because of our sins. When we read of the heroic deeds of
our saintly forefathers, their holy example inspires us and gives us the courage to do whatever is right.
Are we trying to avoid sin and endure humbly even when we are injured by someone in our own
family? Let us remember Abel. Scripture says that his brother killed him, but we read nothing about
Abel offering any resistance.
Are we striving to put God’s commands before our own immediate advantage? Let us think of Noah.
At the command of almighty God he put aside his own domestic concerns and spent a hundred years
building the Ark.
Are we endeavouring to acquire the virtue of obedience? We should look at Abraham. He left his
home, kindred, and native land out of obedience to the command to go to a land which he was to
receive as an inheritance, and he set out not knowing where he was going. He was ready to kill the
beloved heir he had received for the sake of an eternal inheritance; and because he did not hesitate
to offer his only son to the Lord, he received the whole multitude of nations as his offspring.
Remember Joseph. When tempted by his master’s wife he was determined to preserve his chastity
even at the risk of his life. And so, since he knew how to rule his body well, he was made ruler of all
Egypt.
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Do we seek to acquire gentleness and patience? Let us call Moses to mind, the ruler of six hundred
thousand armed men, as well as their women and children. He is described as the most gentle person
living on the whole face of the earth.
Do we long to rid ourselves of animosity and become large-hearted and kind? Let us think of Samuel.
When the people who ousted him from the leadership asked him to pray to the Lord for them, he
answered: Far be it from me to sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. The holy man really
thought he would be committing a sin if he did not show kindness and goodwill by praying for those
whose opposition he had endured even to the point of being deposed by them.
FRIDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAUL, A SINNER, IS REJECTED BY THE LORD: 1 SAMUEL 15:1-23
And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore
hearken to the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will punish what Amalek did to
Israel in opposing them on the way, when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and
utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and
suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.’”
So Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot,
and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. And
Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with
them; for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the
Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as far
as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly
destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the
best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would
not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless they utterly destroyed.
The word of the LORD came to Samuel: “I repent that I have made Saul king; for he has turned back
from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry; and he cried
to the LORD all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel,
“Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned, and passed on, and
went down to Gilgal.” And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD; I
have performed the commandment of the LORD.” And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the
sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from
the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD
your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you
what the LORD said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Say on.”
And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, utterly
destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did
you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop on the spoil, and do what was evil in the
sight of the LORD?” And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, I have gone on the
mission on which the LORD sent me, I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have utterly
destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things
devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” And Samuel said, “Has the LORD
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as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has
also rejected you from being king.’
A READING FROM A SERMON BY JOHN JUSTUS LANDSBERG

OPERA OMNIA, 3.386-8; WORD IN SEASON V
Because Saul did what he wished and not what he was commanded to do, the Lord rejected him. And
indeed, if the Prophet had not ordered otherwise and if we simply compared the two actions, the one
Saul chose would seem the better, namely, to sacrifice the cattle to the Lord instead of simply
slaughtering them apart from any act of worship. But once the Lord issued his command through the
Prophet, the action which in other circumstances would have been of less worth was no longer of less
worth but rather more worthy; it was no longer a matter of choice but necessary. Therefore Saul
sinned because in the very act of sacrificing to God he neglected God’s will; instead of profiting him,
his action harmed him.
How dreadful it is, brothers, and how sad that many people not only lose their toil, their prayers, and
their otherwise good works but often, by acting in contempt of God, even incur punishment because
they neglect their duty in order to perform these works of theirs, which at the moment are not their
duty.
We came to the monastery in order to follow in the footsteps of Christ and walk the strait and narrow
way. This following entails chiefly the renunciation of self, as Christ tells us: Those who would come
after me must renounce themselves and take up their cross and follow me. There is no heavier cross
for those who love their own will than to renounce themselves.
Since, then, the desire and aim of monastic life is purity of heart, almost all religious exercises and
methods aim at renunciation of self, for if this is lacking no purity of heart can be expected. Because
self-renunciation yields the richest harvest of all the virtues, the devil hates it more than any other
and by various means maliciously strives to lead the monk away from it. If he cannot entice novices to
carnal vices, he persuades them that in the world they would have many finer opportunities for doing
good and winning souls to God – opportunities which would make use of their talents and in which
they would show more dedication if not under the control of another’s will than if they bound
themselves to what he falsely calls these cold and useless monastic observances.
Dear brothers, we have embraced the narrow way: let us walk in it. Let no temptation overcome us,
no distress break our spirit, no faintheartedness cast us down, no spiritual torpor, weary us. The way
seems narrow, but hope and love broaden it. And the journey is a short one, to be followed by the joy
of a life of eternal blessedness; an immense, a boundless joy. We have the good fortune of being
called to that joy by our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us here and set us on the path, indeed
almost at the gate, by which we shall soon enter that happy rest. May he be blessed forever! Amen.
SATURDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID IS ANOINTED KING: 1 SAMUEL 16:1-13
The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being
king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have
provided for myself a king among his sons.” And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will
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kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me
him whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The
elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said,
“Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the
sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.” But the
LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have
rejected him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the
LORD looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he
said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said,
“Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And
Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons
here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And
Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down till he comes here.” And he sent,
and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. And the LORD
said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the
midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward.
And Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY FAUSTINUS LUCIFERANUS

ON THE TRINITY, 39-40; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Our Saviour was truly made the Anointed One according to the flesh, becoming true King and true
Priest. He was both so that nothing might be lacking in the Saviour. Notice therefore that he became
King, when he says: I have been appointed by the Lord as King on Sion, his holy mountain. Learn that
he is also Priest from the witness of the Father: You are a Priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek. Aaron was made the first Priest of the Law by being anointed with chrism, but the
Father did not say, “after the order of Aaron”, in case it might be thought that our Saviour’s
priesthood also was derived. The priesthood which Aaron possessed was hereditary; but our Saviour’s
priesthood is not passed on to anyone else because he will continue for ever as Priest, as Scripture
says: You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
He is therefore our Saviour according to the flesh, and both King and Priest, but his anointing is
spiritual and not bodily. The Kings and Priests of the Jews were given their position by bodily anointing
with oil. One man was not both: each was either King or Priest. To Christ alone belong perfection in all
things, for he came to fulfil the Law also.
Although they could not as individuals be both at the same time, they were called ‘messiahs’ or
‘anointed ones’ because they had received bodily anointing as Kings or Priests. Our Saviour, on the
other hand, who is truly Christ, the Anointed One, was anointed by the Holy Spirit, that he might fulfil
what was written of him: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above
your fellows. That he was anointed more than those who share the same name ‘Messiah’ lies in the
fact that he was anointed with the oil of gladness, which properly means the Holy Spirit.
We learn that this is the case from our Saviour himself. When he took and opened the book of Isaiah,
and read: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, he said that the prophecy
was fulfilled then in the presence of his hearers. Peter too, the chief of the Apostles, taught that the
chrism which shows our Saviour to be the Anointed One is the Holy Spirit himself, which is also the
power of God, when in the Acts of the Apostles he spoke to that most faithful and merciful man, the
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centurion. Among other things, he said: Beginning from Galilee after the Baptism which John
preached, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, went about
doing great and wonderful things, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil.
You notice that Peter said Jesus was anointed according to the flesh with the Holy Spirit and with
power. And so this same Jesus truly became Christ, the Anointed One, according to the flesh, being
made by the anointing of the Holy Spirit both King and Priest for ever
SUNDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID JOINS BATTLE WITH GOLIATH: 1 SAMUEL 17:1-10, 23B-26, 40-51
Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs
to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men of
Israel were gathered, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the
Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the
mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the
Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a
helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was
five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had greaves of bronze upon his legs, and a javelin of bronze
slung between his shoulders. And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear’s
head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and
shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine,
and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is
able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill
him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel
this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” The champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by
name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David
heard him.
All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were much afraid. And the men of
Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and the
man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his
father's house free in Israel.” And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for
the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this
uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Then he took his staff in
his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in his shepherd’s bag or wallet;
his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
And the Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when
the Philistine looked, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, ruddy and comely in
appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the
Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh
to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to
me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of
hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into
my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host
of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth
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may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not
with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s and he will give you into our hand.”
When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle
line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, and slung it, and
struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the
ground.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed
him; there was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, and took
his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the
Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 3.48, 58-60; WORD IN SEASON V
Let no one think the history of David’s calling, and his victory over Goliath, of little importance to
himself; it is indeed interesting to read for its own sake; it raises the mind of the Christian to God,
shows us his power, and reminds us of the wonderful deliverances with which he visits his Church in
every age; but besides all this, this history is useful to us Christians, as setting before us our own
calling, and our conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil.
David was first anointed with God’s Holy Spirit, and then, after a while, brought forward to fight
Goliath. We too are first baptised and then brought forward to fight the devil. We are not brought to
fight him at once; for some years we are almost without a fight when we are infants. By degrees our
work comes upon us; as children we have to fight with him a little; as time goes on, the fight opens;
and at length we have our great enemy marching against us with sword and spear, as Goliath came
against David. And when this war has once begun, it lasts through life.
What then ought you to do, my brethren, when thus assailed? How must you behave when the devil
comes against you? He has many ways of attack; sometimes he comes openly, sometimes craftily,
sometimes he tempts you, sometimes he frightens you, but whether he comes in a pleasing or a
frightful form, be sure, if you saw him himself with your eyes, he would always be hateful, monstrous,
and abominable. Therefore he keeps himself out of sight.
Be like David, very courageous to do God’s will. Think what would have happened had David played
the coward, and refused to obey God’s inward voice stirring him up to fight Goliath. He would have
lost his calling, he would have been tried, and have failed. The Prophet’s oil would have profited him
nothing, or rather would have increased his condemnation. The Spirit of God would have departed
from him as he departed from Saul, who also had been anointed.
So, also, our privileges will but increase our future punishment, unless we use them. That person is
truly and really born of God in whom the divine seed takes root; others are regenerated to their
condemnation. Despise not the gift that is in you: despise not the blessing which by God’s free grace
you have, and others have not. There is nothing to boast in, that you are God’s people; rather the
thought is an anxious one; you have much more to answer for.
When, then, Satan comes against you, recollect you are already dedicated, made over, to God; you
are God’s property, you have no part with Satan and his works, you are servants to another, you are
espoused to Christ. When Satan comes against you, fear not, waver not; but pray to God, and he will
help you. Say to Satan with David, You come against me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a
shield; but 1 come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
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MONDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAUL’S ENVY TOWARDS DAVID: 1 SAMUEL 17:57 – 18:9, 20-30
As David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul
with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?”
And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and
Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would not let him return to his
father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his armour,
and even his sword and his bow and his girdle. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul
sent him; so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people
and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.
As they were coming home, when David returned from slaying the Philistine, the women came out of
all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with timbrels, with songs of joy, and
with instruments of music. And the women sang to one another as they made merry, “Saul has slain
his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him;
he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; and
what more can he have but the kingdom?” And Saul eyed David from that day on.
Now Saul's daughter Michal loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought,
“Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be
against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.” And Saul
commanded his servants, “Speak to David in private and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and
all his servants love you; now then become the king's son-in-law.’”
And Saul’s servants spoke those words in the ears of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a
little thing to become the king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and of no repute?” And the
servants of Saul told him, “Thus and so did David speak.” Then Saul said, “Thus shall you say to David,
‘The king desires no marriage present except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be
avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law.
Before the time had expired, David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the
Philistines; and David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he
might become the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife. But when Saul
saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that all Israel loved him, 29 Saul was still more
afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually.
Then the princes of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out David had more
success than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was highly esteemed.

LETTER 80, 10-13; FOCMC 3 (1992) TR. BLUM.
What could be worse than anger, which is spewed forth with the venom of the ancient dragon, and
like a deadly poison ravages the heart of every madman? Anger, as it is written, is possessed by a
devil. This we will be able to prove if we carefully study the history of the irascible Saul. For Scripture
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says that when the women of the Israelites, playing on their tambourines, sang joyfully to the
accompaniment of their timbrels, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’, Saul
was furious and the words displeased him. And then it continues, Next day an evil spirit from God
seized upon Saul, and he fell into a frenzy in his house. First, anger entered Saul’s heart and let in the
spirit of iniquity; following that, his raving flared up into a passion of insane fury and incited him to kill
David in whom the Holy Spirit dwelt. For according to Scripture, Saul had his spear in his hand, and he
hurled it at David, meaning to pin him to the wall. The inspiring spirit of anger was enraged within its
host, causing him to seethe with the wildest envy because of this blameless man.
Something just about like this took place some ten years ago in the principality of Urbino. One day,
late in the afternoon, sunset found the hearts of two priests still filled with anger, and the provoking
spirit of discord incited them to mutual insults. As one of the priests heaped indignities on the other,
and both exchanged offensive epithets, one of them menacingly snatched up his spear and went on
his way gnashing his teeth. His home was some distance away, and his fury accompanied him with
every step. As he went along, night overtook him, and his interior darkness grew deeper in his heart.
Suddenly five black riders on equally black horses met him on the road, and the one who appeared to
be their leader insolently spoke to him: “I have often urged you,” he said, “to enter my service and to
come along with my followers, but now you will find it impossible to evade my authority.” He seemed
to be Lord Romanus, who had frequently asked him to become his subject.
The priest was struck with a horrible fear and bound himself by feudal oath to the service of his lord.
The priest said, “Are you not my Lord Romanus?” The other answered, “Not at all, I am the devil to
whom you have just bound yourself by inseparable ties. Remain faithful in your fealty.” After this, the
devil promptly disappeared.
Trembling at this encounter, the priest in horror and confusion arrived at his home, overwhelmed
with fear. Shortly after, while I was present, he approached his bishop, whose name was Teuzo, and
begged for a penance. He was at once deprived of his priestly rank. As the heat of summer was upon
us and it was almost time for the harvest, I ordered that he be jailed and observe a Lenten fast of
forty days; and I exhorted him that he should not despair of returning to good health. In this event we
obviously see that an angry man, burning with a frenzy of unbridled fury, as Scripture says, is
possessed by the devil.
TUESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN DAVID AND JONATHAN: 1 SAMUEL 19:8-10; 20:1-17
And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and made a great
slaughter among them, so that they fled before him. Then an evil spirit from the LORD came upon
Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing the lyre. And Saul sought
to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall.
And David fled, and escaped.
Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What
is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” And he said to him, “Far
from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to
me; and why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.” But David replied, “Your father knows
well that I have found favour in your eyes; and he thinks, ‘Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be
grieved.’ But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and
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death.” Then said Jonathan to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” David said to Jonathan,
“Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king; but let me go,
that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say,
‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city; for there is a yearly sacrifice there for
all the family.’ If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant; but if he is angry, then know that
evil is determined by him. Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant
into a sacred covenant with you. But if there is guilt in me, slay me yourself; for why should you bring
me to your father?” And Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was determined by my
father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you?” Then said David to Jonathan, “Who will
tell me if your father answers you roughly?” And Jonathan said to David, 2Come, let us go out into the
field.” So they both went out into the field.
And Jonathan said to David, “The LORD, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded my
father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I
not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the LORD do so
to Jonathan, and more also, if I do not disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in
safety. May the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the loyal
love of the LORD, that I may not die; and do not cut off your loyalty from my house for ever. When
the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth, let not the name of
Jonathan be cut off from the house of David. And may the LORD take vengeance on David’s enemies.”
And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
A READING FROM ON SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP BY ST AELRED

ON SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP, 3; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Jonathan, that most excellent young man, made a pact with David, but not in the hope of obtaining
the royal crown nor in expectation of the kingdom. Making the servant equal to the master in
friendship, he placed above himself the man who had been driven out by his father, who was hiding in
the desert, condemned to death, marked out for execution. He humbled himself and exalted David.
You shall be King, he said, and I shall be next to you.
What a marvellous example of real friendship! What a wonderful thing! The King was raging against
his servant and stirring up the whole country as though against a rival for the kingdom. Out of mere
suspicion he massacred priests, accusing them of treachery. He searched the forests, spied out the
valleys, posted armed bands on the mountains and cliffs. All swore that they would avenge the King’s
anger. Only Jonathan, who alone had the right to be envious, thought it right to resist his father, to
give his friend news, to offer him advice in his great adversity, and preferring friendship to the
kingdom he said: You shall be King, and I shall be next to you. Notice how the father tried to excite the
envy of the young man against his friend, attacking him with insults, threatening to dispossess him of
the kingdom, reminding him that he would be deprived of honour.
Even when Saul had issued the death sentence against David, Jonathan did not fail his friend. Why
should David be put to death? What wrong has he done? He took his life in his hands and struck down
the Philistine, and you rejoiced. Why, therefore, should he be put to death? At these words the King
was driven mad. He sought to pin Jonathan to the wall with his spear, adding insults : You son of a
perverse, rebellious woman, he said. Do I not know that you love him to your own shame and to the
shame of your wanton mother? Then he poured out all his venom on the young man, adding a word
to stimulate ambition and stir up envy, bigotry and jealousy: As long as the son of Jesse lives, your
kingdom shall not be established.
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Who would not be moved and made envious by these words? Whose love, whose esteem, whose
friendship would they not corrupt, lessen and destroy? But that most devoted young man, keeping
the oaths of friendship, was strong in the face of threats, patient before insults. Because of his
friendship he despised the kingship and forgot the glory, but remembered the love. You shall be King,
he said, and I shall be next to you.
This is true, perfect, enduring and eternal friendship which envy does not corrupt, nor suspicion
lessen nor ambition dissolve. When thus put to the test it does not cease, thus assailed it does not fall
in ruins. Although a prey to so much abuse, it is seen to be unyielding and remains unmoved when
attacked by so many insults. Go, therefore, and do likewise.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FLIGHT OF DAVID: 1 SAMUEL 21:1-10; 22:1-5
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the Priest; and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and
said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” And David said to Ahimelech the Priest, “The
king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about
which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young
men for such and such a place. Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or
whatever is here.” And the Priest answered David, “I have no common bread at hand, but there is
holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” And David answered the
Priest, “Of a truth women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels
of the young men are holy, even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their
vessels be holy?” So the Priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of
the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is
taken away.
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; his name
was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.
And David said to Ahimelech, “And have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought
neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” And the
Priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is
here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it, for there is none but that
here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”
And David rose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his
father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And every one who was in distress, and every
one who was in debt, and every one who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain
over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.
And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Pray let my father
and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me.” And he left them with the king of
Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the Prophet Gad
said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David
departed, and went into the forest of Hereth.
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ENARRATIONES IN PSALMOS, 51.3-4; WSA (2001) TR. BOULDIN
While the holy man David was on the run from Saul’s persecution, he fled to a place where he
thought he would be safe. He passed by the house of a priest named Ahimelech, and accepted loaves
from him. In doing so he acted in the role not only of a king, but also of a priest, because he ate the
Bread of the Presence which it was unlawful for anyone other than the priests to eat, as the Lord
reminds us in the Gospel. Saul, when later he began to hunt him, was angry with his retainers because
none of them was willing to betray David.
But there was a man present that day named Doeg, who was an Edomite and the principal herdsman
in Saul’s service; he too had come to Ahimelech the priest. He was present again when Saul raged
against his followers because none of them would betray David. Doeg revealed where he had seen
him. Saul immediately sent for the priest and all his family to be brought before him, and ordered that
they be killed. None of Saul’s entourage dared raise a hand against the priests of the Lord, even under
orders from the King. But this Doeg, who betrayed David’s whereabouts, was like Judas; he persisted
in bringing forth fruit from that same root even to the end, the kind of fruit typical of a rotten tree,
and so at the King’s orders Doeg slew the priest and all his family.
Thus this man Doeg was the enemy of both David the King and Ahimelech the priest. Doeg was a
single man, but he represents a whole class of men. Similarly David embodies both king and priest,
like one man with a dual personality, though the human race is one. So, too, at the present time and
in our world let us recognise these two groups of people, so that what we sing may profit us. Let us
recognise Doeg still with us today, as we recognise the kingly and priestly body today.
Doeg is said to mean ‘movement’ and Edomite signifies ‘earthly’. You can see what kind of people this
‘movement’ symbolises: why expect heavenly fruit from an earthly man. To put it briefly, there is an
earthly kingdom in this world today, but there is also a heavenly kingdom. For the present the citizens
of both are thoroughly mixed together in this world. The heavenly kingdom groans and the citizens of
the earthly kingdom surrounds it. And from time to time the earthly kingdom presses the citizens of
the heavenly kingdom into service as the heavenly kingdom for its part also commandeers the citizens
of the earthly kingdom. Christ showed up such people when he said, The scribes and Pharisees have
taken their place on the chair of Moses; do what they tell you but do not imitate what they do, for they
talk but they do not act accordingly. He says: ‘What they say belongs to David; what they do, to Doeg.
Listen to me through them but beware of imitating them’. These two categories of people thus exist
on earth today, and of them our psalm sings.
THURSDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID AND ABIGAIL: 1 SAMUEL 25:14-24, 28-39
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the
wilderness to salute our master; and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we
suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with
them; they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the
sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do; for evil is determined against our
master and against all his house, and he is so ill-natured that one cannot speak to him.”
Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two skins of wine, and five sheep ready
dressed, and five measures of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred
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cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I
come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. And as she rode on the ass, and came down
under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.
Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that
nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to
David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
When Abigail saw David, she made haste, and alighted from the ass, and fell before David on her face,
and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, “Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; pray let
your handmaid speak in your ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. Pray forgive the trespass of
your handmaid; for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the
battles of the LORD; and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you
and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the
LORD your God; and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. If men
rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the
living in the care of the LORD your God; and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the
hollow of a sling. And when the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that he has
spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief,
or pangs of conscience, for having shed blood without cause or for my lord taking vengeance himself.
And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.”
And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!
Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from
avenging myself with my own hand! For as surely as the LORD the God of Israel lives, who has
restrained me from hurting you, unless you had made haste and come to meet me, truly by morning
there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male” Then David received from her hand what she
had brought him; and he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house; see, I have hearkened to your
voice, and I have granted your petition.”
And Abigail came to Nabal; and, lo, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And
Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the
morning light. And in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these
things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the LORD
smote Nabal; and he died.
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I
received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil; the LORD has returned the
evil-doing of Nabal upon his own head.” Then David sent and wooed Abigail, to make her his wife.

CONFERENCE 17, 25.1, 4-5; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
Who could count all the almost innumerable patriarchs and holy men who have sought protection, so
to speak, in lying – some in order to save their lives, some out of desire for a blessing, some out of
mercy, some in order to conceal a mystery, some out of zeal for God, and some in probing the truth?
Just as all of these cannot be numbered, so neither should they all be completely omitted.
What about Solomon, who received the gift of wisdom from God and who made his first judgment
with the help of a lie? For, in order to elicit the truth that was hidden by a woman’s lie, he himself also
made use of a very cleverly thought-out lie when he said: Bring me a sword, and cut the living infant
in two pieces, and give half to one and half to the other. When this semblance of cruelty profoundly
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shook the real mother but was praised by the one who was not the mother, he at once, as a result of
this most astute discovery of the truth, handed down the sentence that everyone believes was
inspired by God: Give the living infant to this woman, he said, and do not let it be slain. This is its
mother.
Further, we are taught at considerable length by other texts of Scripture, too, that we neither should
nor can fulfil everything that we decide upon whether with tranquil or upset mind. In them we
frequently read that holy men or angels or even Almighty God himself altered the things that they had
promised. For blessed David determined with the promise of an oath and said: May God do this and
add more to the enemies of David if, of all that belongs to Nabal, I leave one male until morning. But
when his wife Abigail interceded and entreated on his behalf, he immediately ceased his threats,
softened his words, and preferred to be considered a transgressor of his own intention than to be
true to his oath by cruelly carrying it out, and he said: As the Lord lives, unless you had come quickly to
meet me, there would not have been left to Nabal one male until the morning light. As we do not at all
consider the promptness of his rash vow, which proceeded from an upset and disturbed mind, as
something to be imitated, so likewise we judge that the cessation and correction of the thing that was
decided on is to be pursued.
FRIDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID SHOWS HIMSELF MERCIFUL TOWARDS SAUL: 1 SAMUEL 26:5-25
Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David saw the place where
Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army; Saul was lying within the
encampment, while the army was encamped around him.
Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will
go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” So David and
Abishai went to the army by night; and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear
stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the army lay around him. Then said Abishai to David,
“God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now therefore let me pin him to the earth with
one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy
him; for who can put forth his hand against the LORD’ anointed, and be guiltless?” And David said, “As
the LORD lives, the LORD will smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle
and perish. The LORD forbid that I should put forth my hand against the LORD’s anointed; but take
now the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.” So David took the spear and the
jar of water from Saul’s head; and they went away. No man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for
they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.
Then David went over to the other side, and stood afar off on the top of the mountain, with a great
space between them; and David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Will you not
answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you that calls to the king?” And David said to
Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your
lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing that you have
done is not good. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your
lord, the LORD’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the jar of water that was at his
head.”
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Saul recognized David’s voice, and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my
voice, my lord, O king.” And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I
done? What guilt is on my hands? Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If
it is the LORD who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering; but if it is men, may they
be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the
heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth
away from the presence of the LORD; for the king of Israel has come out to seek my life, like one who
hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
Then Saul said, “I have done wrong; return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my
life was precious in your eyes this day; behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.”
And David made answer, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and fetch it.
The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the LORD gave you into
my hand today, and I would not put forth my hand against the LORD’s anointed. Behold, as your life
was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD, and may he
deliver me out of all tribulation.” Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do
many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON DAVID AND SAUL OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

DE DAVID ET SAULE, 3.6-7 (BAREILLE 8.513, 517-8); WORD IN SEASON V
Is that your voice, David my son? What a sudden change! He who could never even bear to call him by
his name, so much did he detest it, now adopts him into his family, calling him his son! What could
surpass the happiness of this prophet, who in an instant could so transform his enemy as to draw
cries of lamentation from him who was thirsting for blood and slaughter?
The fact that David did not plunge his sword into his enemy or cut off his head is praiseworthy and
most admirable, but he deserved to be rewarded even more for so changing his enemy’s dispositions,
reforming him, and converting him to his own gentleness. The second service is greater than the first.
There is no comparison between sparing a life and showing someone how to lead a good life. When
an enraged man is bent on murder, it is one thing to save his life and another to free him from the
passion that leads to such a crime. For when David prevented his bodyguard from killing Saul, he
rendered him a service for this present life, but by expelling evil from his soul by the gentleness of his
words he gave him, as far as he was able, the future life and eternal blessings. Therefore, when you
praise David for his gentleness, praise him even more for the change he brought about in Saul.
And when your enemy falls into your hands, do not consider how you can pay him back and let him
feel the sharp edge of your tongue before sending him packing; consider rather how you can heal him
and restore him to a better frame of mind. Continue to make every effort by both word and deed
until your gentleness has overcome his aggressiveness. Nothing has more power than gentleness. As
someone has said: A soft word will break bones. And what is harder than bone? Well then, even if
someone is as hard and inflexible as that, he will be conquered if you treat him gently. There is
another saying: A soft answer turns away wrath. It is obvious, therefore, that whether your enemy
continues to rage or whether he is reconciled depends much more on you than on him. For it rests
with us, not with those who are angry, either to destroy their anger or to inflame it.
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SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAUL IN THE PRESENCE OF THE MEDIUM AT ENDOR: 1 SAMUEL 28:3-25
When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6 And when
Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by
Prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to
her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at Endor.”
So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments, and went, he and two men with him; and they
came to the woman by night. And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit, and bring up for me whomever I
shall name to you.” The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off
the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring
about my death?” But Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come
upon you for this thing.” Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up
Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said
to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” The king said to her, “Have no fear; what do you
see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” He said to her, “What is
his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul
knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in
great distress; for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and
answers me no more, either by Prophets or by dreams; therefore I have summoned you to tell me
what I shall do.” And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned from you and
become your enemy? The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me; for the LORD has torn the
kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbour, David. Because you did not obey the voice
of the LORD, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this
thing to you this day. Moreover the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines;
and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me; the LORD will give the army of Israel also into the
hand of the Philistines.”
Then Saul fell at once full length upon the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel;
and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came
to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, “Behold, your handmaid has
hearkened to you; I have taken my life in my hand, and have hearkened to what you have said to me.
Now therefore, you also hearken to your handmaid; let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat,
that you may have strength when you go on your way.” He refused, and said, “I will not eat.” But his
servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he hearkened to their words. So he arose from
the earth, and sat upon the bed. Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she quickly killed
it, and she took flour, and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and
his servants; and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL BY ORIGEN

HOMILY 5 ON I SAMUEL; (1998) TR. TRIGG.
Who, after departing from this life, would care to be under the control of a demon? This would seem
to be the case if a necromancer could summon up, not just any believer, but the prophet Samuel.
Given this, some of our brothers doubt the Scriptures and say, “I do not believe the medium; when
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she says she has seen Samuel, she lies.” Why should Samuel be in hell? If Samuel is in hell, why not
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in hell?
I ask the person who says this: who is better, Samuel or Jesus Christ? No one who has once come to
know that Jesus Christ is the Lord foretold by the prophets will dare to say that Christ is less than the
prophets. So was Christ in hell or not? If you answer that Christ did descend into hell, what did he do:
did he go to defeat death or be defeated by it? The Saviour descended in order to save. Did he
descend there after being announced beforehand by the prophets, or not? On earth he was
announced beforehand by the prophets, did he descend to this other place without making use of
prophets? If Moses announced him here on earth, why do you not want him to descend there also –
that he might prophesy Christ’s coming? Jesus came to be in hell, and the prophets were there before
him. They were there to announce in advance the advent of Christ.
Why are you afraid to admit that every place has need of Jesus Christ? He who needs Christ also
needs the prophets. If all the prophets descended into hell as forerunners of Christ, then it is clear
that Samuel also descended there. He did not descend in the ordinary way, but he descended as a
holy man. Whatever else a holy man is, he is holy. When prophets like Samuel descended to where
the souls are below, they were below according to place, but not below according to their freedom.
Now I cannot allow a demon such great power to prophesy concerning Saul and the people of God,
and about David’s kingship. Samuel never rejected the prophetic gift of grace, and St Paul teaches
that the one prophesying builds up the Church. Who then was Samuel to build up? The angels did not
need it. Israel here needed the prophet, but the Israel that had fallen asleep also needed prophets, so
that the prophets might again proclaim to them the advent of Christ.
Before the advent of my Lord Jesus Christ, it was impossible for anyone to pass to the place of the
tree of life, for he posted cherubim and a turning fiery sword to guard the way. Samuel could not
pass, and Abraham could not pass. That was why Abraham was seen by the rich man who was being
punished. There is therefore no stumbling block in this passage, but everything can be understood by
those to whom God reveals the interpretation. And in addition, if we depart from this life without the
burden of sin, we ourselves shall pass by the fiery sword and not descend to that place where those
waited who had fallen asleep before Christ's coming. Neither the patriarchs nor the prophets could
say what we can say, if we live well: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is better.
SUNDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL

SAUL’S DEATH: 1 SAMUEL 31:1-4; 2 SAMUEL 1:1-16
Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and fell
slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines slew
Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard upon Saul, and the
archers found him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armour-bearer,
“Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me
through, and make sport of me.” But his armour-bearer would not; for he feared greatly. Therefore
Saul took his own sword, and fell upon it.
After the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, David
remained two days in Ziklag; and on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his
clothes rent and earth upon his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and did
obeisance. David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from
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the camp of Israel.” And David said to him, “How did it go? Tell me.” And he answered, “The people
have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead; and Saul and his son
Jonathan are also dead.” Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that
Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened
to be on Mount Gilboa; and there was Saul leaning upon his spear; and lo, the chariots and the
horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I
answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ And he
said to me, ‘Stand beside me and slay me; for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’ So I
stood beside him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen; and I
took the crown which was on his head and the armlet which was on his arm, and I have brought them
here to my lord.”
Then David took hold of his clothes, and rent them; and so did all the men who were with him; and
they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people
of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the
young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a
sojourner, an Amalekite.” David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put forth your hand to
destroy the LORD’s anointed?” Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, fall upon him.”
And he smote him so that he died. And David said to him, “Your blood be upon your head; for your
own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain the LORD’s anointed.’”
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY RUPERT OF DEUTZ

DE SANCTA TRINITATE ET OPERIBUS EIUS (PL 167:1118-22);WORD IN SEASON V
David made this lamentation over Saul, and Jonathan his son: “Your glory, Israel, is slain upon your
high places.” Who was it who mourned? One who was himself an anointed King, one in no way
doubtful of his own election, one who knew that Saul’s death left the throne vacant for him, one who
after being a fugitive could now return to his own land. This is innocence indeed, and wonderful
freedom from ambition. In comparison with this it was a small thing that he had earlier spared Saul,
saying, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing, to put forth my hand against the Lord's anointed; for
he might have said that and yet longed all the while for Saul’s death. But now his conduct shows what
was indeed in his heart, for he lamented, and by punishing the messenger who brought the news
made sure that none of his followers should rejoice at it.
Over what did David grieve? Over this undoubtedly, that Saul who was the Lord’s anointed should
have deserved by his pride to be cast out from the Lord’s presence, and that with him all Israel should
have fallen before its enemies, as its mighty men were slain. This was matter for mourning indeed for
a wise man who in his deep humility recognized in Saul's example a warning to himself.
This lament of David mysteriously sketches in advance the lament of the true David, Christ, who wept
for the ruin of his people. Oh, if only you had known.... David wept for Saul and the fallen heroes of
Israel; Christ wept for the human pride of the Jews, the misdirected fortitude of those who put their
trust in their own righteousness rather than in the grace of God. As David wept, he commanded that
the sons of Judah be taught his lament, so that the followers of Christ in their turn might not glory in
their own merits but submit themselves to the grace of God.
The Israelites possessed true glory, but because God’s free gifts became for them a cause of pride
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they fell, and this especially though the fault of their priests. Wherefore it is said, O mountains of
Gilboa, let there be no rain or dew upon you; you are proud and lifted high, and so you shall not
receive the dew of the Holy Spirit, nor shall the words of life rain down upon you: I will command my
Apostles to abandon you in your pride and to pour the rain of the Gospel upon the Gentiles. You will
not be a field of first-fruits, nor an early harvest to be stored in heavenly granaries until the fullness of
the nations is brought in. But when they have at last entered, a remnant among you shall be saved.
MONDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID IS ANOINTED KING OF JUDAH IN HEBRON: 2 SAMUEL 2:1-11; 3:1-5
After this David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the LORD
said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.” So David went up
there, and his two wives also, Ahino-am of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And
David brought up his men who were with him, every one with his household; and they dwelt in the
towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of
Judah.
When they told David, It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul, David sent messengers to the
men of Jabesh-gilead, and said to them, “May you be blessed by the LORD, because you showed this
loyalty to Saul your lord, and buried him! Now may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to
you! And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be
strong, and be valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over
them.”
Now Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and
brought him over to Mahanaim; and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and
Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Sauls son, was forty years old when he began to
reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that
David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; and David grew stronger
and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.
And sons were born to David at Hebron: his first-born was Amnon, of Ahino-am of Jezreel; and his
second, Chile-ab, of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah
the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth,
Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithre-am, of Eglah, David’s wife. These were born to David
in Hebron.

ENARRATIONES IN PSALMOS, 51.1-2; WSA (2001) TR. BOULDING
Saul was chosen as King by the Lord, but not with a view to permanence; he had been granted to the
people at the request of their hard, stubborn hearts, and granted to them not because he was good
for them but to teach them a lesson, as Scripture indicates when it says of God, He raised a hypocrite
to royal rank because of the people’s perversity. Saul was a man of this character, so he kept on
persecuting David. But in David God was foreshadowing a reign of eternal salvation, and he has
chosen David to abide forever in his posterity.
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Our King, the King of the ages, with whom we shall reign eternally, was descended from David
according to the flesh. Now since God had chosen David, chosen him in advance and predestined him
to be King, it was not God’s will that David should take possession of his kingdom until he had freed
him from his persecutors. Such was the divine decision, so that in this respect David might prefigure
us, the body of which Christ is the Head. Think about it: if even our Head willed to reign in heaven
only after he had completed his travail on earth, and willed only by way of suffering to raise to glory
the body he had received below, what business have the members to hope that they will be more
fortunate than their Head? Let us not hope for an easier path; let us go where he went first, let us
follow where he led. If we stray from the path he traced, we are lost.
So you see what was foreshadowed in David, and you see what was foreshadowed in Saul: a bad
kingdom in Saul, a good kingdom in David; death in Saul, life in David. The only thing that really
persecutes us is death: death over which we shall triumph in the end, demanding: O death, where is
your victory? O death, where is your sting? For in dying Christ became death’s slayer, and death died
in him rather than he in death.
Now the name itself is fraught with mysterious meaning: Saul is interpreted as ‘request’ and that
implies desire for something. It can hardly be doubted that we brought death on ourselves, for death
was born from the sin of man. It is true to say, then, that men themselves desired death, and so
death’s name is also ‘request’. Scripture tells us, by deeds and words the godless invited death, and
believing it to be their friend, they were submerged. They sank in the Red Sea by desiring it and rushed
towards death thinking it their friend, just as the people thought they were getting a friend when they
begged for a King who turned out to be their enemy. They begged a King from the Lord, and they
were given Saul; they invited death and they were delivered into death’s hands: in getting Saul they
found death. Why does the title of this psalm say ‘from the hands of Saul’? Because Christ has plucked
us from hell and freed us from the clutches of death.
TUESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID RULES OVER ISRAEL. JERUSALEM IS CAPTURED: 2 SAMUEL 4:2 – 5:7
Now Saul’s son had two men who were captains of raiding bands; the name of the one was Baanah,
and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon a man of Benjamin from Be-eroth (for Be-eroth
also is reckoned to Benjamin; the Be-erothites fled to Gittaim, and have been sojourners there to this
day).
Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the
news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled; and, as she
fled in her haste, he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
Now the sons of Rimmon the Be-erothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day
they came to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he was taking his noonday rest. And behold, the
doorkeeper of the house had been cleaning wheat, but she grew drowsy and slept; so Rechab and
Baanah his brother slipped in. When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his
bedchamber, they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him. They took his head, and went by the
way of the Arabah all night, and brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron. And they said to
the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; the
LORD has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.” But David answered Rechab
and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Be-erothite, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed
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my life out of every adversity, when one told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead’, and thought he was bringing
good news, I seized him and slew him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. How
much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous man in his own house upon his bed, shall I not
now require his blood at your hand, and destroy you from the earth?” And David commanded his
young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them beside the pool
at Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.
Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Behold, we are your bone and flesh.
In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you that led out and brought in Israel; and the LORD
said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.’” So all the
elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron
before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months;
and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who
said to David, You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off--thinking, David
cannot come in here. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.

MACARIAN HOMILIES, 17.1-4 (PG 34:623-6); WORD IN SEASON V
Mature Christians who are deemed worthy to attain perfection, and to come close to the King, are
always consecrated to the Cross of Christ. As in prophetic times anointing was regarded as a most
honourable rite, since kings and prophets were anointed, so now spiritual men are anointed with a
heavenly unction and become Christians by grace so that they too may be kings, and prophets or
heavenly mysteries. They are sons and lords and gods, bound, held captive, overwhelmed, crucified
and consecrated.
Anointing with oil from a visible plant, a tree that could be seen, had such virtue that those anointed
received an undisputed dignity, for this was the recognized way of appointing kings. David, for
example, after his anointing, was immediately exposed to persecutions and afflictions, and then after
seven years he became King. How much more, then, do those who are anointed in mind and heart
with the sanctifying and cheering oil of gladness, the heavenly and spiritual unction, receive the seal
of that kingdom of incorruptible and eternal power, namely the pledge of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit?
And this Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete because of the encouragement and grace he gives to those
who suffer.
Anointed with ointment from the tree of life, Jesus Christ, the heavenly plant, these men are counted
worthy to attain perfection, to become kings and adopted sons of God, sharing in the secrets of the
heavenly King and enjoying free access to the Almighty. Even while still in this world they enter his
palace, the dwelling-place of the angels and the spirits of the Saints. For although they are not yet in
possession of that perfect inheritance prepared for them in the age to come, they are as fully assured
of it through the pledge they have received here on earth as though they were already crowned,
already reigning.
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Christians find nothing strange in the fact that they are destined to reign in the world to come, since
they have known the mysteries of grace beforehand. When man transgressed the commandment, the
devil shrouded the soul with a covering of darkness. But with the coming of grace the veil is entirely
stripped away, so that with clear eyes the soul, now cleansed and restored to its true nature, which
was created pure and blameless, ever clearly beholds the glory of the true light, the true Sun of
Righteousness, brilliantly shining in its inmost being.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE ARK IS TRANSFERRED TO JERUSALEM: 2 SAMUEL 6:1-23
David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all
the people who were with him from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is
called by the name of the LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the Cherubim. And they carried the
Ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and
Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the Ark of God; and Ahio went
before the Ark. And David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the LORD with all
their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.
And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and
took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God
smote him there because he put forth his hand to the Ark; and he died there beside the Ark of God.
And David was angry because the LORD had broken forth upon Uzzah; and that place is called Perez-
uzzah, to this day. And David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How can the Ark of the
LORD come to me?” So David was not willing to take the Ark of the LORD into the city of David; but
David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the Ark of the LORD remained in the
house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his
household.
And it was told King David, The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to
him, because of the Ark of God. So David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of
Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the Ark of the LORD had
gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. And David danced before the LORD with all his might;
and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of
the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the horn.
As the Ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the
window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
And they brought in the Ark of the LORD, and set it in its place, inside the tent which David had
pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And when
David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the
name of the LORD of hosts, and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both
men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people
departed, each to his house.
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And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David,
and said, “How the king of Israel honoured himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of
his servants maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to
Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint
me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD – and I will make merry before the LORD. I will make
myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes; but by the maids of whom
you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honour.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to
the day of her death.
A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 131 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

SERMON ON PSALM 131 (CSEL 22:664-80); WORD IN SEASON V
I will not enter my house, nor will I go to bed; l will give myself no rest, nor allow myself to sleep, until I
find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, whom the Prophet David foreshadowed, carried
out as though under oath all the mysteries of human salvation. His principal work was to make men,
once instructed in divine knowledge, into worthy dwelling-places for God. We are taught that the
human person is the seat and dwelling-place of God, for God himself says through the Prophet: I will
dwell in their midst and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The
Apostle, too, says: You are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Having assumed a body, therefore, the only-begotten Son of God swears that he and his human
nature will not enter his house, that is, will not return to his heavenly dwelling-place, until he has
found a place for the Lord in devout hearts.
Arise, Lord, and go to your resting-place, you and the Ark which you have sanctified – not the Ark of
the Covenant, nor the Ark of the Law, but the Ark which you have sanctified. We recall that the Ark of
the Covenant, containing the Stone Tablets, the Holy Writings, the Book of the Covenant, and the
omer of Manna, was gold inside and out. But all these were types of the body which the Lord
assumed and which contains the whole mystery of the Law. Now because of the presence of the
divine Spirit and because of the way the flesh originated, this body is gold both within and without, for
it is the Lord Jesus who is in the glory of the Father; it contains the everlasting Manna, for he is the
living Bread; it preserves within itself the Tablets of the Covenant and the Book of the Law, for in him
are the words of life. The Prophet prays, therefore, that this holy Ark may arise and go to rest along
with the Lord, for according to the Gospels God the Father put his seal upon him.
The dignity of those who will sit upon thrones in the world to come is shown in the words: The Lord
has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his home. “This shall be my resting-place forever; here I have
chosen to dwell.” He has chosen as his Zion the holy and heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the throng of
believers who dwell in harmony, the souls sanctified by the Sacraments of the Church, for in these as
in a rational and intelligent house, cleansed and made eternal by the glory of the resurrection, the
rational and intelligent and unpolluted and ineffable eternal nature of the divinity takes its rest.
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THURSDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

NATHAN’S MESSIANIC PROPHECY: 2 SAMUEL 7:1-25
Now when the king dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round
about, the king said to Nathan the Prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God
dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with
you.”
But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says
the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house since the day I
brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my
dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of
the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not
built me a house of cedar?”’ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the
LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over
my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies
from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own
place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the
time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are
fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come
forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he
commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men; but I will
not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And
your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established
for ever.’” In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to
David.
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my
house, that thou hast brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in thy eyes, O Lord GOD;
thou hast spoken also of thy servants house for a great while to come, and hast shown me future
generations, O Lord GOD! And what more can David say to thee? For thou knowest thy servant, O
Lord GOD! Because of thy promise, and according to thy own heart, thou hast wrought all this
greatness, to make thy servant know it. Therefore thou art great, O LORD God; for there is none like
thee, and there is no God besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. What other
nation on earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself
a name, and doing for them great and terrible things, by driving out before his people a nation and its
gods? And thou didst establish for thyself thy people Israel to be thy people for ever; and thou, O
LORD, didst become their God. And now, O LORD God, confirm for ever the word which thou hast
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spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house, and do as thou hast spoken; and thy name
will be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is God over Israel, and the house of thy servant
David will be established before thee. For thou, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, hast made this
revelation to thy servant, saying, I will build you a house; therefore thy servant has found courage to
pray this prayer to thee. And now, O Lord GOD, thou art God, and thy words are true, and thou hast
promised this good thing to thy servant; now therefore may it please thee to bless the house of thy
servant, that it may continue for ever before thee; for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken, and with thy
blessing shall the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.

THE CITY OF GOD, 17.8 (CSEL 48:570-72); WORD IN SEASON V
The word of the Lord came to Nathan the Prophet, who was to convey it to the King. The Lord said:
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after
you, who shall come forth from your body; he shall build a house for my name, his family shall be
faithful and his kingdom will be established forever in my sight.
Those who think that this magnificent promise was fulfilled in Solomon are greatly mistaken. They
notice the words: He shall build me a house and think this refers to Solomon – for Solomon did indeed
build the famous Temple – but they fail to mark the words: His family will be faithful, and his kingdom
will be established forever in my sight. Let them notice, let them bear in mind how Solomon filled his
house with foreign women who worshipped false gods and how they seduced the once wise King into
the same idolatry and brought him low. On the other hand, let them not dare to suppose that God
made a promise he had no intention of keeping, or that he was unable to foresee what Solomon and
his house would be like. Nor should we ourselves doubt as if we had not seen these promises fulfilled
in Christ our Lord, who, by physical descent, was of David’s family.
Of course there was even in Solomon some adumbration of the future. He built the Temple and there
was peace in his time (the name Solomon means peace-maker), and at the beginning of his reign his
life was most praiseworthy. But he did not manifest in his own person the one whom he
foreshadowed and foretold, namely Christ the Lord. Therefore some things written of him are in fact
prophecies of Christ, for holy Scripture, prophesying even by events, gives us in Solomon a symbol of
what lay in the future. Clearly, therefore, there was in Solomon a certain foreshadowing of the truth
manifested in Christ. For example, the boundaries of Solomon’s kingdom are well known, and yet, to
select but one point, the psalm says: He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of
the earth. This we see fulfilled in Christ. His reign began at the river where, when he had been
baptised and pointed out by John, his disciples acknowledged him not simply as Teacher but also as
Lord.
The reason why Solomon began to reign during the lifetime of his father David (something not seen in
any other King) was simply to show clearly that he was not the one referred to in the prophecy
addressed to his father: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up
your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body; and I will establish his kingdom. The
coming of Jesus Christ was certainly after, indeed a long time after, the death of King David, to whom
the promise was made that he was to come and build a house for God, not of wood and stones but of
men. We rejoice that he has built such a house, for to it, that is to those who believe in Christ, the
Apostle says: The Temple of God is holy, and you are that Temple.
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FRIDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID’S SIN: 2 SAMUEL 11:1-17, 6-27
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with
him, and all Israel; and they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at
Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of
the kings house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And
David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam,
the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he
lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, I am with child.
So David sent word to Joab, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah
came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people fared, and how the war
prospered. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went
out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of
the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told
David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey?
Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in
booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to
my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do
this thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So
Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the next. And David invited him, and he ate in his presence
and drank, so that he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the
servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote,
“Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be
struck down, and die.” And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he
knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of
the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was slain also.
When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her
husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she
became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 50 BY CASSIODORUS

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 50, 1-2; ACW (1990) TR. WALSH
Unto the end, a psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had sinned with
Bathsheba. It is worth examining this psalm a little more carefully, so that we may deserve to learn
through the Lord’s kindness the deep mysteries of its power. Because the King and Prophet
prostrated himself in making humble satisfaction, as the history of the Kings attests, and because he
rebuked his sin and was not ashamed to confess it publicly, the most holy Fathers decreed that he
was worthy to be honoured as a specially consecrated type. For blessed Jerome among others points
out that Bathsheba manifested a type of the Church or of human flesh, and says that David bore the
mark of Christ.
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Just as Bathsheba when washing herself unclothed in the brook of Cedron delighted David and
deserved to attain the royal embraces, and her husband was slain at the Prince’s command, so too
the Church, the assembly of the faithful, once she has cleansed herself of the foulness of sins by the
bath of sacred Baptism, is known to be joined to Christ the Lord. It was indeed appropriate in those
days that the future mysteries of the Lord should be manifested by a deed of this kind, and that what
men considered a blameworthy act should be shown to point in a spiritual sense to a great mystery.
For God also ordered the Prophet Hosea to take a harlot to wife so that it might become clear that
the Church of the Gentiles, befouled by its sins, would be cleansed by union with the Lord; as Paul
says: All these things happened to them in figure.
I ask you, how great was the blessed man’s humility in acknowledging his fault when he showed such
constancy in making satisfaction after he was pardoned? That sin of adultery is shown to have been
foreign and uncharacteristic, since it was lamented with such concentration of mind. The sudden
confession of the thief attracts us; we rejoice that Peter’s tears were quickly in evidence! But David
with his more prolonged attempt to wipe away his sins afforded all men a chance to absolve
themselves. He ensured that his tears, running down the faces of people who came after him, are
dried with no lapse of time.
Let us note also the Prophet’s humility. An inner voice terrified his heart and he directed his anger at
himself, for he knew that the rebuke by which he was blamed was just. Then that ruler over huge
nations became his own harshest torturer, demanding from himself a punishment which he could
scarcely have borne at another’s command. So he deserved absolution from the Lord because he did
not defend his faults. It is in most joyful times that we must chiefly be on our guard against sins.
When persecuted by Saul, he who had sinned in the security of his kingdom practised many virtues.
We are instructed by this that we ought not to seek happiness in this world, since we make more
progress in affliction and we sin more in good times.
SATURDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID’S REPENTANCE: 2 SAMUEL 12:1-25
And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a
certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the
poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it
grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his morsel, and drink from his cup, and lie in
his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was
unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but
he took the poor mans lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger
was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has
done this deserves to die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and
because he had no pity.”
Nathan said to David, “You are the man. Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king
over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and I gave you your masters house, and your
masters wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if this were too
little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is
evil in his sight? You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your
wife, and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never
depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite
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to be your wife.’ Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house;
and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your
wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before
the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The
LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have
utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die.” Then Nathan went to his house.
And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became sick. David therefore
besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground. And the
elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat
food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that
the child was dead; for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did
not listen to us; how then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” But
when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead;
and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.” Then David arose from the
earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the
LORD, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him,
and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and
wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” He said, “While
the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to
me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall
go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her, and lay with her; and she bore a son,
and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him, and sent a message by Nathan the
Prophet; so he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.
A READING FROM THE APOLOGY FOR THE PROPHET DAVID BY ST AMBROSE

APOLOGIA PROPHETAE DAVID, 1.2, 5-7 (CSEL 32.2.301-3); WORD IN SEASON V.
How many sins each of us commits every hour, yet people feel no need to confess their sins! By
contrast, the great and mighty King David could not abide the awareness of his sin even for a
moment, but immediately confessed it and with immense sorrow laid it before the Lord. Can you
show me nowadays any wealthy and distinguished person who will not take it amiss if he or she is
accused of some sin? Yet that renowned King, approved by so many divine oracles, was not
displeased and angered at being charged by a private person with grave sin, but admitted it and
sorrowfully lamented his guilt. The result was that his deep sorrow moved the Lord, so that Nathan
could say: Because you have repented the Lord has taken away your sin. The King’s prompt pardon
was proof of the depth of his repentance, since it could remove even an offence as heinous as his
was.
Others, when reproached by priests, make their sin worse by trying to deny or defend it, so that when
one might have expected a change of heart their guilt is actually increased. By contrast, when the
Lord’s saints, who long to fight the holy combat to the finish and to run the race of salvation, happen
to fall through the frailty of human nature rather than from any inclination to sin, their sense of
shame brings them to their feet again, more eager than ever to run the race; their energy is renewed
for even harder struggles, so that their fall, far from being a hindrance, becomes the motive for an
even speedier advance.
We can see another way in which sin can benefit us, and how it is providential that it surprised the
saints. They are set before us as models, and therefore the Lord has seen to it that they too should
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sometimes fall; for if they had run their course untouched by faults despite the many hazards of this
world, they
would have made us who are weaker think of them as possessed of a higher and even superhuman
nature that prevented them from sinning and sharing the experience of guilt. Such a view would deter
those lacking this nature from imitating them, for they would regard it as impossible. The grace of
God therefore passed them by momentarily, so that their lives might be models for us to follow, and
we might learn from their actions not only to be blameless, but also to repent.
SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE REBELLION OF ABSALOM AND THE FLIGHT OF DAVID: 2 SAMUEL 15:7-14, 24-30; 16:5-13
And at the end of four years Absalom said to the king, “Pray let me go and pay my vow, which I have
vowed to the LORD, in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I dwelt at Geshur in Aram, saying,
If the LORD will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the LORD.” The king
said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose, and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers
throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say,
‘Absalom is king at Hebron!’” With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem who were invited
guests, and they went in their simplicity, and knew nothing. And while Absalom was offering the
sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, from his city Giloh. And the
conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing.
And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.”
Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee; or else
there will be no escape for us from Absalom; go in haste, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down
evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword.”
And Abiathar came up, and lo, Zadok came also, with all the Levites, bearing the Ark of the covenant
of God; and they set down the Ark of God, until the people had all passed out of the city. Then the
king said to Zadok, “Carry the Ark of God back into the city. If I find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he
will bring me back and let me see both it and his habitation; but if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you’,
behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.” The king also said to Zadok the Priest,
“Look, go back to the city in peace, you and Abiathar, with your two sons, Ahima-az your son, and
Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from
you to inform me.” So Zadok and Abiathar carried the Ark of God back to Jerusalem; and they
remained there.
But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head
covered; and all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as
they went.
When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose
name was Shime-i, the son of Gera; and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at
David, and at all the servants of King David; and all the people and all the mighty men were on his
right hand and on his left. And Shime-i said as he cursed, “Begone, begone, you man of blood, you
worthless fellow! The LORD has avenged upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place
you have reigned; and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your
ruin is on you; for you are a man of blood.”
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Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over and take off his head.” But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of
Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD has said to him, ‘Curse David’, who then shall say, ‘Why
have you done so?’” And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my
life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has
bidden him. It may be that the LORD will look upon my affliction, and that the LORD will repay me
with good for this cursing of me today.” So David and his men went on the road, while Shime-i went
along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him and flung dust.

INSTITUTES, 8.7-9; ACW 58 (2000) TR. RAMSEY
True, we have the healthy instinct of anger given us for a valid reason, for which alone it is useful and
healthy to feel anger. This is when we are aroused to combat the evil passions of our own hearts, and
are indignant that our secret thoughts turn to things which we would be ashamed to do or even speak
of before men. In the presence of the angels, and in the sight of God who penetrates all things, we
are afraid and tremble because nothing can remain hidden in our consciences.
Indeed we may be indignant at anger itself, when it grows against our brother, and we may angrily
drive out its deadly urgings, allowing it no hidden foothold in the depths of our hearts. The Prophet
teaches us to be angry in this sense, of driving anger out of his feelings so as not to desire retribution
against his own enemies or those shown him by God, when he says, be angry and sin not. For when
David longed for some water from the cistern in Bethlehem, and it was brought to him by the heroes
through enemy lines, he poured it out on the earth at once, offering it to the Lord to extinguish the
passion of desire against which he was wrathful, refusing to indulge his yearnings. He said, May the
Lord be good to me be-cause I have done this, for shall I drink the blood of these men who have
brought it me, at the peril of their lives? And again when Shimei hurled stones and abuse at King David
in his hearing, and his general Abishai the son of Zeruiah wanted to avenge the insult to the King by
cutting off his head, the holy David was greatly indignant against his evil suggestion, and preserved his
humility and patience unperturbed, mildly saying, What does it matter to me and you, son of Zeruiah?
Let him curse, if the Lord has told him to curse David. See, my own son, the fruit of my loins, seeks my
life; how much more this son of Benjamin! Leave him, let him curse at the Lord’s command –
perchance the Lord will look upon my affliction and render me good in return for the curses of
today.
We are therefore commanded to be angry in a right sense, against our own selves and the evil
thoughts that occur to us, and not to sin, that is not to let them come to effect. St Paul too
quotes this verse as a witness, Be angry and sin not, saying, Let not the sun go down upon your
anger, and give no place to the devil. If it is evil to let the sun set on our anger, and anger gives
the devil immediate entrance into our hearts, how are we previously commanded to anger when
it says Be ye angry and sin not? Does it not clearly mean to be angry with your vices and your
wrath, lest Christ the Sun of Righteousness begin to set with your connivance because of the
anger which darkens your minds, until with his departure you make space for the devil in your
hearts?
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MONDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DEATH OF ABSALOM AND DAVID’S SORROW: 2 SAMUEL 18:6-17, 24 – 19:4
So the army went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim.
And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was
great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country; and the
forest devoured more people that day than the sword.
And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding upon his mule, and the mule
went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was left
hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man
saw it, and told Joab, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.” Joab said to the man who told him,
“What, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to
give you ten pieces of silver and a girdle.” But the man said to Joab, “Even if I felt in my hand the
weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not put forth my hand against the king’s son; for in our
hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘For my sake protect the young man
Absalom.’ On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden
from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.” Joab said, “I will not waste time like this
with you.” And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them into the heart of Absalom, while he
was still alive in the oak. And ten young men, Joab’s armour-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck
him, and killed him.
Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel; for Joab restrained
them. And they took Absalom, and threw him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very
great heap of stones; and all Israel fled every one to his own home.
Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by
the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone. And the watchman
called out and told the king. And the king said, “If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth.” And he
came apace, and drew near. And the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called
to the gate and said, “See, another man running alone!” The king said, “He also brings tidings.” And
the watchman said, “I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahima-az the son of
Zadok.” And the king said, “He is a good man, and comes with good tidings.”
Then Ahima-az cried out to the king, “All is well.” And he bowed before the king with his face to the
earth, and said, “Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand
against my lord the king.” And the king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” Ahima-az
answered, “When Joab sent your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was.” And
the king said, “Turn aside, and stand here.” So he turned aside, and stood still.
And behold, the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, “Good tidings for my lord the king! For the LORD
has delivered you this day from the power of all who rose up against you.” The king said to the
Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And the Cushite answered, “May the enemies of
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my lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be like that young man.” And the king was
deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, “O my
son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my
son!”
It was told Joab, Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom. So the victory that day was
turned into mourning for all the people; for the people heard that day, “The king is grieving for his
son.” And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in
battle. The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O
Absalom, my son, my son!”
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON PSALM 7 BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

HOMILY ON PSALM 7 (BAREILLE 9:41-2); WORD IN SEASON V.
Has any of you defrauded another? It is yourself you have ruined. Such an action often turns to the
profit of its victim, but its perpetrator has lost his own soul. Has any of you injured another? You have
run a sword through yourself. For it is not by being maltreated but by maltreating others that one
suffers the most harm. That is why Paul urged us to endure injuries rather than cause them; and
Christ told us not to return blow for blow, but to submit to ill-treatment. To do so is a sign of great
strength, it accustoms us to patient endurance, it makes the soul strong and raises it above its
passions. For those who injure others, whether by striking or insulting them, first fall victim to passion
themselves and become its slaves; they then seem to be causing injury to their neighbours, but they
themselves have suffered a greater injury and are reduced to the worst kind of servitude.
His mischief will recoil on himself, his wickedness come down on his own head. Commentators say
this refers to Ahithophel and Absalom, for the heads of both suffered punishment. The first hanged
himself; the second was caught up by his hair as he rode under a tree, and he hung there for a long
time. And Judas also hanged himself, knowing that his crime had brought evil on his own head. It was
the same with Ahithophel; when he saw that David would certainly come off best he hanged himself.
As for Absalom, his hanging was against his will and he was not killed immediately, but appeared to be
suspended and fixed to the tree awaiting judgment. By the judgment of God he remained hanging
there for a long time, while his conscience added to his torments. He had longed to plunge his sword
into his father’s throat; but even so his father urged his soldiers to spare him, and was so devoid of
vainglory as even to lament his son’s death. And to make you understand that what happened to
Absalom was not the result of human zeal but entirely a divine judgment, it was his own hair and a
tree that bound him, and a beast of burden that delivered him up; his own hair was his rope, the tree
was the beam from which he hung, and it was not a soldier but a mule that brought him to this.
TUESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CENSUS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE BUILDING OF THE ALTAR: 2 SAMUEL 24:1-4, 10-18,
24B-25
Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying,
“Go, number Israel and Judah.” So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army, who were
with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and number the people, that I
may know the number of the people.” But Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God add to the
people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it; but why
does my lord the king delight in this thing? But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the
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commanders of the army.” So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of
the king to number the people of Israel.
But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have
sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy
servant; for I have done very foolishly.” And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD
came to the Prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David, Thus says the LORD, ‘Three
things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” So Gad came to David and told him,
and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months
before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days pestilence in your land? Now
consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in
great distress; let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the
hand of man.”
So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and there died
of the people from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched forth his
hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented of the evil, and said to the angel who was
working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the
LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw
the angel who was smiting the people, and said, “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but
these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my fathers
house.”
And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, rear an altar to the LORD on the threshing
floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an
altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded supplications
for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 5:232-4; WORD IN SEASON V.
Saul offered sacrifice on one occasion, not having a commission; this was a sin; yet what was his
excuse? – a very fair one. Samuel had promised to come to offer the sacrifice, and did not. Saul
waited some days, the people grew discouraged, his army fell off, and the enemy was at hand – so, as
he says, he “forced himself”.
Such is the conduct of insincere people in difficulty. Perhaps their difficulty may be a real one; but in
this they differ from the sincere – the latter seek God in their difficulty, feeling that he only who
imposes it can remove it; but insincere men do not like to go to God; and to them the difficulty is only
so much gain, for it gives them an apparent reason, a sort of excuse, for not going by God’s rule, but
for deciding in their own way. When Hezekiah was in trouble, he took the letter of Sennacherib, and
went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And in like manner holy David, after
he had sinned in numbering the people, and was told to choose between three punishments offered
him, showed the same honest and simple-hearted devotion in choosing that of the three which might
be the most exactly called falling into the Lord’s hands. If he must suffer, let the Lord chastise him – I
am in a great strait, he says; let us fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great; and
let me not fall into the hands of men.
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Great, then, is the difference between sincere and insincere Christians, however like their words may
be to each other. Everyone, even after the gift of God’s grace, sins: God's true servants profess and
sin – sin and are sorry; and hypocrites profess and sin – sin and are sorry. Thus the two parties look
like each other. But the word of God discriminates one from the other by this test – that Christ dwells
in the conscience of one, not of the other; that the one opens his heart to God, the other does not;
the one views almighty God only as an accidental guest, the other as Lord and owner of all that he is;
the one admits him as if for a night, or some stated season, the other gives himself over to God, and
considers himself God's servant and instrument now and forever.
Not more different is the intimacy of friends from mere acquaintances; not more different is it to
know a person in society, to be courteous and obliging to him, to interchange civilities, from opening
one’s heart to another, admitting him into it, seeing into his, loving him, and living in him, than the
external worship of hypocrites from the inward devotion of true faith; approaching God with the lips,
from believing in him with the heart; so opening to the Spirit that he opens to us, from so living to self
as to exclude the light of heaven.
WEDNESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE PREPARED BY DAVID: 1 CHRONICLES 22:5-19
For David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the
LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands; I will therefore make
preparation for it.” So David provided materials in great quantity before his death.
Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel.
David said to Solomon, “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my
God. But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have waged
great wars; you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me
upon the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace
from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to
Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I
will establish his royal throne in Israel for ever.’ Now, my son, the LORD be with you, so that you may
succeed in building the house of the LORD your God, as he has spoken concerning you. Only, may the
LORD grant you discretion and understanding, that when he gives you charge over Israel you may
keep the law of the LORD your God. Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes
and the ordinances which the LORD commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong, and of good courage.
Fear not; be not dismayed. With great pains I have provided for the house of the LORD a hundred
thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weighing, for there is
so much of it; timber and stone too I have provided. To these you must add. You have an abundance
of workmen: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in
working gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Arise and be doing! The LORD be with you!”
David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, “Is not the LORD your
God with you? And has he not given you peace on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of
the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD and his people. Now set your mind
and heart to seek the LORD your God. Arise and build the Sanctuary of the LORD God, so that the Ark
of the covenant of the LORD and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the
name of the LORD.”
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ENARRATIONES IN PSALMOS, 126.2-3 (CSEL 40:1857-8); WORD IN SEASON V.
Solomon had built a Temple for the Lord that was a type and figure of the future Church and of the
Lord’s body. That is why the Lord says in the Gospel: Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise
it up. Since Solomon had built that Temple, Jesus Christ, the true Solomon, the true man of peace,
also built a Temple for himself.
The name ‘Solomon’ means ‘man of peace’; but the true man of peace is he of whom the Apostle
says: He is our peace, who made the two one. He is the true man of peace who united in himself as
their cornerstone the two walls coming from different directions – the believers coming from the
Jews and the believers coming from the Gentiles. Out of these two peoples he made a single Church
with himself as its cornerstone; that is why he is the true man of peace.
Since, then, he is the true Solomon and since the earlier Solomon, David’s son by Bathsheba and King
of Israel, simply prefigured this true man of peace when he built a Temple, do not think that Solomon
was the real builder of God’s house, for Scripture shows
you a different Solomon at the beginning of the psalm: unless the Lord builds the house, its builders
labour in vain. It is the Lord, then, who builds the house; the Lord Jesus Christ builds his own house.
Many labour to build it, but if he does not build it, its builders labour in vain.
Who are the labourers engaged on the building? All those in the Church who preach the word of God,
and all the ministers of God’s Sacraments. We all run, we all toil, we are all building in our own day;
and before us others have run and toiled and built. But unless the Lord builds the house, its builders
labour in vain. We speak to the outer ear: he builds within. We notice whether you are listening, but
only he who sees your thoughts knows what you are thinking. He builds, he teaches, he frightens; he
opens your minds and draws your thoughts toward faith.
The house of God is also a city. For the house of God is God’s people; and because they are God’s
house, they are his Temple. What does the Apostle say? The Temple of God is holy, and you are that
Temple. All believers form the house of God, not only those now living, but those who came before us
and have fallen asleep, and those who will come after us, who from now until the end of time await
their birth among mankind – believers gathered into unity, countless in number, though the Lord has
counted them, for the Apostle says of them: The Lord knows his own. The grains now groaning amid
the chaff, grains which will form a single mass when the threshing floor is winnowed at the end; all
the holy believers who are to be taken from mankind to be the equals and companions of God’s
angels, who are not pilgrims now but await us when we return from our pilgrimage – all these
together form a single house of God and a single city.
THURSDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DAVID CHOOSES SOLOMON TO SUCCEED HIM: 1 KINGS 1:11-35; 2:10-12
Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of
Haggith has become king and David our lord does not know it? Now therefore come, let me give you
counsel, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. Go in at once to King
David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your maidservant, saying, Solomon
your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?’ Then
while you are still speaking with the king, I also will come in after you and confirm your words.”
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So Bathsheba went to the king into his chamber (now the king was very old, and Abishag the
Shunammite was ministering to the king). Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the
king said, “What do you desire?” She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your maidservant by the
LORD your God, saying, Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. And
now, behold, Adonijah is king, although you, my lord the king, do not know it. He has sacrificed oxen,
fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king, Abiathar the Priest, and Joab
the commander of the army; but Solomon your servant he has not invited. And now, my lord the king,
the eyes of all Israel are upon you, to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after
him. Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that I and my son
Solomon will be counted offenders.”
While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the Prophet came in. And they told the king, “Here
is Nathan the Prophet.” And when he came in before the king, he bowed before the king, with his face
to the ground. And Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall reign after me, and
he shall sit upon my throne?’ For he has gone down this day, and has sacrificed oxen, fatlings, and
sheep in abundance, and has invited all the kings sons, Joab the commander of the army, and
Abiathar the Priest; and behold, they are eating and drinking before him, and saying, Long live King
Adonijah! But me, your servant, and Zadok the Priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your
servant Solomon, he has not invited. Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you
have not told your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”
Then King David answered, “Call Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence, and stood
before the king. And the king swore, saying, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of
every adversity, as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, Solomon your son shall reign
after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I do this day.” Then Bathsheba
bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance to the king, and said, “May my lord King David
live for ever!”
King David said, “Call to me Zadok the Priest, Nathan the Prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.”
So they came before the king. And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord,
and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon; and let Zadok the
Priest and Nathan the Prophet there anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet, and say,
‘Long live King Solomon!’ You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit upon my
throne; for he shall be king in my stead; and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over
Judah.”
Then David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. And the time that David reigned
over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So
Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was firmly established.

OF NYSSA
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, 7 (JAEGER 6:201-5); WORD IN SEASON V.
In many ways King Solomon can be taken as a type of the true King – in the many ways, that is, in
which the nobler aspect of his character are portrayed in holy Scripture. For he is said to have been a
man of peace; he built the Temple; he possessed inexhaustible wisdom; he ruled over Israel and
judged the people justly, and he was of David’s line. Then there was the Ethiopian Queen who came
to visit him. All these things we are told about Solomon, and others like them, were symbols
portraying in advance the characteristics of the Gospel.
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For who was such a man of peace as he who destroyed enmity, nailing it to the Cross, he who
reconciled us who were his enemies, or rather, the whole world to himself, breaking down the barrier
of hostility between Jew and Gentile so as to make from the two a single new man in himself? So he
made peace, and proclaimed peace to those far off and those near at hand through the preachers of
the Gospel. Who can so justly be called the builder of the Temple as he who laid its foundations on
the holy hills, that is on the Prophets and Apostles – building, as the Apostle says, on the foundations
of the Apostles and Prophets living stones who draw their life from him and who move of their own
accord to form solid walls, so that joined in the unity of faith and the bond of peace, they grow into a
holy Temple and become a spiritual dwelling-place for God?
That Solomon by his wisdom points to the true Wisdom no one who has a regard for historical truth
can deny. That the Lord was King of Israel even his enemies admitted, for the inscription on the Cross:
This is the King of the Jews, acknowledged his kingship.
Solomon’s zeal for just judgment signifies the true Judge of the whole world, who said, The Father
judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son; and, I can do nothing on my own authority; as I
hear I judge, and my judgment is just. For the best rule for forming a just judgment is not to decide
the case of the accused according to one’s own preconceived ideas, but to record one’s verdict only
after listening to the evidence. The power of God confesses there are certain things it cannot do,
because truth has no power to override justice and falsify judgment.
Who does not know that the Church of the Gentiles, before it became a Church, was blackened by
idolatry, and during a long period of ignorance dwelt far from knowledge of the true God? But with
the revelation of the grace of God and the dawn of Wisdom, when the true light cast its rays upon
those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, then the Ethiopians, that is those from
among the Gentiles who came to the faith, who had once been far off, drew near, and the blackness
of their sins was washed away in the sacramental water. Thus Ethiopia stretched out her hands to God
and offered gifts to the King: the spices of devotion, the gold of her knowledge of God, and the
precious stones of her obedience to God’s commands and her pursuit of virtue.
FRIDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

INAUGURATION OF THE REIGN OF SOLOMON: 1 KINGS 3:5-28
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I shall give
you.” And Solomon said, “Thou hast shown great and steadfast love to thy servant David my father,
because he walked before thee in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward
thee; and thou hast kept for him this great and steadfast love, and hast given him a son to sit on his
throne this day. And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king in place of David my
father, although I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in
the midst of thy people whom thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered or counted
for multitude. Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to govern thy people, that I may
discern between good and evil; for who is able to govern this thy great people?”
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this,
and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for
yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I
give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you
shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour, so that no other
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king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and
my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the
Ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a
feast for all his servants.
Then two harlots came to the king, and stood before him. The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this
woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on
the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth; and we were alone; there was no one
else with us in the house, only we two were in the house. And this woman’s son died in the night,
because she lay on it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your
maidservant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the
morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I looked at it closely in the morning, behold,
it was not the child that I had borne.” But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the
dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they
spoke before the king.
Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other
says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” And the king said, “Bring me a sword.”
So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half
to the one, and half to the other.” Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her
heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means slay it.” But the
other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” Then the king answered and said, “Give the
living child to the first woman, and by no means slay it; she is its mother.” And all Israel heard of the
judgement which the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived
that the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice.

SERMON 10,1-2, 5; WSA (1990) TR. HILL
The King’s wisdom which had been given him by God’s favour is wonderfully highlighted in this
judgment between the two women who were quarrelling over a baby son. It was only right and
proper to judge none to be the mother of the child but the one who in a manner of speaking
conceived him a second time when she realised he had been taken from her. But, since the divine
books of the Old Testament normally provide not only a faithful record of past events but also an
intimation of the mysteries to be revealed in future ones, we should consider whether this passage of
Scripture is pointing in these two women to something else represented and symbolised by them.
The first idea that occurs to me on consideration is that the two women are the Synagogue and the
Church. For the Synagogue is convicted of having killed Christ her son, born of the Jews according to
the flesh, in her sleep; that is, by following the light of this present life and not perceiving the
revelation of trust in the sayings of the Lord. That they were two and that they were alone, living in
one house, may be taken to mean without being far-fetched that besides the circumcision and the
uncircumcision there is no other kind of religion to be found in this world.
But they were both harlots. Well, the Apostle says that Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Every soul
which forsakes eternal truth for base earthly pleasures is whoring away from the Lord. Now about the
Church that comes from the whoredom of the Gentiles, it is clear that it did not kill Christ. But we
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have to think about how it too may be the mother of Christ. Pay attention to the Gospel and listen to
what the Lord says: Whoever does the will of my Father, this is my mother and brother and sister.
Again, I see these two women in one house as representing two kinds of people in one Church: one of
them dominated by insincerity, the other ruled by charity. Insincerity, of course deceitfully imitates
love. That’s why the Apostle warns us against her when he says, Let love be without insincerity.
Although the two live in one house as long as that gospel net is in the sea, enclosing good and bad fish
together until it is brought ashore, yet each is doing her own thing. They were both harlots, though,
because everyone is converted to the grace of God from worldly desires, and nobody can properly
boast about any prior justice and its merits. A harlot’s committing fornication is her own doing; her
having a son is God’s.
But if a harlot is willing to have the child she has conceived, and is not driven by lust or avaricious
concern for her shameful earnings to take an abortifacient and eliminate what she has conceived
from her womb, in case her fertility should interfere with her sinning; then the appetite which had
been dissipated among a great many is now concentrated on the one gift of God, and will no longer
be called greed, but love. So the harlot’s son is rightly understood as representing.
SATURDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SOLEMN DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE: 1 KINGS 8:1-21
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers
houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the covenant
of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled to King
Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel
came, and the Priests took up the Ark. And they brought up the Ark of the LORD, the tent of meeting,
and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the Priests and the Levites brought them up. And King
Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the
Ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. Then the
Priests brought the Ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, in the inner Sanctuary of the House,
in the most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the Cherubim. For the Cherubim spread out their
wings over the place of the Ark, so that the Cherubim made a covering above the Ark and its poles.
And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before the inner
Sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside; and they are there to this day. There was nothing
in the Ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a
covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. And when the Priests
came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the Priests could not stand to
minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.
Then Solomon said, “The LORD has set the sun in the heavens, but has said that he would dwell in
thick darkness. I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in for ever.” Then the king
faced about, and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. And he said,
“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his
mouth to David my father, saying, ‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose
no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose
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David to be over my people Israel.’ Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the
name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your
heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart; nevertheless you shall not
build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ Now the
LORD has fulfilled his promise which he made; for I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit
on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and I have built the house for the name of the LORD,
the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the Ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD
which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

CONFERENCES 13.12.5-8, 13.1; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
In order to indicate that the possibility for good lay in them, the Lord said when he rebuked the
Pharisees: Why do you not of yourselves judge what is just? He certainly would not have said this to
them if he had not known that they could discern what was correct by natural judgment.
Therefore, we must be on the watch lest we attribute all the good works of holy men to the Lord in
such a way that we ascribe nothing but what is bad and perverse to human nature. Herein, indeed,
we are refuted by the testimony of the most wise Solomon, or rather by that of the Lord, whose
words these are. For when the building of the Temple was finished, he prayed and said: David my
father wished to build a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said to David my
father: You have done well to think in your heart about building a house to my name, and to reflect on
this in your mind. But you shall not build a house to my name. Should it be said, then, that this thought
and this reflection of King David was good and from God or bad and from man? For if this thought was
good and was from God, why was its being brought to fulfilment denied by the one by whom it was
inspired? But if it was bad and was from man, why was it praised by the Lord? It remains, then, that it
should be believed to be both good and from man.
This is the way that we too can judge our daily thoughts. For it was not given to David alone to think
good of himself, nor is it denied us by nature ever to perceive or to think what is good. It cannot be
doubted, therefore, that the seeds of virtue exist in every soul, having been placed there by the
kindness of the Creator. But unless they have been germinated by the help of God they will not be
able to increase in perfection, because, according to the blessed Apostle, neither is the one who
plants anything, nor the one who waters, but God who gives the increase. The book entitled The
Shepherd also teaches very clearly that freedom of will is at a man’ s disposal to a certain degree. In it
two angels – good and bad – are said to be attached to each one of us; but it is up to the man to
choose which to follow.
Consequently there always remains in man a free will that can either neglect or love the grace of God.
For the Apostle would not have commanded and said: Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling, if he had not known that it could be either tended or neglected by us. But lest they believe
that they do not stand in need of the divine help for the work of salvation, he adds: It is God who
works in you both to will and to accomplish, for the sake of his good pleasure.
And so the grace of God always works together with our will on behalf of the good, helping it in
everything and protecting and defending it, so that sometimes it even demands and expects from it
certain efforts of a good will, lest it seem to bestow its gifts wholly on one who is asleep. But the
grace of God nonetheless remains free, since with inestimable generosity it confers on meagre and
small efforts such immortal glory and such gifts of everlasting blessedness.
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SUNDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SOLOMON’S PRAYER OF DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE: 1 KINGS: 822-34, 54-61
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and
spread forth his hands toward heaven; and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in
heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who
walk before thee with all their heart; who hast kept with thy servant David my father what thou didst
declare to him; yea, thou didst speak with thy mouth, and with thy hand hast fulfilled it this day. Now
therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father what thou hast promised
him, saying, There shall never fail you a man before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your
sons take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me. Now therefore, O God
of Israel, let thy word be confirmed, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David my father.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee;
how much less this house which I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his
supplication, O LORD my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before
thee this day; that thy eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which thou
hast said, My name shall be there, that thou mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant offers
toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when
they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest,
forgive.
“If a man sins against his neighbour and is made to take an oath, and comes and swears his oath
before thine altar in this house, then hear thou in heaven, and act, and judge thy servants,
condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head, and vindicating the righteous by
rewarding him according to his righteousness.
“When thy people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against thee, if
they turn again to thee, and acknowledge thy name, and pray and make supplication to thee in this
house; then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again to the
land which thou gavest to their fathers.”
Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, he arose from before
the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven; and he stood, and
blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed be the LORD who has given rest
to his people Israel, according to all that he promised; not one word has failed of all his good promise,
which he uttered by Moses his servant. The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; may
he not leave us or forsake us; that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to
keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers. Let
these words of mine, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be near to the LORD our
God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel,
as each day requires; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no
other. Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and
keeping his commandments, as at this day.”
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A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY BY RUPERT OF DEUTZ
DE SANCTA TRINITATE ET OPERIBUS EIUS, 24 (CCCM 22:1331-2); WORD IN SEASON V.
Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the sight of the assembly of Israel, and raising his hands
to heaven he said: “Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you.”
The true Solomon, Christ the King, at the dedication of his Temple, which he consecrated by his
physical suffering, stood before the altar of the Lord, before the eyes of the Father, before the
sacrificial table of the Cross, and prayed. Indeed, he even cried out in a loud voice: During his earthly
life, the Apostle says, he offered prayers and petitions, with a loud cry and tears, to him who could
save him, and he was heard because of his reverence. And there is indeed no doubt that when he was
actually hanging on the Cross he uttered a loud cry; but since the cry of the heart is audible to God
alone, he had a short time before expressed in words what his cry would be and why he who was
both Priest and saving Victim would ascend the Cross. For having raised his eyes to heaven, he said:
Holy Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
There is one passage in this prayer of Solomon that I cannot pass over. He says among other things:
When foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your name
(for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your arm that reaches everywhere) –
when they come and pray in this place, hear in heaven your dwelling-place, and do everything the
foreigners ask of you.
In their inner meaning these are the words of our Lord, for in the prayer already quoted he
says:
Holy Father, keep in your name those whom you have given to me. I do not pray for them alone but
for all who will believe in me because of their words. He knew that because of his Passion people
everywhere would hear of the Father’s great name and mighty hand and arm that reaches
everywhere, and that when we foreigners, who did not belong to the people of Israel, had
heard, we would come to him from a distant land and bow down to worship him, the holy Temple,
professing our faith in his name.
MONDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE GLORY OF SOLOMON IN THE PRESENCE OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA: 1 KINGS:10:1-13
Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she
came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels
bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told
him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden
from the king which he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the
wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and
the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he offered
at the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.
And she said to the king, “The report was true which I heard in my own land of your affairs and of
your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it; and, behold,
the half was not told me; your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report which I heard. Happy are
your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because
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the LORD loved Israel for ever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and
righteousness.” Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great
quantity of spices, and precious stones; never again came such an abundance of spices as these which
the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
Moreover the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount
of almug wood and precious stones. And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of
the LORD, and for the kings house, lyres also and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come
or been seen, to this day.
And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what
was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land, with her
servants.
A READING FROM HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT BY JEAN DANIÉLOU

HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, 122-5; WORD IN SEASON V
In a mysterious passage of the Gospel, Christ shows us the Queen of Sheba glorified, in the day of the
great assizes of the Judgment, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon, while the sons of Abraham are condemned because they rejected him who is greater than
Solomon. We are justified from this in regarding the Queen of Sheba, side by side with Enoch and
Melchisedek, as a saint of the cosmic religion. She is a stranger to the revelation of Israel and her
religion was that of the Arabs of Yemen, where the kingdom of Sheba was situated, a country of gold
and spices.
It was the quest of divine Wisdom that had from the first led the Queen of Sheba across the desert
routes. Does this mean to say that she was converted to the God of Israel? There is nothing to tell us
this was the case. She was already worshipping the true God through the medium of his revelation in
the world and in her conscience. She paid tribute to a more perfect revelation in Solomon, but stayed
at the level of revelation which was hers. In the same way Melchisedek, priest of the Most High God,
paid tribute to a new covenant in Abraham, but remained a priest according to his own order. So too
with Saint John the Baptist who bows to the coming of a still more wonderful order of things, but
remains in his own, less than the least of the children of the Kingdom.
Thus the Old Testament gives us in the Queen of Sheba a model of the right-minded pagans who are
sincere in their search for God. But it remained for the New Testament and Christian tradition to draw
all the conclusions that follow. The Queen of the south shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and behold a greater than Solomon is here.
A primary meaning of this text is that the Kingdom of God is not the privilege of the Jews, but that all
the peoples of the earth are called to it. The Queen of Sheba coming to Jerusalem to adore, her
caravan loaded with gold and spices, thus stands as a mystical anticipation of the entry of the Gentiles
into the Church.
The next thing that Christ’s word teaches us is that not only have all the peoples to be called one day
to the Kingdom, but that the pagans who have sought wisdom are already the children of the
Kingdom. The Queen of Sheba is not, in fact, considered by Christ historically, as a simple
prefiguration, but is shown to us in the future, on the day of resurrection, sharing the glory of the
Saints. In this way Christ testifies to the fact that the pagans who have sought for God in sincerity of
heart belong to his Church, by what theology calls the baptism of desire, and form part of the elect.
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TUESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SOLOMON’S SIN. THE REBELLION AND FLIGHT OF JEROBOAM: 1 KINGS 11:1-4, 26-43
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women: the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite,
Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the
people of Israel, You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely
they will turn away your heart after their gods; Solomon clung to these in love. He had seven hundred
wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when
Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true
to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mothers name
was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. And this was the reason why he lifted up
his hand against the king. Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breach of the city of David his
father. The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious
he gave him charge over all the forced labour of the house of Joseph. And at that time, when
Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah
had clad himself with a new garment; and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then
Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to
Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about
to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes (but he shall have one
tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out
of all the tribes of Israel), because he has forsaken me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the
Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and has not walked in
my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as David his
father did. Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all
the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and
my statutes; but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to
his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem,
the city where I have chosen to put my name. And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your
soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will hearken to all that I command you, and
will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments,
as David my servant did, I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I
will give Israel to you. And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not for ever.’” Solomon
sought therefore to kill Jeroboam; but Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt,
and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the
book of the acts of Solomon? And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty
years. And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father; and
Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
A READING FROM THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL BY ST JOHN OF THE CROSS

THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL, 8; WORD IN SEASON V
Desires blind the soul and leave it in the dark. As fog darkens the air and keeps the bright sun from
shining through, or as a mirror with spots on it cannot receive a clear image of the face, or muddy
water reflect the face of one who looks in it, so also the understanding of the soul in the grip of desire
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is so clouded that neither the light of the sun of natural reason nor that of the wisdom of God can
penetrate to it.
If only people realised what a great blessing is the divine light, of which the blindness caused by their
inclinations and desires deprives them! You should not trust the good understanding and the gifts you
have from God so far as to think that indulging your inclinations and desires would not blind you and
leave you in the dark, and little by little ruin you.
Who would have said that a man as wise and highly gifted by God as Solomon would be reduced to
such blindness and weakness of will as to raise altars to all those idols – and adore them himself in his
old age? And no more was needed to bring him to this than the affection he had for his women, and
his failure to deny his desires and the delights of his heart. For he said of himself in Ecclesiastes that
he did not refuse his heart anything it asked. To be sure, he was a man of prudence at the outset; but
he was capable of being so completely carried away by his passions that, because of his failure to
resist them, little by little they blinded him and clouded his understanding; so much so that in the end
they extinguished the great light of wisdom which God had given him; and in his old age he
abandoned God.
And if unmortified desires could have such an effect upon this man possessed of such great powers of
discrimination between good and evil, what may they not do to us in our ignorance? For we, as God
said of the Ninevites to the Prophet Jonah, cannot tell our left hand from our right, and at every step
take evil for good and good for evil when left to our own devices. What results, then, if unrestrained
desire is added to our natural darkness is that, as Isaiah says: We grope like blind men touching a wall,
and feel our way with unseeing eyes; we stumble at midday as if in the dark. Men blinded by desire,
though surrounded by truth and by what is good for them, can no more see it than if they were in the
dark.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DIVISION IN THE TIME OF REHOBOAM; THE REIGN OF SOLOMON’S SON: 1 KINGS 12:1-19
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And when
Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, whither he had fled from King
Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. And they sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all
the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore
lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke upon us, and we will serve you.” He said to
them, “Depart for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.
Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while
he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, “If you
will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you
answer them, then they will be your servants for ever.” But he forsook the counsel which the old men
gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.
And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten
the yoke that your father put upon us?’” And the young men who had grown up with him said to him,
“Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but do you
lighten it for us’; thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. And now,
whereas my father laid upon you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with
whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’”
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So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again
the third day.” And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel which the old
men had given him, he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father
made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will
chastise you with scorpions.” So the king did not hearken to the people; for it was a turn of affairs
brought about by the LORD that he might fulfil his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite
to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
And when all Israel saw that the king did not hearken to them, the people answered the king, “What
portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look
now
to your own house, David.” So Israel departed to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the people
of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster
over the forced labour, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam made
haste to mount his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of
David to this day.
A READING FROM ON THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD BY ST BASIL OF CAESAREA

DE IUDICIO DEI (PG 31:213E-215A); TR. CLARKE (1925)
Thanks to the kindness and mercy of the good God shown in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by the
working of the Holy Spirit, I was delivered from the deceitfulness of the tradition of those outside,
having been brought up from the very beginning by Christian parents. From childhood they taught me
the Holy Scriptures which led me to a knowledge of the truth. When I became a man, being often
away from home engaged in the arts and branches of knowledge, I noticed the great harmony among
those who made an exact study of each of these. But in the Church of God alone, for which Christ
died and on which he poured out the Holy Spirit richly, I saw a great discord among men, both in their
relations with one another and in their views about the divine Scripture. And what was most horrible
of all, I saw its very leaders differing so much from one another in sentiment and opinion that now
was fulfilled the saying, from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to
draw away the disciples after them.
Wondering what was the cause of so great an evil, after living for a time in profound darkness, I
remembered the Book of Judges which tells how each did what was right in his own eyes and gives
the reason saying, In those days there was no King in Israel. I then considered the present situation,
that perhaps even now, because of the neglect of the one great true and only King and God of all,
each man deserts the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and, arbitrarily claiming the right to definitions
of his own, wishes to rule over the Lord rather than be ruled by him. I became all the more convinced,
even from secular affairs, that this cause was the true one. For I beheld on the one hand the good
order of the multitude that prevails as long as the common obedience of the others towards a single
head is preserved; and on the other hand all the disagreement and division, and even mob rule, which
proceeds from lack of obedience to rulers.
I once saw a swarm of bees flying in military formation according to the law of their nature and
following their King in good order. Those who have studied these matters know still more examples,
so that from investigation what I have said is shown to be true. For if those who obey one command
and have one King are characterised by good order and agreement, then all discord and division is a
sign that there is no one to rule. In the same way such disagreements regarding both the
commandments of the Lord and one another, if found in our midst, lay us open to the accusation that
we have either deserted our true King or denied him.
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THURSDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS SCHISM: 1 KINGS 12:20-33
And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and
made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah
only.
When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin,
a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the
kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:
Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and
to the rest of the people, “Thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not go up or fight against your kinsmen the
people of Israel. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they hearkened to the
word of the LORD, and went home again, according to the word of the LORD.
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and dwelt there; and he went out from
there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will turn back to the house
of David; if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart
of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return
to Rehoboam king of Judah. So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to the
people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up
out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing
became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan. He also made
houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.
And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in
Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he
had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the
altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month which he
had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the people of Israel, and went up to the
altar to burn incense.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 3. 65-68, 71; WORD IN SEASON V
That Jeroboam was an instrument in God’s hand to chastise Solomon’s sin is plain; and there is no
difficulty in conceiving how a wicked man, without its being any excuse to him, still may bring about
the divine purposes. But in Jeroboam’s particular case there is this difficulty at first sight: that
almighty God had seemed to sanction his act by promising him, in Solomon’s lifetime, the kingdom of
the ten tribes. The Prophet Ahijah had met him, and delivered to him a message from the Lord, the
God of Israel. I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you. And it
was on account of this prophecy that Jeroboam lifted up his hand against the King.
On a little consideration, however, we shall find no difficulty here: for though almighty God promised
him the kingdom, he did not tell him to gain it for himself; and, if we must not do evil that good may
come, surely we may not do evil that a promise may be fulfilled; and to rebel against his lord (in the
words of Scripture) was a plain indisputable sin. God, who made the promise, could course fulfil it in
his own time. He did not require man’s crime to bring it about. It was, of course, an insult to his
holiness and power to suppose he did. Jeroboam ought to have waited patiently God’s time; this
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would have been the part of true faith. Israel never would be still and know that he was God, wait for
his word and follow his guidance. And Jeroboam, in this instance, as a special emblem of the whole
people in the rebellion itself, had not patience to wait, and faith to trust God, that what he had
promised he was able also to perform. Had he withstood the temptation, and restrained himself till
lawfully called to reign, untold blessings might have been showered on him and on his people who, in
the actual history, were all cut off for their sins.
Jeroboam, then, is not excused, though Ahijah prophesied; but next, let us inquire how he acted when
at length seated on the throne. It is not surprising, after such a beginning, that he sinned further and
more grievously. When a man begins to do wrong, he cannot answer for himself how far he may be
carried on. For a while, indeed, he seemed to prosper, but soon a difficulty arose which he had
thought light of, if he thought of it at all. The Jewish nation was not only a kingdom, but a church, a
religious as well as a political body; and Jeroboam found, before long, that in setting up a new
kingdom in Israel, he must set up a new religion too.
Here, then, a second false step was necessary to complete the first. He, doubtless, argued that he was
obliged to do what he did, that he could not help himself. It is true – sin is a hard master; once sold
over to it, we cannot break our chain; one evil concession requires another. In consequence of these
impious proceedings, not only the Priests and Levites, that were in Israel, left his kingdom and
retired to Judea, but also, after them, out of all the other tribes, such as set their hearts to seek the
Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers.
FRIDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FIRST DEEDS OF ELIJAH THE PROPHET IN AHAB’S TIME: 1 KINGS 16:29 – 17:16
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and
Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did
evil in the sight of the LORD more than all that were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for
him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal
king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in
the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke
the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel
of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his first-born, and set up its gates at
the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the
son of Nun.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD the God of Israel lives, before
whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” And the word of
the LORD came to him, “Depart from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith,
that is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed
you there.” So he went and did according to the word of the LORD; he went and dwelt by the brook
Cherith that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and
bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. And after a while the brook dried up,
because there was no rain in the land.
Then the word of the LORD came to him, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell
there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath;
and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called
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to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it,
he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the LORD your
God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse; and now, I am
gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it,
and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Fear not; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake
of it and bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD the
God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be spent, and the cruse of oil shall not fail, until the day that
the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” And she went and did as Elijah said; and she, and he, and her
household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not spent, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according
to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Elija

SERMON 25, 5-6 (SC 164:84-88); WORD IN SEASON
Elijah was sent to a widow in the Sidonian village of Zarephath to give her food and save her from
starving. Let us consider how perfectly this woman prefigures the Church. Before Elijah came to her,
she and her children were suffering from hunger. Undoubtedly she suffered also from the worst kind
of hunger, because Christ the bread of life had not yet descended from heaven; the Word of God had
not yet taken a body from the Virgin. Listen to the Prophet’s saying: I shall send famine on the land;
not hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord. Any who suffer hunger
for lack of the divine word do indeed risk dying of starvation. There is a great difference between
being deprived of earthly bread and being deprived of the divine word. Lack of earthly bread can kill
only the body, but lack of the divine word ruins the soul as well as killing the body. Unsatisfied hunger
for earthly bread removes us from this present life; but unsatisfied hunger for the divine word
excludes us from eternal life. Such was the peril faced by the Church before she received Christ, but
when she received him she escaped the danger of everlasting death.
Before the coming of Christ, this woman did indeed have a little flour and oil, that is, the teaching of
the Law and the Prophets, but that could not have saved her if the grace of Christ had not fulfilled the
Law and the Prophets. Hence the Lord’s saying in the Gospel: I have come not to abolish the Law or
the Prophets, but to fulfil them. The Law and the Prophets were powerless to save us from death,
except through the Passion of Christ. So it was that when the Church received Christ, flour, oil, and
wood began to abound; flour signifying the bread of the word; oil the gift of divine mercy; and wood
the mystery of the venerable Cross through which the heavenly rain is given to us. For this is what
Elijah says to the woman: You shall not lack flour or oil until the Lord brings rain upon the land. Our
Lord and Saviour brought us rain from heaven, that is, the teaching of the Gospel, and by it he
refreshed human hearts, dry as a thirsty land, with the waters of eternal life.
SATURDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELIJAH PREVAILS AGAINST THE PRIESTS OF BAAL: 1 KINGS 18:16B-40
Ahab went to meet Elijah. When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”
And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you
have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and
gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four
hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
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So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel, and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And
Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different
opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer
him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a Prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s
prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let two bulls be given to us; and let them choose one bull
for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; and I will prepare the
other bull and lay it on the wood, and put no fire to it. And you call on the name of your god and I will
call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people
answered, “It is well spoken.” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull
and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” And
they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from
morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And
they limped about the altar which they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry
aloud, for he is a god; either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is
asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their custom with
swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until
the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice; no one answered, no one heeded.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me”; and all the people came near to him. And he
repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to
the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, “Israel
shall be your name”; and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a
trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in
order, and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water, and
pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a
second time. And he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time. And the water ran round
about the altar, and filled the trench also with water.
And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the Prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy
servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this
people may know that thou, O LORD, art God, and that thou hast turned their hearts back.” Then the
fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust,
and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces;
and they said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” And Elijah said to them, “Seize the
prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them; and Elijah brought them down
to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.
A READING FROM ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST (PG 46:592); WORD IN SEASON V
The sacrifice offered by the old Tishbite, wonderful and beyond all human understanding, what was it
but a prophecy of faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the redemption? When the whole
Hebrew people had treated their ancestral religion with contempt, falling into the error of believing in
many gods, and Ahab the King had been cajoled into idolatry because the hateful Jezebel, the utterly
abominable teacher of wickedness, was the evil partner of his life, the Prophet, filled with spiritual
grace, came to a meeting with Ahab; and then, with the King and all the people as witnesses, he
confronted the priests of Baal in a marvellous and extraordinary contest.
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His challenge to them to sacrifice a bull without fire showed them ridiculous and miserable, vainly
praying and crying out to non-existent gods. At last he himself invoked his own true God, and with far
greater additions to his original challenge brought the contest to a wonderful end. For he did not
simply pray and bring down fire from heaven onto dry wood, but ordered his helpers to fetch him a
great quantity of water. Three times he emptied the jars over the firewood, and then by prayer
kindled fire from water. So did the natural opposition of the elements and their miraculous mingling
in friendly cooperation show in an overwhelming manner the power of his own God.
Thus Elijah gave us a clear prophecy in that wonderful sacrifice of the institution that would come
later of the Sacrament of Baptism. Fire was kindled by pouring water over wood three times, to show
that where there is sacramental water there is also a kindling spirit with the warmth of fire, burning
the wicked and illuminating the faithful.
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
PATRISTIC VIGILS
READINGS
Year I
LENT
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ASH WEDNESDAY

ON THE FAST THAT PLEASES GOD: ISAIAH 58:1-12
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to
the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a
nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me
righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast
you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to
fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on
high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like
a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to
the LORD?
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide
yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall
spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear
guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
“If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise
in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually, and
satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered
garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall
raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the
restorer of streets to dwell in.
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF CLEMENT OF ROME TO THE CORINTHIANS

LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 7:4-8:3, 8:5-9:1, 13:1-4, 19:2; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
Let us fix our thoughts on the blood of Christ; and reflect how precious that blood is in God’s eyes;
inasmuch as its outpouring for our salvation has opened the grace of repentance to all mankind. For
we have only to survey the generations of the past to see that in every one of them the Lord has
offered the chance of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached
repentance, those who gave heed to him were saved. When, after Jonah had proclaimed destruction
to the people of Nineveh, they repented of their sins and made atonement to God with prayers and
supplications, they obtained their salvation, notwithstanding that they were strangers and aliens to
him.
All those who were ministers of the grace of God have spoken, through the Holy Spirit, of
repentance. The very Lord of all himself has spoken of it, and even with an oath: By my life, the
Lord declares, it is not the sinner’s death that I desire, so much as his repentance; and he adds
this gracious pronouncement, Repent, O house of Israel, and turn from your wickedness. Say to
the children of my people, Though your sins may stretch from earth to heaven, and though they
may be redder than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, yet if you turn wholeheartedly to me and
say ‘Father’, I will listen to you as I would to a people that was holy. Thus, by his own almighty
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will, he has confirmed his desire that repentance should be open to every one of his beloved. Let
us bow, then, to that sovereign and glorious will. Let us entreat his mercy and goodness, casting
ourselves upon his compassion and wasting no more energy in quarrels and a rivalry which only
ends in death.
My brothers, do let us have a little humility; let us forget our self-assertion and stupid
quarrelling, and do what the Bible tells us instead. The Holy Spirit says, The wise man is not to
brag of his wisdom, nor the strong man of his strength, nor the rich man of his wealth; if a man
must boast, he should boast of the Lord, seeking him out and acting with justice and
uprightness. More particularly, let us remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said in one of his
lessons on mildness and forbearance. Be merciful he told us that you may obtain mercy; forgive
that you may be forgiven. What you do yourself will be done to you; what you give, will be given
to you; as you judge, so you will be judged; as you show kindness, so it will be shown to you.
Your portion will be weighed out for you in your own scales. May this precept, and these
commands, strengthen our resolve to live in obedience to his sacred words, and in humility of
mind; for the holy word says, Whom shall I look upon but him that is gentle and peaceable and
trembles at my sayings?
Thus there exists a vast heritage of glorious achievements for us to share in. Let us then make
haste and get back to the state of tranquillity which was set before us in the beginning as the
mark for us to aim at. Let us turn our eyes to the Father and Creator of the universe, and when
we consider how precious and peerless are his gifts of peace, let us embrace them eagerly for
ourselves.
THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

THE LAST WORDS OF MOSES IN MOAB: DEUTERONOMY 1:1, 6-18
These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah
over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. “The LORD our God said
to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain; turn and take your journey, and go to
the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbours in the Arabah, in the hill country and in
the lowland, and in the Negeb, and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as
the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession
of the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them
and to their descendants after them.’
“At that time I said to you, I am not able alone to bear you; the LORD your God has multiplied you,
and behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. May the LORD, the God of your
fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you! How
can I bear alone the weight and burden of you and your strife? Choose wise, understanding, and
experienced men, according to your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads. And you answered
me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and
experienced men, and
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set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of
fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. And I charged your judges at that
time, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother
or the alien that is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and the
great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s; and the case that is
too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ And I commanded you at that time all the
things that you should do.
A READING FROM QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY BY THEODORET OF CYRRHUS

QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY 1 (PG 80:401-408); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
After the Lord God had brought the people out of Egypt, he gave them, on Mount Sinai, the Law that
was to govern the behaviour of the children of Israel. Then, in the second year, he sent them to take
possession of the land he had promised their fathers he would give them. But they absolutely refused
to set out on the conquest of the country. Then God swore he would not give this land to any of those
whom Moses, the lawgiver, had counted but would let them all perish in the wilderness. After forty
more years had passed and that entire generation had died in accordance with God’s decree, the Lord
ordered a census of their children; the latter were then at the age their fathers had been at the time
of the first census.
Before God led them into the promised land, he taught them, through his minister, Moses the
prophet, the Law he had given to their fathers and which their fathers had disobeyed. This is why
Deuteronomy contains a recapitulation of the events and legal codes found in Exodus, Leviticus, and
Numbers. There was no question of giving them a second law but of reminding them of the first set of
laws, as the book itself tells us at its beginning: Moses began to teach this law clearly to them, saying:
The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb. Moses reminds them of how the Lord had told them to enter
the promised land and take possession of it and how he himself had appointed Joshua, son of Nun, to
succeed him as leader of the people.
Then Moses reminds them of how the God of the universe had shown himself to them: he had spoken
to them from the midst of fire, but without displaying any form. They are therefore forbidden to
fashion any image or to try making for themselves a representation of God, for they had not seen any
form of him who is the archetype of all things. “Everything under heaven,” he tells them, “has been
made by the creator for the use of men. Do not turn into gods that which the God of the universe has
destined to serve the needs of man.”
You realise, of course, that the prophet did not address all these words to the people in a single day,
but rather explained them day after day. This fact explains why he often repeats the same ideas, in
order that persistent repetition might strengthen their memory of them. Elsewhere the words of the
prophet himself show that he is not here giving a new law but instructing in the first law those who,
because they were so young, had not been able to hear its promulgation: The Lord your God, he says,
made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with your fathers that the Lord made this covenant,
but with you. Since these fathers had perished because of their sin, it was to them, their children,
that the Lord was giving the land once promised to their fathers, that is, to those to whom he was
giving the Law.
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FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

MOSES’ SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE: DEUTERONOMY 4:1-8, 32-40
“And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that
you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives
you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the
commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did
at Baal-peor; for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of
Peor; but you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive this day. Behold, I have taught you
statutes and ordinances, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land
which you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom
and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say,
Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a
god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is
there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man
upon the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has
ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the
midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a
nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a
mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God
did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is
God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline
you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
And because he loved your fathers and chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of
Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier
than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day; know
therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth
beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I
command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you
may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God gives you for ever.”

HOM. DE DIABOLO TENTATORE 2.6 (PG 49:263-264); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
There are many different ways of showing repentance, all of which lead to heaven. Let us consider
them.
The first is condemnation of our own sins. Begin by confessing your sins, Scripture says, if you wish to
be justified. This is what prompted the prophet’s words: I said, I will confess my sins to the Lord, and
you, Lord, have forgiven the wickedness of my heart. If we condemn our own sins, therefore, we
already have a sufficient claim to forgiveness. By doing so we shall less easily fall into them again. We
must make our own conscience our accuser if we wish to avoid being accused before the Lord’s
tribunal.
This first way of showing repentance is an excellent one, but there is a second, in no way inferior to it,
and that is to dismiss from our minds any injuries our enemies may have done us, to overcome anger,
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to forgive the sins of our neighbours. Thus we shall be forgiven our own offences against the Lord.
This, then, is the second way of making amends for our sins. If you forgive others their sins, our Lord
said, your heavenly Father will also forgive yours.
A third way of showing repentance is open to you if you are willing to take it: it is to pray fervently and
attentively from your inmost heart. And if you are interested in a fourth, I suggest you will find an
extremely powerful one in the practice of giving generously to those in need. It is also true, however,
that if we live a life of simplicity and humility it will wear down our inclination to sin just as effectively
as any of the four ways I have already mentioned. Remember that tax collector who had nothing to
offer but his humility; it was enough to free him of his heavy burden of guilt.
We have now described five ways of showing repentance. The first lies in condemnation of sins, the
second in forgiving the offences of others, the third in prayer, the fourth in giving to the poor, the
fifth in humility. There is therefore no room for idleness; we must follow these ways day after day.
They are easy enough; poverty is no excuse. Even if we live a life of the utmost destitution, we shall
still be able to restrain our anger, to be humble, to pray unceasingly, and to condemn our own sins,
and in no way does our empty purse cause any difficulty. Even when we follow the way that involves
giving to the poor, poverty is no obstacle to carrying out the command. Remember the widow who
could give only two small coins.
Now that we have learnt the remedies for our ills, let us continually put them to good use. Then,
when we are fully restored to spiritual health, we shall be ready to take part in the heavenly banquet
with complete confidence. In great happiness we shall come face to face with the king of glory and
gain everlasting blessings through the grace and merciful love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

PROMULGATION OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: DEUTERONOMY 5:1-22
And Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances
which I speak in your hearing this day, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The LORD
our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant,
but with us, who are all of us here alive this day. The LORD spoke with you face to face at the
mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to
declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up
into the mountain. He said:
“ ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage.
“ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.
“ ‘You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not
bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate
me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments.
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“ ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him
guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days
you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your
God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant,
or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is
within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. You
shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought
you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God
commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
“ ‘Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you; that your
days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the LORD your
God gives you.
“ ‘You shall not kill.
“ ‘Neither shall you commit adultery.
“ ‘Neither shall you steal.
“ ‘Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour.
“ ‘Neither shall you covet your neighbour’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbour’s
house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is
your neighbour’s.
“These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the
fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he
wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me.”

ADVERSUS HAERESES 4.16.2-5; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
In Deuteronomy Moses says to the people, The Lord Your God made a covenant with you in Horeb,
not with your fathers did the Lord make this covenant but with you.
Why did the Lord not make the covenant with your fathers? Because The Law is not laid down for the
just. Your fathers lived just lives because they had the meaning of the decalogue implanted in their
hearts and minds – that is, they loved God, who made them, and they did their neighbour no injury.
So they did not need to be warned by written prohibitions; for they had the righteousness of the Law
in their hearts. When, however, in Egypt this righteousness and this love towards God were
forgotten and became extinct, God was compelled by his deep love towards men to reveal
himself by a voice.
With power he led his people out of Egypt, so that man again might become the disciple of God
and follow him So that they might not despise their creator, he punished those who were
disobedient. He fed them with manna so that they might have spiritual food, as Moses says in
Deuteronomy, He fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might make you
know that man does not live by bread alone; but that man lives by every word that proceeds out of the
mouth of the Lord. He taught them to love God, and instilled in them that righteousness which is
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towards their neighbour. By the Decalogue he instructed men to be friends with himself and in
harmony with their neighbour. Man is greatly helped by these things. God, however, stands in need of
nothing from man.
These blessings made man glorious, giving him what he lacked: friendship with God. They bestowed
nothing on God, for God did not stand in need of man’s love. Man did not have the glory of God. The
only way that man could receive this glory was by obeying God. Therefore Moses said, Choose life
that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God and obeying his voice and cleaving
to him; for that means life to you and length of days.
To prepare man for this life, God himself spoke the words of the Decalogue, to all men alike. And so
these words remain with us too. By his coming in the flesh God did not abrogate them; he extended
and augmented them. As for the precepts which enslaved, however, God imposed these on his
people separately through Moses. These precepts were well devised to instruct or punish them, as
Moses himself said, The Lord commanded me, at that same time, to teach you statutes and
ordinances. But by the new covenant of liberty God cancelled those provisions which he had given to
his people to enslave them and serve the purpose of a sign. At the same time the laws, which are
natural and appropriate to free men and are applicable to all without distinction, were amplified and
widened. Out of the abundance of his love, without grudging, God adopted men as his sons, and
granted that they might know God as Father and love him with all their heart, and follow his Word
without turning aside.
SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

GOD ALONE IS TO BE WORSHIPPED: DEUTERONOMY 6:4-25
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day
shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them
when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you
rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
“And when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, and houses
full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and
vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take heed lest
you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You
shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name. You shall not go after other
gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; for the LORD your God in the midst of you
is a jealous God; lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from
off the face of the earth.
“You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently
keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has
commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well
with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the LORD swore to give
to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.
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“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes
and the ordinances which the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son,
‘We were Pharaohs slaves in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and
the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all
his household, before our eyes; and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give
us the land which he swore to give to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these
statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this
day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD
our God, as he has commanded us.’”
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AMBROSE

IN PSALMIS 36.65-66 (CSEL 64:123-125); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Our hearts must constantly dwell on the thought of wisdom, our lips repeat its lessons. Let your
tongue pronounce right judgements and the law of your God be in your heart. This is the way to
understand that verse of Scripture: You shall speak of these things when you sit in your house and
when you walk along the way, and when you rise. Let us, then, speak of the Lord Jesus, for Jesus is
wisdom in person; he is the Word, the very word of God.
There is another text that says: Open your mouth and let it be filled with God’s word. To be filled
with God’s word is to repeat Christ’s message and dwell continually upon his teaching. Christ should
always be the theme of our conversation. Whenever we speak of wisdom, we are speaking of Christ.
When we speak of virtue, it is of Christ we speak. When we discuss justice or peace, we are discussing
Christ and when our talk is of truth and life and redemption, Christ is our subject, for he is all these
things.
Open your mouth, Scripture says, and let it be filled with God’s word. You must do the opening, but
it is God who makes his voice heard. That is why David said: I will hear what the Lord says in my
heart, and the invitation: Open your mouth and I will fill it is made by the Son of God himself. Not
everyone can arrive at the perfection of wisdom that Solomon or Daniel attained, but upon all of us,
according to our capacity, the Spirit of wisdom is poured out, provided we have faith. If you believe,
you possess the Spirit of wisdom, and faith gives you the grace to speak out.
As you sit in your house, then, meditate unceasingly on the things of God and make them the subject
of your discourse. By house we can understand either the Church or that secret place in our hearts
where we commune with ourselves. Choose your words prudently for fear of sin and beware of falling
through overmuch talk. Speak too when you are walking along the way, so as never to be idle; and
as you walk speak now to yourself, now to Christ. How should you address him? Listen to what
Scripture says: I desire that the men should pray in every place, lifting their hands in reverence, without
anger or quarrelling.
Speak also, my friend, when you lie down, or the sleep of death may steal upon you. Be instructed once
more by Scripture: I will not give sleep to my eyes nor allow my eyelids to slumber until I find a place for
the Lord, a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. Overcome your natural inclinations and shorten the
time you give to sleep, like David who kept the Lord in mind as he lay on his bed, waking early in order
to hear Christ’s voice and perceive his light in the darkness. Do not wait for Christ to wake you; it is you
who should rouse him by cherishing the thought of him even during sleep. If you do this, he himself will
rouse you from slumber and wake you from the sleep of death. Speak of him then, when you rise,
whether it is from your bed or from the grave, and so fulfil what the word of God commands.
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MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

ISRAEL, THE CHOSEN PEOPLE: DEUTERONOMY 7:6-14; 8:1-6
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people
for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. It was not because you
were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love upon you and chose you, for
you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because the LORD loves you, and is keeping the oath
which he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore
that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those
who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and requites to their face
those who hate him, by destroying them; he will not be slack with him who hates him, he will requite
him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment, and the statutes, and the
ordinances, which I command you this day.
“And because you hearken to these ordinances, and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep
with you the covenant and the steadfast love which he swore to your fathers to keep; he will love you,
bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your
grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land
which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be
male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
“All the commandment which I command you this day you shall be careful to do, that you may live
and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you
shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness,
that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his
commandments, or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you
did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by
bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your
clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years. Know then in your
heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the
commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him.”
A READING FROM THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE

SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, LUMEN GENTIUM 9-10; TR. CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL
At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to
him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or
link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve
him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant
with it. He gradually instructed this people - in its history manifesting both himself and the decree of
his will - and made it holy unto himself. All these things, however, happened as a preparation and
figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ, and of the fuller revelation
which was to be given through the Word of God made flesh. Christ instituted this new covenant,
namely the new covenant in his blood; he called a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be
one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit, and this race would be the new People of God. For
those who believe in Christ, who are reborn, not from a corruptible seed, but from an incorruptible
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one through the word of the living God, not from flesh, but from water and the Holy Spirit, are finally
established as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, who in times past were not a people,
but now are the People of God.
That messianic people has as its head Christ, who was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our
justification, and now, having acquired the name which is above all names, reigns gloriously in heaven.
The state of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the
Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us. Its
destiny is the kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be
further extended until it is brought to perfection by him at the end of time when Christ our life, will
appear and creation itself also will be delivered from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the
glory of the sons of God. Hence that messianic people, although it does not actually include all men,
and at times may appear as a small flock, is, however, a most sure seed of unity, hope and salvation
for the whole human race.
As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert was already called the Church of God, so
too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in search of a future and permanent city, is
called also the Church of Christ. It is Christ indeed who had purchased it with his own blood; he has
filled it with his Spirit; he has provided means adapted to its visible and social union. All those, who in
faith look towards Jesus, the author of salvation and the principle of unity and peace, God has
gathered together and established as the Church, that it may be for each and everyone the visible
sacrament of this saving unity.
TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES: DEUTERONOMY 9:7-21, 25-29
“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; from
the day you came out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious
against the LORD. Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with
you that he was ready to destroy you. When I went up the mountain to receive the tables of stone,
the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days
and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the LORD gave me the two tables of stone
written with the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken with you
on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days
and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant. Then the LORD
said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought from Egypt
have acted corruptly; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they
have made themselves a molten image.’
“Furthermore the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people; let
me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you
a nation mightier and greater than they.’ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the
mountain was burning with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And I
looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made yourselves a molten
calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you. So I took hold
of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay
prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water,
because of all the sin which you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD, to
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provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure which the LORD bore against
you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened to me that time also. And the
LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him; and I prayed for Aaron also at the
same time. Then I took the sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and
crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw the dust of it into the brook
that descended out of the mountain.
“So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said
he would destroy you. And I prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thy
heritage, whom thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt
with a mighty hand. Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not regard the
stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which thou didst
bring us say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them,
and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. For they are thy
people and thy heritage, whom thou didst bring out by thy great power and by thy outstretched
arm.’”

LETTER 14.36-7; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE I
First of all, notice that we conclude our prayer by saying ‘through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord’ but
never by saying, ‘through the Holy Spirit’. It is not for nothing that the Catholic Church is united in this
practice, based on the mystery that the man Jesus Christ was made mediator between God and men.
He is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, who, taking his own blood, entered once for all
into the Holy Place not made with hands; not into a copy of the true one but into heaven itself where,
at the right hand of God, he intercedes for us.
The Apostle expressed his insight into the priesthood of Jesus with the words: Through him let us
continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Through
him, then, we offer a sacrifice of praise and prayer, because through his death we, while we were yet

enemies, have been reconciled. For it is through him who became a sacrifice on our behalf that our
sacrifice can be found acceptable in the sight of God. It is for this reason that St Peter urges us, to be
built up as living stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ. This, therefore, is the reason why we say to God the Father, ‘through
Jesus Christ our Lord’.
When mention is made of the Priest, this refers to the mystery of the Lord’s incarnation, whereby the
Son of who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; and in
that way humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Though he possessed equality with the
Father’s divinity, for a little while he was made lower than the angels. For, while remaining equal to
the Father, the Son was made lower in that he was born in the likeness of men. He it was who
lowered himself when he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. The lowering of Christ is
precisely this emptying. And the emptying is nothing other than his acceptance of the form of a
servant.
So, while remaining in the form of God, Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, to whom, together
with the Father, we offer sacrifices; but by taking the form of a servant, Christ was made a Priest
through whom we can offer a living, holy sacrifice, pleasing to God. Indeed, if Christ become a victim
for us, we could not offer any sacrifice; for it is in him that human nature becomes a true and saving
sacrifice.
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When we affirm that our prayers are offered through our Lord the eternal Priest, we profess our faith
that the true flesh of our race is in him, according to the words of the Apostle: For every High Priest
chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and
sacrifices for sins. Hence, we do not only say ‘your Son’, but add: ‘who lives and reigns with you in the
unity of the Holy Spirit’. In this way we commemorate that unity which belongs to the nature of the
Father and the Son and the Spirit: and we profess that it is one and the same Christ, one in nature
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who exercises the priestly office on our behalf.
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

GOD ALONE IS TO BE CHOSEN: DEUTERONOMY 10:12 – 11:9, 26-28
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to
walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your
good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all
that is in it; yet the LORD set his heart in love upon your fathers and chose their descendants after
them, you above all peoples, as at this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no
longer stubborn. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and
the terrible God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the
widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner therefore; for you
were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him and cleave
to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you
these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy
persons; and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude.
“You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and keep his charge, his statutes, his ordinances, and his
commandments always. And consider this day (since I am not speaking to your children who have not
known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and
his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds which he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and
to all his land; and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots; how he
made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has
destroyed them to this day; and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;
and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben; how the earth opened its
mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed
them, in the midst of all Israel; for your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which he did.
“You shall therefore keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be
strong, and go in and take possession of the land which you are going over to possess, and that you
may live long in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their
descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments
of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you do not obey the
commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to
go after other gods which you have not known.”
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A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PERFECTION BY BISHOP DIADOCHUS OF
PHOTIKE
ON PERFECTION 12,13,14; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE I
He who holds himself dear cannot love God; but he who, for the sake of the immeasurable riches of
divine love, does not hold himself dear, he it is who loves God. That is why such a one never seeks his
own glory, but rather the glory of God; for he who holds himself dear seeks his own glory. He who
holds God dear loves the glory of his Creator.
It is the mark of the soul that is sensitive to the love of God ever to seek the glory of God in its
fulfilment of every commandment, and to delight in its own abasement, since to God, on account of
his greatness, belongs glory, and to man belongs abasement whereby we become members of the
household of God. If we do that, we will rejoice like Saint John the Baptist in the glory of the Lord, and
begin to say unceasingly: He must increase, but I must decrease.
I know someone who so loves God, although he feels compunction about not loving him as he wants
to, that his soul is constantly in the grip of a fervent desire to see God glorified in him and to see
himself as if he were not. Even when he is praised with words this person does not recognize it, since
in his great desire for abasement he does not think of his own dignity. He celebrates the liturgy as the
Law prescribes for priests but he is so intent on the love of God that he loses all awareness of his own
dignity in the depths of his love for God. He buries any glory that would come to him in a spirit of
humility, so that at all times in his own eyes and estimation he seems to be only a useless servant,
estranged, as it were, from his own dignity by his desire for abasement. We too should act like this, so
that we flee from all honour and glory because of the immeasurable riches of the Lord who has so
loved us.
He who has a heartfelt love for God is know n by him. For a person grows in the love of God in the
-
measure in which he takes that love into his inmost soul. This is why, afterwards, such a man
passionately longs for the illumination of knowledge to the point of feeling in his very bones no longer
,
aware of himself but wholly transformed by the love of God.
Such a man is in this life without being in it. He still lives in his own body but unceasingly goes out to
God through love by the very momentum of his soul. Henceforward, his heart burning with the fire of
love he adheres to God with a sort of irresistible desire, as if quite torn away from the love of self by
the love of God. For if we are beside ourselves, says the Apostle, it is for God; if we are in our right
mind it is for you
THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE LORD IS TO BE WORSHIPPED IN HIS ONE AND ONLY TEMPLE: DEUTERONOMY 12:1-14
“These are the statutes and ordinances which you shall be careful to do in the land which the LORD,
the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live upon the earth. You shall
surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, upon the
high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree; you shall tear down their altars, and
dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; you shall hew down the graven images of
their gods, and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so to the LORD your God. But
you shall seek the place which the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name
and make his habitation there; thither you shall go, and thither you shall bring your burnt offerings
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and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, your votive offerings, your freewill
offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock; and there you shall eat before the LORD
your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the
LORD your God has blessed you. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day,
every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the
inheritance which the LORD your God gives you. But when you go over the Jordan, and live in the land
which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies
round about, so that you live in safety, then to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to
make his name dwell there, thither you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and
your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you
vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your
daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since
he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at
every place that you see; but at the place which the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you
shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.”
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

ST PETER CHRYSOLOGUS, SERMON 43 (PL 52:320, 322); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Perseverance in faith, devotion, and virtue is assured by three things: prayer, fasting, and mercy.
Prayer knocks at the door, fasting gains entrance, mercy receives. These three things, prayer, fasting,
and mercy are all one and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them, for this
is impossible. If we have only one of them, if we have not all three together, we have nothing.
Whoever prays, then, must also fast; whoever fasts must also show mercy. If we want our own
petitions heard we must hear the petitions of others. God’s ear will be open to us if we do not turn a
deaf ear to other people.
When we fast we should understand what it means to be really hungry. If we want God to take
account of our hunger we must feel for the hunger of others. If we hope for mercy we must show
mercy. If we look for kindness we must show kindness. If we want to receive we must give. Only a
shameless person would ask for himself what he refused to give to others. In showing mercy this
should be the rule: show it in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness as
you would wish it to be shown to you.
Let prayer, mercy, and fasting, then, be one single appeal to God on our behalf, one speech in our
defence, one threefold plea in our favour. What we have lost by despising others let us regain by
fasting. By fasting let us offer our souls in sacrifice, for we can make no better offering to God, as is
proved by the prophet’s words: A sacrifice pleasing to God is a contrite spirit. A contrite and
humbled heart, O God, you will not spurn.
Offer your soul to God, make him an oblation of your fasting so that your soul may be a pure offering,
a holy sacrifice, a living victim, remaining your own and at the same time made over to God. Whoever
fails to give this gift to God will not be excused for you are never without the means of giving if the
gift to be given is yourself.
To make these offerings acceptable mercy must be added. Fasting bears no fruit unless it is watered
by mercy. When mercy dries up fasting is arid. Mercy is to fasting as rain is to the earth. However
much you may cultivate your heart, clear the soil of your nature, root out your vices and sow virtues,
if you do not release the springs of mercy your fasting will bear no fruit. When you fast a thin sowing
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of mercy will mean a thin harvest. When you fast what you pour out in mercy overflows into your
barn. So do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor and you give to yourself.
You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others.
FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

COMMANDMENTS CONCERNING THE REMISSION OF DEBTS: DEUTERONOMY 15:1-18
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every
creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbour; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, his
brother, because the LORD’s release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may exact it; but
whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. But there will be no poor among you
(for the LORD will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to
possess), if only you will obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all this
commandment which I command you this day. For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised
you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many
nations, but they shall not rule over you.
“If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which
the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor
brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may
be. Take heed lest there be a base thought in your heart, and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of
release is near’, and your eye be hostile to your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to
the LORD against you, and it be sin in you. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be
grudging when you give to him; because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and
in all that you undertake. For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You
shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.
“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and
in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you
shall not let him go empty-handed; you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your
threshing floor, and out of your wine press; as the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to
him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God
redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you’,
because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you, then you shall take an awl,
and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your bondman for ever. And to your
bondwoman you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you;
for at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years. So the LORD your God will bless you
in all that you do.”
A READING FROM THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN

TRUTH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, BK. 8 (PG 68:573-576);
FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
In many ways there is in the Old Testament a real foreshadowing of the mystery of Christ and a
certain prefiguration of his saving passion, which has freed us from all that had power to harm us and
to plunge us into evils from which there was no escape.
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One example was the remission of debts at the end of every seventh year, pointing toward the time
of universal remission of sins. Another was the law that no one should give or receive more than forty
strokes of the scourge, signifying the eagerly awaited time when God’s only Son would become
incarnate and we should be healed by his wounds. When the leaders of Israel insulted him and Pilate
ordered him to be scourged, he was made weak on account of our sins, but we were delivered from
punishment. In the past sinners were frequently scourged, but Christ suffered punishment for our
sake. Just as he died for the whole human race, so he was scourged for all, since he by himself was a
worthy ransom for all of us. By allowing no more than forty strokes of the scourge, the Law
foreshadowed the time when Christ’s coming would bring remission of sins and the end of all
punishment, for beneath symbols there lies the beauty of truth.
We must know also that after the Israelites had offended him, God swore an oath that he would not
lead them into the promised land and they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. At the end
of that time, however, he relented and their descendants were able to cross the Jordan to enter the
promised land. God’s anger lasted for forty years and no longer.
The fact that a person received up to forty strokes of the scourge is thus a clear symbol of the
remission of sins after the lapse of forty years. This remission brings us to the spiritual crossing of the
Jordan and to the stone knives that signify spiritual circumcision. It places us under the command of
Jesus, for Moses and the Law have been superseded, and Christ has become our guide.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

ON CELEBRATING THE FEASTS: DEUTERONOMY 16:1-17
“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to the LORD your God; for in the month of Abib
the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the passover sacrifice to the
LORD your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place which the LORD will choose, to make his
name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat it with unleavened
bread, the bread of affliction – for you came out of the land of Egypt in hurried flight – that all the
days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. No leaven shall
be seen with you in all your territory for seven days; nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrifice on
the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. You may not offer the passover sacrifice
within any of your towns which the LORD your God gives you; but at the place which the LORD your
God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the passover sacrifice, in the
evening at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall boil it and eat
it at the place which the LORD your God will choose; and in the morning you shall turn and go to your
tents. For six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn
assembly to the LORD your God; you shall do no work on it.
“You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to
the standing grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a
freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you; and you shall
rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your
maidservant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who
are among you, at the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. You
shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
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“You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, when you make your ingathering from your threshing
floor and your wine press; you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your
manservant and your maidservant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are
within your towns. For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place which
the LORD will choose; because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the
work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place which he will
choose: at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They shall
not appear before the LORD empty-handed; every man shall give as he is able, according to the
blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.”

ADV. HAER. 4.18.1-2,4-5 (SC 100:596-598, 606, 610-612); FROM WORD IN SEASON I, 1ST ED.
God regards the Church’s oblation, which the Lord said was to be offered all over the world, as a pure
and acceptable sacrifice. He has no need of sacrifice from us, but it is an honour for the person
offering it to have his gift accepted. We show reverence and love for the King by this gift, which the
Lord wishes us to offer in all simplicity and innocence. His own words were: If you remember when
you are offering your gift at the altar that your brother has some grievance against you, leave
your gift there in front of the altar while you go and make peace. Then come back and offer it.
We have a duty then to offer God the firstfruits of his creation and, as Moses said, not to come
empty-handed into the presence of the Lord our God. For thanking God by means of his own gifts to
us we shall be honoured by him
The offering of sacrifice has not been brought to an end. In former ages sacrifice was offered by the
people of Israel; it is still offered in the Church. Only the nature of the offering has changed now that
it is made not by slaves but by men who are free. One and the same Lord receives the sacrifices, but
there is a difference in kind between the offering of a slave and that of a free man, since the latter’s
gift manifests his liberty. Indeed, nothing in God’s eyes is without import and significance. So it is that
whereas men formerly offered tithes to God, those who have now received their liberty place all they
have at the Lord’s disposal. Gladly and freely they give lesser things in the hope of receiving far
greater. The poor widow put into God’s treasury all she had to live on.
We are bound then to offer sacrifice to him and always to show our gratitude to the God who created
us by making this offering of the firstfruits of his own creation with pure intention, genuine faith, firm
hope, and heartfelt love. Only the Church offers the Creator this pure sacrifice, presenting to him with
thanksgiving the works of his own hand.
By offering God the things that are his we proclaim in an appropriate way the communion and unity
of the flesh and the Spirit. Just as earthly bread after the epiclesis is no ordinary bread but the
Eucharist, made up of two elements, one earthly, the other heavenly, so also our bodies after
receiving the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, but have the hope of resurrection.
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SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

ON PRIESTS, LEVITES AND PROPHETS: DEUTERONOMY 18:1-22
“The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they
shall eat the offerings by fire to the LORD, and his rightful dues. They shall have no inheritance among
their brethren; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them. And this shall be the priests’ due
from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep: they shall give to the
priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. The first fruits of your grain, of your wine
and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. For the LORD your God
has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons
forever.
“And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives – and he may come
when he desires – to the place which the LORD will choose, then he may minister in the name of the
LORD his God, like all his fellow-Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD. They shall have
equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.
“When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the
abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one who burns his
son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a
sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is
an abomination to the LORD; and because of these abominable practices the LORD your God is driving
them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations, which you
are about to dispossess, give heed to soothsayers and to diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God
has not allowed you so to do.
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren –
him you shall heed – just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly,
when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, or see this great fire any more,
lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They have rightly said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for
them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall
speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall
speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in
my name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that
same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word which the LORD
has not spoken?’ – when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to
pass or come true, that is a word which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it
presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him.”
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL BY ST CYRIL OF

ALEXANDRIA
IN JO. EV., 3.3 (PG 73:428-433); FROM WORD IN SEASON I, 1ST ED.
Deuteronomy is a kind of review and summary of the Mosaic books. Again the mystery of Christ is
plainly revealed to us, skilfully presented from close consideration of the resemblance of Christ to
Moses. For the Lord your God, said Moses, will raise up for you a prophet of your own race, like
myself.
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Between God and the people of those days Moses was the appointed mediator. It was his task to help
their infirmity by communicating to them the divine decrees. This symbol, understood in terms of the
reality it foreshadows, will show you that Christ is the true mediator between God and man. When for
our sake he was born of a woman, he communicated to the more teachable with a human voice the
hidden will of God the Father, which was known to him alone. In his nature as Son of the Father and
as Wisdom he knows all things, even the depths of God.
The divine, the inexpressible glory of the supreme Being could not be seen and unveiled by bodily
eyes, for Scripture says, No one can see my face and live. The only-begotten Word of God had
therefore to become like us in our weakness by clothing himself in a human body, according to the
mysterious plan of God’s providence, and so make known to us the will of heaven, that is, the will of
God the Father. I make known to you, he said, all that I have heard from the Father; and in another
place, I have not spoken on my own authority. The Father who sent me has told me what to say and
how to speak.
In his role as mediator Moses of old may be regarded as a type of Christ, for he faithfully
communicated to the people the divine decrees. But the mediation of Moses was that of a servant,
whereas the mediation of Christ was free and also deeply mysterious. He was in contact by his very
nature with those between whom he mediated; in his own person he linked the humanity that was
reconciled and God the Father. In Christ the teaching of the Law reached its consummation, for as
Scripture says, Christ is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

COMMANDMENTS CONCERNING NEAR KIN: DEUTERONOMY 24:1 – 25:4
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favour in his eyes because he
has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand
and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and
becomes another man’s wife, and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of
divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies,
who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her
again to be his wife, after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD,
and you shall not bring guilt upon the land which the LORD your God gives you for an
inheritance.
“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any
business; he shall be free at home one year, to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
“No man shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge; for he would be taking a life in
pledge.
“If a man is found stealing one of his brethren, the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a
slave or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you.
“Take heed, in an attack of leprosy, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical
priests shall direct you; as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. Remember what
the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you came forth out of Egypt.
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“When you make your neighbour a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to fetch
his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the
pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge; when the sun
goes down, you shall restore to him the pledge that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you;
and it shall be righteousness to you before the LORD your God.
“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your
brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns; you shall give him
his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun goes down (for he is poor, and sets his heart
upon it); lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin in you.
“The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor shall the children be put to death
for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
“You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s
garment in pledge; “ but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD
your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
“When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall
not go back to get it; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow; that the
LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees,
you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the
widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall
be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a
slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
“If there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide
between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man
deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence
with a number of stripes in proportion to his offence. Forty stripes may be given him, but not
more; lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be
degraded in your sight.
“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.
“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall
not be married outside the family to a stranger; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and
take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.”
A READING FROM THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER VERITATIS SPLENDOR OF POPE JOHN

PAUL II
POPE JOHN PAUL II, ENCYCLICAL LETTER VERITATIS SPLENDOR 19, 21-23
Once one has renounced one’s own wealth and one’s very self, the way of perfection consists in the
following of Jesus. This is precisely the conclusion of Jesus’ conversation with the young man: Come,
follow me. The marvellous grandeur of this invitation will only be fully perceived by the disciples after
Christ’s Resurrection, when the Holy Spirit leads them to all truth. Being a follower of Christ means
becoming conformed to him who became a servant even to giving himself on the Cross. This is the
effect of grace, of the active presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Having become one with Christ, the
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Christian becomes a member of his Body, which is the Church. By the work of the Spirit, Baptism
radically configures the faithful to Christ in the Paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. Having
died to sin, those who are baptized receive new life: alive for God in Christ Jesus, they are called to
walk by the Spirit and to manifest the Spirit's fruits in their lives.
The conclusion of Jesus’ conversation with the rich young man, however, is very poignant: When the
young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions. Not only the rich man
but the disciples themselves are taken aback by Jesus’ call to discipleship, the demands of which
transcend human aspirations and abilities: When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded
and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But the Master refers them to God’s power: With men this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible.
In the same chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, interpreting the Mosaic Law on marriage, rejects the
right to divorce, appealing to a ‘beginning’ more fundamental and more authoritative than the Law of
Moses: God’s original plan for mankind. This is a plan which man, after sin, has no longer been able to
live up to: For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning
it was not so. Jesus’ appeal to the ‘beginning’ dismays the disciples, who remark: If such is the case of
a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry. And Jesus, referring specifically to the charism of
celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven, but stating a general rule, indicates the new and surprising
possibility opened up to man by God’s grace. He said to them: ‘Not everyone can accept this saying,
but only those to whom it is given.’
To imitate and live out the love of Christ is not possible for man by his own strength alone, he
becomes capable of this love only by virtue of a gift received. As the Lord Jesus receives the love of his
Father, so he in turn freely communicates that love to his disciples: As the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you; abide in my love. Christ’s gift is his Spirit, whose first fruit is charity: God’s love has
been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Love and life according
to the Gospel cannot be thought of first and foremost as a kind of precept, because what they
demand is beyond man's abilities. They are possible only as a result of a gift of God who heals,
restores and transforms the human heart by his grace: For the Law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

THE PROFESSION OF FAITH OF THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM: DEUTERONOMY 26:1-19
“When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, and have taken
possession of it, and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you
harvest from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you
shall go to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you
shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, I declare this day to the LORD your
God that I have come into the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest
shall take the basket from your hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.
“And you shall make response before the LORD your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father; and
he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great,
mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard
bondage. Then we cried to the LORD the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw
our affliction, our toil, and our oppression; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand
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and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place
and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit
of the ground, which thou, O LORD, hast given me.’ And you shall set it down before the LORD your
God, and worship before the LORD your God; and you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD
your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among
you.
“When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of
tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within
your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred
portion out of my house, and moreover I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and
the widow, according to all thy commandment which thou hast commanded me; I have not
transgressed any of thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them; I have not eaten of the tithe
while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; I have
obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, I have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.
Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel and the ground which
thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’
This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances; you shall therefore
be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day concerning
the LORD that he is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his
commandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice; and the LORD has declared this day
concerning you that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you
are to keep all his commandments, that he will set you high above all nations that he has made, in
praise and in fame and in honour, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he has
spoken.”
A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST MARCION BY TERTULLIAN

AGAINST MARCION II, 18-22 (CCL 1:495); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
What shall we say of the burden of sacrifices and observances and of the detailed ritual for offerings?
We ought not to condemn them, as though God were calling for them out of self-interest, for he
explains with utter clarity: What need have I of your multitude of victims? Who asked you to bring
these offerings?
Let us rather marvel at the divine wisdom. Knowing only too well the inclination of the people to
idolatry and sin, God in his wisdom took care to bind them to true worship by celebrations of the
same kind as those connected with pagan superstitions. By requiring these gifts of them as though he
desired them, God meant to turn Israel away from making sinful offerings to idols.
Even in everyday relationships and in the midst of ordinary occupations, both at home and outside it,
God set down a countless variety of regulations having to do with many objects, in order that the
children of Israel, being surrounded by these legal observances, might not lose sight, even for a
moment, of the presence of God. In fact, what other means do men have of being happy except by
finding their happiness in the Law of the Lord and meditating on his Law day and night? This Law was
not promulgated by a harsh and stern author. On the contrary, it was the work of his immense kind-
ness. This kindness was at work overcoming the stubbornness of the people and sanding down, as it
were, through difficult exercises, a faith still not used to submission.
I say nothing here about the mystical meaning of this Law, which was entirely spiritual, entirely
prophetic, and had symbols hidden in its least regulations. It is enough for the moment to show that
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its purpose was simply to bind men to God; nor can anyone find fault with it for this, except those
who do not desire to serve God.
The Lord had certainly no personal interest in those ceremonies, for, he says: I do not drink the blood
of bulls, and elsewhere: The eternal God neither hungers nor thirsts. He looked with pleasure on the
victims offered by Abel and accepted favourably the holocausts of Noah, but could he find anything
pleasing in the entrails of sheep or in the smell of the burnt flesh of victims? The single and God-
fearing hearts of those who offered the Lord the gifts his generosity had given – there you have what
he regarded as the most delightful food and a sweet-smelling perfume. It was not the offerings
themselves that God wanted but the intention in the hearts of those who presented them, namely,
his glory.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

A CURSE ON THE TRANSGRESSORS OF THE COVENANT: DEUTERONOMY 29:1-5, 9-28
These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the people of
Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he had made with them at Horeb.
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your
eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials which
your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders; but to this day the LORD has not given you a mind
to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your
clothes have not worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet; therefore be
careful to do the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all that you do.
“You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; the heads of your tribes, your elders, and
your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp,
both he who hews your wood and he who draws your water, that you may enter into the sworn
covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God makes with you this day; that he may
establish you this day as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Nor is it with you only that I make this
sworn covenant, but with him who is not here with us this day as well as with him who stands here
with us this day before the LORD our God.
“You know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations
through which you passed; and you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone,
of silver and gold, which were among them. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or
family or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of
those nations; lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he
hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I
walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This would lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.
The LORD would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy would smoke
against that man, and the curses written in this book would settle upon him, and the LORD would blot
out his name from under heaven. And the LORD would single him out from all the tribes of Israel for
calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. And the
generation to come, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far
land, would say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has
made it sick – the whole land brimstone and salt, and a burnt-out waste, unsown, and growing
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nothing, where no grass can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and
Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and wrath – yea, all the nations would say, ‘Why has
the LORD done thus to this land? What means the heat of this great anger?’ Then men would say, ‘It
is because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them
when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped
them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them; therefore the anger of
the LORD was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book; and the
LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another
land, as at this day.’”
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST APHRAATES OF PERSIA

SERMON 12 (EASTER) 8-9, 11 (PS 1:522-534); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
The Passover of the Jews is celebrated on the fourteenth day during the night and on the following
day. Our Passover is celebrated on the day of the passion, the Great Friday, on the fifth day, with its
night and daytime. At Passover, the Jews escaped from slavery to the Pharaoh; on the day of the
crucifixion we were delivered from captivity to Satan. They slaughtered a lamb from the flock and by
means of its blood were kept safe from the destroyer; by the blood of the well-beloved Son we have
been rescued from the corrupt works we used to do. They had Moses as their leader; we have Jesus
as leader and Saviour. For their sake, Moses parted the sea and brought them across; our Saviour
opened up the lower world and broke down its gates when he made his way into the depths of the
abyss, opened its approaches and cleared a way for those who believed in him. To the Jews manna
was given; to us the Saviour has given his body to eat. For them water gushed from a rock; for us the
Saviour causes floods of living water to gush from his bosom. To them the land of Canaan was
promised as an inheritance; to us the Lord has promised to give the land of Life.
For the sake of the Jews Moses set up the bronze serpent in order to heal from serpents’ bites those
who gazed on it; for our sake, Jesus nailed himself to the Cross in order that looking at it we might be
saved from the wound of the serpent, that is, Satan. For them Moses set up the tent of covenant, in
order that by offering sacrifices and oblations there they might be cleansed of their sins; Jesus, for his
part, by rising from the dead raised up the fallen tent of David. He had told the Jews: When you have
destroyed this temple which you see, I will raise it up in three days. The disciples understood him to be
speaking of his body: when the Jews would destroy it, he would raise it up in three days. In this Tent
he promised us Life, for in it our sins have been expiated. He called the tent of the Jews a ‘temporary
tent’, since it was useful only for a short time; ours he called a temple of the Holy Spirit, and an
everlasting one.
As for the Passover lamb, listen to the Most Holy One ordering that it be eaten in a single house and
not in several. This single house is the Church of God. In it, we eat the Passover lamb in haste, with
fear and trembling, while remaining standing, for we are hastening to eat the Life given by the Spirit
we have received.
According to the prophecy of Jeremiah the people would be given a new covenant: I will make a new
covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant which I
made with their ancestors on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; it was
they who broke that covenant of mine, therefore I rejected them! The God who promised to give a
new covenant is the same God who called Abraham and gave this promise and blessing: Instead of
being called Abram, as you have been until now, your name henceforward will be Abraham, for I will
make you the father of a great number of people. Then he added: In your descendants all the nations
of the earth will be blessed.
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THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

A PROMISE OF PARDON AFTER EXILE: DEUTERONOMY 30:1-20
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you,
and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return
to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you this day,
with all your heart and with all your soul; then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes, and have
compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God
has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your
God will gather you, and from there he will fetch you; and the LORD your God will bring you into the
land which your fathers possessed, that you may possess it; and he will make you more prosperous
and numerous than your fathers. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of
your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that
you may live. And the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your foes and enemies who
persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD, and keep all his commandments
which I command you this day. The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the
work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your
ground; for the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, if
you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are
written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul.
“For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is
not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may
hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us,
and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth
and in your heart, so that you can do it.
“See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of
the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his
ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and
multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession
of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods
and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land
which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against
you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that
you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him;
for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to
your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
A READING FROM A LETTER OF BARNABAS

LETTER OF BARNABAS, 18:1-21:1 (SC 172:194-214); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
There are two ways, each with its own teaching and governing authority: the way of light and the way
of darkness. There is a vast difference between these two ways. In charge of the first are the angels of
God, bearers of light; in charge of the second are the angels of Satan. One is Lord from eternity and
unto eternity; the other is prince of the time of wickedness through which we are living.
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Listen now to the way of light. If any desire to travel it to the appointed goal, they must fervently
practise the works proper to it. And this is the teaching given us that we may walk on this way: you
shall love the one who created you, you shall fear him who formed you, you shall glorify him who
ransomed you from death. You must be single of heart and rich in the Spirit. You shall not join those
who are travelling the way of death. You shall hate everything that is displeasing to God; you shall
hate all hypocrisy. You shall not abandon the commandments of the Lord. You shall not rise above
yourself, but shall be humble in everything. You shall not claim any glory for yourself. You shall not
make any evil plan against your neighbour. You shall not give yourself up to arrogance.
You shall not engage in prostitution or adultery or homosexuality. You shall love your neighbour more
than yourself. You shall not kill an infant by aborting it nor suffocate it at birth. You shall not give in to
your son and daughter but shall teach them the fear of the Lord from their infancy. You shall not
covet your neighbour’s possessions. You shall not seek to enrich yourself by any and every means.
You shall not give your heart to the great ones of this world but shall rather seek the company of
decent and modest persons.
Whatever befalls you, accept it as something good, knowing that nothing happens outside the will of
God. You shall not be two-faced in either thought or word, for duplicitous language is a deadly snare.
You shall submit to your teachers with respect and reverence, looking upon them as images of God.
You shall not issue harsh commands to your servants, men or women, who have placed their hope in
the same God that you have; otherwise you both risk losing the fear of your common Master, who
pays no heed to the exterior and came to call those whom the Spirit has made ready. You shall have
everything in common with your neighbour, claiming nothing as your own possession; if you share
imperishable goods, how much more those that are corruptible! Do not have hands stretched out to
receive but closed against giving. You shall give unhesitatingly and without complaint; you will thereby
have experience of him who gives generously You shall safeguard what has been entrusted to you,
neither adding to it or taking anything away from it. You shall have an utter hatred of evil. You shall
judge with equity. You shall not incite to division but shall take the side of peace by reconciling
enemies. You shall confess your sins and not come to prayer with a bad conscience.
Such is the way of light. The way of the prince of darkness, however, is tortuous and full of curses; it is
wholly a way of everlasting death and torment.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

THE LAST WORDS OF MOSES: DEUTERONOMY 31:1-15, 23
So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am a hundred and
twenty years old this day; I am no longer able to go out and come in. The LORD has said to me, ‘You
shall not go over this Jordan.’ The LORD your God himself will go over before you; he will destroy
these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them; and Joshua will go over at your head, as
the LORD has spoken. And the LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the
Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. And the LORD will give them over to you, and
you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be strong
and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for it is the LORD your God who goes with
you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”
Then Moses summoned Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good
courage; for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to
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give them; and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the LORD who goes before you; he will be
with you, he will not fail you or forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed.”
And Moses wrote this law, and gave it to the priests the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the
covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, “At the end of
every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of booths, when all Israel comes
to appear before the LORD your God at the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before
all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within
your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the
words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the
LORD your God, as long as you live in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess. “
And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present
yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and
presented themselves in the tent of meeting. And the LORD appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud;
and the pillar of cloud stood by the door of the tent.
And the LORD commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and of good courage; for you
shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to give them: I will be with you.”

ON JOSHUA, HOMILY 2.1 (SC 71:116-118); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
It is necessary to make some comments on the death of Moses, because unless we understand in
what sense Moses is said to be dead, we shall not be able to grasp the sense in which the leadership
is said to have passed to Joshua (whose name in Greek is Jesus).
I would ask you, then, to consider the present condition of Jerusalem. The city has been destroyed
and its altar abandoned. There are no more sacrifices, no victims or libations, no high priest or temple
priesthood, no levitical ministry. Now, having considered all this, say to yourself: Moses, the servant
of God, is dead.
No longer can anyone be observed presenting himself three times a year before the Lord, making
offerings in the temple, slaying the Passover lamb, eating unleavened bread, bringing the firstfruits of
his harvest or consecrating his firstborn. Take note of this, and say: Moses, the servant of God, is
dead.
In place of these things, I ask you to observe how the Gentiles are turning to the faith and building
churches. Altars are not sprinkled with the blood of dumb beasts anymore; they are consecrated by
the precious blood of Christ. Instead of the blood of bulls and goats, priests and deacons minister the
word of God through the grace of the Holy Spirit. All this must lead you to conclude that Jesus has
taken the place of Moses as leader of the people – not Jesus who is called Joshua, the son of Nun, but
Jesus the Son of God.
Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed and we now eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The good soil yields a thirty, sixty, or hundredfold harvest in the Church; the descendants of Israel
have been multiplied by the adoption of all those born not of blood or of the will of man or of the will
of flesh, but of God himself. God’s scattered children have been reunited. His people now keep the
Sabbath not by abstaining from their ordinary work but by refraining from sinful practices. After
taking all these things into consideration, say to yourself: Moses, the servant of God, is dead, and
Jesus has taken over the leadership.
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There exists a little work that treats of this mystery in figurative language, though admittedly it does
not form part of the canon of Scripture. This book describes the appearance of two Moses figures,
one a living spirit, the other a dead body. Surely this vision has a prophetic meaning. The letter of the
Law, lifeless and empty of all those things of which we have just spoken, may be regarded as the dead
body of Moses. But if you know how to remove the veil from the Law and understand that the Law is
spiritual, there you have the Moses who continues live in the spirit.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

ON THE DEATH OF MOSES: DEUTERONOMY 32:48-52; 34:1-12
And the LORD said to Moses that very day, “Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which
is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho; and view the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of
Israel for a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people,
as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; because you broke faith
with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meri-bath-adesh, in the wilderness of Zin;
because you did not revere me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. For you shall see the land
before you; but you shall not go there, into the land which I give to the people of Israel.”
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite
Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim
and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the
valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of
which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see
it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the
land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab
opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was a hundred and
twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the people of
Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for
Moses were ended.
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; so
the people of Israel obeyed him, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. And there has not
arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the
signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his
servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which
Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.

THE LIFE OF MOSES, 2.313-14, 319-21 (SC 1:131-135); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Moses drew near the mountain of rest. He would never set foot on the valley spread out beneath
him, toward which the people below looked for the fulfilment of the promise. Earthly food was no
longer to his taste, for he had trained himself to live on the food that comes down from heaven.
History relates that Moses, the servant of God, died at the Lord’s command and no one knew his burial
place. His sight was not dimmed nor his face touched by decay.
We learn from this that after his many labours Moses was judged worthy of the exalted title, ‘Servant
of God’, which is the same as saying that he was above all earthly concerns. No one can serve God
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without rising above every worldly preoccupation. This was also for him the consummation of his life
of virtue, brought about by the word of God. The history calls this death, but it was a death in which
he still lives, for no burial followed it, no monument was built. It left his sight undimmed and his face
untouched by corruption.
Moses had achieved the highest possible perfection. What more trustworthy witness of this could we
find than the voice of God, which said to him: I have loved you more than all others. Moses was called
the friend of God by God himself. Moreover, because he would rather have perished with all the
people than have lived without them, he begged God by his favour toward himself to pardon those
who had sinned. He thus checked God’s anger against the Israelites, for God withdrew his
condemnation so as not to grieve his friend. All these things are clear evidence and proof that the life
of Moses reached the summit of the mountain of perfection.
And so we have learned from what has been said how a life of virtue is brought to perfection, which
was what we set out to discover. It is time now for you, my generous friend, to study the model
carefully. The lessons we have learned from our spiritual contemplation of historical happenings you
must apply to your own life, so that you may be loved by God and become his friend.
True perfection does not consist in abandoning a life of sin as a slave might for fear of punishment;
nor in doing good in the hope of receiving a reward. Expecting the virtuous life to yield a profit would
be making it a matter of trade and commerce. No, it seems to me that to be perfect we must look
beyond even the hoped-for blessings which we have been promised are stored up for us. Our only
fear should be the loss of God's friendship, and the only honour or pleasure we covet should be that
of becoming God’s friend. You can attain such perfection – and I know that you will attain it
abundantly – if you raise your mind to the majesty of God. The gain will surely be shared by all in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE SON, HEIR OF ALL THINGS AND EXALTED ABOVE THE ANGELS: HEBREWS 1:1 – 2:4
In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he
has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created
the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe
by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more
excellent than theirs.
For to what angel did God ever say, “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee?” Or again, “I will
be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son?” And again, when he brings the first-born into the
world, he says, “Let all Gods angels worship him.” Of the angels he says, “Who makes his angels
winds, and his servants flames of fire.” But of the Son he says, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever, the righteous sceptre is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated
lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy
comrades.” And, “Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of
thy hands; they will perish, but thou remainest; they will all grow old like a garment, like a mantle
thou wilt roll them up, and they will be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years will never end.”
But to what angel has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet?”
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Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain
salvation?
Therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if
the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just
retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the
Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God also bore witness by signs and
wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will.
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
IN HEB. 2, 3 (PG 63:23-25); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The Son of God sustains the whole universe by his word of power. In the beginning God said: Let there
be light. But here we see that the Son also acts by the power of his word, sustaining the whole
universe, controlling and supporting what would otherwise disintegrate. The preservation of the
world is, in fact, no less a task than its creation. If so bold a statement may be allowed, it is even
greater, for in the one instance something is produced from nothing, while in the other created
things are preserved from falling apart and returning to non-existence. This is indeed a great and
wonderful work, a proof of immense power
In saying that he sustains the whole universe, therefore, Scripture is telling us that the Lord makes
light of the great burden of creation; it is no effort to him, for, the text adds, he does it by his word of
power. Yes, truly: by his word. We may think of a word as something insubstantial, but Scripture
shows us that it is not so with God. The expression used in the Letter to the Hebrews: he sustains the
whole universe by his word of power, has the same significance as Saint John’s message: In him was
life. Both indicate the power of the Word to preserve his creation, since he is himself the life of the
whole universe.
The text continues: In his own person he has made purification for our sins. Thus after speaking of
these great and wonderful matters, Scripture goes on to describe God’s providential care for the
human race. He sustains the whole universe is, indeed, an all-embracing statement; but the
continuation is greater still and no less universal, since the salvation offered to all of us comes
through the Son of God. Moreover, when John had pointed out God’s providence in the words In him
was life, he went on to say: And in him was light. The same declaration is made here to the Hebrews:
When he had made purification for our sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Here we are given two signs of God’s care for us: we are cleansed from sin, and this is brought about
through the Son of God himself. How many texts there are that glory not only in our reconciliation
with God but in its accomplishment through his Son! So immense a gift becomes even greater when it
is given us through him.
Now when Scripture says that after making purification for our sins, he took his seat at God’s right
hand, it recalls the Cross to our minds and then proceeds at once to teaching on the resurrection and
ascension.
Since we know these things, therefore, let us be neither ashamed nor presumptuous. He who was
Lord and God and Son of God did not refuse to assume the condition of a slave; surely then we ought
to embrace every task that is laid upon us, no matter how humble and lowly it may be.
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MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

JESUS, THE AUTHOR OF SALVATION, MADE LIKE HIS BRETHREN: HEBREWS 2:5-18
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has
been testified somewhere, “What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou
carest for him? Thou didst make him for a little while lower than the angels, thou hast crowned him
with glory and honour, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in
subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in
subjection to him. But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned
with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste
death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory,
should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those
who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, “I
will proclaim thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.” And again,
“I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature,
that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all
those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. For surely it is not with angels that
he is concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren
in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to
make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he
is able to help those who are tempted.

PASCHAL HOMILIES 26.3 (PG 77:925); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
For our sake Christ became a merciful high priest. The Law given to the people of Israel through the
mouths of angels ordered the immediate punishment of those who fell into sin. Paul tells us that
anyone who violates the Law of Moses is put to death on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Under the Law, therefore, priests never had the least thought of showing mercy to anyone convicted
of negligence. But Christ became a merciful high priest. He did not punish people for their sins, but
justified all by his grace and compassion. Moreover, he taught us how to worship in a spiritual way,
and by giving us a clear vision of the truth, he showed us how to live worthily. This is the message of
the Gospel.
Nevertheless, by teaching us the truth he did not mean to censure the Law of Moses, or to refute the
ancient Prophets. It was a question rather of removing the shadow that overlay the writings of the
Law, and of replacing symbols by worship in spirit and in truth. He made this perfectly plain when he
said: Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to
abolish them, but to fulfil them. I assure you that the Law will not lose a single dot or stroke until
its purpose is achieved.
Changing types into the reality they signified was not nullifying, but fulfilling them. A painter, by
covering his basic design with a variety of colour, does not destroy it but brings it out more clearly,
and this is what Christ did when he transformed the crudity of symbols into the reality they
represented.
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Yet the people of Israel failed to understand this mystery, even though it had been foretold in many
ways by both the Law and the Prophets. Indeed, Christ our Saviour himself tried to show them
through many marvellous deeds that although for our sake he had become a man according to the
divine dispensation, he was still God as he had always been. To help them to realize this he did things
that were beyond the power of any man – God alone could perform such miracles. He raised the dead
from their graves when they were already in a state of corruption; like the Creator, he made the blind
see the light of day; he rebuked unclean spirits with authority; he cured lepers by a word of
command; and there were other things he did that were marvellous beyond description. Therefore, if
I am not acting as my Father would, he said to them, do not believe in me. But if I am, even if you
do not believe in me, accept the evidence of my deeds.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

JESUS, THE APOSTLE OF OUR CONFESSION: HEBREWS 3:1-19
Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of
our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in Gods
house. Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much more glory than Moses as the builder of a
house has more honour than the house. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all
things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that
were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if we
hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in
the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw
my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go
astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter
my rest.’” Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall
away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of
you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first
confidence firm to the end, while it is said, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion.” Who were they that heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those
who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it
not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they
should never enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to
enter because of unbelief.

SERMON 66 (GOOD FRIDAY 453) 3-4 (CCL 138A, 403-4); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
True worshippers of the Lord’s Passion should fix the eyes of their heart on Jesus Crucified and
recognizing in him their own flesh. Let the earthly nature tremble at the punishment of its Redeemer.
Let stony, unbelieving souls burst asunder. Let all who are entombed in their mortality throw off the
weight that oppresses them and come forth, appearing even now in the holy city, the Church of God,
as signs of the resurrection to come. Let what must be done in the body come about in our hearts.
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the Cross, nor is anyone beyond the help of
the prayer of Christ. Even his many tormentors received the benefit of Christ’s prayer; all the more
powerfully will it avail those who turn to him in repentance. Ignorance has been dispelled, ill-will
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restrained, and the flaming sword barring the way to the land of the living extinguished by the sacred
blood of Christ. The dark night of the past has yielded to the true light of day. Christian people are
now invited to enjoy the treasures of Paradise, and the way to their lost fatherland is open once more
to all who have been reborn. Provided they do not close off for themselves that way which could be
opened by the faith of a thief.
As we celebrate the wonderful mystery of this Paschal Feast, dearly beloved, we must not allow the
affairs of this present life to consume us with anxiety or pride, and so prevent us from striving with
our whole heart to be like our Redeemer and to follow his example, since the sole aim of everything
he did and suffered was our salvation, and the communication to his members of the power that
belongs to him as Head.
Was anyone, from the very first, excluded from the mercy shown to the human race when God
assumed our nature, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us? None but the unbeliever.
Who, accepting Christ as the incarnate Word, does not share a common nature with him and is not
born again of the same Spirit by which Christ himself was conceived? Again, is there anyone whose
own weakness is not recognizable in Christ’s? Surely in one who needed food and sleep, who was
troubled and sorrowful and could be moved to tears, we can see the condition of our own servitude.
Because that nature of ours cried for the healing of its age-old wounds and the cleansing of its sinful
stains, God’s only Son became the Son of Man, lacking neither the full reality of our humanity nor the
plenitude of his Godhead.
The body that lay lifeless in the tomb was ours; the body that rose again on the third day was ours;
the body that ascended above the heavens to the right hand of the Father’s majesty was ours. If,
then, we walk in the way of Christ’s commandments and are not ashamed to confess the price he
paid for our salvation in bodily humiliation, we too shall be brought into the company of his glory.
Then all creation will see his promise fulfilled: Everyone who acknowledges me in the presence of men
will be acknowledged by me in the presence of my heavenly Father.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE PROMISE OF GOD’S REST: HEBREWS 4:1-13
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have
failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did
not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. For we who have believed enter
that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my rest’”, although his works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in
this way, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this place he said, “They
shall never enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly
received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day, “Today”,
saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, when you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of
another day. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters Gods
rest also ceases from his labours as God did from his.
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Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the
word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul
and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before
him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD BY ST AMBROSE

ON FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 6.36, 7.44, 8.45, 9.52; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
Where a man’s heart is, there will be his treasure be also, for God does not refuse a good gift to those
who ask. So because God is good and especially good to those who serve him, we must cling to him
and be with him with all our soul and with all our heart and with all our strength. This we must do if
we are to be in his light, and see his glory, and enjoy the grace of heavenly joy. To this happiness we
must lift our minds, we must be in God, and live in him and cling to him, for he is beyond all human
thought and understanding and he dwells in endless peace and tranquillity. This peace passes all
understanding, passes all perception.
This is the good which permeates everything. All of us live in it, depend on it. It has nothing above
itself, but is divine. No one is good but God alone, because the good is divine and the divine is good.
So the psalmist says, When you open your hand all creatures are filled with goodness. Through God’s
goodness all the truly good things are given to us, and among them is no mixture of evil.
These are the good things that scripture promises to the faithful in the words, You shall eat the good
of the land. We are dead with Christ; in our bodies we carry the death of Christ, so that the life of
Christ also may be manifested in us. We do not live any longer our own life, but the life of Christ, the
life of innocence, chastity, simplicity, and of every virtue. We have risen with Christ; we must live in
Christ; we must ascend in Christ, so that the serpent can no longer find our heel on earth to wound.
We must flee from here. You can flee in your mind, even though you are still held back in the body.
You can be both here and you can be present with the Lord if in your soul you cling to him, if in all
your thoughts you walk after him, if in faith and not in outward appearance merely you follow his
ways, if you fly to him; he is our refuge and our strength. It was to God that David said, In you, O Lord,
do I take refuge; I have not been put to shame.
Because God is our refuge and God is in heaven and above the heavens, we must flee from here and
come to that place where there is peace and rest from our labours, where we may enjoy the great
sabbath feast, as Moses said, The sabbath of the land shall provide for you. To rest in the Lord and to
gaze upon his loveliness is truly a feast and full of delight and peacefulness.
We must flee like deer running to the fountains of water. The thirst which David felt, let our soul too
feel. Who is that fountain? David said, For with you is the fountain of life. My soul must say to the
fountain, When shall I come and behold your face? For the fountain is God.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

JESUS CHRIST, OUR HIGH PRIEST: HEBREWS 4:14 – 5:10
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let
us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then
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with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help
in time of need.
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he
himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as
for those of the people. And one does not take the honour upon himself, but he is called by God, just
as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him
who said to him, Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee; as he says also in another place, Thou
art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him
who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he
learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of
Melchizedek.
A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST AMBROSE

LETTER 63:47-50 (PL 16:1253-1254); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Our Lord was the good physician who bore our infirmities and cured our ills; yet he did not arrogate
to himself the glory of becoming high priest; this was conferred on him by the Father when he said:
You are my Son, today 1 have begotten you. He also says elsewhere: You are a priest for ever in the
order of Melchizedek. Since as a priest he was to be the model of all priests, he became one of us, so
that during his earthly life he might offer up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and tears, to God
his Father; and, Son though he was, he might learn obedience through suffering. This obedience was
his lesson to us; in this way he became the source of salvation for us all. When at last he had reached
the full measure of his sufferings and his obedience had been perfected, he healed us and took away
our sins.
In the same way, it was God himself who chose Aaron to be the high priest making it clear that the
choice would not depend on the will of man but on the favour of God. None was to propose himself
for the priesthood or take it upon himself: it was to be a heavenly vocation. The one who was to offer
sacrifice for sins would be someone capable of sympathizing with sinners, aware, as Scripture says,
that he too was beset by weakness. No one may confer the honour of the priesthood on himself; it is
for the one called to it by God, as Aaron was. Even Christ did not arrogate the priesthood to himself; it
was conferred on him. Since succession in the office of high priest was reckoned by descent from
Aaron, those who were descended from him did not necessarily inherit his holiness. This is why Christ
came as the fulfilment of what was foreshadowed in Melchizedek, the true king of peace; his very
name means true king of holiness. He has no father, no mother, no genealogy; his years have no
beginning, his life no end. All of this applies to the Son of God, who had no mother in his divine
generation, no father when born of the Virgin Mary; begotten of the Father alone before time began,
born of a virgin alone when he entered this world of time. Since there can be no doubt that he who is
from eternity had no beginning, how can there be any ending for him who gives its being to
everything that exists? He is truly the beginning and end of all things. These words also point to the
ideal for every priest, namely, that he should be, as it were, without father or mother; that is, chosen
not by reason of his aristocratic birth, but because of his moral integrity and outstanding virtue.
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A priest should be a person of faith and mature character. It is not enough for him to have only one of
these qualities; he must have both, together with good deeds to prove it. And so the apostle Paul
would have us imitate those who, through faith and long-suffering, have inherited the promises made
to Abraham, the man who, by his patient endurance, deserved to receive the blessings promised him
and the grace which sanctified him. And the prophet David urges us to emulate the holiness of Aaron
a man he placed among the Lord’s saints when he said: Moses and Aaron are among his priests, and
Samuel among those who call on his name.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

AN EXHORTATION TO MORE PERFECT LISTENING: HEBREWS 5:11 – 6:8
About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For
though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first
principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in
the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their
faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a
foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, with instruction about ablutions,
the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God
permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened,
who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the
goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since
they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. For land which has
drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is
cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to
being cursed; its end is to be burned.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE CONTRA CELSUM OF ORIGEN

CONTRA CELSUM III 59-61; TR. CHADWICK (1953)
It is not the same thing to call men who are sick in their souls to be cured, as it is to call healthy men
to a knowledge and understanding of deeper spiritual truths. We take account of both of these. At
the beginning, when we call men to be cured, we encourage sinners to come and hear words which
teach them not to sin; the unwise are taught to hear words which will implant in them understanding,
children are taught to advance towards a manly character, and those who are in a wretched state are
led to happiness, or, to use a more appropriate word, to blessedness. But when some of those who
have been thus encouraged make progress and show that they have been purified by the Logos, and
do all in their power to live better lives, then we call them to our mysteries. For we speak wisdom
among the perfect.
As we teach that, into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in the body that is subject to
sin, we say: Let anyone come to us who has pure hands and so lifts up holy hands to God; anyone
who, because he offers sublime and heavenly sacrifices, can say, The lifting up of my hands is an
evening sacrifice; anyone who has a wise tongue because he studies the Law of the Lord day and night,
and has his senses exercised to discern good and evil. Such a man should not fear to go on to solid,
rational food, which is suited to athletes of piety and every virtue. And since the grace of God is with
all who love the teacher of the doctrines of immortality, let anyone who is pure not only from all
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defilement, but also from what are regarded as minor sins, be boldly initiated into the mysteries of the
religion of Jesus which are delivered only to the holy and pure.
Celsus’ priest says: Anyone whose soul knows nothing of evil, let him come. But according to Jesus’
teaching the one who leads to God initiates who have been purified in soul will say: Anyone whose
soul has for a long time known nothing of evil, and especially since he came to be healed by the
Logos, let him hear even those doctrines which were privately revealed by Jesus to his genuine
disciples. Accordingly, in his contrast between the exhortations of those who initiate men among the
Greeks and those who teach the doctrines of Jesus, he does not know the difference between calling
bad men to be cured and calling those already pure to more mystical doctrines.
It is not, therefore, to mysteries and to share in wisdom hidden in a mystery which God foreordained
before the ages to the glory of his saints that we call the dishonest man, the thief, the burglar, the
poisoner, the grave-robber, and any others whom Celsus might name for rhetorical effect, but it is for
healing. There are some characteristics in the divine nature of the Logos which help to cure those
who are sick, of whom the Logos says: They who are strong need no physician, but they who are sick.
But there are other characteristics of the Logos which show to those who are pure in soul and body,
the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times eternal, but is now
manifested, both by the prophetic scriptures and by the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ; this is
made clear to each one of the perfect, and illuminates the mind so that it grasps the true knowledge
of reality.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

GOD’S FAITHFULNESS IS OUR HOPE: HEBREWS 6:9-20
Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong to
salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his
sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same
earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but
imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore
by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently
endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their
disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the
heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that
through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have
fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this as a
sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain,
where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the
order of Melchizedek.
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

ENARRATIONES IN PSALMOS 85.1; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
This is the greatest gift which God could give to men: he made his Word, through whom he created all
things, head over them and joined them to him as his members, so that he might be Son of God and
son of man, one God with the Father, one man with men. So when we turn to God in prayer, we do
not separate the Son from him, and when the body of the Son prays, it does not separate its head
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from itself: it is the one Saviour of his body, our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who prays for us and
prays in us and is prayed to by us.
He prays for us as our priest; he prays in us as our head; he is prayed to by us as our God. So we must
recognize our voices in him and his voices in us. When something is said of the Lord Jesus Christ,
particularly in prophecy, which would refer, as it were, to a certain lowliness unworthy of God, we
must not hesitate to attribute it to him, since he did not hesitate to join himself to us. For the whole
creation is at his service since the whole creation was made through him.
Accordingly, when we behold his exaltation and his divinity, when we hear the words: In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made, when we behold this
supreme divinity of the Son which surpasses all that is exalted in creatures, we also hear him in some
part of the Scriptures as it were sighing, praying, confessing.
We hesitate to attribute these words to him, because our reflection has just been contemplating him
in his divinity and is slow to descend to his lowliness. It directed its words to him when it was praying
to God, and now it wavers, as if it would be doing him a wrong to acknowledge his words as man, and
it tries to change their meaning; and yet it meets with nothing in Scripture except what always returns
to him, and does not allow it to turn away from him.
Let our mind wake up then and keep watch in its faith. Let it see that he whom it was contemplating a
little earlier in the form of God took on the form of a servant; made in the likeness of man and found in
human form, he humbled himself, made obedient to death; and he wished to make his own the words
of the psalm, as he hung on the Cross and said: My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?
So he is prayed to in the form of God; he prays in the form of a servant: in the first case as Creator, in
the latter as created, the unchanged taking on the creature that the creature may be changed, and
making us with himself one man, head and body. We pray to him, through him, in him; we speak with
him, he speaks with us.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

MELCHIZEDEK, THE TYPE OF THE PERFECT PRIEST: HEBREWS 7:1-11
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the
slaughter of the kings and blessed him; and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything.
He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is,
king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end
of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
See how great he is! Abraham the patriarch gave him a tithe of the spoils. And those descendants of
Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people,
that is, from their brethren, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who has
not their genealogy received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is
beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. Here tithes are received by mortal men;
there, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives
tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met
him.
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Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people
received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order
of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

GLAPHORORUM IN GENESIM 2.7-9 (PG 69:99-108); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
No high priest takes such an honour upon himself, but each one is called by God as Aaron was. Even
Christ did not give himself this, he received it from the One who said to him: ‘You are my son, today I
have begotten you,’ and who also declared: ‘You are a priest forever, a priest of the order of
Melchizedek.’
We have to understand that even the Son himself, the Word of God the Father, is not said to be a
priest and to belong to a priestly order except in so far as he has become like one of us. It was his
human nature that made it possible for him to be called a prophet and an apostle, and it also enabled
him to be a priest. When he had taken upon himself the nature of a slave, then servile duties were
suitable for him. This is what is meant by his stripping himself of his divine dignity. He was one in
nature with the Father and his equal, he had even the heavenly seraphim as his attendants and he
was waited on by angels in their thousands. But as Scripture says, it was when he had stripped himself
of all his glory that he was proclaimed our priest, the priest of the true tabernacle.
It was then too that he who is above the whole universe was sanctified together with us: as it is
written, He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all members of the one human race. That
is why he is not ashamed to call us his brothers: ‘I will proclaim your name’ he declares ‘to my
brothers.’ He who, as God, sanctifies men, became a man and dwelt among us; and being a man he
called himself our brother, and was sanctified together with us. He was a priest, therefore, and he
was sanctified with us in virtue of his having taken a human body.
Now the reason Paul saw a likeness to Christ in Melchizedek is that he was called king of justice and
peace. This title, in its deeper, spiritual sense, is fitting for none but Emmanuel. who was proclaimed
prince of justice and peace to all who dwell upon earth. Through him we have shaken off the burden
of sin and have been justified. The impurity of our lives, which separated us from God the Father, has
now been washed away and we are at peace with him; indeed we have, in a sense, been made one
with him through the Spirit, according to the words of Scripture: He who is joined to the Lord is one
spirit with him.
Melchizedek gave Abraham his blessing and offered him bread and wine. Christ, the great and true
priest, gives us a similar blessing in the Eucharist, the heavenly gift that supports us on our journey
through life. Saint Paul therefore took Melchizedek’s blessing as a symbol of the priesthood that is
greater than the Law. And so Paul saw Melchizedek as a foreshadowing of Christ, both because of the
interpretation of his name, and because of his offering of bread and wine, which showed quite clearly
the kind of priesthood that Christ would exercise. Moreover, he reveals that Christ’s priesthood was
to be eternal by saying of Melchizedek that he has neither beginning nor end but, like the Son of God,
he remains a priest forever.
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MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

THE ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST: HEBREWS 7:11-28
Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people
received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order
of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the
priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are
spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident
that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about
priests.
This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has
become a priest, not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of
an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, Thou art a priest forever, after the order of
Melchizedek. On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and
uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, a better hope is introduced,
through which we draw near to God.
And it was not without an oath. Those who formerly became priests took their office without an oath,
but this one was addressed with an oath, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “Thou art
a priest forever.” This makes Jesus the surety of a better covenant.
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in
office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. Consequently he is
able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make
intercession for them.
For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from
sinners, exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up
himself. Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath,
which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever.

ST AUGUSTINE, FIRST EXPOSITION OF PSALM 33.5-6; WSA (2000) TR. MARIA BOULDING
As you know, the Jews of old offered sacrifices proper to the order of Aaron, using animals as victims.
This was a mysterious prophetic sign. The sacrifice of the Lord’s body and blood had not yet been
offered; the faithful know about this, as do all who have read the Gospel, and this sacrifice is now
widespread throughout the world. Keep both kinds of sacrifice before your mind’s eye, the one after
the order of Aaron, the other after the order of Melchisedek; for Scripture says, The Lord has sworn,
and will not change his mind: you are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek.
Now of whom is it said, You are a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek? Of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Who was Melchisedek? He ws King of Salem. Salem was the original city, but the later city in
the same place was called Jerusalem, according to the experts. So before ever the Jews established
their Kingdom the Priest Melchisedek was there, and Genesis describes him as a Priest of God Most
High.
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So great was Melchisedek that he could confer a blessing on Abraham. He set forth bread and wine,
and blessed Abraham; and Abraham gave him tithes. Consider what he set forth and to whom he gave
his blessing. Later on David says in the Spirit to someone, You are a Priest for ever after the order of
Melchisedek. This was said long after Abraham’s day, yet Abraham was Melchisedek’s contemporary.
To whom, then, does the prophesy refer? To whom else, but he whose sacrifice is known to you?
The sacrifice of Aaron was therefore superseded and the sacrifice according to the order of
Melchisedek came into being. Our Lord Jesus Christ willed us to find salvation in his body and blood.
But how could he make his body and blood available to us? Through his humility; for if he had not
been humble, he could not have been eaten and drunk. Contemplate his lofty Divinity: In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God; he was God. That is eternal food, the angels eat
it and in eating they are totally satisfied. What man could aspire to that food? Where could a human
heart be found fit to eat food like that?
It was necessary for the banquet to be converted into milk if it was to become available to little ones.
But how can food be turned into milk, except by being passed through flesh? This is what a mother
does. What the mother eats, the baby eats too, but since the baby is unable to digest bread, the
mother turns the bread into her own flesh, and through the humility of her breast and its supply of
milk she feeds her baby with the same bread. How does the Wisdom of God feed us with bread? The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Word, equal to the Father, on whom the
angels feed, has been eaten by men. He humbled himself and was made obedient unto death, even
death on a cross, so that from the cross the Lord’s flesh and blood might be delivered to us today as
the new sacrifice.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

CHRIST’S PRIESTHOOD IN THE NEW COVENANT: HEBREWS 8:1-13
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right
hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set
up not by man but by the Lord. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it
is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be
a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and
shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by
God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the
mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as
the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant
had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.
For he finds fault with them when he says: “The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made
with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for
they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. This is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws
into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach everyone his fellow or everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all
shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete.
And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
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CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES, 2.16.5; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
On the day of his ascension Christ, the supreme high priest of the human race, having conferred on us
a legal title, bears us up with him in hope to heaven. We must never forget that it is only through him
that we can gain entrance there. No human being can penetrate the Holy of Holies except with him;
no creature can enjoy eternal happiness except in the wake of Jesus; it is his precious merits that win
us infinite bliss. For all eternity we shall say to him, ‘Because of you, Jesus Christ, because of the blood
you shed for us, we stand before God’s face. It is your sacrifice, your immolation, that wins our every
moment of glory and happiness. To you, the Lamb that was slain, be all honour and praise and
thanksgiving!’
In this interval of time until Christ comes to fetch us as he promised, he is preparing a place for us,
and above all he is supporting us by his prayer. Indeed, what is our High Priest doing in heaven? The
Letter to the Hebrews gives the answer: he has entered heaven in order to stand now in God’s
presence our behalf. His priesthood is eternal, and therefore eternal too is his work as mediator. How
infinitely powerful is his influence! There he stands before his Father, unceasingly offering him that
sacrifice recalled by the marks of the wounds he has voluntarily retained; there he stands, alive for
ever, ever interceding for us.
As high priest he is unfailingly heard, and for our sake he speaks again the priestly prayer of the last
supper: Father it is for them that I pray. They are in the world. Guard those whom you have given me. I
pray for them, that they may have in themselves the fullness of joy. Father, I will that they may be with
me where I am.
How could these sublime truths of our faith fail to inspire us with unwavering confidence? People of
scanty faith though we are, what have we to fear? And what may we not hope? Jesus is praying for
us, and praying always. Let us then trust absolutely in the sacrifice, the merits, and the prayer of our
High Priest. He is the beloved Son in whom the Father delights; how could he be refused a hearing,
after showing his Father such love?
Father, look upon your Son. Through him and in him grant us to be one day where he is, so that
through him and with him we may also render to you all honour and glory.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

ATONEMENT IN THE OLD COVENANT IS COMPARED WITH THAT IN THE NEW COVENANT:
HEBREWS 9:1-10
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tent was
prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence; it
is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies, having the
golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a
golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; above it
were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in
detail.
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing
their ritual duties; but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not
without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. 8 By this the Holy
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Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still
standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices
are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink
and various ablutions, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
A READING FROM A TREATISE ON FAITH ADDRESSED TO PETER BY ST FULGENTIUS

OF RUSPE
ON FAITH, TO PETER 22.62 (CCL 91A:726,750-751); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The sacrifices of animal victims which were imposed on our forefathers by the Holy Trinity itself, the
one God of the Old and New Testaments, foreshadowed the most acceptable gift of all. This was the
offering which in his compassion the only Son of God would make of himself in his human nature for
our sake.
The Apostle teaches that Christ offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. He
is the true God and the true High Priest who for our sake entered once for all into the Holy of Holies,
taking with him not the blood of bulls and goats but his own blood. This was foreshadowed by the
High Priest of old when each year he took blood and entered the Holy of Holies.
Christ is therefore the one who in himself alone embodied all that he knew to be necessary to achieve
our redemption. He is at once priest and sacrifice, God and temple. He is the priest through whom we
have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the temple in which we have
been reconciled, the God with whom we have been reconciled. He alone is priest, sacrifice, and
temple because he is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but he is not alone as God, for
he shares the divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Hold fast to this and never doubt it: the only-begotten Son, God the Word, becoming man offered
himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. In the time of the Old Testament, patriarchs,
prophets, and priests sacrificed animals in honour of the Son as well as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Now in the time of the New Testament the holy Catholic Church throughout the world never ceases
to offer the sacrifice of bread and wine, in faith and love, to him and to the Father and the Holy Spirit,
with whom he shares one Godhead.
In those ancient victims the body and blood of Christ were prefigured: the body which the sinless one
would offer as propitiation for our sins, and the blood which he would pour out for our forgiveness.
The Church’s sacrifice, on the other hand, is an act of thanksgiving and a memorial of the body Christ
has offered for us and the blood he has shed for us. With this in mind, blessed Paul says in the Acts of
the Apostles: Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has
appointed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which he won for himself by his blood.
Those sacrifices of old pointed in sign to what was to be given to us. In this sacrifice we see plainly
what has already been given to us. Those sacrifices foretold the death of the Son of God for sinners.
Here he is proclaimed as already slain for sinners, as the Apostle testifies: Christ died for the wicked
at a time when we were still powerless, and when we were enemies we were reconciled with God
through the death of his Son.
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THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

THE NEW COVENANT IN CHRIST’S BLOOD: HEBREWS 9:11-28
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the
greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for
all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an
eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with
the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the
promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the
transgressions under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it
must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who
made it is alive. Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. For when every
commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves
and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the
people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” And in the same way
he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law
almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of
sins.
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into a
sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the
Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the
foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes
judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time,
not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

PERI PASCHA 36-37. 39-45 (SC 123:78-84); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
A work of art is constructed only with the help of a preliminary model, and is seen in advance by
means of this image which represents it. That is why a design is traced out beforehand in wax or clay
or wood: thanks to this frail little model the real artefact may be seen taking shape, loftier in stature
and more durable, beautiful in form and richly equipped. But as soon as the final product for the sake
of which the model existed has come into being, the preliminary draft is disposed of as something
which is of no further use, for it has yielded to the real thing that semblance of reality which it bore.
So what was once precious becomes worthless when what is essentially precious has made its
appearance.
Now the principle valid for perishable things in this example holds good too for those which are
imperishable. As it is with earthly matters, so it is with the things of heaven. For the Lord’s salvation
and his truth were prefigured in the chosen people, and the precepts of the Gospel were proclaimed
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beforehand in the Law. The chosen people served as a roughed-out plan, and the Law as a written
parable, but the Gospel is the explanation and fulfilment of the Law, and the Church is the place to
which the reality is entrusted. The type was held in honour before the coming of the reality, and the
parable was admirable before it was interpreted; that is to say, the chosen people was honoured
before the Church was raised up, and the Law was admirable before the Gospel dawned. But when
the Church was founded and the Gospel promulgated then the type lost its meaning, for it ceded its
right to the reality, and the Law was fulfilled in yielding its force to the Gospel Like a sketch that has
served its purpose or a parable superseded by its interpretation, the Law was fulfilled when the dawn
of the Gospel broke, and the chosen people lost its privileges once the Church was set up. The type
was abolished when the Lord was manifested. What was once so precious has today become
worthless, now that those mysteries which are truly precious have been revealed.
For of old the slaying of the sheep was a precious thing, but now it is worthless because of the life of
the Lord. Precious was the sheep’s death, but now it is worthless because of the Lord’s revelation.
Precious was the blood of the sheep, but now it is of no value because of the Spirit of the Lord. The
uncomplaining lamb was once precious, but now worthless because of the unblemished Son. The
temple here on earth was precious, but worthless now because Christ has ascended. Jerusalem here
below was precious, but worthless now because of the Jerusalem on high. The narrow heritage of
Israel was precious once, but worthless now that grace has been spread far and wide. For not in that
one place only not in that meagre strip of land is the glorious presence of God established; his grace
has been poured out over all the region; of the earth, and there almighty God has pitched his tent
through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto all eternity Amen.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

OUR SANCTIFICATION THROUGH CHRIST’S OFFERING: HEBREWS 10:1-10
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these
realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make
perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers
had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices
there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should
take away sins.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not
desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no
pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God’, as it is written of me in the roll of the
book.” When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings
and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Lo, I
have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we
have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

HOM. DE CRUCE ET LATRONE 1.1-2 (PG 49:400); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, and if you ask where he was sacrificed, it was upon a
high scaffold. This was a new kind of altar of sacrifice because the sacrifice itself was new and
amazing. The victim and the priest were the same. Victim in his humanity, priest in his divinity, Christ
both offered and in his human nature was offered. Listen to Paul’s explanation of both these truths.
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He says: Every high priest taken from among the people is appointed to act on their behalf.
This high priest too must have something to offer, then, and so he offers himself. But in
another place Paul says: Christ, having been offered once for all to take away the sins of many,
will appear to those who await him to save them.
Perhaps you will ask why the sacrifice was offered outside the city walls and not in the temple. It was
to fulfil the text of Scripture that says: He was reckoned among the wicked. It was offered outside
the walls to show you the universal nature of the sacrifice. The purification was not for only a few as
with the Jews, but for everyone. God had commanded the Jews to offer sacrifice and prayer in one
place on earth to the exclusion of all others, because the whole world was polluted by the smoke and
fat of burnt offerings and all the other defilements of pagan sacrifice. But for us the whole world has
been purified by the coming of Christ, so that every place has become a place of prayer. And so Paul
boldly urges us to feel free to pray everywhere. In every place, he says, I want the men to lift up
reverent hands in prayer.
Do you not see then how the world has been purified? We are able in every place reverently to raise
our hands to God because the whole world has become holy, holier than the inmost shrine of the
Temple. The sacrifice offered in the Temple was an irrational beast but that offered on the Cross was
divine, and the more perfect the victim, the more perfect too is the sanctification.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

ON PERSEVERANCE IN FAITH: HEBREWS 10:11-25
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the
right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. For by a single
offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness
to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds”, then he adds, “I will remember
their sins and their misdeeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any
offering for sin.
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the
new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since
we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let
us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is
the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

IN ROM. 3.8 (PG 14:950-951); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Let us examine each of the names which Scripture gives to the Saviour, and study carefully the
meaning expressed in them. We shall find that because it was God’s will and pleasure to embody the
fullness of divinity in him, Christ in his own person was at one and the same time the throne of mercy,
the High Priest, and the victim offered for the people.
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David in the psalms and the Apostle writing to the Hebrews both clearly describe Christ as High Priest.
That he is also a sacrificial victim is declared in the words of John the Baptist: This is the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world. As victim, by the shedding of his own blood he becomes the
atoning sacrifice which procures forgiveness of past offences. Nevertheless, this atonement comes to
each individual believer through faith, for unless it brought him forgiveness of his past offences, it
would remain ineffective for him. Since his sins have been forgiven, it is absolutely certain that
atonement for them has been accomplished by the shedding of blood in sacrifice. As the Apostle says:
Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.
Saint Paul is not alone in representing Christ as the atoning sacrifice for our past sins; Saint John
shares the same understanding, as you can judge from the following passage: I write these things to
you, my children, to keep you from sin. But if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the Just One. He is the expiation for our sins, and not our sins only but those of all the world. It is
through the atoning sacrifice of Christ’s blood that we receive forgiveness of our past offences in the
merciful forbearance of God; so is his justice made manifest.
When God refrains from punishing sinners at once, he exhibits that divine patience which Saint Paul
says is meant to lead us to repentance, and, as the Apostle rightly adds, this is how God demonstrates
his justice at the present time. As long as this world endures, God’s justice is at work in his
forbearance, but in the world to come it will be manifested in the payment to each of us of our just
deserts.
SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE EXPECTATION OF JUDGEMENT: HEBREWS 10:26-39
For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a
sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the
adversaries. A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or
three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has
spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and
outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again,
“The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with
sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners
with those so treated. For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the
plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an
abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have
need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised.
For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; but my righteous one shall
live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep
their souls.
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A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN
CHRYSOSTOM
IN HEB. 21.2-3 (PG 63:150-152); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
In his letter to the Hebrews the Apostle says that they need endurance to do God’s will and obtain
what he has promised. The only thing they have to endure is delay; there is no need for a renewed
struggle. He means they are on the very threshold of victory; they have undergone all the contests,
they have suffered imprisonment, affliction, and confiscation of their possessions, until finally here
they stand awaiting their reward, with nothing but this delay still to be endured before they receive it.
These words are a great encouragement. One could imagine them spoken to an athlete who has
overthrown all contestants, and then, when it comes to being crowned, cannot wait for the arrival of
the judge to place the wreath on his brow. Impatience makes him want to run away, as if the heat and
thirst are no longer bearable. The Apostle hints at this in his next words, when he says: In a little while
he who is to come will be here; he will not delay. So then, the waiting in itself brings no small reward.
Again he quotes: The righteous shall live by faith; no one who shrinks back in fear can please me.
This is an exhortation and warning to those who have won through to the end that a moment’s
carelessness can still lose them everything. But, he continues, we are not among those who shrink
back and are lost; we have the faith that leads to life. These words were addressed to the Hebrews
in the first place, but may equally well be used to encourage many of those gathered here, when they
are downcast and tempted to lose heart. People are often troubled and find it hard to endure the
sight of the wicked flourishing when they themselves are not succeeding. They long for vengeance
and punishment to be inflicted on sinners, and to be rewarded far their own pains. And then it is that
the Apostle speaks his words of comfort: In a little while he who is to come will be here; he will not
delay.
We ourselves can also assure the listless and negligent that there will be a time for punishment, the
Lord will certainly come; the resurrection and all its consequences are close at hand. If you wonder
how we know this, I do not say: from the prophets. Christ himself foretold many things. If his
predictions of immediate events were false, we need not believe what he foretold of the last days.
But if they have all come true, we can entertain no doubts about the things that are still to come. Let
a few examples prove my point. Christ foretold the fall of Jerusalem, declaring that the city would
suffer a defeat unlike anything ever experienced before, and never rise again. This prediction has
been truly fulfilled. He foretold a time of great distress, which indeed came. He also described how
the Gospel would spread abroad like a mustard plant grown from a tiny seed. And so in fact we see it
being carried day after day to the ends of the earth. Experience bears witness to the fulfilment of
these prophetic words.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE WITNESS OF THE FAITH OF THE FATHERS: HEBREWS 11:1-19
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of
old received divine approval. By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God,
so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received
approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is
still speaking. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found,
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because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. And
without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he
exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning
events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he
condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an
inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of
promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith
Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him
faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born
descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from
afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who
speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from
which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better
country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has
prepared for them a city.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was
ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.”
He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking, he
did receive him back.

PASCHAL HOMILIES 5.7 (PG 77:492-497); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
In the account of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, the Bible portrays the mystery of our Saviour in
all its aspects. Because I want you to have a clear understanding of this deep mystery of our religion, I
must show you the connection between the events that typified the truth and the beauty of truth
itself, and explain how each part of the story should be interpreted.
The holy Abraham took his son and hastened to the place that God had shown him. The fact that the
boy was brought to be sacrificed by his father is meant to teach us, by way of type or sign, that the
Lord Jesus Christ was not raised upon the Cross by any human power, nor by the wickedness of those
who laid snares for him, but by the will of the Father, whose providential plan permitted him to suffer
death for the whole world. The Saviour himself said as much when he answered Pilate: You would
have no power over me if it had not been given you from above. At another time, speaking to his
Father in heaven, he said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by; but your will, not mine, be
done.
Abraham laid the wood for the sacrifice on his son’s shoulders. In the same way, the Jews laid the
wood of the Cross on the Saviour’s shoulders, and they did this with the consent, one might almost
say the cooperation of the Father; for it is not possible to compel the divine power. The prophet
Isaiah bears reliable witness to this when he says: He bore the punishment that brings us peace, and
by his wounds we are healed. We had all strayed like sheep, everyone had gone his own way and the
Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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When the patriarch eventually arrived at the appointed place, he put all his skill into building a good
altar. This too we are meant to interpret in a spiritual way, and so to understand that what appears to
human eyes as a cross and a gibbet is in fact, in the eyes of the Father of the whole universe, a vast
and towering altar, an altar raised up for the salvation of the world, and blackened by the smoke of a
pure and most holy sacrifice.
By his words, I bared my back to the scourge, and let myself be struck on the face, Isaiah foretold the
blows that his enemies would shamelessly inflict on the Saviour’s body, and their spitting upon it. For
there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, amen. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, disregarding the shame, humbled himself in obedience to the Father even to the extent of
dying for our salvation. He died to give us life through the Holy Spirit and to raise us up with himself,
to open the gates of heaven to us and lead us in, thus restoring to the Father the human race whose
sin had long ago made it fly from his presence.
Therefore, beloved, let this great work of our Saviour be acclaimed by every voice, let his praise be on
every tongue. Let the sweet sound of that ancient song be heard again: God has gone up with shouts
of jubilation, the Lord has ascended with a fanfare of trumpets. He completed the work of our
salvation and then ascended; indeed he not only ascended but he also led captivity captive and gave
gifts to men.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE PATRIARCHS: HEBREWS 11:20-31
By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of
the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life,
made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his burial.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid for three months by his parents, because they saw that
the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was
grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment
with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for
the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he left
Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith
he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the first-born might not touch
them.
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; but the Egyptians, when they attempted to
do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for
seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she
had given friendly welcome to the spies.
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A READING FROM THE FIRST CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION BY ST AUGUSTINE
FIRST CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION, 31-32.39 (CCL 46:155-158,164); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST
ED.
There are two cities, the city of the godly and the city of the ungodly. These have been with us since
the human race began, and will continue to the end of the world. For the time being, as far as
outward appearances go, they are indistinguishable, but their aspirations are very different. On the
Day of Judgment they will be separated bodily for all to see. One fellowship consists of all those men
and angels who humbly seek God’s glory rather than their own, and follow him with laving devotion.
Yet in his abundant mercy God bears patiently with the ungodly, giving them time to repent and
change their ways.
We have an illustration of this in God’s decision to destroy the entire human race by the flood, with
the exception of one just man and his family, who were to be kept safe in the ark. God knew the
wicked would not change their ways; even so, during the hundred years it took to build the ark, they
were clearly warned that his wrath would descend upon them They were assured, too, that if they
turned to God he would spare them, as he later spared the penitent Ninevites. At the same time the
mystery of the flood prefigures the Church to come: as the wood of the ark saved the just from
drowning, so too, by the mystery of his wooden Cross, Christ, the Church’s God and King, saves us
from drowning in the sea of this world. God well knew that from those saved in the ark evil men
would be born who would fill the earth once again with their wickedness; nevertheless, in the symbol
of a thing made of wood he gave men a foreshadowing of both the judgment to come and the
salvation of the just.
We know that among those who lived after the flood, there were at least some good people who
enjoyed the freedom of the holy city. The Spirit had made known to them the coming self-abasement
of Christ their King; through this healing revelation they were enabled to conquer that pride which
originated with the devil and to seek God with loving devotion. From their number God chose
Abraham, a man of faith who served God with all his heart; to him he revealed the mystery of his Son,
so that believers of all nations, by imitating his faith, would be called the children of Abraham.
From Abraham arose a people who worshiped the one true God, maker of heaven and earth. In this
people the Church to come was much more clearly prefigured; it included the earthly-minded
majority who served God for his material benefits, as well as the minority who looked forward to
God’s eternal rest and were in search of their heavenly country. To the latter, however, the Prophets
revealed the meekness of their future king, Christ Jesus our Lord and God, so that through faith in him
they might rid themselves of all pride and self-importance.
Not only by their words, but still more by the symbolism of their lives, their marriages, and their
children, these devout men who lived before the birth of our Lord point toward the time when
through faith in the passion of Christ the pagans would be incorporated into the Church. All these
things signified the mystery of Christ and his Church, of which those Old Testament saints were
members, even though they lived before Christ our Lord was born according to the flesh.
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WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

EXAMPLES OF SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: HEBREWS 11:32-40
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David
and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won
strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their
dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a
better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were
stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep
and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering over
deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had
foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS BY ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
IN ROM. 14.8 (PG 60:534-535); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
There is nothing that God has not done for us. He made the world corruptible on our account, and on
our account again he made it incorruptible. For our sake he allowed his prophets to be ill-treated; for
our sake he let them be taken into captivity, fall into the furnace, and undergo countless other
afflictions. Indeed it was for our sake that he called them to their prophetic task and summoned
others to be apostles. It was for us that he gave up his only Son, and placed us at his right hand. For
our sake the Son of God suffered opprobrium; in the words of Scripture: Taunts against you have
fallen on me. And when we still rebel, even after receiving such great blessings, God does not
abandon us, but calls us once more and raises up others to intercede for grace on our behalf. Moses
was one of these; for it was only in order to move him to make entreaty for the people that God said
to Moses: Let me destroy these people altogether.
Even now God acts in the same way. He grants the gift of prayer not because he needs our
supplication, but to prevent our growing careless through receiving salvation that costs us no effort.
Therefore he declares he has often been reconciled with his people for the sake of David or for the
sake of this person or that; by such means he seeks to show the principle on which reconciliation with
God is established. His love for his people might have appeared greater if he had told them that his
anger was appeased on his own account instead of for the sake of someone else; but this would not
have furthered his purpose, since he did not want reconciliation with God to be a matter of
indifference to those who were saved.
This is the explanation of his saying to Jeremiah: Do not pray for these people, because 1 will not
listen to you. His intention was to put fear into the people, rather than to stop Jeremiah praying; the
prophet understood, and continued to plead for them. Just as God pronounced his decree to the
Ninevites without qualification or offer of hope, and thus led them through fear to repentance, so his
purpose in this episode was to stir up the people and inspire greater respect for their prophet, in
order to induce them at least by this means to pay attention. Then, as their frenzy proved incurable
and they were not brought to their senses even by the deportation of their compatriots, he first of all
exhorted them to remain where they were. They refused to do so, and went of their own accord to
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Egypt. Even this he tolerated, but begged them not to involve themselves in impiety as well as
deserting to Egypt. And when they disobeyed again, he sent the prophet with them to prevent their
complete and final ruin.
Was there anything the prophets did not suffer on account of the people? They were sawn asunder,
driven out, reproached, stoned; they bore innumerable other injuries but each time they went back
to the people again. Jeremiah composed and wrote down lamentations for the Jews, and although
the Persian governor would have allowed him to live in security and complete freedom wherever he
wished, he preferred to share the people’s maltreatment and to endure the miseries of exile with
them, rather than stay at home.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

WITH CHRIST OUR LEADER LET US HASTEN TOWARDS THE STRUGGLE: HEBREWS 12:1-13
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every
weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow
weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? – “My son, do not
regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord
disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you
have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not
discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected
them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a
short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the
moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your
feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
IN HEB. 28.2 (PG 63:195); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
We must persevere patiently in the course we have begun, without growing faint or discouraged. Let
us run the race that lies ahead of us, the Apostle urges. Then, as the highest encouragement, the
supreme exhortation, the first and last of all the examples he proposes to us, he goes on to say: We
must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings if to perfection. Keeping our
eyes fixed on Jesus means that we must observe the example Christ gave us if we are to learn to run
our race. In all arts and athletics the skill of our instructors is impressed upon our minds as we watch
them, and we ourselves become proficient by observing these masters in action. So also, in the race
of life, if we want to run well and learn to keep a straight course, we must fix our eyes on Jesus who
leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.
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What does this imply? Surely it means that Christ has given us our faith, and we owe its very first
movement within us to his inspiration. As he said to his disciples: You did not choose me, I chose you.
In a similar manner Saint Paul declares: Then I shall know just as I am known. If Christ has given our
faith its first impetus, he himself will direct it to its goal. He endured the Cross and thought nothing
of the shame of it for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him. He had committed no sin and there
was no deceit on his tongue; this means he could have avoided suffering if he had so wished. The
Gospel records Jesus’ own statement that the prince of this world was on his way, but he had no
power over him. And so, in fact, it was open to Christ to refuse the Cross if he chose. I have the power
to lay down my life, he says, and I have the power to take it up again. He was under no necessity of
being crucified; he was crucified for our sake. Surely then it is only reasonable that we should bravely
endure all the trials that we ourselves encounter.
And so Scripture tells us that for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him Christ endured the Cross
thinking nothing of the shame of it. What exactly is meant by thinking nothing of the shame? The simple
fact, as Saint Paul says, that Christ chose an ignominious death, that he chose it in full freedom because
he was not subject to sin. By so doing Christ has taught us to face disgrace boldly and make light of it
Let me remind you of the goal he achieved: he has taken his seat at the right hand of God. You see
the prize to be won in this conflict. Therefore, whenever we ourselves have to suffer some disgrace,
let us think of Christ, remembering that his whole life was filled with insults. He was continuously
hearing himself called a madman, deceiver, and sorcerer, by the very people among whom he went
about doing good, for whom he performed miracles, and to whom he revealed the works of God.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

APPROACHING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LIVING GOD: HEBREWS 12:14-29
Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it
that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and
by it the many become defiled; that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright
for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a
tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no
further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, If even a
beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I
tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who
are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously
than the blood of Abel.
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him
who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His
voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth
but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more”, indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of
what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful
for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with
reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
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PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS 1:6-7.13-14; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
In the text, Holiness without which no one will see the Lord, it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit to
convey a chief truth of religion in a few words. It is this circumstance which makes it especially
impressive; for the truth itself is declared in one form or other in every part of Scripture.
When, then, we think to take part in the joys of heaven without holiness, we are as inconsiderate as if
we supposed we could take an interest in the worship of Christians here below without possessing it
in our measure. A careless, a sensual, an unbelieving mind, a mind destitute of the love and fear of
God, with narrow views and earthly aims, a low standard of duty, and a benighted conscience, a mind
contented with itself, and unresigned to God’s will, would feel as little pleasure, at the last day, at the
words, Enter into the joy of your Lord, as it does now at the words, ‘Let us pray’. Nay, much less,
because, while we are in a church, we may turn our thoughts to other subjects, and contrive to forget
that God is looking on us; but that will not be possible in heaven.
Perhaps, however, some may say: ‘We know something of the power of religion – we love it in a
measure – we have many right thoughts – we come to Church to pray; this is a proof that we are
prepared for heaven; – we are safe, and what has been said does not apply to us.’ But be you not, my
brethren, in the number of these. One principal test of our being true servants of God is our wishing
to serve him better and be quite sure that a man who is contented with is own proficiency in Christian
holiness is at best in a dark state, or rather in great peril. If we are really imbued with the grace of
holiness, we shall abhor sin as something base, irrational, and polluting. Many men, it is true, are
contented with partial and indistinct views of religion, and mixed motives. Be you content with
nothing short of perfection; exert yourselves day by day to grow in knowledge and grace; that, if so
be, you may at length attain to the presence of Almighty God.
Lastly, while we thus labour to mould our hearts after the pattern of the holiness of our heavenly
Father, it is our comfort to know that we are not left to ourselves, but that the Holy Spirit is graciously
present with us, and enables us to triumph over, and to change our own minds. It is a comfort and
encouragement, while it is an anxious and awful thing, to know that God works in and through us. We
are the instruments, but we are only the instruments, of our own salvation. Let no one say that I
discourage him, and propose to him a task beyond his strength. All of us have the gifts of grace
pledged to us from our youth up. We know this well; but we do not use our privilege. We form mean
ideas of the difficulty, and in consequence never enter into the greatness of the gifts given us to meet
it. Then afterwards, if perchance we gain a deeper insight into the work we have to do, we think God
a hard master, who commands much from a sinful race. Narrow, indeed is the way of life, but infinite
is his love and power who is with the Church, in Christ’s place, to guide us along it.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

DAILY LIFE ACCORDING TO CHRIST: HEBREWS 13:1-25
Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them; and
those who are ill-treated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honour among all,
and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. Keep your life
free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, I will never fail you nor
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forsake you. Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man
do to me?”
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life,
and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away
by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods,
which have not benefited their adherents. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent
have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the
high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate
in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the
camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is
to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of
lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such
sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will
have to give account. Let them do this joyfully, and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to
you.
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honourably in all things. I
urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of
the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his
will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever
and ever. Amen.
I appeal to you, brethren, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You
should understand that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes
soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace
be with all of you. Amen.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
IN HEB. 33.3-4 (PG 63:229-230); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Leaving types and figures behind, the Apostle directs his teaching on sacrifice toward what they
foreshadowed, as follows: the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the High Priest as a sacrifice for sin are burnt outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the
gate, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. We learn, therefore, that the former rites
were a prefiguring of events to come, and Christ fulfilled them all by suffering outside the city gates.
The text also shows that he suffered of his own free will, by intimating that the rites of the old Law
were not without meaning but were a prophetic sign. In their accomplishment Christ suffered outside
the city boundaries, but his blood was taken up to heaven.
You see then that we have a share in the blood that was brought into the Holy Place – the true Holy
Place – and in the sacrifice which the High Priest alone had the right to consume. We have a share,
therefore, in the reality that was signified. Our fellowship is in sanctification rather than in shame, but
shame was the cause of this sanctification. As Christ himself was scorned and reproached, so also
must we be. If we go outside the camp, therefore, we shall have fellowship with him.
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Yet what does the text mean when it says Let us go forth to him? It means surely that we should take
our share of his sufferings and accept our part in his shame, since it was no chance happening that he
suffered outside the gate. We also must strive to carry his Cross and go out from the world, keeping
ourselves free from worldly entanglements. Christ endured disgrace as a condemned man, and so
must we.
Through him then let us offer a sacrifice to God. As to what sort of sacrifice this should be, the Apostle
himself explains: A verbal sacrifice of praise to his name – in other words, prayers, hymns, and
thanksgiving. These things are the fruit of our lips. The people of the Old Testament offered sheep,
oxen, and calves, which they gave to the priest. None of these must we offer. Thanksgiving and, as far
as in us lies, the imitation of Christ, are what we must bring to the Lord. May our lips yield fruit of this
kind! Let these be the sacrifices we bring to Christ for him to offer to his Father. There is no other way
in which sacrifice may be offered except through the Son, and through a contrite heart.
Since, then, the fruit of lips that praise his name is to thank him for all he has given us and for what he
suffered on our account, let us accept everything gratefully, whether it be poverty, sickness, or
anything else; he alone knows what is best for us. Let us endeavour, therefore, to give thanks for all
things, and with a generous heart to accept whatever comes to us.
PASSION SUNDAY

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, SUFFERING CONTRADICTION: ISAIAH 50:4 – 51:3
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with
a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are
taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. I gave my
back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame
and spitting.
For the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a
flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with
me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD
helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will
eat them up.
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no
light, yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God? Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who set brands alight! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the brands which you have kindled! This
shall you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.
“Hearken to me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek the LORD; look to the rock from which
you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to
Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many.
For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like
Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and
the voice of song.”
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SERMO GUELFERBYTANUS 3 (PLS 2:545-546); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is for us both a pledge of glory and a lesson in
endurance. Is there anything that the faithful cannot expect from the grace of God, when for their
sake the only-begotten, co-eternal Son of the Father was not only born into the human race but even
allowed himself to be put to death by the very men he had created?
However great the promises the Lord has made us for the future, we must realize that the things he
has already done for us are greater still. Can anyone doubt that he will share his life with the saints,
when he has already given them his death? Why is our weak humanity so slow to believe that men
will one day live with God? Surely something far harder to believe has already taken place: God has
died for men.
Who indeed is Christ but the Word that was already in existence at the beginning, the Word who
lived with God and was God himself? That Word of God became man and lived among us. Unless he
had first assumed our mortal flesh he could not have died for us; only in that way was the immortal
God able to die and to give life to mortal men. By first sharing their nature, he could in return give
them a share in his. In ourselves we had no power to live, and in him there was nothing that could die.
And so by this double sharing he brought about a wonderful exchange: we made death possible for
him, and he made life possible for us.
Not only, therefore, need we feel no shame for the death of the Lord our God: we should put all our
trust in it and take pride in it, since having taken upon himself the death he found in us, he has
promised that we shall find our life in him, a life we could never have of ourselves. If he who was
sinless so loved us as to be willing to suffer what we had deserved for our sins, then surely he who has
justified us will gladly give us the recompense of the just. Will he not reward his saints according to his
faithful promise, when he took upon himself, guiltless though he was, the punishment due to the
guilty?
And so, let us confidently acknowledge and openly declare that Christ was crucified for our sake,
proclaiming it with joy and pride, not with fear and shame. The apostle Paul saw in this reason for
boasting. He could have told us many great and holy things about Christ: how as God he shared with
his Father the work of creation, and how as man like us he was master of the world. But he would not
glory in any of these wonderful things. God forbid that 1 should boast of anything, he said, except the
Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, AN ATONING VICTIM: ISAIAH 52:13 – 53:12
Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. As many
were astonished at him – his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form
beyond that of the sons of men – so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths
because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not
heard they shall understand.
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he
grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or
comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised
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and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide
their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by
God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon
him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the
slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. By
oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was
cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his
grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there
was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an
offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper
in his hand; he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the
righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

THE MIRROR OF CHARITY 3.5: (PL 195:582); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
We can find no greater inspiration to love even our enemies as brothers - as we must if our love is to
be perfect - than grateful remembrance of Christ’s wonderful patience. He who was the fairest of the
children of men offered his beautiful face to be spat upon by sinners; he allowed those eyes whose
glance rules the universe to be blindfolded by wicked men; he bared his back to the scourges; he
submitted that head which strikes terror into principalities and powers to the sharpness of thorns; he
gave himself up to be mocked and reviled, and at the end endured the Cross, the nails, the lance, the
gall, the vinegar, while remaining always gentle, kindly, and serene. In short, he was led like a sheep to
the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearers he was silent, not opening his mouth.
Who could listen to that wonderful prayer, so full of affection, love and imperturbable calm - Father,
forgive them - and not at once embrace his enemies with all his love? Father, he says, forgive them.
Could any prayer be more full of gentleness and love?
Yet he added something more. It was not enough to pray for them: he wished also to excuse them.
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. They are great sinners, yes, but
they have little understanding. Therefore, Father, forgive them. They are nailing me to the Cross, but
they do not know who it is they are nailing to the Cross. If they had known, they would never have
crucified the Lord of glory. Therefore, Father, forgive them. They think it is a lawbreaker, an
impostor claiming to be God, a seducer of the people. I have hidden my face from them, and they do
not recognize my glory. Therefore, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
If we wish to experience fully the joy of loving our brothers, we must embrace with real love even our
enemies. To prevent this fire of divine love from being cooled by the injuries we receive, let us keep
the eyes of our soul always fixed on the serene patience of our beloved Lord and Saviour.
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TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

JERUSALEM ABANDONED: LAMENTATIONS 1:1-12, 18-20
How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great
among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly
in the night, tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends
have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations,
but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the appointed feasts; all her gates are desolate, her
priests groan; her maidens have been dragged away, and she herself suffers bitterly.
Her foes have become the head, her enemies prosper, because the LORD has made her suffer for the
multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.
From the daughter of Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like harts that find
no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness all the precious things that were hers
from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, the
foe gloated over her, mocking at her downfall.
Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honoured her despise her, for they
have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away.
Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her doom; therefore her fall is terrible, she
has no comforter. “O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”
The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; yea, she has seen the nations
invade her sanctuary, those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation.
All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their
strength. “Look, O LORD, and behold, for I am despised.”
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which
was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.
“The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and behold
my suffering; my maidens and my young men have gone into captivity.
“I called to my lovers but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they
sought food to revive their strength.
“Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress, my soul is in tumult, my heart is wrung within me, because I
have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.”
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A READING FROM THE BOOK ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT
ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 15.35; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
The providence of our God and Saviour in regard to man consists of his recall from the fall and his
return to close communion with God from the estrangement caused by his disobedience. This was
the purpose of Christ’s dwelling in the flesh, the pattern of his life described in the Gospels, his
sufferings, the Cross, the burial, the resurrection; so that man could be saved, and could recover,
through imitating Christ, the adoption of former times.
So, for perfection of life it is necessary not only to imitate Christ, in the examples of gentleness, and
humility, and patience which he gave us in his life, but also to imitate him in his death, as Paul the
imitator of Christ, says: Becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection
from the dead.
How then do we become like him in his death? By having been buried with him through baptism. But
how does this burial take place? What benefit has this imitation? First of all one must break with
one’s life of the past. This is impossible, unless one is born again, as the Lord said. For regeneration, as
is evident from the word itself is the beginning of a second life. Consequently, before beginning this
second life, we must bring the first to an end. As in the race called the double course (where the
competitors must run to the turning point and back to the start again) a halt, a brief respite separates
the outward run and the return, so also for a change of life it seemed necessary that death intervene
between the two lives, to make an end of all that went before and a beginning of all that follows.
How do we accomplish the descent into hell? By imitating through baptism the burial of Christ. For
the bodies of the baptized are buried as it were in the water. Baptism then indicates symbolically the
laying aside of the works of the flesh, as the Apostle says: You were circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried
with him in baptism. Baptism, as it were, cleanses the soul of the pollution which comes from the
mind set on the flesh, as it is written, You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Consequently, we know only one baptism which saves, since there is one death on behalf of the world
and one resurrection from the dead, and baptism is the figure of these.
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

GOD’S ANGER AGAINST JERUSALEM: LAMENTATIONS 2:1-9
How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven
to earth the splendour of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonour the
kingdom and its rulers.
He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his right hand in
the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.
He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has slain all the pride of
our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire.
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The Lord has become like an enemy, he has destroyed Israel; he has destroyed all its palaces, laid in
ruins its strongholds; and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
He has broken down his booth like that of a garden, laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts; the
LORD has brought to an end in Zion appointed feast and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has
spurned king and priest.
The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces; a clamour was raised in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed
feast.
The LORD determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he marked it off by the line; he
restrained not his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament, they languish
together.
Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are
among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets obtain no vision from the LORD.

SERMO 2, IN RAMIS PALMARUM 1 (PL 185:130-131); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
It seems to me that during these days when we are solemnly observing the annual commemoration
of our Lord’s passion and crucifixion, I cannot speak to you on a more appropriate subject than that of
Jesus Christ himself, and him crucified. Even at another season of the year it would be hard to find a
worthier theme. Could you hear anything more salutary or occupy your minds with anything more
profitable? Surely nothing can so sweetly stir the hearts of the faithful or exert so wholesome an
influence on their lives; nothing has such power to cut off their sins, root out their vices, nourish and
strengthen their virtues, as the remembrance of Jesus crucified.
To those who have reached maturity Saint Paul may preach about the hidden wisdom of God; but to
me, whose shortcomings are visible to all, let him speak of the crucified Christ, who indeed seems
mere foolishness to those who are on the road to perdition, but is the power and the wisdom of God
to those who are on the way to salvation. For me this is the highest and noblest philosophy, in the
light of which all worldly and human wisdom is of no account.
How perfect I might think myself, how advanced in wisdom, if only I could qualify as a true disciple of
Jesus crucified, for God has made him not only our wisdom but also our righteousness, our holiness
and our freedom! If anyone is nailed to the Cross with Christ he is altogether wise, righteous, holy and
free. Wise, because he has been raised with Christ above the earth, and now seeks and understands
the things of heaven; righteous, because sin has been put to death in him and he is no longer
enslaved to it; holy, because he has offered himself to God as a living sacrifice, consecrated and
acceptable to him; free, because the Son of God has redeemed him, and in freedom of spirit he can
now boldly repeat the Son’s confident words: The prince of this world is on his way, but he has no
claim on me.
Truly there is mercy and fullness of redemption with our crucified Lord. So completely has he
redeemed Israel from all its iniquity that it is now acquitted of any accusation that the prince of this
world could make against it. The Lord has redeemed his people from the land of the foe and gathered
them from far-off lands. Let them be of one mind with their teacher, Saint Paul, in declaring: God
forbid that 1 should boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!
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THURSDAY OF HOLY WEEK

THE MISERABLE CONDITION OF THE CITY AND A PLEA FOR HELP: LAMENTATIONS 2:10-22
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have cast dust on their heads and
put on sackcloth; the maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief because of the
destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.
They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like wounded men in the streets
of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom.
What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I
may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can restore you?
Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to
restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading.
All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of
Jerusalem; “Is this the city which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We have destroyed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!”
The LORD has done what he purposed, has carried out his threat; as he ordained long ago, he has
demolished without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you, and exalted the might of your
foes.
Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give
yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!
Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the
presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the
head of every street.
Look, O LORD, and see! With whom hast thou dealt thus? Should women eat their offspring, the
children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my maidens and my young men have fallen by the
sword; in the day of thy anger thou hast slain them, slaughtering without mercy.
Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side; and on the day of the
anger of the LORD none escaped or survived; those whom I dandled and reared my enemy destroyed.

PERI PASCHA 65-71; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
The Prophets announced many wonderful things about the Passover mystery which is Christ. To him
be glory forever. Amen.
He descended from heaven to earth for the sake of suffering mankind, clothed himself with a human
nature through the Virgin Mary, and appearing in our midst as a man with a body capable of suffering,
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took upon himself the suffering of those who suffered. By his Spirit which could not die, he slew
death, the slayer of men. Led forth like a lamb, slain like a sheep, he ransomed us from the servitude
of the world, just as he ransomed Israel from the land of Egypt. He freed us from the slavery of the
devil, just as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh; and he has marked our souls with the
signs of his own blood. He has clothed death with dishonour and he has grieved the devil, just as
Moses dishonoured and grieved Pharaoh. He has punished wickedness and taken away the children
of injustice, just as Moses punished Egypt and caused its children to be taken away. He has brought us
from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to an eternal
kingdom.
He is the Passover of our salvation. He was present in many so as to endure many things. In Abel he
was slain; in Isaac bound; in Jacob a stranger; in Joseph sold; in Moses exposed; in David persecuted;
in the Prophets dishonoured. He became incarnate of the Virgin. Not a bone of his was broken on the
tree. He was buried in the earth, but he rose from the dead, and was lifted up to the heights of
heaven. He is the silent lamb, the slain lamb, who was born of Mary the fair ewe. He was seized from
the flock and dragged away to slaughter. Towards evening he was sacrificed, and at night he was
buried. But he who had no bone broken upon the Cross, was not corrupted in the earth, for he rose
from the dead and raised up man from the depths of the grave.
FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK

MOURNING AND HOPE: LAMENTATIONS 3:1-33
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into
darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped
me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has put heavy chains on me; though I call and cry
for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths
crooked.
He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding; he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate; he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow.
He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the
burden of their songs all day long. He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace, I
have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “Gone is my glory, and my expectation from the LORD.”
Remember my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually thinks of
it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every
morning; great is thy faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who
wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the
LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
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Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the dust –there may
yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.
For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to
the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
A READING FROM THE BAPTISMAL CATECHESES OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

CATECHESIS 3:13-19; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
Do you wish to know of the power of Christ’s blood? Let us go back to the ancient accounts of what
took place in Egypt, where Christ’s blood is foreshadowed.
Moses said: Sacrifice a lamb without blemish and smear the doors with its blood. What does this
mean? Can the blood of a sheep without reason save man who is endowed with reason? Yes, Moses
replies, not because it is blood but because it is a figure of the Lord’s blood. So today if the devil sees,
not the blood of the figure smeared on the doorposts, but the blood of the reality smeared on the lips
of the faithful, which are the doors of the temple of Christ, with all the more reason will he draw back.
Do you wish to learn from another source the power of this blood? See where it began to flow, from
what spring it flowed down from the Cross, from the Master’s side. The Gospel relates that when
Christ had died and was still hanging on the Cross, the soldier approached him and pierced his side
with the spear, and at once there came out water and blood. The one was a symbol of baptism, the
other of the mysteries. That soldier, then, pierced his side: he breached the wall of the holy temple,
and I found the treasure and acquired the wealth. Similarly with the lamb. The Jews slaughtered it in
sacrifice, and I gathered the fruit of that sacrifice – salvation.
There came out from his side water and blood. Dearly beloved, do not pass the secret of this great
mystery without reflection. For I have another secret mystical interpretation to give. I said that
baptism and the mysteries were symbolized in that blood and water. It is from these two that the holy
Church has been born, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, by baptism
and by the mysteries. Now the symbols of baptism and the mysteries came from his side. It was from
his side, then, that Christ formed the Church, as from the side of Adam he formed Eve.
That is why in his account of the first man Moses has the words, bone of my bone and flesh of my
flesh, giving us a hint here of the Master’s side. For as at that time took a rib from Adam’s side and
formed woman, so Christ gave us blood and water from his side and formed the Church. Just as then
he took the rib while Adam was in a deep sleep, so now he gave the blood and water after his death.
Have you seen how Christ has united his bride to himself? Have you seen with what kind of food he
feeds us all? By the same food we are formed and are fed. As a woman feeds her child with her own
blood and milk, so too Christ himself continually feeds those whom he has begotten with his own
blood.
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SATURDAY OF HOLY WEEK

THE PRAYER OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH: LAMENTATIONS 5:1-22
Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been
turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens. We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are
like widows. We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought. With a yoke on
our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest. We have given the hand to Egypt,
and to Assyria, to get bread enough. Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their
iniquities. Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the
peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning
heat of famine. Women are ravished in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. Princes are hung up by
their hands; no respect is shown to the elders. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill; and
boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have quit the city gate, the young men their music.
The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen
from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! For this our heart has become sick, for these things our
eyes have grown dim, for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.
But thou, O LORD, dost reign forever; thy throne endures to all generations. Why dost thou forget us
forever, why dost thou so long forsake us? Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old! Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?
A READING FROM AN ANCIENT HOMILY FOR HOLY SATURDAY

AN ANCIENT HOMILY FOR HOLY SATURDAY; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II
What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great
silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh
and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld
has trembled.
Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their
pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son. The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his
Cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all:
‘My Lord be with you all.’ And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his
hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you
light.
‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak
and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and
those who sleep: Rise. I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in
the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise,
you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we
are one undivided person.
‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form, that of slave; for you, I
who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man
without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a
garden and crucified in a garden.
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‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first
divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion
your distorted form to my own image. See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to
disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a
good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one. I slept on the Cross
and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My
side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has
checked the sword which was turned against you.
`But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no
longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but
now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would
slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God. The cherubim throne has been
prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the
everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness, the treasures of good things have been opened; the
kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.’
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
PATRISTIC VIGILS
READINGS
Year I
EASTER
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MONDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

GREETING AND THANKSGIVING: 1 PETER 1:1-21
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the Exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
and Bithynia, chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to
Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are guarded
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a
little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious
than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honour at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him
you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you
obtain the salvation of your souls.
The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this
salvation; they inquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when
predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were
serving not themselves but you, in the things which have now been announced to you by those who
preached the good news to you through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels
long to look.
Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your
former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is
written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you invoke as Father him who judges each one
impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.
You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with
perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest
at the end of the times for your sake. Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from
the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
A READING FROM ON THE PASCH BY ST MELITO OF SARDIS

ON THE PASCH 2-7, 100-103; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
You must understand, dearly beloved, how the mystery of the Pasch is new and old, eternal and
transient, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal.
It is old according to the Law, but new according to the Word. It is transient in its prototype, but
eternal in grace. It is corruptible in the immolation of the sheep, but incorruptible in the life of
the Lord. It is mortal because of his burial in the earth, but immortal because of his resurrection
from the dead.
The Law is old, but the Word new; the prototype is transient, but grace eternal; the sheep is
corruptible, the Lord incorruptible, who was sacrificed as a lamb, but rose as God.
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He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, but he was not a sheep; he was as a lamb without voice, but
he was not a lamb. The figure has passed away, the reality has come: it is God who has come in place
of the lamb, man in place of the sheep, and in the man is Christ, who contains all things.
So the immolation of the sheep, and the solemn rite of the Pasch, and the letter of the Law have
come to accomplishment in Christ Jesus. Everything in the old Law, and more particularly everything
in the new, was directed towards him.
For the Law has become the Word and the old new (each coming from Sion and Jerusalem); the
commandment has become grace, and the type reality, the lamb has become Son, the sheep a man,
and man has become God.
Though Lord, he became man; he suffered for those who were suffering, he was bound for the
captive, judged for the condemned, buried for the one who was buried; he rose from the dead
and cried out: ‘Who shall contend with me? Let him stand up to face me. I have freed the con-
demned, brought the dead to life, raised up the buried. Who will speak against me?’ ‘I am the
Christ’, he says, ‘It is I who destroyed death, who triumphed over the enemy, who trampled Hades
underfoot, who bound the strong one and snatched man away to the heights of heaven; I am the
Christ.’
‘Come then, all you nations of men defiled by sin, receive the forgiveness of sin. For it is I who am
your forgiveness, the Pasch of your salvation, the lamb slain for you; it is I who am your ransom, your
life, your resurrection, your light, your salvation, your king. I am bringing you to the heights of heaven,
I will show you the Father who is from all eternity, I will raise you up with my right hand.’
TUESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

THE LIFE OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD: 1 PETER 1:22 – 2:10
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one
another earnestly from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of
imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like
the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides for ever.’
That word is the good news which was preached to you.
So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander. Like newborn babes, long
for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of
the Lord.
Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like
living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion
a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ To
you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, ‘The very stone which
the builders rejected has become the head of the corner’, and ‘A stone that will make men stumble, a
rock that will make them fall’; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined
to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare
the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were
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no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have
received mercy.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY BY ST BEDE ON THE FIRST LETTER OF ST

PETER
COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER 2; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. This compliment was addressed through Moses in time
gone by to God’s ancient people, and now the Apostle Peter rightly addresses it to the Gentiles. For
they have come to believe in Christ, who as the cornerstone has associated the Gentiles with the
salvation which belonged to Israel.
He calls them a ‘chosen race’ on account of their faith, to distinguish them from those who rejected
the living rock and themselves have been rejected.
He calls them a ‘royal priesthood’ because they are members of the body of the supreme King and
true Priest. As king he grants to his people a kingdom; as High Priest he washes away their sins by the
sacrifice of his own blood. He names them a ‘royal priesthood’ as a reminder to hope for an eternal
kingdom, and to offer to God without ceasing the sacrifice of a sinless life.
They are called also ‘a holy nation and God’s own people’, in accordance with the Apostle Paul’s
explanation of the teaching of the Prophet: “My righteous one lives by faith; and if he shrinks back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of
those who have faith and keep their souls. And in the Acts of the Apostles St Paul says: The Holy Spirit
has made you guardians to rule the Church of the Lord which he obtained with his own blood.
We have become ‘God’s own people’ through the blood of our Redeemer; for in time gone by the
people of Israel was redeemed from Egypt by the blood of the lamb.
Accordingly in the following verse he once more recalls the mystical sense of this event in the Old
Testament, and explains that it is to be fulfilled again spiritually by the new people of God in these
words: That you may declare his wonderful deeds. The people who were freed by Moses from slavery
in Egypt, after the crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh's army, sang a hymn of
triumph to the Lord; so too, since we have received pardon for our sins in Baptism, we should express
due thanks for the heavenly graces we have received.
For the Egyptians, who oppressed God’s people, and who stand for darkness and suffering, are an apt
symbol for the sins which harass us, but which have been destroyed in Baptism.
The liberation of the children of Israel, and the journey by which they were led to the
homeland they had long ago been promised, correspond to the mystery of our redemption
through which we make our way to the brightness of our heavenly home, with the grace of
Christ as our light and our guide. The light of grace is symbolized by the pillar of cloud and fire
which throughout their journey protected them from the darkness of the night, and led them
along their secret path to their home in the promised land.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

CHRISTIANS ARE EXILES IN THE WORLD: 1 PETER 2:11-25
Beloved, I beseech you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war
against your soul. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you
as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,
or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it
is God’s will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free
men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. Honour all men.
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor.
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the kind and gentle but also to
the overbearing. For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. For
what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do
right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He
committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return;
when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly. He himself bore our
sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you
have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and
Guardian of your souls.
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY AN ANCIENT AUTHOR

ANCIENT PASCHAL HOMILY; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
Paul rejoices that we are restored to spiritual health and cries out: As through Adam death came into
this world, so through Christ salvation was restored to the world, and again: The first man was from
the earth, earthly, the second man is from heaven, heavenly.
And he adds: As we have borne the image of the man of the earth, that is, of the old sinful nature, so
let us bear the image of the man of heaven, that is, let us hold fast in Christ to the nature that is
saved, accepted, redeemed, restored and purified. For Paul says: First there is Christ, that is, the
author of resurrection and life; then those who are Christ’s, that is, those who live in imitation of his
purity, those who live in unshakeable hope because of his resurrection, those who are to possess with
him the glory promised to us in heaven. As the Lord himself says in the Gospel: He who has followed
me will not perish, but will pass from death to life.
Thus the passion of the Saviour is salvation for mankind. This was why he willed to die for us, that we
should believe in him, and live for ever. He willed to become for a time what we are, so that we
should receive the promise of his eternity and live with him for ever.
This is the feast of the year for which we long, the beginnings of life-giving realities. Here is given us
the grace of the heavenly mysteries, the gift of the Pasch. In this feast infants come to birth in the
bath of life of holy Church; they are reborn with the simplicity of babes and cry out with the voice of
an innocent conscience. Here chaste fathers and pure mothers present by faith a new family beyond
numbering.
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In this feast the baptismal font, the womb which begets pure life, is ablaze with the light of candles
under the cross, the tree of faith. Here men are sanctified by the gift of heavenly grace and fed by the
spiritual sacrament, the sacred mystery. Here the Church, gathered in brotherhood and unity, is
nourished. Adoring the substance of the one Godhead and the powerful name of the three persons,
they join with the Prophet in singing the psalm of the annual feast: This is the day which the Lord
made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.
What is this day? It is he who is the source of life, the beginning of brightness, the author of life-our
Lord Jesus Christ, who said of himself: ‘I am the day: he who walks by daylight does not stumble.’ That
is to say, if a man follows Christ in all things, he will cross over in Christ’s steps to the very throne of
eternal light. While Christ was still in this bodily life, he prayed to the Father for us in these words:
Father, I desire that those who have believed in me may be with me where I am, that even as you are
in me, and I in you, so they too may remain in us.
THURSDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST: 1 PETER 3:1-17
Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the
word, may be won without a word by the behaviour of their wives, when they see your reverent and
chaste behaviour. Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold,
and wearing of fine clothing, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel
of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. So once the holy women who hoped
in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him lord. And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you.
Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honour on the woman as the
weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be
hindered.
Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble
mind. Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have
been called, that you may obtain a blessing. For ‘He that would love life and see good days, let him
keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile; let him turn away from evil and do right; let
him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open
to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.’
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right? But even if you do suffer for
righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts
reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account
for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear,
so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY ST HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM

PASCHAL HOMILY (SC 187:66-69); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED
The festival we celebrate today, is one of victory – the victory of the Son of God, king of the whole
universe. On this day the devil is defeated by the crucified one; our race is filled with joy by the
risen one. In honour of my resurrection in Christ this day cries out: ‘In my journey I beheld a
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new wonder – an open tomb, a man risen from the dead, bones exulting, souls rejoicing, men
refashioned, the heavens opened, and powers crying out: Lift up your gates, you princes; be
lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in. On this day I saw the King of
Heaven, robed in light, ascend above the lightning and the rays of the sun, above the sun and
the sources of water, above the dwelling place of the angelic powers and the city of eternal
life.’
Hidden first in a womb of flesh, he sanctified human birth by his own birth; hidden afterward in the
womb of the earth, he gave life to the dead by his resurrection. Suffering, pain, and sighs have now
fled away. For who has known the mind of God, or who has been his counsellor if not the Word
made flesh, who was nailed to the cross, who rose from the dead, and who was taken up into
heaven?
This day brings a message of joy: it is the day of the Lord’s resurrection when, with himself, he raised
up the race of Adam. Born for the sake of men, he rose from the dead with them. On this day
paradise is opened by the risen one, Adam is restored to life and Eve is consoled. On this day the
divine call is heard, the kingdom is prepared, we are saved and Christ is adored. On this day, when he
had trampled death under foot, made the tyrant a prisoner, and despoiled the underworld, Christ
ascended into heaven as a king in victory, as a ruler in glory, as an invincible charioteer. He said to the
Father: Here am I, O God, with the children you have given me and he heard the Father’s reply: Sit at
my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. To him be glory, now and for ever, through
endless ages, amen.
FRIDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

AWAITING THE COMING OF THE LORD: 1 PETER 3:18 –4:11
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to
God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the
spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during
the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism,
which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to
God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is
at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by
human passions but by the will of God. Let the time that is past suffice for doing what the Gentiles like
to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are
surprised that you do not now join them in the same wild profligacy, and they abuse you; but they will
give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was
preached even to the dead, that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like
God.
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The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. Above all hold
unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practise hospitality
ungrudgingly to one another. As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards
of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as
one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be
glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

ON THE TRINITY, II.14 (PG 39:710-718); WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
The true Baptism, which was instituted after the manifestation of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, frees
from all sin everyone who at any time goes down into the font. Moreover, to all, both old and young,
it gives a new birth by grace that makes them brethren of the firstborn. The whole wealth of heaven is
deposited quite safely even with those whom civil law regards as too old or too young to be entrusted
with the goods of this world. Therefore they sing with joy, The Lord is my shepherd, there is
nothing 1 shall want. He places me in green pastures, he leads me to still waters; and, You
have spread a table for me in the sight of my enemies; you have anointed my head with oil;
my cup is overflowing.
The consecrated oil that we receive, though applied to our bodies, is for the benefit of our souls.
When faith in the blessed Trinity enters our hearts and we profess this faith and our foreheads are
marked with the seal of Christ, when we receive Baptism and are strengthened by chrism,
immediately the gracious Trinity, whose very nature it is to give good gifts, comes down to us; impure
spirits instantly retreat before our purity, worldly cares leave us, bodily passions of whatever kind are
banished; our sins are all forgiven, our names are indelibly inscribed in the book of life, all the
blessings of heaven are bequeathed to us. Desiring to be always supreme in goodness and generosity,
the Trinity even anticipates our own free decision by inspiring it.
In his first letter, Peter shows that since people were saved in the past by a baptism which was only a
type, much more will the true Baptism make us both immortal and divine. The water that saved eight
people in the ark was a figure of the Baptism that saves you now. This Baptism is not merely the
washing away of dirt from the body, but the promise made to God from a clear conscience. It saves
you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who, having gone into heaven, sits at God’s right hand,
ruling over all angels, dominations, and powers.
Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you see, said the Lord. We who have become spiritual not
only see and hear these things but, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we actually enjoy them. We
communicate in the body of Christ, and drink from the fountain of immortality.
SATURDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

EXHORTATIONS TO THE ELDERS AND TO THE FAITHFUL: 1 PETER 4:12 – 5:14
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though
something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that
you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of
Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you
suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. For the time has come for judgment
to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not
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obey the gospel of God? And ‘If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and
sinner appear?’ Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls
to a faithful Creator.
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as
a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by
constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your
charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain
the unfading crown of glory. Likewise you that are younger be subject to the elders. Clothe
yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace
to the humble.’
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. Cast
all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing
that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And
after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in
Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the dominion for ever and ever.
Amen.
By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring
that this is the true grace of God; stand fast in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends
you greetings; and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with the kiss of love.
Peace to all of you that are in Christ.

MYSTAGOGICAL CATECHESES 2.4-6; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
You were conducted by the hand to the holy pool of sacred Baptism, just as Christ was conveyed from
the cross to the sepulchre close at hand.
Each person was asked if he believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You made the confession that brings salvation, and submerged yourselves three times in the water
and emerged: by this symbolic action you were secretly re-enacting the burial of Christ three days in
the tomb.
Just as our Saviour spent three days and nights in the womb of the earth, so you upon first emerging
were representing Christ’s first day in the earth, and by your immersion his first night. For at night one
can no longer see but during the day one has light; so you saw nothing when immersed as if it were
night, but you emerged as if to the light of day. In one and the same action you died and were born:
that water of salvation became both tomb and mother for you.
What Solomon said in another context is apposite to you: There is a time to be born, and a time to die,
but the opposite is true in your case – there is a time to die and a time to be born. A single moment
achieves both ends, and your begetting was simultaneous with your death.
What a strange and astonishing situation! We did not really die, we were not really buried, we did not
really hang from a cross and rise again. Our imitation was symbolic, but our salvation a reality.
Christ truly hung from a cross, was truly buried, and truly rose again. All this he did gratuitously for us,
so that we might share his sufferings by imitating them, and gain salvation in actuality.
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What boundless love! The innocent hands and feet of Christ were pierced by the nails: he suffered the
pain. I suffer neither pain nor anguish: yet by letting me participate in his pain he gives me the free
gift of salvation.
No one should think, then, that his Baptism is merely for the remission of sins and for adoption as
sons in the way that John’s Baptism brought only remission of sins. We know well that not merely
does it cleanse sins and bestow on us the gift of the Holy Spirit – it is also the counterpart of Christ’s
suffering. This is why, as we heard just now, Paul cried out: Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by
Baptism into death.
LOW SUNDAY

THE NEW LIFE: COLOSSIANS 3:1-17
right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you
have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also
will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once
walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul
talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its
practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its
creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and
patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as
the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds
everything
together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you
were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and
admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with
thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

SERMON 8 IN OCTAVE OF EASTER; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
I address myself to you, newly-baptized infants, little ones in Christ, new offspring of the Church,
grace of the Father, fruitfulness of the Mother’s womb, holy children, new swarm, flower of our
honour, and fruit of our labour, my joy and my crown, all of you who stand upright before the Lord.
I address to you the words of the Apostle: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the
flesh, to gratify its desires, so that you may put on the life which you have put on by this sacrament.
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For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Such is the efficacy of this sacrament. It is the sacrament of the new life which begins at the present
time by the forgiveness of all past sins, but will only be completed in the resurrection of the dead. We
have been buried with Christ by Baptism into death, so that as Christ has arisen from the dead, we too
may walk in newness of life.
Now you walk by faith, as long as you journey in this mortal body far from the Lord. But Jesus Christ
towards whom you are moving is a sure way. He is this in his humanity which he took on for us. He
has in reserve an abundance of sweetness for those who fear him, which he will manifest and perfect
in those who hope in him, when we shall receive in reality what we have now received in hope.
Today is the octave of your birth; today is perfected in you the seal of faith which was given among
our fathers of old on the eighth day after physical birth through physical circumcision. So too the Lord
himself by rising cut away mortality from the flesh and raised up, not a different body, but one that
would die no more. This he did on the Lord’s day, the third day after his passion, the eighth day after
the Sabbath, which is also the first.
So you have not yet received in fact the glory of the resurrection but you have the sure hope of
receiving it since you have the sacrament of that reality and the pledge of the Spirit. If you have risen
with Christ, seek the thing, that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your
mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid
with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

VISION OF THE SON OF MAN: REVELATION 1:1-20
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take
place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word
of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads aloud the
words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for
the time is near.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits
who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and
the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his
God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the
clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on
account of him. Even so. Amen.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the
Almighty.
I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient
endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of
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Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lords day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying,
“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to
Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden
lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and
with a golden girdle round his breast; his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow;
his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his
voice was like the sound of many waters; in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued
a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not,
I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have
the keys of Death and Hades. Now write what you see, what is and what is to take place hereafter. As
for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands,
the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven
churches.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT RUPERT OF

DEUTZ
IN APOC. (PL 169:841-842); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
He has made us a royal race of priests to the honour of God, his Father. In this text Scripture shows
us Christ's marvellous kindness and condescension. Our minds are too limited to grasp a statement of
such magnitude, our tongues too weak to render adequate praise. The truth is that when Christ
bought us at such great cost to himself - at the cost indeed of his most precious blood - it was not
with the intention of making us his slaves; his purpose was to create a royal race of priests to the
honour of God his Father. We were to be his Father’s kingdom, and priests in the service of God. He
alone was King and Priest in his own right, yet he resolved to make kings of the slaves of sin and
priests of the children of death. To that end he shed his blood.
O Lord our God, how wonderful is your name, how wonderful the majesty and honour with which
you have crowned the Lord Jesus as King of kings! You have set on his head the crowns of all those
kings who form your kingdom, for yours is a kingdom of kings, resplendent in their regalia, each
consecrated to you by the blood of Christ.
We are also told that he has made us priests who share in that sacrifice by which Christ himself
triumphed over the devil and so destroyed the dominion of sin. We do not all possess the fullness of
the priesthood here on earth, with the power to bring about the real presence of our Lord’s body and
blood by pronouncing the words of consecration, but all of us are called to exercise a priestly function
by offering ourselves to God according to that exhortation of the Apostle Paul: I beseech you to
present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him, since this is the
service required of rational beings. In no other way shall we be permitted to enter into the celestial
Holy of Holies, by which I mean heaven itself.
In heaven the sacramental species of bread and wine, which constitute our present sacrifice, will find
no place. None of us, however, will ever lack matter for sacrifice there. Our lips will always be able to
offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, a hymn of rejoicing and the proclamation of God’s mighty
works. Indeed the next verse from the Apocalypse supplies us with a model for such a heavenly
sacrifice in the acclamation: Glory and power to him for ever and ever! Amen. And this is certainly
what the law of justice requires of us, namely, that creatures should return thanks and praise to their
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creator for all the benefits they have received. As an example, we can take Moses and the children of
Israel. When they had been delivered from bondage in Egypt by the immolation of the passover lamb,
and had seen Pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea, they sang a canticle of praise to the
Lord.
To keep one’s mouth closed and to silence one’s tongue, instead of voicing one’s thanks in
acknowledgment of a favour received, is a sure sign of ingratitude. Therefore when John intones this
short hymn of praise and thanksgiving, Glory and power to him forever and ever! let us all reply:
Amen. In the words of the Apostle Paul: Let every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
glory of God the Father.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

TO THE CHURCHES OF EPHESUS AND SMYRNA: REVELATION 2:1-11
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right
hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
“ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but
have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; I know you
are enduring patiently and bearing up for my names sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have
this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you
have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your
lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who
conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and
came to life.
“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that
they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days
you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who conquers shall not be hurt by the
second death.’”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ABBOT GEOFFREY

OF AUXERRE
ABBOT GEOFFREY OF AUXERRE, ON THE APOCALYPSE, SERMON 11; CF 42 (2000) TR.
GIBBONS.
I know your affliction and your poverty. How is it he says in the psalm, A people I did not know has
served me? He seems not to recognise those of his own whose suffering he does not relieve; he
seems unaware of the harm to his own that he does not avenge; he seems to ignore those whose
obedience he does not repay. Antony, sorely beaten by evil spirits, recognised the Saviour’s presence
as a heavenly light fell on him. From the midst of his misery, he said, ‘Where were you, good Jesus,
where were you?’ And a voice came to him, ‘Antony, I was here, but I was waiting to see your fight’
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And so he who began to do and to teach, he who first suffered in himself the affliction of death
and the cross – as he now lives in his own person, so too does he live in every one who belongs to
him, even to the least member of his body – tells the angel of Smyrna that after their afflictions
and deaths they will be victorious forever. I know your affliction. He says: Even though I hesitate,
even though I defer consolation, I know it and keep it in mind; indeed, I even suffer in you the
affliction you suffer because of me. Although I was rich, for your sake I became poor; I know and I
affirm your poverty.
He is not speaking of universal poverty as did Tobias’ father when he reminded the boy,
Remember, son, we lead a poor life. He is not speaking of that mother of wretched anxiety which
a mendicant people bears under dire necessity. He has in mind that poverty which by his counsel
and grace the perfect embrace in spiritual devotion. He once commended that poverty to his
disciples when he opened his mouth at the beginning of his sermon, blessing the poor in spirit
with the promise, indeed the conferral, of a heavenly kingdom, just as he commended those
suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake. Of both he says, For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. They have no regrets for having renounced the deceitful riches of this world, or for having
been driven from their earthly dwellings by persecutors, for a kingdom is given them hereafter in
heaven. And so, after commending poverty to this angel, he immediately adds that he is rich.
I know your affliction and your poverty, but, he says, you are rich. Is the one who possesses the
kingdom of heaven not rich? How much richer is he than if he possessed some earthly kingdom!
Beloved, let us embrace the poverty that makes people rich. What wonder is it that plenty can at
times make people poor, and opulence create paupers? Just as drink stimulates the thirst of dropsy
victims, so for the greedy, their love of gain increases as much as money itself increases. Contempt
for riches makes people rich just as yearning for it makes paupers. Yet it is not out of their own
poverty that the faithful grow rich, but out of the Lord’s, as the Apostle says: Although he was rich, he
became poor for our sakes, that by his poverty we may be enriched. No wonder we are enriched by his
poverty, for we are filled by his self-emptying, and quickened by his death.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

TO THE CHURCHES OF PERGAMUM AND THYATIRA: REVELATION 2:12-29
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged
sword.
“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; you hold fast my name and you did not deny my
faith even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan
dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam,
who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food
sacrificed to idols and practice immorality. So you also have some who hold the teaching of the
Nicolaitans. Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my
mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I
will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the
stone which no one knows except him who receives it.’
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a
flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
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“ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter
works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls
herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food
sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will
throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation,
unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know
that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve. But to
the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the
deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay upon you any other burden; only hold fast what you
have, until I come. He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power
over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces,
even as I myself have received power from my Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
A READING FROM CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES BY BD. COLUMBA MARMION

CHRIST IN HIS MYSTERIES 2.18.2-3.
If we do consider the Eucharist as a Sacrament, we shall discover in it wonderful properties which only
a God could invent.
I have often said following St Paul, to whom this idea is dear, that the chief events in the history of the
Jewish people under the old Law were symbols, sometimes hidden and obscure, sometimes apparent
and luminous, of the realities that were to be the light of the New Testament established by Christ.
Now, according to Our Lord’s own words, one of the most characteristic figures of the Eucharist was
the manna; with a special insistence, our Divine Saviour established comparisons between this food
which came down from heaven to nourish the Hebrews in the desert, and the Eucharistic bread which
he was to give to the world. Therefore it is to enter into the intentions of Christ if we study the figure
and symbol the better to grasp the reality.
Now see in what terms the sacred writer, the instrument of the Holy Spirit, speaks to us of the manna.
You fed your people with the food of angels, and gave them bread from heaven prepared without
labour, having in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste. For your sustenance showed
your sweetness to your children, and serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked.
The Church in the office of the Blessed Sacrament applies these magnificent words to the Eucharist.
We are about to see with what truth and fullness they express the properties of the Eucharistic
Bread; we shall see with how much more reason we can sing of the Sacred Host what the inspired
author sings of the manna.
Like manna, the Eucharist is a food, but a spiritual food. It is in the midst of a meal, under the form of
food, that Our Lord chose to institute it. Christ Jesus gives Himself to us as the nourishment of our
souls: My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed.
Again like the manna, the Eucharist is bread come down from heaven. But the manna was only an
imperfect figure; that is why Our Lord said to the Jews who recalled to him the miracle of the desert:
Moses gave you bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the
bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Of all the properties that Holy Scripture attributes to the manna, there is one which is particularly
remarkable. The manna was a food which accommodated itself to the taste and wishes of the one
who partook of it: serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked. In the heavenly
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Bread, the Eucharist, we can also find, if I may thus express myself, the savour of all the mysteries of
Christ, and the virtue of all His states. We are not here considering the Eucharist any longer as a
memorial, but as source of grace, and this is a fruitful aspect of the Eucharistic mystery. If we allow it
to penetrate our souls, we shall feel the love and desire for this divine food increase within us.
These are some of the marvels figured by the manna and brought about, for the life and joy of our
souls, by the wisdom and bounty of our God. How call we fall to surround these sacred mysteries with
all our reverence and adoration? Grant us, we beseech you, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of
your body and blood!
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

TO THE CHURCHES OF SARDIS, PHILADELPHIA AND LAODICIA: REVELATION 3:1-22
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God
and the seven stars.
“ ‘I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen
what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my
God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will
come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few
names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for
they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name
out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who
has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.
“ ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know
that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold,
I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie – behold, I
will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you. Because you
have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the
whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so
that no one may seize your crown. He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God;
never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my
God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true
witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you
are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have
prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white
garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to
anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and
repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will
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come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on
my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION OF ST

THOMAS MORE
A DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION 3.26; WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
Let us all who cannot now conceive such delight in the consideration of the joys of heaven as we
should, have often in our eyes by reading, often in our ears by hearing, often in our mouths by
rehearsing, often in our hearts by meditation and thinking, those joyful words of Holy Scripture by
which we learn how wonderfully large and great those spiritual heavenly joys are, of which our fleshly
hearts have so feeble and so faint a feeling, and our dull worldly wits so little ability to conceive as
much as a shadow of the right imagination. A shadow, I say, for as for the actual thing as it is, not only
can no fleshly fantasy conceive it, but even more, no spiritual holy person either, as long as he is still
living in this world. For since the very essence and substance of all the celestial joy consists in the
blessed beholding of the glorious Godhead face to face, no one can presume or expect to attain it in
this life, for God has said so himself: No one shall see me and live. And therefore we may well know
that while in this state of life we are not only shut out from the fruition of the bliss of heaven, but also
that the very best man living here upon earth (the best, I mean, who is not more than human) cannot,
I think, imagine it aright. Even the very virtuous are, in a way, as far from conceiving it as one born
blind is from having the right imagination of colours.
The words that Saint Paul repeats from the Prophet Isaiah prophesying Christ’s incarnation may
properly be applied to the joys of heaven: No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has anyone imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him. For surely, while in the state of this world, the joys of
heaven are by our mouths unspeakable, to our ears not audible, to our hearts inconceivable, so far do
they excel all that we have ever heard of, all that we can ever speak of, all that by our natural powers
we can ever think on.
And yet, although the joys of heaven are thus prepared for every saved soul, our Lord says, by the
mouth of Saint John, that he will give his holy martyrs that suffer for his sake many a special kind of
joy. For he says: To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life. And also, He who conquers
shall be clothed in white garments, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
And also he says: fear none of those things that you suffer, but be faithful unto death and I will give
you the crown of life.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE VISION OF GOD: REVELATION 4:1-11
After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to
me like a trumpet, said, Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I
was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! And he who sat
there appeared like jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an
emerald. Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four
elders, clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads. From the throne issue flashes of
lightning, and voices and peals of thunder, and before the throne burn seven torches of fire, which
are the seven spirits of God; and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
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And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and
behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living
creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living
creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they
never cease to sing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And
whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne,
who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne
and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,
“Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for thou didst create all
things, and by thy will they existed and were created.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE BY ST BEATUS OF

LIÉBANA
IN APOCALIPSIN, 3.3.1-2, 17-24, 28-30, 33-38 (ED. SANDERS 1930); TR. PLUSCARDEN.
And I saw in the midst of the throne and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front
and behind. The four living creatures signify the four evangelists because, being full of eyes in front
and behind, it seems that they contain the mysteries of God both past and future. The first has the
form of a lion, the second of an ox, the third of a man, the fourth of an eagle.
A question arises: how are these four living creatures both in the midst of the throne and also around
the throne? These locations must be understood spiritually, because it would be an error to
understand them according to the letter. Now, it had previously been said that Christ was sitting in
the midst of the throne and around the throne were the Elders, but now the living creatures are in
these places. If you apply the ear of your heart, you will know all these things to be spiritual because
they are said solely about the Head and the members. The throne where Christ sits is the Church and
the living creatures are said to be in the midst of the throne and around it. This means that the
Gospels are in the midst of the Church and also in the Elders. How can the living creatures and the
Elders both be around the throne unless they are one and the same?
The strength of the Church is shown in the lion, as it is said: behold the lion of the tribe of Judah
conquers. In the second animal it is shown how the Church is strong, for the ox is a sacrificial victim.
The third shows how it is both lion and ox: it has the face of a man. This speaks of the humility of the
Church which, as it has the adoption of the sons of God, seems to be like a man possessing nothing
but humanity, as it is said of the Lord, although he was in the form of God… he emptied himself taking
the form of a servant… and being found in human form he humbled himself and was made obedient
unto death. These three living creatures are completed in the fourth which is like a flying eagle. In this
eagle there is nothing earthly, unless it concerns him who was strong in his Passion like a lion; who
offered himself once as a holocaust like an ox; and who is rational and was sent forth to perform his
work as a man.
In Ezekiel through the Holy Spirit of prophecy these flying winged-creatures are subtly described so
that they signify the persons of the evangelists as is shown by the beginnings of each Gospel. Because
he begins with a human genealogy, Matthew is rightly signified by a man; because he begins with the
crying in the wilderness, Mark is rightly signified by a lion; because he begins with a sacrifice, Luke is
rightly signified by an ox; and because he begins with the divinity of the Word, John is rightly signified
by an eagle. And because all the elect are members of our Redeemer, as he is the Head of all, there is
nothing wrong if he himself is signified by these living creatures: by being born he is made a man; by
dying, an ox; by rising, a lion; and by ascending to heaven, an eagle.
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SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE VISION OF THE LAMB: REVELATION 5:1-14
And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the
back, sealed with seven seals; and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy
to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able
to open the scroll or to look into it, and I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll
or to look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, “Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing,
as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent out into all the earth; and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated
on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders
fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the
prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to
open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and
tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall
reign on earth.” Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders
the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a
loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honour and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the
earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be
blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!” And the four living creatures said,
“Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

SERMON 34.1-3, 5-6; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.
We are told to sing to the Lord a new song. A new man knows a new song. A song is a thing of joy and,
if we think carefully about it, a thing of love. So the man who has learned to love a new life has
learned to sing a new song. Therefore we need to be told the nature of this new life, for the sake of
the new song. For a new man, a new song and the New Testament all belong to the same kingdom. So
the new man will sing a new song and belong to the New Testament.
Everyone loves; the question is, what does he love? Consequently we are not told not to love, but to
choose what to love. But how can we choose, unless we are first chosen? We cannot love unless we
are first loved. Listen to the words of John the Apostle: We love, because he first loved us. If you
search for the reason why a man loves God you will find no other reason at all, save that God first
loved him. He gave us himself as the object of our love, and he gave us the source of our love. If you
wish to know what he gave as the source of our love, you can find a clearer explanation in the words
of the Apostle Paul: The love of God is poured out in our hearts. Where does it come from? From
ourselves? No. Where then? Through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Since, then, we have such an assurance, let us love God by the gift of God. As Saint John himself
expresses it more clearly: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
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It is not enough to say: ‘Love comes from God.’ Which of us would dare to say what Saint John said:
God is love? He knew what he was saying, for he experienced this love himself.
God offers himself to us; there is no need to offer us more. He calls out to us: ‘Love me and you will
possess me, because you cannot love me unless you possess me.’
My brothers, my sons, children of the Catholic Church, holy seeds of heaven, you who have been born
again in Christ, born from above, listen to me, or rather, through me: Sing to the Lord a new song.
‘But I do sing’, you may reply. You sing, of course you sing, I can hear you; but make sure that your life
sings the same tune as your mouth.
Sing with your voices, sing with your hearts, sing with your lips, sing with your lives. Sing to the Lord a
new song. Do you ask what you should sing about the one whom you love? Of course you want to sing
about the one you love. Do you ask what you should sing in praise of him? Listen: Sing to the Lord a
new song. Are you looking for praises to sing? His praise is in the assembly of the saints. The singer
himself is the praise contained in the song. Do you want to speak the praise of God? Be yourselves
what you speak. If you live good lives, you are his praise.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE BOOK OF GOD IS OPENED BY THE LAMB: REV. 6:1-17
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures
say, as with a voice of thunder, “Come!” And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a
bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” And out came
another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should
slay one another; and he was given a great sword.
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I saw, and behold, a
black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand; and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the
midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley
for a denarius; but do not harm oil and wine!”
When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I
saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its riders name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were
given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by
wild beasts of the earth.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the
word of God and for the witness they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord,
holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the
earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of
their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves
had been.
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun
became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth
as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled
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up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the
great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the
caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide
us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great
day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”
A READING FROM THE MORALS ON JOB BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

MORALIA 2.11 (SC 32:188-190); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
What can we say of the prayer for vindication made by the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar,
other than that it is a longing for the Last Judgment and the resurrection of the dead? Their loud
outcry expresses their tremendous longing; a less insistent cry would be a sign of a weaker desire. The
more a soul pours out its longing for God, the louder the sound of its voice in the ears of God’s infinite
Spirit, for desire is the language of the soul. In fact, if desire were not tantamount to speech, the
Prophet would not have said: Your ear has heard the desire of their heart.
Now it not infrequently happens that the person to whom a request is addressed takes a different
view of the matter from the petitioner. The souls of the saints, however, find rest through cleaving to
God in their inmost being. How, then, can we speak of their praying for something, when their will
cannot be at variance with the will of God? In what sense do we say that they pray, when we know for
certain that they are fully aware not of God’s will but also of what is going to take place in the future?
The answer is that, united to God, they pray to him not because they want something they know to
be contrary to his will, but because the more closely they are bound to him in love the more he
inspires them to pray for what they know he wants to give them. And so they drink the water for
which God himself makes them crave and, in a way we cannot now understand, the hunger they
express in their prayer is satisfied by the knowledge they have of what lies in the future. Therefore
they would be at variance with their creator’s will if they did not pray for what they knew was in
accordance with it, and they would not be perfectly united to him if they were slow to express their
longing for what he wanted to give them.
God’s reply to them is this: Be patient a little longer, until the number of your companions in the
Lord’s service is complete. To tell these yearning souls to be patient a little longer is to refresh and
console them in their burning desire with the foreknowledge of what is yet to come. Their cry is then
the expression of a loving heart’s aspiration, and God’s answer is to give them the assurance that
their longing for vindication will be fulfilled. For him to answer that they must wait for the gathering
together of their fellow servants is to instil into their minds the willing acceptance of delay and the
knowledge that while they long for the resurrection of the dead they can rejoice at seeing their
company grow in number.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

(A GREAT MULTITUDE IS MARKED WITH THE SEAL OF GOD: REV. 7:1-17
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of
the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel
ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to
the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or
the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.” And I heard
the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of
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Israel, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand of the tribe of Reuben,
twelve thousand of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand of the
tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand of the tribe of Simeon,
twelve thousand of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand of the
tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of
Benjamin.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in
white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs
to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood round the throne
and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and
worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and
power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence
have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come
out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb.
“Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he
who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of
the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes.”
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY OF THE SECOND

VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM 6-8
‘They continued steadfastly in the teaching of the Apostles and in the communion of the breaking of
bread and in prayers … praising God and being in favour with all the people’. From that time onward
the Church has never failed to come together to celebrate the Paschal Mystery: reading those things
‘which were in all the Scriptures concerning him’, celebrating the Eucharist in which ‘the victory and
triumph of his death are again made present’, and at the same time giving thanks ‘to God for his
unspeakable gift’ in Christ Jesus, ‘in praise of his glory’, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical
celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of his minister, ‘the
same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross’, but
especially under the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments, so that when a
man baptizes it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his Word, since it is he himself
who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church
prays and sings, for he promised: ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I
in the midst of them.’
Christ indeed always associates the Church with himself in this great work wherein God is perfectly
glorified and men are sanctified. The Church is his beloved Bride who calls to her Lord, and through
him offers worship to the Eternal Father.
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Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy
the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way
which corresponds with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by
the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and his members.
From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of
his body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church
can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.
In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy
city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God,
a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle; we sing a hymn to the Lord’s glory with all the
warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and
fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, our life, shall
appear and we too will appear with him in glory.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE SEVEN ANGELS CHASTISE THE WORLD: REV. 8:1-13
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I
saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another
angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle
with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the
incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. Then the angel
took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of
thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.
The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, which fell on the
earth; and a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of the trees were burnt up, and all green
grass was burnt up.
The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was
thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea
died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a
third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the
waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter.
The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a
third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining,
and likewise a third of the night.
Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice, as it flew in midheaven, “Woe, woe, woe
to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets which the three angels are about
to blow!”
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CONFERENCES 9.34.11-36.1; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY.
With respect to the unity of will which Our Lord always had with his Father, this is sung in his person
by the blessed David in the thirty-ninth psalm: My God, I have desired to do your will. For if we read of
the Father: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, we nevertheless find it also
written with regard to the Son: Who gave himself for our sins. And just as it is said of the former: Who
did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, it is likewise recounted of the latter: He was
offered because he himself willed it. The will of the Father and that of the Son are understood to be so
completely united that their operation even in the mystery of the Lord’s very resurrection, so we are
taught, was harmonious. For just as the blessed Apostle declares that the Father accomplished the
resurrection of his body when he says: God the Father, who raised him from the dead, so also the Son
bears witness that he will raise the temple of his body when he says: Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. And therefore, instructed by these examples of the Lord that we have spoken of,
we should ourselves conclude all our entreaties with a similar prayer and always add these words to
every petition of ours: Yet not as I will but as you do.
Before anything else, we must carefully observe the Gospel command which says that we should go
into our room and pray to our Father with the door shut. We shall fulfil this in the following way. We
pray in our room when we withdraw our hearts completely from the clatter of every thought and
concern and disclose our prayers to the Lord in secret and, as it were, intimately. We pray with the
door shut when, with closed lips and in total silence, we pray to the searcher not of voices but of
hearts. We pray in secret when, intent in heart and mind alone, we offer our petitions to God alone,
so that even the enemy powers cannot discover the nature of our petition. We must pray with the
greatest silence, therefore, not only so that we may not disturb our brothers standing nearby with our
murmurings and outcries and distract the minds of those who are praying, but also so that what we
are petitioning for may be hidden from our enemies, who plot against us greatly as we pray. Thus we
shall fulfil the command: Keep the door of your mouth from her who sleeps in your bosom. For this
reason prayer should be made frequently but briefly, lest if we take our time the lurking enemy be
able to put something in our heart.
This is the true sacrifice, for a contrite spirit is a sacrifice to God. This is the saving oblation, these the
pure libations, this the sacrifice of righteousness, this the sacrifice of praise, these the true and fatted
offerings which are offered by contrite and humble hearts and which, thanks to this disciplined and
attentive spirit that we have spoken of, we shall be able to sing when we have grown strong in virtue:
Let my prayer come like incense into your presence, the raising of my hands like an evening sacrifice.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS: REV. 9:1-12
And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given
the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit; he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the
shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the
smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power
like the power of scorpions of the earth; they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any
green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their
foreheads; they were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture
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was like the torture of a scorpion, when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and
will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them.
In appearance the locusts were like horses arrayed for battle; on their heads were what looked like
crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like
lions teeth; they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of
many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and their
power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails. They have as king over them the angel of the
bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

ADVERSUS HAERESES 5.2.2-3 (SC 153:30-38); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the Eucharistic chalice
does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body.
There can be no blood without veins, flesh, and the rest of the human substance, and this the Word
of God actually became: it was with his own blood that he redeemed us. As the Apostle says: In him,
through his blood, we have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven.
We are his members and we are nourished by creation, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes
the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He declared that the chalice which comes from his creation was his
blood and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He affirmed that the bread which comes from
his creation was his body and he makes it the nourishment of our body. When the chalice we mix and
the bread we bake receive the word of God, the Eucharistic elements become the body and blood of
Christ, by which our bodies live and grow. How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord’s
own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life?
Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.
He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of person, for spirits do not have flesh and
bones. He is speaking of a real human body composed of flesh, sinews, and bones, nourished by the
chalice of Christ’s blood and receiving growth from the bread which is his body.
The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the
ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all
things. The Wisdom of God places these things at our service and when they receive God's word they
become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies which have
been nourished by the Eucharist will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at
the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the
Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with
incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE PLAGUE OF WAR: REV. 9:13-21
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar
before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound
at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the
hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of mankind. The number of the troops of cavalry
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was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number. And this was how I saw the horses
in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the colour of fire and of sapphire and of sulphur, and the
heads of the horses were like lions heads, and fire and smoke and sulphur issued from their mouths.
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulphur issuing from
their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like
serpents, with heads, and by means of them they wound.
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands
nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which
cannot either see or hear or walk; nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their
immorality or their thefts.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST EPHREM

SERMO DE DOMINO NOSTRO 3-4.9 (LAMY 1:152-158.166-168); WORD IN SEASON III,1ST ED.
Death trampled our Lord underfoot, but he in his turn treated death as a highroad for his own feet.
He submitted to it, enduring it willingly, because by this means he would be able to destroy death in
spite of itself. Death had its own way when our Lord went out from Jerusalem carrying his cross; but
when by a loud cry from that cross he summoned the dead from the underworld, death was
powerless to prevent it.
Death slew him by means of the body which he had assumed, but that same body proved to be the
weapon with which he conquered death. Concealed beneath the cloak of his manhood, his Godhead
engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain. It was able to kill natural
human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man.
Death could not devour our Lord unless he possessed a body, neither could the world of the dead
swallow him up unless he bore our flesh; and so he came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the
underworld. This chariot was the body which he received from the Virgin; in it he invaded death’s
fortress, broke open its strong-room, and scattered all its treasures.
At length he came upon Eve, the mother of all the living. She was that vineyard whose enclosure her
own hands had enabled death to violate, so that she could taste its fruit; thus the mother of all the
living became the source of death for every living creature. But in her stead Mary grew up, a new vine
in place of the old. Christ, the new life, dwelt within her. When death, with its customary impudence,
came foraging for her mortal fruit, it encountered its own destruction in the hidden life that fruit
contained. All unsuspecting, it swallowed him up, and in so doing released life itself and set free a
multitude of men.
He who was also the carpenter’s glorious son set up his cross above death’s all-consuming maw, and
led the human race into the dwelling place of life. Since a tree had brought about the downfall of our
race, it was upon a tree that we crossed over to the realm of life. Bitter was the branch that had once
been grafted upon that ancient tree, but sweet the young shoot that has now been grafted in, the
shoot in which we are meant to recognize the Lord whom no creature can resist.
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We give glory to you, Lord, who raised up your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which
souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to you who put
on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other mortal man. You are
incontestably alive. Your murderers sowed your living body in the earth as farmers sow grain, but it
sprang up and yielded an abundant harvest of men raised from the dead. Come then, let us offer our
Lord the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of hymns and prayers
before him who offered his cross in sacrifice to God for the enrichment of us all.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE VOCATION OF THE SEER IS CONFIRMED: REV. 10:1-11
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over
his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his
hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud
voice, like a lion roaring; when he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven
thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what
the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” And the angel whom I saw standing on sea
and land lifted up his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created
heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there should be
no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the
mystery of God, as he announced to his servants the prophets, should be fulfilled.
Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll which is
open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and
told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your
stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel
and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ABBOT GILBERT OF

HOYLAND
SERMON 24 ON THE SONG OF SONGS; CF 20 (1974) TR. BRUCELAND.
You have heard praise for the teeth of the bride. And rightly, for no small measure of beauty is
attributed to teeth if they are white and evenly matched. Not only is evenness pleasing in teeth but
also usefulness. What is the reason? How was John to devour the rolled-up scroll offered him by the
angel in the Apocalypse, without teeth fit for such food? An entire book seemed to be tough food and
therefore teeth were needed to break the whole into small pieces and to soften what was hard that it
might be swallowed more easily.
Surely a good tooth is a trained understanding which is spiritual, which judges everything, examines
everything, chews on and scrutinizes everything, even the abyss of God, which chews even the very
marrow of the rolled up scroll and consumes the vitals of wisdom. The fool, we read, folds his hands
and consumes his own vitals. That is gory food, carnal food, food which perishes, or rather which
destroys. How much more appetizing and healthful it is to consume the vitals of wisdom and the
mysteries of the sacred word. The word cannot be touched with gory teeth but only with teeth
washed and white, because it is the brightness of eternal light and the teeth of the Bridegroom
himself are called whiter than milk. Accordingly he praises in the bride teeth like his own. Your teeth
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are like a flock of shorn ewes which have come up front the washing. Anyone must have mental
faculties not only washed but also freed, who intends to scrutinize the word of God.
Each bears twins and not one among them is barren. Barrenness is attributed to you, if you are
content with even a single offspring. If you have been able to arrive at some holy understanding in the
Scriptures, you have already given birth to one offspring. This is a good, a giant step, but not enough
for a holy appreciation, if affection does not match it. Barren is that understanding which is not paired
with a contemporary and kindred devotion. Everywhere in the Scriptures, seed is sown for you, as it
were, from which you may conceive this twin offspring. There all things are not only subtle but also
sweet. The command of the Lord is full of light and his word full of fire. Sterile in you is the word of
God, so far as it fails to produce either light or fire. If you see with your understanding but are still
chilled with icy feelings, is not the flaming power of God’s word considered barren and ineffective in
you?
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

TWO INVINCIBLE WITNESSES: REV. 11:1-19
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: “Rise and measure the temple of God
and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave
that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two
months. And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and
sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. And if
any one would harm them, fire pours out from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would
harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall
during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood,
and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their
testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer
them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically
called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three days and a half men from the
peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be
placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and
exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their
feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to
them, “Come up hither!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud. And at that
hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in
the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom
of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and
ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and
worshiped God, saying,
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“We give thanks to thee, Lord God Almighty, who art and who wast, that thou hast taken thy great
power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to be
judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear thy name, both small
and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple;
and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

THE CITY OF GOD 20.8; PENGUIN (1972) TR. BETTENSON.
The Devil is bound throughout the whole period embraced by the Apocalypse, that is, from the first
coming of Christ to the end of the world, which will be Christ’s second coming. The meaning of this
binding is not that he ceases to seduce the Church during that interval called ‘the thousand years’, as
is shown by the fact that when unloosed he is evidently not destined to lead it astray. For assuredly if
his binding meant that he is unable, or not allowed, to lead it astray, his unloosing can only mean that
he is now able, or permitted, to do so. But God forbid that this should be the case!
Instead, what the binding of the Devil means is that he is not permitted to exert his whole power of
temptation either by force or by guile to seduce men to his side by violent compulsion or fraudulent
delusion. For if he were permitted for so long a time, a time when so many were so insecure, he
would overthrow very many of the faithful or prevent very many from believing, and those would be
the kind of men to whom God did not will that this should happen. It was to prevent his achieving this
that he was bound.
But the Devil will be unloosed when the ‘short time’ comes; for we are told that he is going to rage
with all his strength and with the strength of his supporters for three years and six months. And yet
those against whom he has to wage war will be the kind of people who cannot be conquered by his
great attack and all his stratagems. But if he had never been unloosed his malign power would not
have been so clearly seen, and the endurance of the Holy City would never have been so clearly
proved in its utter faithfulness; above all it would not have been so manifest what good use the
Almighty was to make of the Devil’s great wickedness.
The Almighty did not prevent him altogether from putting the saints to the test; but he threw out the
Devil from their inner man, the seat of belief in God, so that they might profit from his outward
assault. And he tied him up among those who belong to his party, lest by pouring out his malice to the
utmost of his power he should hinder or break down the faith of countless weak persons, by whom
the Church was to be filled up and multiplied, destroying the faith of some who already believed,
hindering the faith of others who were on the point of believing. In the end the Almighty will unloose
him, so that the City of God may see how powerful a foe it has overcome, to the immense glory of its
Redeemer.
What are we in comparison with the saints and believers of the future, seeing that so mighty an
adversary will be let loose against them, whereas we have the greatest peril in our struggle with him
although he is bound? And yet there is no doubt that even during this period of time there have been,
and there are today, some soldiers of Christ so wise and brave that even if they were living in this
mortal condition at the time when the Devil is to be unloosed, they would take the most prudent
precautions against his stratagems, and withstand his assaults with the utmost steadfastness.
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SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE PORTENT OF THE WOMAN: REV. 12:1-18
And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her
feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of
birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon,
with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the
stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about
to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; 5 she brought forth a male
child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to
his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in
which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his
angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the
great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver
of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our
God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown
down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has
come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who
had borne the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle that she might
fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and
times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to
sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened
its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon
was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep
the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST EPIPHANIUS OF SALAMIS

HOMILY 3 IN SANCTAM CHRISTI RESURRECTIONEM (PG 43:466-470); WORD IN SEASON III,
2ND ED.
This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it, with a spiritual gladness pleasing
to God. This is our greatest feast, one that is celebrated by all the world, a feast of renewal and
salvation. Today God has fulfilled all types, symbols, and prophecies. Christ our Passover, the true
Passover, is sacrificed, and in Christ all is made new: there is a new creation, a new faith, new laws, a
new people of God, a new Israel in place of the old, a new Passover, a new and spiritual circumcision,
a new and unbloody sacrifice, a new divine covenant.
We too must be renewed today; we must renew a right spirit within our hearts and so prepare to
enter into the mysteries of this new and perfect feast and to exult in this day’s heavenly joy. We shall
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then depart as initiates of the mysteries of the new Passover, mysteries fulfilling those of the old
dispensation and which will never be superseded. We shall see how great the difference is between
the Jewish mysteries and ours and be able to compare the type with the reality. With these thoughts,
let us begin our meditation upon Christ, our Passover, and upon his mission.
Of old, Moses, the lawgiver, was sent by God from a high mountain to save his people and to
symbolize the Law. The Lord, the Lawgiver, was also sent, God by God, mountain from the highest
mountain of heaven, to save our people and to be the Law. Moses delivered his people from Pharaoh
and the Egyptians, but Christ has made peace between his two peoples and united heaven and earth.
Israel kept the symbolic Passover by night: we celebrate the true Passover by the light of day. They
kept it in the evening of the day: we keep it in the evening of the world. Then the doorposts and
lintels were sprinkled with blood: now it is the hearts of the faithful that are sealed with the blood of
Christ. Then the sacrifice was offered by night and the crossing of the Red Sea took place at night, but
now we are saved by the Red Sea of Baptism that glows with the fire of the Spirit. In Baptism the Spirit
of God truly descends and appears in the waters in which the head of the serpent, the prince of
serpents and demons, is crushed. Moses gave Israel its baptism by night and a cloud overshadowed
the people, but it is the power of the Most High that overshadows the people of Christ.
Moses had recourse to a rock of this creation, but we turn to the rock of faith. Then, the tablets of the
Law were broken in pieces as a sign that the Law would be abrogated: now, the Laws of God stand
forever. Then, the making of a molten calf brought retribution on the people: now, the sacrifice of the
Lamb of God is the salvation of the people. Then, water poured from the rock when it was struck by a
rod: now, from the pierced and life-giving side of the rock which is Christ, both blood and water flow.
The Jews of old were given quails from heaven: our gift from on high is the Dove, the Holy Spirit. They
fed on perishable manna and died: the bread that we eat brings us everlasting life.
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE TWO BEASTS: REV. 13:1-18
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its
horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet
were like a bears, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his
throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound
was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder. Men worshiped the dragon, for he
had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and
who can fight against it?”
And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to
exercise authority for forty-two months; it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God,
blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to
make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people
and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not
been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. If any
one has an ear, let him hear: If any one is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if any one slays
with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the
saints.
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Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a
dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its
inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It works great signs, even
making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men; and by the signs which it is allowed
to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, bidding them make an
image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived; and it was allowed to give breath
to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak, and to cause those who
would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich
and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can
buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls
for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human
number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

ADVERSUS HAERESES 5.28.1-30.3
Just as in this world some persons turn to the light, and by faith unite themselves with God, but
others shun the light and separate themselves from God, so the Word of God comes to prepare a fit
dwelling for both. On this account he says that those on the right hand are called into the kingdom of
heaven, but those on the left will be sent into eternal fire, for they have deprived themselves of all
good.
When the Antichrist comes and concentrates in his own person the apostasy, he shall accomplish his
deeds according to his own will and choice, sitting in the Temple of God so that those he has deceived
may adore him as the Christ. Thus shall he deservedly be cast into the lake of fire. John described his
coming in these words in the Apocalypse: And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like
a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth; and to it the dragon gave his own power and his
throne and great authority. After this he likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a
false prophet: He spoke like a dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his presence,
and caused the earth and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast. Let no one imagine that he
performs these wonders by divine power. He performs them by the working of magic for, since the
demons and apostate spirits are at his service, it is through them that he performs the wonders by
which he deceives the inhabitants of the earth.
The number of the beast is six hundred and sixty-six, that is, six times a hundred, six times ten, and six
units, as a summing up of the whole of that apostasy which has taken place during six thousand years.
For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. For the
day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident,
therefore, that they will come to an end at the six thousandth year.
Man who was moulded at the beginning by the hands of God, that is the Son and the Spirit, is made
after the image and likeness of God. The chaff, which is the apostasy, will be cast away, but the
wheat, those bringing forth fruit to God in faith, will be gathered into the barn. It is for this reason
that tribulation is necessary for those who are saved: that having been in a sense broken up and
ground down fine, and sprinkled over by the patience of the Word of God, and then set on fire, they
may be made ready for the royal banquet. As a certain man of ours once said when condemned to
the wild beasts because of his witness to God: ‘I am the wheat of Christ, and am ground by the teeth
of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of God.’
When the Beast comes, he shall make a recapitulation of all sorts of iniquity so that all apostate
power, flowing into and being shut up in him, may be sent into the furnace of fire. Fittingly, therefore,
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shall his name possess the number six hundred and sixty-six, since he sums up in his own person all
the wickedness, due to the apostasy of the angels, performed previous to the deluge. It is therefore
less hazardous to await the fulfilment of the prophecy than to be making conjectures about names of
men who may possess the number of the coming Antichrist.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE VICTORY OF THE LAMB: REV. 14:1-13
Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four
thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice
from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was
like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and
before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the
hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not
defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he
goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their
mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless.
Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell
on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God
and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and
earth, the sea and the fountains of water.”
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all
nations drink the wine of her impure passion.”
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If any one worships the beast
and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of Gods
wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in
the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment
goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its
image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the
faith of Jesus.
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
henceforth.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds
follow them!”

LETTER 31; FOCMC (1990) TR. BLUM.
It is well worth the effort to constantly keep in mind the promised rewards of chastity. If you are
seeking the happiness that is not attained except by death, the pangs of dying become light, just as
the ditch digger eases the tedium of his work by eagerly anticipating the wage that is his due. Ponder
what the Prophet says of the knights of chastity: The Lord says this to the eunuchs who observe my
Sabbaths and resolve to do what pleases me and cling to my covenant: I will give them a place in my
house and within my walls, and a name better than sons. They indeed are eunuchs who repress the
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excessive demands of the flesh and cut away from themselves the longing for wicked behaviour.
Many of those who are in bondage to the delights of carnal pleasure long to perpetuate their own
memory through their posterity. This they pursue through every waking moment, since they
are sure that they will not be wholly dead in this world if they continue their name in a
fruitfully surviving progeny.
But much more eminently and happily do celibates achieve this objective toward which those who
have children strive with such burning ambition. This is because they are always remembered by him
who, because of the condition of eternity, is not restrained by the laws of time. A name better than
that of sons is promised to eunuchs by the Word of God because, without any threat of oblivion, they
deserve to have their name remembered forever, something that generations of children succeed in
achieving only for a brief time. John says in the Apocalypse: Because they are worthy, they will come
with me, dressed in white, and I shall not blot their names out of the book of life. Again in the same
work it says, These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins; they
follow the Lamb wherever he goes; and they sing a hymn that can be sung only by the hundred and
forty-four thousand. Only those who have kept their virginity sing this unique song to the Lamb,
because they, more than all the faithful, rejoice with him forever.
Thus one must make every effort to reinforce the thought of the great excellence of being ranked
with these, where being even in the last place is perfect joy. Of course, just as Truth itself testified,
not everyone in this world can accept what I have said. So also, in the future not everyone
achieves this glorious reward. Consider these points, my dear brother, whoever you may be,
and with all your effort be quick to immunize your flesh from the attack of passion. If you still
stand firm, beware of failing; if you have fallen, reach out with confidence for the anchor of
repentance that is always at hand. If, like Abraham, you are unable to live away from Sodom,
you might, like Lot, move out when the heat of the fire nearby becomes intense. And if it is
not your fate to reach shore without harm, you may, as you lie out of danger on the beach,
wish to sing with an eager voice that rhythmic chant of blessed Jonah: All your waves and
your billows washed over me. And I said, I am cast out from your sight, but I shall look again
on your holy temple.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE HARVEST OF THE LAST TIME: REV. 14:14 – 15:4
Then I looked, and lo, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden
crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling
with a loud voice to him who sat upon the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap
has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat upon the cloud swung his sickle on
the earth, and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Then another
angel came out from the altar, the angel who has power over fire, and he called with a loud voice to
him who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for
its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle on the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth,
and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God; and the wine press was trodden outside
the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for one thousand six
hundred stadia.
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Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and wonderful, seven angels with seven plagues, which
are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who had conquered the
beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in
their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and wonderful are thy deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are thy ways, O King of
the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify thy name, O Lord? For thou alone art holy. All nations shall
come and worship thee, for thy judgments have been revealed.”

DEUTZ
IN APOC. 9.15 (PL 169:1109-1110); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Let us sing to the Lord, great is his renown! Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
It is common knowledge that the song of Moses recorded in the Book of Exodus can be understood in
a spiritual sense as pointing forward to the Gospel teaching on regeneration. It has a special relevance
for baptismal candidates emerging from the font. The author of the Apocalypse is therefore correct in
describing the hymn sung by the saints in heaven as the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the
song of the Lamb. By giving it this title, he is linking together a historical event and a spiritual reality.
The crossing of the sea under the leadership of Moses is seen as a foreshadowing of what Christ, the
Lamb of God, does for us in the regenerating waters of Baptism.
‘Lamb of God’ is used here as a richly evocative designation for the son of God, into whose death we
have been baptized. When Moses first intoned his song, he did so in honour of an event that had
begun with the slaying of a lamb. God himself had ordained that on the evening of the fourteenth day
of the first month a lamb should be sacrificed. The slaughter of that lamb prefigured the death of
Christ, the Son of God, who was destined to be slain in expiation of our sins.
In John’s vision the saints were singing: Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the
Almighty; just and true are your ways, O King of the ages! These may not be the exact words of the
song of Moses, the servant of God, but their substance is the same. The Old Testament singers were
not content with a single acclamation; they praised the Lord over and over again for his mighty deeds.
Great is the Lord’s renown, they proclaimed; his right hand is glorious in its strength. And again, Who
is as powerful as you, O Lord? Who can rival your illustrious holiness?
The saints, therefore, are described as singing the song of Moses because they resemble Moses both
in their singing and in the subject matter of their song. But while they too praise the Lord with joy and
thanksgiving to the accompaniment of harps, their song consists of one short verse only. This single
verse contains none the less two all-important themes: the power of God and the justice of the
Eternal King. Great and wonderful are your deeds is a proclamation of God’s power. Just and true are
your ways is an acknowledgement of his justice. Of the two it is surely more meritorious to confess
the second than the first. If we fear and praise God as the most powerful of spirits because we
witness his marvellous deeds, our confession is certainly not lacking in merit. But if we can discern the
divine justice underlying these same deeds and strenuously uphold it in the face of every denial, we
shall gain a far greater blessing. And the same is true even when discernment fails us: we are blessed
indeed if we still bow down in loving adoration of God’s justice, worshiping him in the words the
Apostle Paul teaches each one of us to say: O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of
God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, how unfathomable his designs!
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THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE SEVEN BOWLS OF THE WRATH OF GOD: REV. 15:5 – 16:21
After this I looked, and the temple of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the
temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen, and their breasts
girded with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden
bowls full of the wrath of God who lives for ever and ever; and the temple was filled with smoke from
the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of
the seven angels were ended.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the
seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and foul and evil sores came upon the men
who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man, and every
living thing died that was in the sea.
The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of water, and they became blood.
And I heard the angel of water say, “Just art thou in these thy judgments, thou who art and wast, O
Holy One. For men have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to
drink. It is their due!” And I heard the altar cry, “Yea, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are thy
judgments!”
The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch men with fire; men were
scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues,
and they did not repent and give him glory.
The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was in darkness; men
gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores, and did not
repent of their deeds.
The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare
the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the
mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs; for they are
demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them
for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is
awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled
them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon.
The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the
throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, and a great
earthquake such as had never been since men were on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The
great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great
Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no
mountains were to be found; and great hailstones, heavy as a hundred-weight, dropped on men from
heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.
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ALEXANDRIA
COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL 4.2; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
‘I am dying’; said the Lord, ‘for all men, so that through me all may have life; by my flesh I have
redeemed the flesh of all men. For in my death, death will die, and fallen human nature will rise again
with me. In this way l have become, like you, a man descended from Abraham, so that I may be made
like my brethren in every respect.’
Saint Paul understood this well when he said: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he
himself likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of
death, that is, the devil. There was never any other way to destroy the one who had the power of
death, and therefore death itself. Christ who had to give himself up for us; the one had to be the
ransom for all, for he was the head of all.
Accordingly, he said in another place, namely in the psalms, when he offered himself to God his
Father as a spotless sacrifice on your behalf: You wanted no sacrifice or oblation, but you prepared a
body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin. Then I said, “Here I am.” He was
crucified on behalf of us all and for the sake of us all, so that, when one had died instead of all, we all
might live in him. For it was impossible that he should be defeated by death or that one who is life by
its very nature should yield to corruption. Indeed, Christ’s own words prove to us that he offered his
flesh for the life of the world: Holy Father, keep them. And again: For their sake I make myself holy.
He said, I make myself holy, meaning ‘I consecrate and offer myself as a spotless sacrifice with a sweet
savour.’ For what was offered on the altar was made holy or called holy according to the Law.
Therefore Christ gave his body or the life of all, and through his body planted life among us again.
How this came about I shall explain as best I can. When God’s life-giving Word came to dwell in
human flesh, he remade it for its good, that is, for its life. Being linked with flesh in this unique form of
union, he made it a source of life, just as he is by his own nature, a source of life.
Thus the body of Christ gives life to those who share with him. By being among those who are liable
to death, his body drives death out; by bringing forth in itself a principle capable of utterly destroying
corruption, his body expels corruption.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

BABYLON THE GREAT: REV. 17:1-18
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you
the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have
become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on
a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The
woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in
her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead
was written a name of mystery: Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earths abominations. And
I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
When I saw her I marvelled greatly. But the angel said to me, “Why marvel? I will tell you the mystery
of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you
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saw was, and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition; and the dwellers on
earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will
marvel to behold the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. This calls for a mind with
wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven
kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must
remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the
seven, and it goes to perdition. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet
received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.
These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast; they will make war on
the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with
him are called and chosen and faithful.”
And he said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the harlot is seated, are peoples and multitudes
and nations and tongues. And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot;
they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has
put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power
to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city
which has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
A READING FROM THE THEOLOGICAL AND ECUMENICAL CHAPTERS OF ST

MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
THEOLOGICAL & ECUMENICAL CHAPTERS 43-49 (PG 90:1084-1173); THE PHILOKALIA 2
(1981).
For the fall and resurrection of many in Israel is the Lord appointed, says the Holy Gospel. We should
ask consequently whether he may not be appointed for the fall of those who contemplate the visible
creation solely according to their senses and of those who stick to the mere letter of Holy Scripture,
not being able in their folly to go further and grasp the new spirit of grace. And we should ask
whether he may not be appointed for the resurrection of those who contemplate God’s creatures and
listen to his words in a spiritual manner, cultivating in appropriate ways only the divine image that is
within the soul. If the Lord’s being appointed for the fall and resurrection of many is understood in
the right way, then the fall will refer to that of the passions and of evil thoughts in each of the faithful,
and the resurrection to that of the virtues and of every thought that enjoys God’s blessing.
Those who think of the Lord only as the creator of things which are generated and which decay
mistake him, as Mary Magdalene did, for the gardener. It is therefore for their own good that the
Master avoids contact with such persons, saying, Do not touch me; for they are not yet capable of
ascending with him to the Father. He knows that those who are predisposed to think of him in such
mean terms will suffer harm if they draw near to him. The Lord does not ascend to the Father for
those who explore divine truth with their faculties as they are in their fallen state; but he
does ascend to the Father for those who seek out the truth in the Spirit by means of the
higher forms of contemplation. The Logos came down out of love for us. Let us not keep him
down permanently, but let us go up with him to the Father, leaving the earth and earthly
things behind.
The land of the Chaldeans is a way of life dominated by the passions, in which the idols of sin are
fashioned and worshipped. Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, is a way of life that vacillates
between opposites. The promised land is a state filled with every blessing. Everyone, then, who like
ancient Israel neglects this state, loses the freedom which he has been granted, and allows himself
once more to be dragged off into slavery to the passions.
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It should be noted that none of the saints went down to Babylon of his own accord. For it would be
inept and inane for those who love God to choose what is bad rather than what is good. If some of
them were taken there by force along with the people, they are to be understood as those who, not
premeditatedly but at a time of crisis, and for the sake of saving those who needed their help,
abandoned their the higher principle of spiritual knowledge in order to give instruction concerning
the passions. For this reason St Paul felt that he would be more useful if he was in the flesh – that is,
engaged in giving moral instruction to the disciples – although his whole desire was to be set free
from moral teaching and to be with God through pure intellectual contemplation which transcends
the world.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON: REV. 18:1-20
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was
made bright with his splendour. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the
great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul
and hateful bird; for all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion, and the kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth
of her wantonness.”
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in
her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has
remembered her iniquities. Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her
deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and played the
wanton, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning. Since in her heart she says, ‘A queen I
sit, I am no widow, mourning I shall never see,’ so shall her plagues come in a single day, pestilence
and mourning and famine, and she shall be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges
her.”
And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and were wanton with her, will weep and wail
over her when they see the smoke of her burning; they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and
say, “Alas! alas! thou great city, thou mighty city, Babylon! In one hour has thy judgment come.”
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo any more,
cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all
articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh,
frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is,
human souls. “The fruit for which thy soul longed has gone from thee, and all thy dainties and thy
splendour are lost to thee, never to be found again!”
The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment,
weeping and mourning aloud, “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple
and scarlet, bedecked with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! In one hour all this wealth has been laid
waste.”
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And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and
cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” And they threw
dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all
who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! In one hour she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her,
O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”

ST BASIL OF CAESAREA, GREAT ASCETICON, LONGER RESPONSE 6, TR. PLUSCARDEN
Retirement to a secluded dwelling is a great help to the soul in avoiding distraction. For to have one’s
life always mixed up with those who are fearlessly and scornfully disposed towards the exact
observance of the commandments is shown to be harmful by the words of Solomon who teaches us,
Do not make friends with an angry man, nor be a companion of a wrathful man; lest you learn his
ways and entangle yourself in a snare. And the saying, Come out from amongst them and be separate,
says the Lord, points in the same direction.
Accordingly, that we may not through eyes or ears receive incitements to sin and imperceptively
become accustomed to it; and that the impression and forms of things seen or heard may not burrow
into the soul causing destruction and loss; and in order that we may be able to continue in prayer, we
ought first of all to seek to live apart. For in this way we shall overcome those previously formed
habits in which we lived alienated from the commandments of Christ. This means no small struggle, to
overcome one’s usual mode of life, for habit strengthened by lapse of time gains the strength of
nature. We shall be able to rub out the stains of sin by toiling in prayer and steadfast meditation on
the will of God. It is impossible to attain to this meditation and prayer in a crowd which distracts the
soul and introduces worldly cares. Whoever in a crowd could fulfil this saying: If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself? For we must deny ourselves and take up the cross of Christ and thus
follow him. But to deny oneself means complete forgetfulness of the past and withdrawal from one’s
own will, in which it is very hard, almost impossible, to succeed if one is living with unrestricted
communication. Indeed mixing in such a life even hinders the taking up of one’s cross and following
Christ. To take up one’s cross means being ready to die on Christ’s behalf, it means putting to death
what is earthly in you and standing in the battle line to meet every danger that comes upon us for the
name of Christ. We see that the obstacles put in the way of this by the communications of the
common life are great.
In addition to all the many other things, the soul, looking at the crowd of offenders, in the first place
has no opportunity to become aware of its own sins and to become contrite by repentance of its
misdeeds, but by comparison with worse people it actually acquires pretensions to virtue. Secondly,
led away from the precious memory of God by the tumults and distractions which common life
produces, it is not only deprived of exultation and joy in God, and tasting the sweetness of his words,
so as to say, I remembered God and rejoiced and, How sweet are your words to my throat, sweeter
than honey to my mouth. It also grows accustomed to complete contempt and forgetfulness of his
judgements, than which it could suffer no greater or more deadly evil.
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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB PROCLAIMED: REV. 18:21 – 19:10
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So shall
Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and shall be found no more; and the sound of
harpers and minstrels, of flute players and trumpeters, shall be heard in thee no more; and a
craftsman of any craft shall be found in thee no more; and the sound of the millstone shall be heard
in thee no more; and the light of a lamp shall shine in thee no more; and the voice of bridegroom and
bride shall be heard in thee no more; for thy merchants were the great men of the earth, and all
nations were deceived by thy sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and
of all who have been slain on earth.”
After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, “Alleluia!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged
the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood
of his servants.” Once more they cried, “Alleluia! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.” And
the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on
the throne, saying, “Amen. Alleluia!” And from the throne came a voice crying, “Praise our God, all
you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.” Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a
great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying,
“Alleluia! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for
the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be
clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the
Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him,
but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold
the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

IN PS. 148, 1-2 (CCL 40:2165-2166); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we
shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains
himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our
petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been
promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps
his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn
for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised and yearning is
over; then praise alone will remain.
Because there are these two periods of time – the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles
of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy – we are given two
liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the
troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at
present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter
is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet
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possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we
devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.
Both these periods are represented and demonstrated for us in Christ our head. The Lord’s passion
depicts for us our present life of trial – shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The
Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.
Now therefore, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say
Alleluia. You say to your neighbour, ‘Praise the Lord!’ and he says the same to you. We are all urging
one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see
that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your
lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives, and all your actions.
We are praising God now, assembled as we are here in Church: but when we go our various ways
again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not cease to live a good life, we shall
always be praising God. You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice and from what is
pleasing to God. If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions
will cry aloud, and God will perceive your intentions; for as our ears hear each other’s voices, so do
God’s ears hear our thoughts.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE VICTORY OF THE WORD OF GOD: REV. 19:11-21
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True,
and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are
many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clad in a robe
dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven,
arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses. From his mouth issues a sharp
sword with which to smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine
press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name
inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in
midheaven, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains,
the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and
slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered
to make war against him who sits upon the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured,
and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those
who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown
alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur. And the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits
upon the horse, the sword that issues from his mouth; and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN BY ORIGEN

IN JOH. 2:46-49, 56-57, 59-61; FOC 80 (1989), TR. HEINE.
To advance in understanding the matters pertaining to the ‘Word of God’, we must contemplate what
is suggested by the heaven being opened, the white horse, and the fact that the one called the Word
of God, who, in addition to being the Word of God, is also said to be faithful and true, and one who
judges and fights with justice, is seated on the white horse.
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Now I think that heaven has been closed to those who are impious and who bear ‘the image of the
earthly’, but opened to those who are just and who have been adorned with ‘the image of the
heavenly’. For the higher things have been closed to the first group, inasmuch as they are below and
are still in the flesh, because they cannot understand them nor their beauty, for they do not wish to
perceive them. But he opened the heavenly places with the key of David to be contemplated by the
superior group, inasmuch as they have citizenship in heaven. The divine Word opens them and
explains them by riding a horse. The horse is the words which proclaim the meanings. He is white
because the nature of the knowledge is remarkable and white and luminous.
And he who is called ‘faithful’ sits on the white horse, seated on words which cannot be overturned,
words which run faster and swifter than any horse, and which surpass every opponent in their rush,
that is, every supposed word which is a dissembler of the Word. But he who is on the white horse is
called ‘faithful’, not so much because he trusts, as because he is trustworthy, for according to Moses,
the Lord is faithful and true. For he is also true in distinction to a shadow and a type, and he is an
image since the Word in the opened heaven is an image. For the Word on earth is not like the Word
in heaven, inasmuch as he has become flesh and is expressed by means of a shadow and types and
images.
Further, John says most admirably in his statements about the Word mounted on the white horse,
His eyes were as a flame of fire. For as the flame is bright and at the same time illuminating, and
further also has a nature that is fiery and consumes the more material elements, so the eyes of the
Word with which he sees, and everyone who participates in him, destroy and obliterate the more ma-
terial and gross elements of thoughts by grasping them by means of the spiritual powers inherent in
him. He is also said to have a name written which no one knows except himself, for this living Word
alone understands some things because of the natural inferiority in those who came into existence
after him. None of them can contemplate all the things which he grasps. And perhaps also only those
who share in the Word, in contradistinction to those who do not, know what the latter are missing.
Now John does not see the Word of God mounted on a horse naked. He is clothed with a garment
sprinkled with blood, since the Word who became flesh, and died because he became flesh, is
invested with traces of that passion, since his blood also was poured forth upon the earth when the
soldier pierced his side. For, perhaps, even if in some way we obtain the most sublime and highest
contemplation of the Word and of the truth, we shall not forget completely that we were introduced
to him by his coming in our body.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE LAST BATTLE OF THE DRAGON: REV. 20:1-15
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and
a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound
him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed
for a little while.
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw
the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and
who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or
their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not
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come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he
who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be
priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to
deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather
them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad earth
and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city; but fire came down from heaven and
consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur
where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and
ever.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away,
and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne,
and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it,
Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then Death
and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if any ones
name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TWOFOLD RESURRECTION BY

ARCHBISHOP BALDWIN OF CANTERBURY
TRACT. 4 (PL 204:429-431.441-442); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Our Lord’s glorious resurrection teaches us that the fruit of obedience is resurrection and life. These
were the fruit of the obedience practised by Christ, who is the resurrection and the life personified.
However, Christ died only once, and rose again once only. A single resurrection answered to a single
death. But for us who have been dragged down to the depths by the burden of a twofold mortality,
one resurrection cannot suffice. Because we have fallen so low, a single resurrection is not enough to
bring us to the blessed life of heaven. We need two.
Nevertheless the resurrection of Christ is the cause and exemplar, the model and the effective sign of
both our resurrections, first and second alike. It is by our faith in and our sacramental imitation of the
resurrection of Christ that we are recreated, justified, sanctified, and raised from death. This is our
first resurrection, the resurrection of our soul, through which we are now dead to sin and live for
holiness, walking in newness of life as we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that
we have at last fully realized our adoption as God’s sons. That will take place at the second
resurrection, when Christ will refashion these wretched bodies of ours and make them resemble his
own glorious body.
Our first resurrection begins when we first show obedience to God, and is brought to completion by
our perseverance in doing his will. Our second resurrection begins with our glorification and endures
for all eternity. If we continue in obedience till the end of our lives, then we shall also abide in a glory
that knows no end.
The first resurrection has a glory of its own, something in which both body and soul can rejoice. On
this subject we may consult the Apostle Paul. Where bodily glory here below is concerned he has this
to say: Far be it from me to glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. As for the glory
enjoyed by the soul, he explains that, our glory is in the hope of our adoption as God’s sons.
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But the glory belonging to the second resurrection will be the glory of the soul that sees God in the
glory of his divinity, and the glory of the body in its state of incorruptibility, when this perishable
nature of ours puts on imperishability and this mortal nature puts on immortality. In that future life
the saints will be doubly clad. Robed in white and holding lyre and harp, they will sing and play in their
glory, praising God together for all eternity. Their mouths will be filled with songs of rejoicing and
their lips with hymns of gladness, as they praise and honour our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God
enthroned over all, blessed for evermore. Amen.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE NEW JERUSALEM: REV. 21:1-8
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and
God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have
passed away.”
And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for
these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without
payment. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But
as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and
all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

LETTER 66; FOC MC 3 (1992) TR. BLUM.
Let your soul be directed to the things that are promised in the fatherland so that as an exile you may
minimize the difficulty that looms on the way. When one looks up and sees a lump of glittering gold,
the burden of the journey grows lighter. Call to mind, therefore, how fortunate is he who wins the
right to enter the marriage banquet in the splendid company of the elect while a vast crowd of the
damned is turned away. What an honour it is to be ever in attendance in sight of the Creator; to
contemplate the spectacle of truth present before you; to behold God face to face, associated with
angelic choirs.
There those involved are so filled with attendant joys that they are never concerned about future
hardships. There, while the soul enjoys to the full the quiet pleasure of unlimited light, it is
unspeakably happy over the rewards of its companions. There the thirsty drink from the fount of life,
and as they drink, they thirst for more. There, indeed, it is impossible for either desire to beget lust or
for gratification to turn into loathing. Here one discovers the eternal greening of the bloom of youth,
the charm of beauty, and the unceasing vigour of good health. In effect, from this eternal source they
acquire the power to live forever and to rejoice ineffably and, what is far more important, to grow
into the likeness of the Creator himself. For, as John the Evangelist states, When it is revealed, we
shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.
John says of this city, Each of its gates was made of a single pearl, and the streets of the city were
pure gold, transparent as glass. And at once he adds, The city did not need the sun nor the moon,
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since it was lit by the radiant glory of God, and the lamb was a lighted torch for it. There, moreover,
tainted human nature, cleansed of all the filth of passion, will leap for joy, and will endure unsullied in
its moral purity and sincerity. In fact, as the body becomes spiritual, it will be in harmony with the
soul, and the whole man will in no way disagree with the will of its Creator. All that the Creator has
made will remain, while whatever the devil has added will be taken away. There each one’s secrets
will be laid bare before the eyes of all. There, with all hearts united by the bond of mutual love, none
will differ from another in any way, but all will associate unanimously in a common exercise of will.
When we celebrate a feast here, all others are omitted; there, however, one always experiences the
collective happiness of all festivals, because they who are in fact the cause for celebration are
present.
In heaven there is an absence of ignorance and of impossibility, because, by their union with wisdom,
the blessed know all things and are able to do all things. There we will be face to face with things
revealed: how the Father ineffably begets the Son, and how the Holy Spirit proceeds from both of
them. There melodious instruments caress the ears of the blessed with sweet harmony. There, amid
green pastures that fill one with pleasant delight, snow-white lilies never wither and dark red roses
and flowering crocus never waste away. Certainly, the reality of the everlasting happiness of the
heavenly Jerusalem is incomparably greater than the mind of man can ever conceive, and the mind
grasps more than can ever be put in words.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE VISION OF THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB: REV. 21:9-27
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke
to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And in the Spirit he carried me
away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven
from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It
had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names
of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed; on the east three gates, on the north three
gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The
city lies foursquare, its length the same as its breadth; and he measured the city with his rod, twelve
thousand stadia; its length and breadth and height are equal. He also measured its wall, a hundred
and forty-four cubits by a man’s measure, that is, an angel’s. The wall was built of jasper, while the
city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every
jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx,
the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase,
the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the
gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city
has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates
shall never be shut by day – and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the
honour of the nations. But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practises abomination or
falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
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IN CANT. 27:6-7; CF 7 (1976) TR. WALSH.
Contemplate what a glory is hers who compares herself to heaven, even to that heaven who is so
much more glorious as he is divine. This is no rashness, taking her comparison from whence her origin
comes. For if she compares herself to the tents of Kedar because of her body drawn from the earth,
why should she not glory in her likeness to heaven because of the heavenly origin of her soul,
especially since her life bears witness to her origin and to the dignity of her nature and her
homeland? She adores and worships one God, just like the angels; she loves Christ above all things,
just like the angels; she is chaste, just like the angels, and that in the flesh of a fallen race, in a frail
body that the angels do not have. But she seeks and savours the things that they enjoy, not the things
that are on the earth. What can be a clearer sign of her heavenly origin than that she retains a natural
likeness to it in the land of unlikeness, than that as an exile on earth she enjoys the glory of the
celibate life, than that she lives like an angel in an animal body? These gifts clearly indicate that a soul
thus endowed is truly from heaven.
But Scripture is clearer still: I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying:
“Behold the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell among them”. But why? In order to win a bride
for himself from among men. How wonderful this? He came to seek a bride, but did not come without
one. He sought a bride, but she was with him. Had he then two brides? Certainly not. My dove is only
one, he says. Just as he wished to form one flock of the scattered flocks of sheep, that there might be
one flock and one shepherd, so, although from the beginning he had for bride the multitude of
angels, it pleased him to summon the Church from among men and unite it with the one from
heaven, that there might be but the one bride and one Bridegroom. The one from heaven perfects
the earthly one; it does not make two. Hence he says: My perfect one is only one. Their likeness
makes them one, one now in their similar purpose, one hereafter in the same glory.
These two then have their origin in heaven: Jesus the Bridegroom and Jerusalem the bride. He, in
order to be seen by men, emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. But the bride – in what form or exterior loveliness, in what guise did St John see her coming
down? Was it perhaps in the company of the angels whom he saw ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man? It is more accurate to say that he saw the bride when he looked on the Word made
flesh, and acknowledged two natures in the one flesh. For when that holy Emmanuel introduced to
earth the curriculum of heavenly teaching, when we came to know the visible image and radiant
comeliness of that supernal Jerusalem, our mother, revealed to us in Christ and by his means, what
did we behold if not the bride in the Bridegroom? He who descended is also he who ascended, since
no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven. The one and same Lord who as
head of the Church is the Bridegroom, as body is also the Bride.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE: REV. 22:1-9
Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God
and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree
of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall
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be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God
will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.
And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the
prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am
coming soon.”
Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
I John am he who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship
at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a
fellow servant with you and your brethren the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this
book. Worship God.”

DEUTZ
ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ, IN APOC. 22 (PL 169:1206); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The angel showed me a river of life-giving water, clear as crystal, issuing from the throne of God and
of the Lamb, and flowing down the centre of the city street. On both banks of the river grew the tree
of life, bearing its fruit twelve times a year, one crop for each month. The leaves of that tree are
destined for the healing of the nations.
The river here depicted is none other than the torrent of gladness and joy described in one of the
psalms as the fast-flowing river that gladdens the City of God, the river of which another psalm
proclaims: They shall be filled with the abundance of your house, O Lord, and you will give them
water from the flowing stream of your delights. The same figurative language was used by Isaiah to
console the people of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, he announced, I will make peace flow over her
like a river; the wealth of the nations shall pour into her like a torrent in full spate.
The river of John’s vision, therefore, represents the Lord. More specifically, we can see in it an image of the
Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who is the river of peace, the torrent of wealth, the river of gladness,
the flowing stream of delight, and the abundance of God’s house, for he is himself the love that unites
bride and Bridegroom in the city of glory and constitutes the entire happiness of all who live there.
That love which is the Holy Spirit is the life of the holy angels and of all saintly souls. Consequently the
river shown to John by the angel is called a river of life-giving water. Because its water imparts light
and strength it is said to be clear as crystal. This is a beautiful comparison. Crystal is a substance which
is translucent yet very durable, qualities which we ourselves shall possess in the life of glory. Our
minds will be wholly irradiated with the divine light, and our bodies will gain a crystalline strength
through the gift of blessed immortality in that state of eternal happiness where there will be no more
dying.
Now we know that in the Gospel of Saint John our Lord speaks of the procession of the Holy Spirit.
When the Advocate comes whom I shall send you, he says, the Spirit of Truth who issues from the
Father. Nor does John neglect that teaching in the Apocalypse. In fact, he affirms it precisely in this
very passage, where he tells us that the river issues from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
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SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE TESTIMONY OF OUR HOPE: REV. 22:10-21
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let
the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still
be holy.”
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they
may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers
and idolaters, and every one who loves and practices falsehood.
“I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the
offspring of David, the bright morning star.”
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let him who hears say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty
come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.
I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will
add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book
of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are
described in this book.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ABBOT ACHARD OF ST VICTOR

SERMON ON THE COMING OF THE LORD; CS165 (2001) TR. FEISS.
Come, Lord Jesus. John placed these three words at the end of his Apocalypse, at the end of the entire
canonical Scriptures, in order to impress our minds more sharply and profoundly so that we might
unflaggingly long for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Woe to the person who does not long for him!
Whoever loves him longs for him, and the more one loves, the greater is one’s longing. He should be
deeply desired, because he will not come empty-handed, but will hold in his hand the kingdom and
the ruling authority. We are asking for this kingdom when we say: Your kingdom come; that is, that
we may reign in him, or rather, he in us; he in us through righteousness, we in him through beatitude.
He came first to bestow on us original righteousness, which consists of participation in the merits of
Christ. Christ himself granted us his merits, so that what would have been done to him on account of
them, if he had need, might be done to us. We obtain this original righteousness when we are reborn
in water and the spirit; through them we are made unworthy of death and worthy of everlasting life,
just as through our first birth, with which we are by nature children of wrath, we incur a certain
original unrighteousness called original sin, through which we are unworthy of life and worthy of
death.
My point is that he first came into flesh to confer this original righteousness on us; then he comes in
spirit into our spirit to add a certain actual righteousness, which the grace of Christ effects in us, but
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not apart from us. First, through the grace called operant or prevenient, which works in us but apart
from us, the will is healed, liberated, and given the capacity to act rightly. Then, after the will has been
healed, free choice begins to act with grace. The will does not do one thing and grace another, but
the will does one and the same thing grace does. This grace, with which the will co-operates, or which
co-operates with the will, is called subsequent or co-operating grace. What is to co-operate if not to
operate with another? Finally, Christ will come to glorify us on account of both kinds of righteousness.
He first came into flesh in order to give for us the price of our redemption, and to liberate us from the
yoke of sin and wretched slavery to the devil. Then he comes in the spirit into our spirit, in order to
confer on us the effect of our redemption, that is, to lead us out of prison. Finally he will come in flesh
to lead us home and into all truth.
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE WORD OF LIFE AND THE LIGHT OF GOD: 1 JOHN 1:1-10
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made
manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the
Father and was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so
that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus
Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live
according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and
his word is not in us.
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON THE 1 S T LETTER OF JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE

ON 1 JOHN 1:5-6 (SC 75:124-126); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
We, my friends, are travellers, making our way with all speed toward our homeland; and if we give up
hope of reaching it, our very despair causes us to faint by the wayside. But it is God’s will that we
should arrive; he gives us nourishment for our journey in order to have us safe with him in our
heavenly country. Listen, then, to the word he gives us: If we claim to have fellowship with him while
we are still walking in the dark we are liars; we are not practising the truth. My friends, let us avoid
saying we have any fellowship with him if we are walking in the dark. But if we walk in the light, as
he himself is in the light; then we have fellowship with one another.
But what of our sins? The answer is in the next sentence: And the blood of his Son Jesus Christ will
cleanse us from every transgression. What is meant by every transgression? Listen carefully: the
newly-baptized, whom we call ‘little children’, having made their declaration of faith in the name of
Christ, have had all their sins washed away by his blood. They entered the baptismal font veterans in
sin, and came out filled with new life – they entered full of years, and came out little children. Their
former life was a feeble old age; their new life is the childhood of rebirth
We must remember, however, that not only the newly baptized but we ourselves have had our past
sins forgiven, and yet after all our guilt has been pardoned and washed away we may have fallen into
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fresh sins, through having to live in the midst of this world’s temptations. All of us, then, must do
what lies in our power; we must admit our own condition so that we may be healed by the one who
never changes, the one who has always existed and is being itself, whereas we have come into being
out of non-existence.
See what the Scripture says: If we deny our sins we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth does not
abide in us. This means that if you confess yourself to be a sinner the truth does abide in you. Your
life may not yet be perfectly free from blemishes, since there are still some sins in it; but your
enlightenment has begun, because the acknowledgment of these sins is also there. Read what
follows: If we confess our transgressions, he who is faithful and just will forgive them and cleanse
us of all iniquity. This applies not only to our past sins but also to any that our life in this world may
have caused us to commit; for as long as we are made of flesh and blood, we cannot avoid at any rate
the lesser sins. However, though we may call them lesser sins, that does not mean they are of no
account. We may think little of their gravity, but we must tremble at their number. Many lightweight
objects put together make up a considerable mass; many drops of water fill up a river; many grains of
wheat form a heap.
In that case, what hope is there for us? First of all, confession. Let no one consider himself blameless.
A person who has been brought into being out of nothing may not hold up his head in the sight of
God, who sees him for what he is. Confession of our guilt, then, must come first, and be followed by
love. It is said of charity that it covers a multitude of sins.
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE NEW COMMANDMENT: 1 JOHN 2:1-11
My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for
ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we
keep his commandments. He who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the
truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may
be sure that we are in him: he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he
walked.
Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you had from the
beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new
commandment, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true
light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. He
who loves his brother abides in the light, and in it there is no cause for stumbling. But he who hates
his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going,
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

ON 1 JOHN 1:9-12 (SC 75:132-144); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
This is the test by which we can be sure that we know God, says St John: Do we keep his
commandments? But which commandments? The person who claims to know God and disobeys his
commandments is a liar; but in the one who keeps God’s word divine love has reached perfection. May
we not infer from this that God’s actual commandment is to love? You have only to turn to the Gospel
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for confirmation. I give you a new commandment, Jesus says; love one another. We can know we are
abiding in God if we have been made perfect in him – perfect, that is, in love. The perfection of love is
to love one’s enemies, and so transform them into brothers.
Our love must not be merely natural affection. We must love our enemies with the kind of love that
longs to have them as brothers and to welcome them into our community. Such love was shown by
the Lord as, hanging on the cross, he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing. By this prayer, so full of compassion, and by his own mighty power, he was saving them from
everlasting death. Many among them believed, and received forgiveness for their part in shedding the
blood of their Messiah. We can know, then, that we are abiding in God if we have been made
perfect in him. When he says: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, our Lord is calling us to
the perfection which consists in loving one’s enemies.
He who loves his brother dwells in the light and has no occasion for stumbling. Those who either
stumble themselves or are a cause of stumbling to others are those who are scandalized by Christ and
by the Church. If you hold fast to charity you will find no stumbling block in either, nor will you
abandon them. How can anyone be in Christ if he leaves the Church? No longer counted among
Christ’s members, he cannot be in Christ since he is not part of his body. Those who stumble, then,
are the people who abandon Christ or the Church. They are like someone being cauterised, who cries
out: ‘I cannot bear it, I will not endure it’, and walks out. Yes, those who cannot put up with certain
things in the Church and no longer profess themselves Christians or Catholics, they are the ones who
are scandalised and stumble.
See how scandalised were those carnal-minded people to whom Christ announced the giving of his
flesh as food! When he told them: Anyone who does not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood will not have life within him, well nigh seventy of them replied: This is an intolerable
doctrine, and withdrew from his company, leaving only the twelve. And in case anyone should
imagine that the latter were doing Christ a favour by believing in him, rather than receiving a grace
from him, he said to the twelve who remained: Will you also go away? I want you to understand that
it is you who need me, not I who need you. Peter spoke for them all when he replied: Lord, to whom
can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

OBSERVING THE WILL OF GOD: I JOHN: 2:12-17
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his sake. I am writing to you,
fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because
you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you,
fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you
are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not
in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is
not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does
the will of God abides for ever.
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ON 1 JOHN 2.8-14 (SC 75:166-181);WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
How can we love God if we love the world? There are two kinds of love, love of the world and love of
God. Where love of the world is in possession, there is no room for love of God. Love of the world
must give place to the higher love which is the love of God. You used to love the world; love it no
longer. When you have emptied your heart of earthly love you will drink your fill of the love that is
divine. Charity will now begin to dwell in you, and from charity no evil can come. Listen then to the
words of the Apostle who would now make you clean and pure. The human heart is like a field to him.
In what condition does he find it? If it is overgrown, he weeds it, if the ground is already cleared, he
plants it with charity, for charity is the tree he desires to establish there. The undergrowth he would
eliminate is the love of the world. Listen to him as he roots up the brushwood, Love not the world, nor
the things of the word. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Would you have the love of the Father, and so be a fellow heir with the Son? Love not the world.
Reject the world’s wicked love and be filled with the love of God. You are a vessel, but not yet an
empty one; pour out what you contain, so that you may have room for what you do not yet possess.
We know that our brothers have been born again of water and the Spirit, just as we ourselves were
years ago. It is good for us not to love the world, otherwise the sacraments we then received may
remain in us only as a sign of condemnation instead of a healing support.
Let us have no love for the world, or the things of the world. All that the world contains is the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. By these three things the devil tempted our Lord.
He tempted him to lust of the flesh when he said to him: If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to
turn into bread. Now take note of the method Jesus used to rebuff the tempter; it is the way he
taught his followers to resist him. Man does not live by bread alone, he retorted, but by every word
that comes from God.
The devil also tempted our Lord to lust of the eyes for the sight of a miracle, when he suggested to
him: Cast yourself down, for it is written, He has given his angels charge over you; they shall bear you
up, in case you dash your foot against a stone. But Jesus refused to listen to the tempter.
And how did the devil tempt him to the pride of life? By taking him up onto a high mountain and
telling him: All this will I give you if you will bow down and worship me. The prestige of an earthly
kingdom as a bait for the King of the ages! But he who made heaven and earth trod the devil under
his feet. Is there anything extraordinary in the fact that the Lord should get the better of the devil?
The lesson for us is in the way he answered him; it is the way we too must answer. It is written, The
Lord your God you shall worship, and him only shall you serve.
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE ANTICHRIST: 1 JOHN 2:18-29
Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists
have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of
us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be
plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know. I write
to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of
the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who
denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son
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has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the
beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has
promised us, eternal life.
I write this to you about those who would deceive you; but the anointing which you received from
him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you
about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not
shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every
one who does right is born of him.

ON 1 JOHN 3.1-5 (SC 75:186-194); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Children, it is the last hour. In this passage John exhorts us as his children to grow up quickly,
because the last hour has come. Bodily age is not determined by will power. No one can grow
physically whenever he pleases, any more than he can choose the time of his birth. But where birth
lies in the domain of the will, so also does growth. A man is only born of water and the Spirit by an act
of his will. If he chooses to grow, he grows; if he chooses to decline, he declines. What does growing
or declining mean? To grow means to go forward; to decline means to go backward.
If anyone is indolent about going forward, let him heed the warning: Children, it is the last hour. This
last hour may be a long one, but it is definitely the last. It is St John’s expression for the last days,
during which our Lord Jesus Christ will come. Some will ask: ‘How can these be the last days or the
last hour? We know that Antichrist must come first, and then the Day of Judgement.’ John foresees
this objection and, to shake the false security of those who would thus argue, he tells them: You have
heard that Antichrist is to come, and already many antichrists have appeared.
Who are these antichrists he refers to? He goes on to explain. This is how we know it is the last hour
– because many antichrists have appeared. They went out from our own ranks, leaving us to
lament their loss. Yet we take comfort from what follows: But they never truly belonged to us. The
proof is that if they had really belonged to our company they would have remained with us.
From this, my friends, you can see that many who are not of our company join us in receiving the
sacraments. Together with us they receive Baptism and what the faithful know they are receiving –
blessing, Eucharist, and all that is contained in the Sacred Mysteries. They even communicate at the
altar alongside us, and yet they do not belong to us. This is borne out in the time of trial; when the
test comes, they are scattered abroad as though blown by a gust of wind, because they are chaff not
wheat. Yes, never forget it; they will all be blown away on the Day of Judgement as soon as the
harvest is winnowed on the Lord’s threshing floor. They went out from our ranks, but they never truly
belonged to us; if they had really belonged to our company they would have remained with us. They
went out so that it would be clear that they did not belong to us.
As for you, you have an anointing from the Holy One, which makes you known to one another. This
spiritual anointing is the Holy Spirit himself; its sacramental sign is a visible unction. John says that all
who have Christ’s anointing can discern who are wicked and who are good. They need no other
instructor; the anointing itself teaches them all they need to know.
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THE ASCENSION

ASCENDING ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE: EPHESIANS 4:1-24
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been
called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you
were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according
to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of
captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended”, what does it mean but that he had also
descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all
the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that
we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to
grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and
knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes
bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.
Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility
of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of
the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have
given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of uncleanness. You did not so
learn Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in
Jesus. Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after
the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

ON 1 JOHN 10.9 (SC 75:432-436); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED
At his ascension into heaven on the fortieth day, our Lord Jesus Christ commended to the world the
body in which he would remain here below. He did this because he saw that many people would
honour him on account of his ascension, but that such honour would be worthless if they were
trampling on his members on earth. He wished to forestall the error of worshipping him as head in
heaven and at the same time trampling on his feet on earth, and so he indicated where his members
were to be found.
As he was about to ascend, he spoke the last words he was to utter on earth. At the moment of going
up to heaven, the head commended to our care the members he was leaving on earth, and so
departed. No longer will you find Christ speaking on earth; in the future he will speak from heaven.
Why will he speak from heaven? Because his members are being trampled underfoot on earth. He
spoke to Saul the persecutor from above, saying: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I have
ascended to heaven, but I still remain on the earth. Here at the Father’s right hand I sit, but there I
still hunger and thirst and am without shelter’.
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In what way, then, did Christ commend to us the body he was leaving on earth at the moment of his
ascension?
When his disciples asked him: Lord, has the time come for you to reveal yourself, and when will the
kingdom be restored to Israel? his parting words were: It is not for you to know that time which the
Father has reserved to his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon
you, and you will be my witnesses. Observe the area his body is to cover, mark the places where he is
loath to be trampled underfoot: ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in the whole of Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That is where I remain on earth even when I ascend to heaven. I
ascend because I am the head; my body still remains.’ Where is it? Everywhere, to the ends of the
earth. Take care not to strike it or violate it or trample it underfoot. These are Christ’s last words at
the moment of his departure for heaven
My friends, you have Christian hearts. Think, then; if the words of one who is on the way to the grave
are so sweet, so precious, so important to his heirs, what must the last words of Christ mean to his
heirs as he departs, not for the grave but for heaven! When a person has lived and died his soul is
borne away to another place while his body is laid in the ground. Whether his last request is carried
out or not, it matters little to him now. He has other things to do or suffer. His corpse lies in the grave,
feeling nothing. And yet his dying wishes are carefully obeyed! If that is so, what will be the lot of
those who fail to observe the parting words of the one who is seated in heaven and who looks down
to see whether they are flouted or not – the words of him who said: Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me? and who reserves for the Day of Judgement all that he sees his members suffer?
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD: 1 JOHN 3:1-10
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The
reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children
now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to
take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either
seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he
is righteous. He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The
reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits
sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this it may be
seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is
not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.

See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called and should be the children of
God! What use is it to people who are not what they are called to have the name without the reality?
There are many so-called doctors who cannot cure, many so-called watchmen who sleep all night. So
also there are many so-called Christians who do not prove to be such in reality; their life and conduct
do not justify the name they bear, nor do they show themselves to be Christians by their faith, hope,
and charity. The whole world is Christian, and the whole world is godless, for there are both godless
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and devout people everywhere in the world, and the former do not know the latter. The reason why
the world does not know us is because it never knew him. The Lord Jesus Christ himself walked on
earth; he was God, hidden in the weakness of our flesh. And why was he not recognized? Because he
convicted men of every sin they were harbouring. Loving the pleasures of sin, they did not recognize
God; loving their own feverish desires, they did violence to their physician.
What then of ourselves? We are already born of him, but because we are at present in the domain of
hope, St John says to us: Beloved, we are now the children of God. Already? What then are we waiting
for, if we are already the children of God? It has not yet been shown us what we shall be in the future,
he tells us. Can we become anything more than children of God? Listen to what follows: We know
that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. What is this that we are
promised? My friends, the tongue has done all it can; the rest is for the heart to ponder. In
comparison with him who is, what could even John say, let alone we who are so far beneath John in
merit?
We must return to that anointing which teaches us inwardly what cannot be expressed in words and
since you are unable to see as yet, your task must lie in desiring. The entire life of a good Christian is a
holy desire. You cannot at present see what you desire, but the desire creates in you a capacity which
will be filled when what you desire to see has come. So then, my brothers, let us desire, because we
are meant to be filled.
See how Paul stretches forward, so that he will be able to take hold of the prize that is to come. He
says: Not that I have already achieved it or am already perfect. I do not reckon I have already attained
my goal. What are you doing in this life then, I ask, if you have not yet attained it? One thing only: I
forget what is behind me and, stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on with all my might -
toward the prize of our heavenly calling. Paul described himself as stretching out and pressing forward
with all his might, for he felt himself too small to take in what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the
human heart conceived. Such is our life, to exert ourselves in desire; and the more we detach our
desire from the love of this world, the more shall we be occupied by holy desires. Let us then stretch
ourselves out toward Christ, so that when he comes he may satisfy our desire. We shall then be like
him, for we shall see him as he is.
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

LOVE FOR OUR BROTHERS: 1 JOHN 3:11-17
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?
Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not wonder, brethren, that the world
hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He
who does not love abides in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that
no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the world’s goods and sees his
brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

By this we know what love is (John is here speaking of perfect love, that perfect love to which we have
already paid tribute): That he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for our
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brothers. Here we have the key to the Lord’s words: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Peter was
meant to feed the Lord’s sheep even to the laying down of his life for them, as we may learn from the
sentence that follows: When you were a young man you girded yourself and went where you pleased;
but when you have grown older another will gird you and take you where you would rather not go.
This he said, the Evangelist tells us, to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.
Such was his way of teaching the man whom he had charged with the feeding of his sheep that he
would have to die for them.
How does charity begin? Listen carefully for a moment. You have heard how it is brought to
perfection; the end and the manner of it have been enjoined on us by the Lord in the Gospel. Greater
love has no man than this, he says, that he lay down his life for his friends. He shows us what
perfect love is, then, in the Gospel, and here we are invited to embrace it. But you will ask yourselves,
‘When shall we be able to love like that?’ Do not despair of yourselves too soon. Perhaps charity is
already born in you, but it has not yet grown to maturity. Foster it; do not let it be stifled. But you may
say, ‘How shall I know? We have been told how love is perfected; what we want to learn is how it
begins.’
The text goes on: If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart
against him, how can the love of God abide in him? There is where charity begins. If you are not yet
capable of dying for your brothers at least be capable of sharing your possessions with them.
Your brothers are hungry and in need; they may be racked with anxiety, hard pressed by some
creditor. They have no money; you have. They are your brothers; you were ransomed together,
bought at the same price, all redeemed by the blood of Christ See if you cannot have pity on them,
you who possess this world’s goods. You may ask, ‘What business is that of mine? Am I to give my
money to save them from trouble?’ If that is the way your heart answers you, the Father’s love does
not dwell in you. And if the Father’s love does not dwell in you, you are not a child of God. How can
you boast of being a Christian? You have the name, but not the practice. But if the name is endorsed
by action, anyone who likes may call you a heathen, but you will show yourself to be a Christian by
your deeds. And if your actions do not prove your Christianity, the whole world may call you a
Christian, but the name will be of no profit to you without the reality. Little children, let us not love in
words or speech only, but in deed and in truth.
SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE COMMANDMENT OF FAITH AND LOVE: 1 JOHN 3:18-24
Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him whenever our
hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our
hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we
ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment,
that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has
commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know
that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
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And this is the commandment of God, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and
that we love one another. You see that this is God’s commandment, and you see that anyone who
breaks it commits the sin that every child of God avoids. Whoever carries out his commandment – you
realize that nothing else is enjoined on us except the love of one another – whoever carries out his
commandment abides in God, and God in him. And we can tell that we are dwelling in him by the Spirit
he has given us.
Is it not clear that it is the work of the Spirit to implant love and charity in human hearts? Is it not
clear that, in the words of the Apostle Paul, the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit who has been given to us? For it was of charity that John was speaking when he said that
each of you ought to examine his own heart in the sight of God. If our heart does not reproach us
means: if our heart bears witness that love of our brothers is the source of any good work we do.
Again we find that when John speaks of God’s commandment, he says: His commandment is this, that
we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another. Whoever carries out his
commandment abides in God and God in him. And we can tell that we are dwelling in him by the Spirit
he has given us. If you find charity in yourself, you have the Spirit of God to give you understanding, a
thing most necessary.
How can we know whether or not we have received the Holy Spirit? Let each one question his own
heart. If he loves his brothers then the Spirit of God dwells in him. Let him examine and test himself in
God’s sight, to discover whether he harbours in his heart a love of peace and unity, a love of the
Church as it extends throughout the length and breadth of the world. Let him not look for love only of
the brother who is present, for we have many whom we do not see, but with whom we are united in
the Spirit. There is nothing strange in that. They are not all here with us, but we all belong to the one
Body and have a single Head in heaven. So then, if you would know whether you have received the
Spirit, ask your own heart: do you perhaps have the outward sign of the sacrament without the virtue
of the sacrament? Ask your heart: if the love of your brothers is there, you can be at peace. There can
be no love without the Holy Spirit, for Paul cries out to us: The love of God has been poured into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit he has given us.
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

GOD LOVED US FIRST: 1 JOHN 4:1-10
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false
prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess
Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is
in the world already. Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world,
and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of
God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest
among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love,
not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
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A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BERNARD
LETTER 107.8-9 (PL 182:246-247); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
No one who loves God need have any doubt that God loves him. God gladly returns our love, which
was preceded by his own. How could he be reluctant to love us in response to our love for him, when
he already loved us before we ever loved him at all. Yes, I say, God loved us. We have a pledge of his
love in the Spirit and a faithful witness to it in Jesus – a double and irrefutable proof of the love God
bears toward each one of us.
Christ died, and so deserves our love. The Spirit moves us by his grace and so enables us to love.
Christ gives us the reason, the Spirit gives us the power. The one sets before us the example of his
own great love, the other gives us the love itself. In Christ we see the object of our love, by the Spirit
we are empowered to love him. We can say then that the former supplies the motive for charity, the
latter the volition.
How shameful it would be to see God’s Son dying for us without being moved to gratitude! Yet this
could easily happen if the Spirit were lacking. Now, however, the love of God has been poured into
our hearts by the Holy Spirit he has given us, and so we love him in return for his love, and by loving
him we deserve to be loved still more. If while we were still his enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved through
his Son’s life! God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; how could he fail to
accompany such a gift with everything else we need?
We possess, then, a double token of our salvation, the twofold outpouring of blood and Spirit. Neither
is of any profit to us without the other. The Spirit is only given to those who believe in the Crucified,
and faith is only effective when it works through love. But love is the gift of the Spirit. The second
Adam, I mean Christ, became not merely a living being but also a life-giving spirit. As a living being he
died; as a life-giving spirit he raises the dead. The mortal principle in him cannot help me without the
life-giving principle. The flesh is of no avail; it is the Spirit that gives life. And to say that the Spirit gives
life is only another way of saying that the Spirit justifies us by rectifying our relationship with God.
Since the death of the soul is sin, as Scripture says: The soul that sins shall die, it is beyond dispute
that the life of the soul is justice or righteousness, because, again as Scripture says, The just shall live
by faith.
And who are the just? Are they not those who pay their debt of love to the God who loves them?
Now it is impossible for them to do this unless they have received in faith the Spirit’s revelation of
God’s eternal plan for their future salvation. That revelation is none other than an infusion of spiritual
grace, through which, as we mortify the works of the flesh, we are made ready for the kingdom which
flesh and blood cannot possess. In the one Spirit we receive both the audacity to believe ourselves
loved and the power to love in return, so that God’s love for us may not go unrequited
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

GOD IS LOVE: 1 JOHN 4:11-21
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love
one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit.
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. Whoever
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confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the
love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In
this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is
so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with
punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us. If any one
says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has
seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he
who loves God should love his brother also.
A READING FROM A DISCOURSE BY ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA

DISCOURSE IV ON THE IMAGE OF GOD; CISTERCIAN STUDIES 33 (1977) TR WHEELER.
St John in one of his epistles says, Perfect love drives out fear. What does the holy man signify to us by
this? What sort of love and what sort of fear is he talking about? The psalmist says, Fear the Lord all
you who love him, and we find thousands of similar sayings in Holy Scripture. If, therefore, the saints
who so loved him feared him, how can he say, Love casts out fear? St John wishes to show us that
there are two kinds of fear: one preliminary, the other perfect; the one found in beginners-as
someone called it ‘of the devout’; the other in those perfected in holiness, of those having arrived at
true love.
One man forms a desire for God through fear of condemnation; this is, as we have said, the starting
point. His starting point is not ‘what is good’ but the fear of torments. Another forms a desire for
God because he loves God himself, loves him and knows what is acceptable to God. Such a man
is goodness itself, knowing what it is to be with God. See! This is the man who has true love,
which St John calls perfect love, and that love leads a man on to perfect fear. Such a man fears
and keeps to God’s will, not for fear of punishment, not to avoid condemnation, but, as we
have said, because he has tasted the sweetness of being with God; he fears he may fall away
from it; he fears to be turned away from it. This is the perfect fear which is generated from
perfect love and throws out that preliminary fear. And this is why he says that perfect love casts out
fear. But it is impossible to come to perfect fear except through that preliminary fear.
There are, as St Basil says, three states through which we can be pleasing to God. The first, that of
fearing punishment; this makes us acceptable and we are in the state of slaves. The second, the state
of servants working for wages, fulfilling orders for our own advantage and, by doing so, earning our
wages. The third is the state of sons, where we strive for the highest good. For a son, when he comes
to maturity, does his father’s will not for fear of being beaten, nor to receive a reward from him, but
because he knows he is loved. He loves and honours his father, and is convinced that all his father
possesses is his own.
Such a man is worthy to hear, You are no longer a slave, but a son, an heir of God through Christ. As
we said, he no longer fears God with that preliminary fear, but really loves him, and so blessed
Anthony can say, ‘I no longer fear God’, and when the Lord said to Abraham after the immolation of
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his son. Now I know that you fear God, this signifies that perfect fear that is generated out of love.
Abraham was charitable, he did so many things at God’s bidding, and after them all, God said to him,
Now I know that you fear God; clearly he meant that perfect fear that belongs to the saints. So no
longer through fear of punishment nor to receive reward do they do the will of God, but loving, they
fear to do anything apart from the will of the Beloved, and so he says, Love casts out fear. No longer
do they act from fear, but they fear out of love.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THIS IS THE VICTORY … OUR FAITH: 1 JOHN 5:1-12
Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent
loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his
commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his
commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is
the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and
the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the
Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the
testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son. He
who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made
him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son. And this is the
testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who
has not the Son of God has not life.

TRACT. 87.1 (CCL 36:543-544); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
My command to you, says the Lord, is to love one another. This is the fruit we are asked to bear,
according to that other statement of his: I have chosen you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will
endure. And when he adds, so that the Father may give you whatever you ask in my name, he clearly
means that the Father will readily grant our requests provided that we love one another. But surely
this love is his own gift to us, for he chose us while we lacked fruit of any sort – remember that it was
he who chose us and not we him – and made it possible for us to bear fruit, in other words to love
one another. We can never hope to bear such fruit unless he helps us with his grace – just as no
branch can produce fruit unless it forms part of a living vine. Love, then, is our fruit; love that St Paul
describes as springing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. Such is the source of
our love for one another, and the source of our love for God.
Only if we love God can our love for one another be true love. If we love God, then we shall also love
our neighbour as ourselves. Anyone who has no love for God has none for himself either. On the
twofold precept of charity depends the whole of the Law and the Prophets. This love is the fruit the
Lord has in mind when he says to us: My command to you is to love one another. That is why the
Apostle Paul, contrasting the fruits of the Spirit with the works of the flesh, begins by saying: The fruit
of the Spirit is love, and then enumerates all the rest as though they flowed from love and looked to it
as their source; they are, he says, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and
self-control.
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For who can properly rejoice, if they do not love some good in which to find their joy? Who can
experience true peace, if they cannot be at peace with their beloved? Who will have the patience to
persevere in doing good, if they are not constantly urged onward by love’s prompting? Who will show
kindness if they do not love those they set out to benefit? Who will be good if they are not made so
by loving? Whose faith will profit them, but those whose faith works through love? How wise was our
good Master when he so persistently recommended love to us as the one thing necessary, a treasure
without which all other virtues avail us nothing, yet which cannot itself be had except in company
with those other qualities which perfect us in virtue.
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PRAYER FOR SINNERS: 1 JOHN 5:13-21
I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his
will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained
the requests made of him. If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask,
and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say
that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil
one does not touch him.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true;
and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little
children, keep yourselves from idols.
A READING FROM A SERMON ON THE LAST DISCOURSE BY BLESSED OGERIUS

BD OGERIUS OF LOCEDIO, SERMON 8.2-3 (S. BERNARDI OPERA [1667], 5:618-619); WORD IN
SEASON III, 1ST ED.)
I will ask the Father, Jesus said to his Apostles, and he will give you another advocate to be your
comforter. The Holy Spirit, who is called the Advocate or Comforter, is the counsellor of believers, the
defender and protector of those who hope in him. Without him there is neither strength nor holiness.
He shields and guards his own, making himself the champion of all whom he has destined for eternal
glory. He is the comforter of the afflicted, the father of orphans, the husband of widows.
He does indeed comfort the afflicted, by whom I mean those who grieve for their sins and the
suffering they must endure as a result; those who are distressed not only because they have ruined
their lives by their evil deeds, but because they have incurred the anger of Christ, the King of glory;
those who are heartbroken because through their wrongdoing they have set at naught the Saviour
who died for them upon the cross. The afflicted are those who weep over their inability to see the
face of Christ, the source of their salvation and their only hope of life. The Spirit of Jesus comforts all
these souls. In this present life he gives them the consolation of hope; in the blessed life of eternal joy
he will give them the solace of what they hoped for.
The Spirit of truth shuns those whose love does not reach beyond themselves. His will is that he, and
he alone, should be loved for his own sake. Not only does he desire to be the sole object of our love,
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but our love for him must be total. He will have no rival in love, any more than he can be rivalled in
the generosity with which he rewards those who love him
Yet God desires to be loved by us in such a way that we love everything else together with him, and
love nothing apart from him. As their Creator he is the source of all created things, and every created
thing is good simply because he made it. In loving created things, therefore, we should love their
Creator. We must not love them for their own sake, but for the sake of him who gave them existence.
Anyone who sets his heart on gold or silver, material goods, or possessions of whatever kind for their
own sake is a stranger to the Father’s love. It is the Creator we must love in all created things, and all
created things in him. By loving him in this way we love everything else too, yet God is really and truly
the sole object of our love.
No one is capable of seeing God if the eye of his soul is diseased. Our inward vision must be purified
before we can perceive the Spirit of truth. Our bodies also must be cleansed and refined before they
can be worthy temples of the Holy Spirit. Let us do all in our power to acquire that purity which will
prepare us for the vision of his glorious beauty. Then, like the Apostles of Jesus, we shall know him; he
will dwell with us in this present life, and be with us for ever in the life to come.
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE
A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF ST JOHN

HE WHO ABIDES IN THIS TEACHING, HAS THE FATHER AND THE SON: 2 JOHN
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who
know the truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us for ever:
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son,
in truth and love.
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children following the truth, just as we have been commanded
by the Father. And now I beg you, lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but
the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we follow
his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow
love. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of
Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Look to yourselves, that you
may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward. Any one who goes ahead and does
not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the
Father and the Son. If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into
the house or give him any greeting; for he who greets him shares his wicked work.
Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink, but I hope to come to see
you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
The children of your elect sister greet you.

TRACT. 92.1-2 (CCL 36:555-556); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
After the Last Supper the Lord Jesus addressed his disciples. His passion was then at hand and he was
about to depart, withdrawing from them his physical presence, though his spiritual presence would
remain with his own until the end of time. In his discourse he exhorted them to endure the
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persecutions of those wicked people whom he called ‘the world’, though at the same time he
reminded them how it was from that very ‘world’ that he had chosen them. This he did to make them
realize that it was due entirely to God’s grace that they had come to be what they now were, while
they had only their own sins to thank for having kept them where they were before. Then he went on
to say: But when the Advocate comes whom I shall send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth
proceeding from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you too will be my witnesses, because
you have been with me from the first.
Now what connection can this have with that earlier statement in which he says: But now that they
have seen me, they hate both me and my Father. Thus are fulfilled the words that are written in their
holy book: They have hated me without cause? Can it be that at his coming the Advocate, the Spirit
of truth, by some yet more cogent proof convicted those people of hating God’s Son when they saw
him? No; rather, those in whom sight had only given rise to hatred were converted by the coming of
the Spirit to the faith that works through love. So much we gather from the story of the day of
Pentecost, where we are told that the Holy Spirit came down on a hundred and twenty disciples,
among whom were all the apostles, gathered together in one place. Filled with the Spirit, they began
to speak in various tongues, and many of those who had previously harboured hatred for the Lord
Jesus were so moved by this outstanding miracle that they were cut to the heart and turned to him in
repentance. At once their guilt was forgiven. Through their wickedness his precious blood had been
shed; now they were themselves redeemed by the very blood for the shedding of which they were
responsible. And so it was because he foresaw their conversion that the Lord had said: They hated me
without cause, but when the Spirit comes, he will bear witness to me, as much as to say: They hated
me, and killed me when they saw me; but so powerful a witness will the Spirit bear to me that these
same people will be brought to believe in me even though they see me no more.
And you, he said to his disciples, you too will be my witnesses, because you have been with me from
the first. If the Holy Spirit is to bear his witness to me, so shall you bear yours. And why? Because,
having been with me from the beginning, you can speak with firsthand knowledge of me. If up to the
present time you have not done this, that is because you have not yet received the fullness of the
Spirit. He will bear witness to me, and so shall you; for you will gain the confidence you need to be my
witnesses from the love of God poured into your hearts by the Holy Spirit whom God will give you.
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE
A READING FROM THE THIRD LETTER OF ST JOHN

LET US WALK IN THE TRUTH: 3 JOHN
The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you
and that you may be in health; I know that it is well with your soul. For I greatly rejoiced when some
of the brethren arrived and testified to the truth of your life, as indeed you do follow the truth. No
greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth.
Beloved, it is a loyal thing you do when you render any service to the brethren, especially to
strangers, who have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their
journey as befits God’s service. For they have set out for his sake and have accepted nothing from the
heathen. So we ought to support such men, that we may be fellow workers in the truth.
I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not
acknowledge my authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, prating against me with evil
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words. And not content with that, he refuses himself to welcome the brethren, and also stops those
who want to welcome them and puts them out of the church.
Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not
seen God. Demetrius has testimony from every one, and from the truth itself; I testify to him too, and
you know my testimony is true.
I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; I hope to see you soon, and
we will talk together face to face.
Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, every one of them.
A READING FROM THE CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS OF ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

CAT. 16.11-12, 16 (RUPP. 2:216-226); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The water that I shall give them will become in them a fountain of living water, welling up into eternal
life. This is a new kind of water, a living, leaping water, welling up for those who are worthy. But why
did Christ call the grace of the Spirit water? Because all things are dependent on water; plants and
animals have their origin in water. Water comes down from heaven as rain, and although it is always
the same in itself, it produces many different effects, one in the palm tree, another in the vine, and so
on throughout the whole of creation. It does not come down, now as one thing, now as another, but
while remaining essentially the same, it adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it.
In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple and indivisible, apportions
grace to each person as he wills. Like a dry tree which puts forth shoots when watered, the soul bears
the fruit of holiness when repentance has made it worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. Although the
Spirit never changes, the effects of his action, by the will of God and in the name of Christ, are both
many and marvellous.
The Spirit makes some teachers of divine truth, inspires others to prophesy, gives others the power of
casting out devils, enables others to interpret holy Scripture. The Spirit strengthens the self-control of
some, shows others how to help the poor, teaches others to fast and lead a life of asceticism, makes
others oblivious to the needs of the body, trains others for martyrdom. His action is different in
different people, but the Spirit himself is always the same. In each man, Scripture says, the Spirit
reveals his presence in a particular way for the common good.
The coming of the Spirit is gentle, his presence fragrant, his weight very light. Rays of light and
knowledge stream before him as he approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend
and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to
enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then through that person the minds of
others as well. As light strikes the eyes of those who come out of darkness into the sunshine and
enables them to see clearly things they could not discern before, so does light flood the souls of those
counted worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit and enables them to see things beyond the range of
human vision of which they had previously been ignorant.
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PENTECOST

WHOEVER RECEIVES THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE CHILDREN OF GOD: ROMANS 8:5-27
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death,
but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to
God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please
God.
But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who
does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies
are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your
mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you live
according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will
live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of
slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba!
Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if
children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order
that we may also be glorified with him.
because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of
the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;
and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as
we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now
hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not
see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the
Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men
knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God.

TRACT. 77.1-3 (CCL 138A:487-489); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The whole world keeps solemn festival on this day, which was hallowed fifty days after our Lord's
resurrection by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other believers who were
assembled in the hope of his coming. Their hope was founded on the promise of the Lord Jesus, not
that the Saints would experience a hitherto unknown indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but that hearts
already dedicated to him would be enkindled to greater fervour and know a more abundant
outpouring, an increase rather than a first reception of his gifts. Though more freely and generously
bestowed, this gift of the Spirit was not a new operation, for the sovereign Spirit is never separated
from the almighty power of Father and Son, and whatever work God does in the ruling and ordering
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of creation proceeds from the whole Trinity, the single source of merciful love and righteous
judgment. The three divine Persons are no more divided in action than they are in will. The soul that is
enlightened by the Father is also enlightened by the Son and the Holy Spirit; and since there is one
Person who is sent, another who sends, and a third who promises, unity and trinity are revealed to us
at one and the same time. Enjoying absolute equality and excluding isolation, the Blessed Trinity in its
essence is understood to be single in nature, but not in person.
Granting the common action of the indivisible Godhead, we acknowledge that certain operations
belong particularly to the Father, others to the Son, and others to the Holy Spirit. These pertain to the
plan of our redemption; our salvation is the reason for them. For if the first man, who was created in
the image and likeness of God, had preserved the dignity of his own nature, if he had refused to allow
the devil to seduce him into yielding to concupiscence and so transgressing the law laid down for him,
the Creator of the world would not have become a creature, the Eternal would not have entered the
sphere of time, nor would God the Son, equal in Godhead with the Father, have assumed the form of
a slave and the likeness of sinful flesh. But because through the devil's malice death had entered the
world, there was only one way for captive humanity to be set free. Our cause must be espoused by
one who, without loss of majesty, would truly become man and yet, alone of all human beings, be
without taint of sin.
And so, in compassion, the three divine Persons divided up the work of our restoration between
them: the Father would accept the atoning sacrifice offered by the Son and the Holy Spirit would
bring fire. For it was necessary that men should play some part in their own salvation; their task was
to elude the enemy's clutches by turning in repentance to their Redeemer. As the Apostle says: God
has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying: Abba, Father! Now where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. And no one can say: “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
HOLY TRINITY

THE GREAT MYSTERY OF THE WILL OF GOD: 1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-16
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LETTER 1.28-30 (PG 26:594-595, 599); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church,
which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the Fathers. For upon
this faith the Church is built and if anyone were to lapse from it, that person would no longer be a
Christian either in fact or in name.
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In
this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a
blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and
undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit;
and in this way the unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly in the Church one God is
preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all
things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in
all things in the Holy Spirit
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to one God, the Father,
saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.
Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all
that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are
true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in
us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My Father and I will
come to him and make our home with him. For where the light is, there also is the radiance; and
where the radiance is, there too are its power and its resplendent grace.
This is also Paul’s teaching in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the
Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father
through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit But
when we share in the Spirit we possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the
fellowship of the Spirit himself.
CORPUS CHRISTI

THEY BEHELD GOD, AND ATE AND DRANK: EXODUS 24:1-11
And he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD; but the others shall
not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.’
Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people
answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do.’ And Moses
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wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the
mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the
people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And
Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All
that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw
it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in
accordance with all these words.’
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw
the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very
heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld
God, and ate and drank.

OPUSCULUM 57 IN FESTO CORPORIS CHRISTI 1-4; WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that we should share in his divinity, he assumed our
nature in order that by becoming man he might make us divine. Moreover, when he took our flesh he
dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the
altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and
purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from
all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body
as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could
anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old Law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was
offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more
wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away,
virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in
the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for
the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament in which
spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing
love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord
instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the
Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his
passion. It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles while for those who
were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding
consolation.
SACRED HEART OF JESUS

THE LOVE OF GOD MADE MANIFEST IN CHRIST: ROMANS 8: 28-39
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glorified.
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge
against Gods elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who
was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or

OPUSCULUM 3.29-30, 47; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
You who have been redeemed, consider who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives
life to the dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, when even the hard stones are split.
Consider how great he is; consider what he is.
In order that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept on the cross, in order
that the word of Scripture might be fulfilled – They shall look on him whom they have pierced – God’s
providence decreed that one of the soldiers should open his sacred side with a spear, so that blood
with water might flow out to pay the price of our salvation. This blood, which flowed from its source
in the secret recesses of his heart, gave the sacraments of the Church power to confer the life of
grace, and for those who already live in Christ was a draught of living water welling up to eternal life.
Arise, then, bride of Christ, be like the dove that nests in the rock-face at the mouth of a cavern, and
there, like a sparrow which finds its home, do not cease to keep vigil; there, like a turtle-dove, hide
the fledglings of your chaste love; place your lips there to draw water from the wells of your Saviour.
For this is the spring flowing from the middle of paradise; it divides and becomes four rivers, then
spreads through all devout hearts, and waters the whole world and makes it fruitful.
O soul devoted to God, whoever you may be, run to this source of life and light eager longing. And
with the power of your inmost heart cry out to him: O indescribable beauty of God most high! O pure
radiance of everlasting light! O life that gives life to all life! O light that illuminates every light, and
preserves in its undying splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your
Godhead from the dawn of time!
‘O water eternal and inaccessible, clear and sweet, flowing from the spring that is hidden from the
eyes of all mortal men; the spring whose depths cannot be plumbed, whose height cannot be
measured, whose shores cannot be charted, whose purity cannot be muddied.’
From this source flows the river which makes glad the city of God, so that with glad shouts we sing to
you our hymns of praise, and by experience prove that with you is the fountain of life; and in your
light we shall see light.
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY

PATRISTIC VIGILS
READINGS
Year I
ORDINARY TIME
WEEKS 18 TO 34
465

SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LORD REVEALS HIMSELF TO ELIJAH: 1 KINGS 19:1-9, 11-21
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then
Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make
your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and went
for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree;
and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no
better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel
touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a
cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel
of the LORD came again a second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey
will be too great for you.” And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food
forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
And there he came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and
he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount
before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains,
and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind
an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the
LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his
face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a
voice to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the
LORD, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars,
and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it
away.” And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when
you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint
to be king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in
your place. And him who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him who escapes from
the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not
bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke
of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.
And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I
will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” And he returned
from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the yokes
of the oxen, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah, and
ministered to him.
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A READING FROM THE GNOSTIC CHAPTERS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
GNOSTIC CHAPTERS 74-75; CWS (1985) TR. BERTHOLD.
The meaning of Holy Scripture reveals itself gradually to the higher senses of the more discerning
mind when the mind has put off the complex bodily form of the words which are formed in it. This
revelation is like a still small voice. Through a supreme abandonment of its natural activities, such a
mind has been able to perceive the meaning only in a simplicity which reveals the divine Word. This is
the way that the great Elijah was granted the vision in the cave at Horeb.
For ‘Horeb’ means ‘newness’, which is our virtuous condition in the new spirit of grace. The cave is
the hiddenness of spiritual wisdom in which the one who enters will mystically experience the
knowledge which goes beyond the senses. This is the knowledge in which God is found. Therefore
anyone who truly seeks God, as did the great Elijah, will come upon him not only on Horeb; that is, as
an ascetic in the practice of the virtues. He will also encounter him in the cave of Horeb, that is as a
contemplative in the hidden place of wisdom which can exist only in the habit of the virtues.
When the mind shakes off the many distractions about things which are pressing on it, then the clear
meaning of truth appears and gives it pledges of genuine knowledge. These are given after it has
driven off its recent preoccupations which were like scales on the eyes, just as in the case of the great
and holy Apostle Paul. For thoughts about the mere letter of Scripture and the consideration of those
visible things that hinder understanding are indeed scales which cling to the clear-sighted part of the
soul and hinder the passage to the pure meaning of truth.
MONDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELIJAH, DEFENDER OF JUSTICE FOR THE POOR: 1 KINGS 21:1-21, 27-29
Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And
after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden,
because it is near my house; and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I
will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the
inheritance of my fathers.” And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth
the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And
he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food.
But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?”
And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard
for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it’; and he answered, ‘I will not
give you my vineyard.’” And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise, and eat
bread, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the
elders and the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city. And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast,
and set Naboth on high among the people; and set two base fellows opposite him, and let them bring
a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out, and stone him to
death.” And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had
sent word to them. As it was written in the letters which she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast,
and set Naboth on high among the people. And the two base fellows came in and sat opposite him;
and the base fellows brought a charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, ‘Naboth
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cursed God and the king.’ So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death with stones.
Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.
As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise,
take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for
Naboth is not alive, but dead.” And as soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go
down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of
Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take
possession. And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, Have you killed, and also taken
possession?’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: In the place where dogs licked up the
blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.’”
Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because
you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. Behold, I will bring evil upon you; I
will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.”
And when Ahab heard those words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted
and lay in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the
Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled
himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the evil upon his
house.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON KINGS BY ST RABANUS MAURUS

COMMENTARY ON KINGS (PL 109:217-218); WORD IN SEASON VI.
Jezebel sent letters to the elders and the nobles of the city, instructing them to bribe lying witnesses
who would falsely testify against Naboth that he had cursed God and the King, and then bring him
outside the city and stone him to death. In the same way the Synagogue in the person of the high
priests, scribes, and Pharisees planned the death of Christ; as it is written in the gospel: The chief
priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus that they might put him
to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two false
witnesses came forward with the assertion: “This man said: ‘I can destroy the Temple of God
and in three days build it again.’”
Two lying witnesses falsely testified against Naboth that he had cursed God and the King. Similarly,
the Jewish leaders used two lying witnesses to assert that Christ was ascribing to himself the power
and nature of God. When Pilate said to them: “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no
fault in him”, they answered: “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because
he has claimed to be the Son of God.”
At the instigation of Jezebel, Naboth was stoned outside the city in order that after his death Ahab
might take possession of his vineyard. So too our Saviour suffered outside the city, being crucified at
the place called ‘The Skull’. With fanatical zeal the Synagogue pressed the people to demand his
death, so that when he was gone they might live more securely. Taking counsel together, the
Pharisees said: Look, the whole world is going after him; and, If we let him go on like this everyone will
believe in him. So it was that Christ came into his inheritance, which is the Church drawn from all
nations. It was left to him by his Father, though his Father did not die. In a wonderful way Christ
acquired it himself by his own death, and took possession of it when he rose from the dead.
468
TUESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

(GOD’S PLAN FOR AHAB’S WICKED REIGN IS MADE PLAIN: 1 KINGS 22:1-9, 15-23, 29, 34-38)
For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of
Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that
Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of
Syria?” And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And
Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your
horses.”
And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.” Then the king of
Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle
against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I forbear?” And they said, “Go up; for the Lord will give it into the hand
of the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the LORD of whom we may
inquire?” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire
of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me,
but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” Then the king of Israel summoned an officer
and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.”
And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to
battle, or shall we forbear?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the LORD will give it into the
hand of the king.” But the king said to him, “How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me
nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?” And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the
mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd; and the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let each
return to his home in peace.’” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he
would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of
the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his
right hand and on his left; and the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at
Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and
stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he
said, ‘I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to
entice him, and you shall succeed; go forth and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a
lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has spoken evil concerning you.”
So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. But a certain man
drew his bow at a venture, and struck the king of Israel between the scale armour and the
breastplate; therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn about, and carry me out of the battle,
for I am wounded.” And the battle grew hot that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot
facing the Syrians, until at evening he died; and the blood of the wound flowed into the bottom of the
chariot. And about sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, and every man to his
country!”
So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. And they washed
the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the harlots washed
themselves in it, according to the word of the LORD which he had spoken.
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CONFERENCE 1; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY.
It is impossible for the mind not to be troubled by thoughts, but accepting them or rejecting them is
possible for everyone who makes an effort. It is true that their origin does not in every respect
depend on us, but it is equally true that their refusal or acceptance does depend on us. By saying that
it is impossible for the mind not to be attacked by thoughts, however, we do not mean that this must
be attributed to an invasion evil spirits. Otherwise there would be no free will in a man, nor would it
be worthwhile trying to correct ourselves. Therefore we practise the frequent reading of and
meditation on Scripture, so that we may be open to spiritual things; we frequently chant the psalms,
so that we may continually grow in compunction; and we are diligent in vigils, fasting, and praying, so
that the mind which has been stretched to its limits may not taste earthly things but contemplate
heavenly ones.
Above all we should know what the three sources of our thoughts are: they come from God, from the
devil, and from ourselves. They are from God when he visits us by the illumination of the Holy Spirit,
which raises us up; when he chastens us with compunction when we have been lazy and been
overcome; and when he opens to us the heavenly mysteries and changes our chosen orientation to
better acts and a better will. This was the case when King Ahasuerus was chastised by the Lord and
was moved to examine the annals, whereupon he remembered the good deeds of Mordechai, exalted
him to the highest degree of honour, and immediately recalled his exceedingly cruel sentence
concerning the killing of the Jewish people.
From the devil a whole series of thoughts is born, when he attempts to subvert us by delight in
wickedness and hidden snares; by fraudulently passing off evil things for good; and by transforming
himself for us into an angel of light. Thus it is said: When supper was finished and the devil had already
put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray the Lord. And: After the morsel, Satan
entered into him. Peter also says to Ananias: Why has Satan tempted your heart, to lie to the Holy
Spirit? An unclean spirit also says to God against Ahab in the Third Book of Kings: I will go out and I will
be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
Thoughts also come from us, however, when we spontaneously remember things that we are doing
or have done or have heard. Concerning such things the blessed David says: I thought of ancient days,
and I kept the eternal years in mind, and I meditated. At night I was exercised in my heart, and I
examined my spirit. Also in the Gospel the Lord say is to the Pharisees: Why do you think evil in your
hearts?
We should, then, be continually aware of this threefold distinction and with a wise discretion examine
all the thoughts that emerge in our heart, first tracing their origins and causes and their authors, so
that, in accordance with the status of whoever is suggesting them, we may be able to consider how
we should approach them.
470
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WONDROUS TALE OF GOD’S HELP GIVEN TO THE FAITHFUL KING JEHOSHAPHAT: 2 CHRON.
20:1-9, 13-24
After this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of the Me-unites, came against
Jehoshaphat for battle. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against
you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is, En-gedi).”
Then Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all
Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the LORD; from all the cities of Judah they came to
seek the LORD.
And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the
new court, and said, “O LORD, God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven? Dost thou not rule
over all the kingdoms of the nations? In thy hand are power and might, so that none is able to
withstand thee. Didst thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people
Israel, and give it for ever to the descendants of Abraham thy friend? And they have dwelt in it, and
have built thee in it a sanctuary for thy name, saying, ‘If evil comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or
pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house, and before thee, for thy name is in this house,
and cry to thee in our affliction, and thou wilt hear and save.’”
Meanwhile all the men of Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their
children. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of
Je-iel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said,
“Hearken, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you,
‘Fear not, and be not dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s.
Tomorrow go down against them; behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz; you will find them at
the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle; take
your position, stand still, and see the victory of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Fear
not, and be not dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.”
Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and
the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your
God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken
counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy
array, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures
for ever.” And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of
Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men
of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, destroying them utterly, and when
they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.
When Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and
behold, they were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped.
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A READING FROM ST JEROME'S LETTER OF CONSOLATION TO HELIODORUS ON
THE DEATH OF HIS NEPHEW
LETTER 60; THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY (1933)
I shudder when I think of the catastrophes of our time. For twenty years and more the blood of
Romans has been shed daily between Constantinople and the Julian Alps. The Roman world is falling:
yet we hold up our heads instead of bowing them. The East seemed to be immune from these
dangers and was only dismayed by the news that reached her. But behold, last year the wolves were
let loose upon us from the distant crags of the Caucasus, and in a short time overran whole provinces.
How many monasteries did they capture, how many rivers were reddened with men’s blood!
But it is not my purpose to write a history: I only wish to shed a few tears over your troubles and
mine. Happy is your nephew Nepotian, he neither sees these things nor hears them. We are unhappy
for either we suffer ourselves or we see our brethren suffer. Yet we desire to go on living, and regard
those beyond the reach of these evils as miserable rather than blessed. We have long felt that God is
angry, yet we do not try to appease him. It is our sins which make the barbarians strong, it is our vices
which bring defeat to the armies of Rome; and as if this were not enough of carnage, civil wars have
spilt almost more blood than the enemy’s sword.
Miserable were the Israelites, in comparison with whom Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God:
unhappy are we, who have so displeased God that his anger vents its fury on us by the barbarians’
mad attacks. Hezekiah repented, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were destroyed
by one angel in a night. Jehosaphat sang the praises of the Lord, and the Lord gave his worshippers
the victory. Moses fought against Amalek, not with the sword but with prayer. If we wish to be lifted
up, let us first prostrate ourselves. Shame on us who are too stupid for belief!
THURSDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE ASSUMPTION OF ELIJAH: 2 KINGS 2:1-15
Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on
their way from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, “Tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me as far
as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they
went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said
to him, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?” And he said,
“Yes, I know it; hold your peace.”
Elijah said to him, “Elisha, tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As
the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. The sons of the
prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the
LORD will take away your master from over you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know it; hold your peace.”
Then Elijah said to him, “Tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said,
“As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. Fifty
men of the sons of the prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were
standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle, and rolled it up, and struck the water, and the
water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from
you.” And Elisha said, “I pray you, let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” And he said, “You have
472
asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if you do
not see me, it shall not be so.” And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and
horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha
saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him
no more.
Then he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. And he took up the mantle of Elijah
that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the
mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the LORD, the God
of Elijah?” And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other;
and Elisha went over.
Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him over against them, they said, “The
spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES TO THE PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH OF ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
AD POPULO ANTIOCHENUM, HOMILY 3.9; WORD IN SEASON VI
Who has ever lived in greater poverty than Elijah? And yet he outdid all the rich, since he had chosen
his poverty, great as it was, because he was rich in spirit. He embraced such poverty because in his
greatness of soul he considered all the things of this world beneath him, and unworthy compared to
the truths of his religion. If he had valued such things he would not have been content to possess
nothing but a cloak. He owned only one garment because he despised all worldly trumpery and had
no more regard for gold than for the mud beneath his feet. That is why the king had need of this poor
man, and why the possessor of so much gold hung on the words of one who had only a cloak: the
cloak was more resplendent than the purple; the cave of the just man than the courts of kings. That is
also why, when he ascended to heaven, he left his disciple nothing but his cloak. ‘With this,’ he said, ‘I
wrestled with the devil; take it and it will also protect you against him.’ For poverty is a powerful
weapon, an unconquerable shelter, an unassailable tower.
Elisha received the cloak as the most precious inheritance, and a precious inheritance it was indeed,
worth more than any amount of gold. And thereafter there were two Elijahs, one in heaven and one
on earth.
Now I know that you consider that righteous man blessed, and that all of you would like to resemble
him. What then if I show you that all of us who participate in the holy mysteries have received a much
greater gift than he did? Elijah left his disciple a cloak, but when the Son of God ascended to heaven
he left us his body. Elijah took his cloak off, but Christ left us his body and also ascended with it. So let
us not be downcast, or lament, or be afraid of difficult times; for what will he refuse to do for our
salvation who did not refuse to shed his blood for all, and who gave us his body and blood again?
Trusting in this hope, then, let us call on him continually, and devote ourselves to prayer and
intercession, while diligently practicing all the other virtues, that by so doing we may escape present
dangers and obtain future blessings. May we all be deemed worthy of this by the grace and goodness
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit
through endless ages. Amen.
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FRIDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELISHA, PROPHET OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL IN THE WAR AGAINST MOAB: 2
KINGS 3:5-27
But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So King Jehoram marched
out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat king
of Judah, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go with me to battle against Moab?”
And he said, “I will go; I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” Then he
said, “By which way shall we march?” Jehoram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of Edom.”
So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a
circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the beasts which followed
them. Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The LORD has called these three kings to give them into the
hand of Moab.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here, through whom we may
inquire of the LORD?” Then one of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is
here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the LORD is with
him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father
and the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the LORD who has
called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” And Elisha said, “As the LORD of hosts
lives, whom I serve, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither
look at you, nor see you. But now bring me a minstrel.” And when the minstrel played, the power of
the LORD came upon him. And he said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I will make this dry stream-bed full of
pools.’ For thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that stream-bed shall be filled with
water, so that you shall drink, you, your cattle, and your beasts.’ This is a light thing in the sight of the
LORD; he will also give the Moabites into your hand, and you shall conquer every fortified city, and
every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop up all springs of water, and ruin every good
piece of land with stones.” The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water
came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water.
When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to
put on armour, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out, and were drawn up at the frontier.
And when they rose early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, the Moabites saw the
water opposite them as red as blood. And they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely fought
together, and slain one another. Now then, Moab, to the spoil!” But when they came to the camp of
Israel, the
Israelites rose and attacked the Moabites, till they fled before them; and they went forward,
slaughtering the Moabites as they went. And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of
land every man threw a stone, until it was covered; they stopped every spring of water, and felled all
the good trees; till only its stones were left in Kir-hareseth, and the slingers surrounded and
conquered it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him
seven hundred swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he
took his eldest son who was to reign in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall.
And there came great wrath upon Israel; and they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.
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DE SANCTA TRINITATE 26 (CCLCM 22:1439-40) ; WORD IN SEASON VI
Now bring me a minstrel, said Elisha. And when the minstrel played, the power of the Lord came upon
Elisha, and he gave the command: “Dig many holes in this wadi; for this is what the Lord says: ‘You will
see neither wind nor rain, yet this wadi shall be filled with water.’ Moreover, the Lord will also deliver
Moab into your hands.” And that is what happened.
From one miracle of the man of God we may learn two lessons. The first is that the Spirit was not
always present in the prophets. There was only one prophet, the great Lord of the prophets, from
whom the Spirit was never absent, and this was his distinguishing mark: The man on whom you see
the Spirit come down and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. For the man who says,
Now bring me a minstrel, shows that the prophetic grace does not remain in him; he prepares himself
for its coming by praying for it through the music of the minstrel.
Secondly, we learn from this how very effective is the sound of sweet music, accompanied by divine
praise, for invoking the Holy Spirit. When the minstrel played, Scripture says, the power of the Lord
came upon Elisha. For music has a certain power, an innate quality that moves the human spirit to its
depths, and when suitably joined to words or thoughts of divine praise, it touches the heart and
revives in people the grace of God’s Spirit which they have received. In the words of the most famous
minstrel, speaking of what he well knew by experience: I opened my mouth, and drew the Spirit
toward me.
SATURDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE: 2 KINGS 4:8-37
One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food.
So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband,
“Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who is continually passing our way. Let us
make a small roof chamber with walls, and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so
that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.”
One day he came there, and he turned into the chamber and rested there. And he said to Gehazi his
servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him,
“Say now to her, ‘See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you
have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I
dwell among my own people.” And he said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered,
“Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” He said, “Call her.” And when he had called her, she
stood in the doorway. And he said, “At this season, when the time comes round, you shall embrace a
son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your maidservant.” But the woman
conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her.
When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his
father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” And when
he had lifted him, and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.
And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went
out. Then she called to her husband, and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the asses,
that I may quickly go to the man of God, and come back again.” And he said, “Why will you go to him
today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” She said, “It will be well.” Then she saddled the ass, and
475
she said to her servant, “Urge the beast on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” So she
set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, yonder is the
Shunammite; run at once to meet her, and say to her, “Is it well with you? Is it well with your
husband? Is it well with the child?” And she answered, “It is well.” And when she came to the
mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to thrust her away. But
the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; and the LORD has hidden it from me,
and has not told me.” Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”
He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet any one, do
not salute him; and if any one salutes you, do not reply; and lay my staff upon the face of the child.”
Then the mother of the child said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So
he arose and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but
there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has
not awaked.”
When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the
door upon the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting
his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched
himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again, and walked once to and
fro in the house, and went up, and stretched himself upon him; the child sneezed seven times, and
the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called
her. And when she came to him, he said, “Take up your son.” She came and fell at his feet, bowing to
the ground; then she took up her son and went out.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY BASIL OF SELEUCIA

ORATIO 10 (PG 85:137-142); WORD IN SEASON VI
Let us consider why Elisha did not raise the Shunammite’s son from the dead by prayer, the way Peter
raised Dorcas, but by placing himself full length on the boy’s dead body. Let us try to discover the
symbolic meaning of Elisha and of the Shunammite’s dead son.
Elisha is a type of Christ; and the boy stands for the Gentile people, who were dead because of their
sins. The spiritual Elisha came and found all his members dead, mouth, eyes, hands and feet – the
whole body was dead. The mouth was dead that gave no praise to God, but said to a block of wood:
You are my father; and to a stone: You have begotten me. The eyes were dead that did not turn
toward the God of the universe, but worshiped the creation instead of the Creator. The hands were
dead that made offerings to demons; the feet were dead that bent to worship the devil.
The whole body was rotten and in need of a mighty physician, one who could even raise the dead.
The desired physician came, the spiritual Elisha, the Lord Christ, and he found the dead body. What
did he do? He placed his whole being over the whole body. In other words, the whole fullness of his
Godhead was clothed in the whole of our human nature: in him, as the Apostle says, the whole
fullness of the divine nature dwelt embodied. He had eyes as men have, and hands and feet. It was no
illusion that met the eyes: what they saw was real. For he did not lay claim to equality with God but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant: life wore a dead garment, to transform death into life’s
own immortality.
476
When the Godhead came down into the body, all the body’s members were sanctified and
transformed, so that henceforward they could be put to better use. The mouth was taught to say:
Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. The eyes learned to praise God: The eyes
of all creatures look to you, and you give them their food in due season. The hands, stretched out to
God, praised their Lord: Lift up your hands in the holy place, and praise the Lord through the night,
and, Let the lifting up of my hands be like an evening sacrifice. The feet standing in Church offered
thanksgiving saying: Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem.
You may say, ‘You have told us how the outer members praise God; what of the inner members? Are
they excused from service?’ By no means. The soul in its turn, with the inner members, cried out to
the Lord: Bless the Lord, my soul, and let all that is within me bless his holy name.
SUNDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELISHA’S MIRACLES AMONG THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS: 2 KINGS 4:38-44; 6:1-17
And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets
were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of
the prophets.” One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and
gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, not
knowing what they were. And they poured out for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the
pottage, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. He said,
“Then bring meal.” And he threw it into the pot, and said, “Pour out for the men, that they may eat.”
And there was no harm in the pot.
A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of
barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But
his servant said, “How am I to set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the
men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” So he set it
before them. And they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.
Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too
small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to
dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.”
And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut
down trees. But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water; and he cried out, “Alas, my
master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the
place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there, and made the iron float. And he said, “Take it up.” So he
reached out his hand and took it.
Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, “At
such and such a place shall be my camp.” But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Beware
that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.” And the king of Israel sent to
the place of which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there
more than once or twice.
And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing; and he called his servants
and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” And one of his servants
said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words
that you speak in your bedchamber.” And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize
477
him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” So he sent there horses and chariots and a great
army; and they came by night, and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with
horses and chariots was round about the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we
do?” He said, “Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then
Elisha prayed, and said, “O LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened
the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha.
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUES OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT

DIALOGUES II, 3.13, 6.1-2, 8.8-9; TR. ZIMMERMAN & AVERY
As Benedict’s influence spread over the surrounding countryside because of his signs and wonders, a
great number of men gathered around him to devote themselves to God’s service. Christ blessed his
work and before long he had established twelve monasteries there, with an abbot and twelve monks
in each of them. There were a few other monks whom he kept with him, as he felt that they still
needed his personal guidance.
At one time a simple, sincere Goth came to Subiaco to become a monk, and blessed Benedict was
very happy to admit him. One day he had him take a brush hook and clear away the briers from a
place at the edge of the lake where a garden was to be planted. While the Goth was hard at work
cutting down the thick brush, the iron blade slipped off the handle and flew into a very deep part of
the lake, where there was no hope of recovering it.
At this the poor man ran trembling to Maurus and after describing the accident told him how sorry he
was for his carelessness. Maurus in turn informed the servant of God, who on hearing what had
happened went down to the lake, took the handle from the Goth and thrust it in the water.
Immediately the iron blade rose from the bottom of the lake and slipped back on to the handle. Then
he handed the tool back to the Goth and told him, ‘Continue with your work now. There is no need to
be upset.’
Peter said: This whole account is really amazing. The water streaming from the rock reminds me of
Moses, and the iron blade that rose from the bottom of the lake, of Elisha. The walking on the water
recalls St Peter; the obedience of the raven, Elijah; and the grief at the death of an enemy, David. This
man must have been filled with the spirit of all the just.
Gregory replied: actually, Peter, blessed Benedict possessed the Spirit of only one Person, the Saviour
who fills the heart of all the faithful by granting them the fruits of his Redemption. For St John says of
him, There is one who enlightens every soul born into the world; he was the true light. And again, Of
his fullness we have all received. Holy men were never able to hand on to others the miraculous
powers which they received from God. Our Saviour was the only one to give his followers the power
to work signs and wonders, just as he alone could assure his enemies that he would give them the
sign of the prophet Jonah. Seeing this sign fulfilled in his death, the proud looked on with scorn. The
humble, who saw its complete fulfilment in his rising from the dead, turned to him with reverence
and love. In this mystery, then, the proud beheld him dying in disgrace, while the humble witnessed
his triumph over death.
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MONDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELISHA REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD TO NAAMAN THE SYRIAN: 2 KINGS 5:1-19
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high
favour, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valour, but he
was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little maid from the land of Israel,
and she waited on Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the
prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord,
“Thus and so spoke the maiden from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will
send a letter to the king of Israel”
So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments.
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I
have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of
Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man
sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel
with me.”
But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king,
saying, “Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a
prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the door of Elisha’s
house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your
flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry, and went away, saying,
“Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD
his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers
of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” So he
turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, if the
prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather,
then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’” So he went down and dipped himself seven times
in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a
little child, and he was clean.
Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him; and
he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present
from your servant,” But he said, “As the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will receive none.” And he urged
him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, “If not, I pray you, let there be given to your servant
two mules burden of earth; for henceforth your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any
god but the LORD. In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the
house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon,
when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter.” He said to
him, “Go in peace.”
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A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON LUKE BY ST AMBROSE
IN LUCAM, 4.49-50 (SC 45:170-171); WORD IN SEASON VI
There were many lepers in the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them was healed except
Naaman the Syrian. Clearly this saying of our Lord and Saviour teaches and exhorts us to be zealous in
worshiping God; it shows that no one is healed and set free from a disfiguring illness without having
earnestly striven for health by acts of piety. Divine blessings are not accorded to the somnolent, but
to the persistent.
The Lord uses an apt comparison to deflate his envious townsmen and to show that his actions are in
harmony with the ancient scriptures. We read in the Book of Kings that a Gentile called Naaman was
cleansed of leprous spots by the word of a prophet, although leprosy of body and soul was carrying
off many Israelites; in fact the history relates that the four men were lepers who, driven by hunger,
were the first to enter the camp of the King of Syria. Why then did the prophet not cure his brothers,
his compatriots and comrades, when he healed foreigners, men who did not observe the law or share
his religion, if not because healing depends upon the will, not upon one’s nationality, and because the
divine gift is gained by prayer, not granted as a birthright. Learn to ask for what you wish to obtain;
heavenly blessings are not bestowed upon the proud.
A simple exposition can form a man’s moral attitude, without concealing the grace of the mystery; for
as what follows comes from what precedes, so what precedes is confirmed by what follows. Rightly,
therefore, was Naaman said to be greatly esteemed by his lord, and in high favour, for he
foreshadowed the future salvation of the Gentiles. A devout slave-girl captured by the enemy when
her country was defeated advised him to seek healing from a prophet; and he was healed not by
order of an earthly King, but by the generous mercy of God.
What is the reason for the mysterious number of times he was required to immerse himself? Why
was the river Jordan chosen? As Naaman said: Are not Abanna and Pharphar, the rivers of
Damascus, better than the Jordan? Anger made him prefer those rivers, but reflection led him to
choose the Jordan: wrath remains ignorant of the mystery, but faith understands it. Understand from
this the saving grace of baptism: he entered the water a leper and came forth a believer. Recognise
the symbol of the spiritual sacraments: Naaman sought healing for his body and won it for his soul.
His flesh was bathed and his wrong dispositions were cleansed. In my view he was cleansed as much
of the soul’s leprosy as the body’s, for after his baptism, when the impurities of his former false
religion had been washed away, he declared that he would no longer offer sacrifices to alien gods, but
promised them to the Lord.
TUESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELISHA MIRACULOUSLY CAPTURES THE ENEMIES AND MERCIFULLY FREES THEM: 2 KINGS
6:8-23
Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, At
such and such a place shall be my camp. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, Beware
that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there. And the king of Israel sent to the
place of which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there
more than once or twice.
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And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing; and he called his servants
and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” And one of his servants
said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words
that you speak in your bedchamber.” And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize
him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” So he sent there horses and chariots and a great
army; and they came by night, and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with
horses and chariots was round about the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we
do?” He said, “Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then
Elisha prayed, and said, “O LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened
the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha. And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and
said, “Strike this people, I pray thee, with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance
with the prayer of Elisha. And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; follow
me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria. As soon as they
entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the LORD
opened their eyes, and they saw; and lo, they were in the midst of Samaria. When the king of Israel
saw them he said to Elisha, My father, shall I slay them? Shall I slay them? He answered, “You shall
not slay them. Would you slay those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your
bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” So he
prepared for them a great feast; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they
went to their master. And the Syrians came no more on raids into the land of Israel.

SERMONS ON THE SUBJECTS OF THE DAY, 170-171, 179: WORD IN SEASON VI
Elijah thought himself solitary, though he was not so; the world invisible was hid from him. Though
ministered to by angels, though sustained miraculously by almighty God, yet, like Saint John Baptist
when he sent to ask Christ, Art thou he that should come, he seemed to himself one against many.
But Elisha had the privilege of knowing that he was one of a great host who were fighting the Lord’s
battles, though he might be solitary on earth.
To him was revealed in its measure the comfortable Christian doctrine of the communion of saints.
His eyes were purged to see sights which the world could not see; and that so clearly, that he could
even comfort his attendant, who felt that fear which had overtaken Elijah when he fled from Jezebel.
Hear Elijah’s words – I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. On the other hand,
when Elisha’s servant, on finding the host of the Syrians round about them, said to the prophet, Alas!
my master, how shall we do? Elisha answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they
that be with them. And then he besought almighty God to give to his servant for an instant a glimpse
of that glorious vision which he in faith, or by inspiration, enjoyed continually. He prayed, and said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and
he saw: and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
How well does this vision correspond to that blessed privilege which, as the Apostle assures us, is
conferred upon us Christians! You are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of
the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just
made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks
more graciously than the blood of Abel!
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An innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of the just - we dwell under their shadow; we are
baptized into their fellowship; we are allotted their guardianship; we are remembered, as we trust, in
their prayers. We dwell in the very presence and court of God himself, and of his eternal Son, our
Saviour, who died for us, and rose again, and now intercedes for us before the throne. We have
privileges surely far greater than Elisha’s; but of the same kind. Angels are among us, and are
powerful to do anything. And they do wonders for the believing, which the world knows nothing
about. According to our faith, so it is done unto us. Only believe, all things are ours. We shall have
clear and deeply-seated convictions in our minds of the reality of the invisible world, though we
cannot communicate them to others, or explain how we come to have them.
WEDNESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SAMARIA IS MIRACULOUSLY FREED FROM SIEGE: 2 KINGS 6:24-25, 32 – 7:16
Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And
there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for eighty
shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of doves dung for five shekels of silver.
Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a
man from his presence; but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how
this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and
hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” And while he was
still speaking with them, the king came down to him and said, “This trouble is from the LORD! Why
should I wait for the LORD any longer?”
But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, ‘Tomorrow about this time a
measure of fine meal shall be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of
Samaria.’” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the LORD
himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your
own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate; and they said to one another,
“Why do we sit here till we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city’, the famine is in the city, and we shall
die there; and if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians; if
they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” So they arose at twilight to go to
the camp of the Syrians; but when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there
was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots, and of
horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has
hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come upon us.” So they fled away in
the twilight and forsook their tents, their horses, and their asses, leaving the camp as it was, and fled
for their lives. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, and ate
and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came
back, and entered another tent, and carried off things from it, and went and hid them.
Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news; if we are silent
and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us; now therefore come, let us go and tell
the king’s household.” So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, “We
came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing
but the horses tied, and the asses tied, and the tents as they were.” Then the gatekeepers called out,
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and it was told within the king’s household. And the king rose in the night, and said to his servants, “I
will tell you what the Syrians have prepared against us. They know that we are hungry; therefore they
have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of
the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’” And one of his servants said, “Let some men
take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole
multitude of Israel that have already perished; let us send and see.” So they took two mounted men,
and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” So they went after them
as far as the Jordan; and, lo, all the way was littered with garments and equipment which the Syrians
had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.
Then the people went out, and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine meal was sold
for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.
A READING FROM ON THE DUTIES OF THE CLERGY BY ST AMBROSE

ON THE DUTIES OF THE CLERGY 3.1; NPNF X (1989) TR. DE ROMESTIN
The prophet David taught us that we should go about in our heart as though in a large house; that we
should converse with it as with some trusty companion. Scipio, therefore, was not the first to know
that he was not alone when he was alone, or that he was least at leisure when he was at leisure. For
Moses knew it before him, who, when silent, was crying out; who, when he stood at ease, was
fighting, and not merely fighting but triumphing over enemies whom he had not come near. So much
was he at ease, that others held up his hands Which is the most glorious, to bring a battle to an end
by the strength of a great army, or by merits before God alone?
Elisha rested in one place while the King of Syria waged a great war against the people of our fathers;
but the prophet found out all their preparations, and, being by the grace of God present everywhere
in mental vigour, he told the thoughts of his enemies to his countrymen. And when this was made
known to the King of Syria he sent an army and shut in the prophet. Elisha prayed and caused all of
them to be struck with blindness and enter Samaria as captives.
Let us compare this leisure of his with that of others. Other men for the sake of rest are accustomed
to withdraw their minds from business, and to retire from the company of men; to seek the
retirement of the country or the solitude of the fields. But Elisha was ever active. In solitude he
divided the river Jordan in passing over it. On Carmel he promised the woman that a son now
unhoped for should be born to her. He raised the dead to life, he corrected the bitterness of the food,
he made the iron head of the axe to swim by putting the wooden handle in the water. He changed
leprosy for cleanness, drought for rain, famine for plenty.
When can the upright man be alone, since he is always with God? When is he ever left forsaken, he
who is never separated from Christ? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am confident
that neither death nor life nor angel shall do so. For the upright man regards nothing but what is
consistent and virtuous. And so although he seems poor to another, he is rich to himself, for his worth
is taken not at the value of the things that are temporal, but of the things that are eternal.
THURSDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEHU, THROUGH ELISHA’S DISCIPLE, IS ADOPTED AS KING OF ISRAEL: 2 KINGS 9:1-16, 22-27
Then Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Gird up your loins,
and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. And when you arrive, look there for
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Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi; and go in and bid him rise from among his fellows, and
lead him to an inner chamber. Then take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, hus says the
LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not tarry.”
So the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. And when he came, behold, the commanders
of the army were in council; and he said, “I have an errand to you, O commander.” And Jehu said, “To
which of us all?” And he said, “To you, O commander.” So he arose, and went into the house; and the
young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel, I anoint
you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your
master, that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the
servants of the LORD. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every
male, bond or free, in Israel. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory
of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.” Then he opened the door, and fled.
When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad
fellow come to you?” And he said to them, “You know the fellow and his talk.” And they said, “That is
not true; tell us now.” And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint
you king over Israel.’” Then in haste every man of them took his garment, and put it under him on the
bare steps, and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
Thus Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram with all
Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Syria; but King Joram had returned
to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael
king of Syria.) So Jehu said, “If this is your mind, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the
news in Jezreel.” Then Jehu mounted his chariot, and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And
Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.
And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so
long as the harlotries and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?” Then Joram reined
about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treachery, O Ahaziah!” And Jehu drew his bow with his full
strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in
his chariot. Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, “Take him up, and cast him on the plot of ground belonging to
Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab his father, how
the LORD uttered this oracle against him: ‘As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the
blood of his sons – says the LORD – I will requite you on this plot of ground.’ Now therefore take him
up and cast him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the LORD.”
When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued
him, and said, “Shoot him also”; and they shot him in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is by
Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there.

LETTER 66.3-5, TO COUNTESS BLANCHE, NOW A NUN AT MILAN; FOCMC (1992) TR. BLUM
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and, as the evangelist reports, Jesus with his disciples had
been invited. In that wedding of former times, Jesus changed water into wine; but here at the
spiritual wedding the same Jesus makes of himself wine and food. He becomes food because he is the
living bread that comes down from heaven; he is the wine that cheers the heart of man. It is of his
Spirit that it is said again, your cup makes one drunk, how goodly it is! The Spirit of God, indeed,
inebriates the hearts of men, so that, like strangers to themselves, they might disdain the riches of
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this world – honour and glory – that they might burn with ardent desire to undergo all that is harsh
and burdensome for the sake of God.
The Apostles were drunk with the new wine; the Jews, thinking them to be out of their minds and in a
frenzy said, They have been drinking too much new wine. The man who belonged to the prophetic
brotherhood, whom Elisha sent to anoint Jehu king, had also drunk of this new wine, and they who
thought him crazy said to him, Why did this madman come to you? Why, then, should we wonder that
men who are pure of heart and are filled with the Spirit of God should be judged insane by the wise of
this world? They also said that the Lord of the angels himself was possessed by a devil and, what is
more, as Mark the evangelist testifies, thought him to be a madman.
This inebriation of the Holy Spirit you, too, venerable lady, experienced with full control of your
senses when you decided to leave the world: and spreading your wings like a simple dove, you flew to
the nest of the innocent and guileless. This inebriation, too, has compelled you to despise your
spacious and fertile lands, so rich in produce; to turn away from the fortified towers and defences of
your castles; and, what is more important than all of these, to leave your only son, still in his youth,
without the comfort of family ties. And you, who once moved in the company of a host of attendants,
have now learned to reside humbly in the narrow confines of the monastery with holy women who
are poor in spirit. And, that your conversion might appear that much more admirable, the world did
not expel you, but the ardour of God’s Spirit alone attracted you.
FRIDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ATHALIAH AND JOASH: 2 KINGS 11:1-21
Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the
royal family. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of
Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were about to be slain, and she put him
and his nurse in a bedchamber. Thus she hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain; and he
remained with her six years, hid in the house of the LORD, while Athaliah reigned over the land.
But in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of the Carites and of the guards, and
had them come to him in the house of the LORD; and he made a covenant with them and put them
under oath in the house of the LORD, and he showed them the king’s son. And he commanded them,
“This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, those who come off duty on the sabbath and
guard the king’s house (another third being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate behind the guards),
shall guard the palace; and the two divisions of you, which come on duty in force on the sabbath and
guard the house of the LORD, shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and
whoever approaches the ranks is to be slain. Be with the king when he goes out and when he comes
in.”
The captains did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and each brought his men who
were to go off duty on the sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the sabbath, and came
to Jehoiada the priest. And the priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been
King David’s, which were in the house of the LORD; and the guards stood, every man with his
weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the
altar and the house. Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him
the testimony; and they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and
said, “Long live the king!”
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When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the LORD
to the people; and when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the
custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing
and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!” Then Jehoiada
the priest commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring her out between the ranks;
and slay with the sword any one who follows her.” For the priest said, “Let her not be slain in the
house of the LORD.” So they laid hands on her; and she went through the horses’ entrance to the
king’s house, and there she was slain.
And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the
LORD’s people; and also between the king and the people. Then all the people of the land went to the
house of Baal, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they slew Mattan
the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest posted watchmen over the house of the LORD. And
he took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land; and they brought the king
down from the house of the LORD, marching through the gate of the guards to the king’s house. And
he took his seat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was
quiet after Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the king’s house.
Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.
A READING FROM ON THE HOLY TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY ABBOT RUPERT OF
DEUTZ
DE SANCTA TRINITATE ET OPERIBUS EIUS, 38 (PL 167 1270-1271); TR. PLUSCARDEN
A flow of blood, in accord with the meaning of the name of Jezabel, began to pour out from her into
Judah and Jerusalem, and right into the inner parts of the Temple of the Lord. This was Athaliah, the
daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, who was the wife of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat King of Judah.
And Jehoram killed all his brothers with the sword, as well as some of the leading men of the
Kingdom. He walked in the ways of the Kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had acted, for Ahab's
daughter was his wife, as we have said. Therefore his descendants are removed from the genealogy
of Christ the Son of God up to the fourth generation. This is shown when it is said at the beginning of
Matthew’s Gospel, and ,Iehoram begat Uzziah, for the three names Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah have
been cut out of the list.
For just as Jezebel had raged in Samaria, her daughter Athaliah also raged in Jerusalem and in all
Judah. She incited her son Ahaziah to act wickedly. After he died at the hand of Jehu, King of Israel,
Athaliah arose and killed all the royal stock of the house of Jehoram. Then Jehosheba, the King's
daughter and wife of Jehoiada the High Priest took Joash, Ahaziah’s son, and removed him secretly
from among the King’s sons who were being slaughtered and hid him with his nurse in the sleeping
quarters. This was so that, through the Lord’s providence, the lamp of his servant David might not be
put out in order that our Lord Jesus Christ might be brought forth from the descendents of David.
In the seventh year Jehoiada led our Joash openly with the chief men and the commanders of
hundreds and they placed a crown on his head and the Law in his hand to keep. They established him
as King and Athaliah was killed by the sword. But Joash returned evil for good. As long as Jehoiada
lived he did what was good before the Lord, but after he died he abandoned the Lord God of his
fathers and served the sacred groves and graven images. Amaziah his son also deserted the Lord and
was not afraid to stop up the mouths of the prophets. His son Uzziah succeeded him and under him
Isaiah began to prophesy.
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SATURDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE REIGN OF JOASH IN ISRAEL. DEATH OF THE PROPHET ELISHA: 2 KINGS 13:10-25
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over
Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years. He also did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he
did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin, but he
walked in them. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and the might with which he
fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings
of Israel? So Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat upon his throne; and Joash was buried in
Samaria with the kings of Israel.
Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down
to him, and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows”; so he took a bow and arrows. Then he said to the
king of Israel, “Draw the bow”; and he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands upon the king’s hands. And he
said, “Open the window eastward”; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he
said, “The LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in
Aphek until you have made an end of them.” And he said, “Take the arrows”; and he took them. And
he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them”; and he struck three times, and stopped.
Then the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you
would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only
three times.”
So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of
the year. And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into
the grave of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his
feet.
Now Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But the LORD was gracious to them
and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them; nor has he cast them from his presence until now.
When Hazael king of Syria died, Ben-hadad his son became king in his stead. Then Jehoash the son of
Jehoahaz took again from Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken from Jehoahaz
his father in war. Three times Joash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel.
A READING FROM A POEM BY ST EPHREM

THE HARP OF THE SPIRIT, 77-78, TR. BROCK; WORD IN SEASON VI
Our generation is like a leaf whose time, once it falls, is over,
but though the limit of our life is short, praise can lengthen it,
for, corresponding to the extent of our love,
we shall acquire, through praise, life that has no measure.
For it is in our Lord that the root of our faith is grafted;
though far off, he is still close to us in the fusion of love.
Let the roots of our love be bound up in him,
let the full extent of his compassion be fused in us.
O Lord, may the body be a temple for him who built it,
may the soul be a palace full of praise for its architect!
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Let not our body become a hollow cavity,
let our souls not be a harbour of loss.
And when the light of this temporal breath flickers out
do you relight in the morning the lantern that was extinguished in the night.
The sun arrives and with the warmth of its rising
it revives the frozen and relights what has been extinguished.
It is right that we should acknowledge that Light which illumines all,
for in the morning, when the sun has gone up, lanterns are extinguished,
but this new Sun has performed a new deed,
relighting in Sheol the lanterns that had been extinguished.
In place of death who has breathed the smell of mortality over all,
he who gives life to all exhales a life-giving scent in Sheol;
from his life the dead breathe in new life,
and death dies within them.
The scent of the buried Elisha who gave life to a dead man provides a type for this:
a man dead but a day breathed in life from him who was long dead;
the life-giving scent wafted from his bones and entered the dead corpse – a symbol of him
who gives life to all.
Jesus has elucidated for us the symbols that took place at Elisha’s grave,
how from an extinguished lantern a lantern can be relit,
and how, while lying in the grave, he could raise up the fallen,
himself remaining there, but sending forth a witness to Christ’s coming.

SUNDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S WILL: EPHESIANS 1:1-14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are at Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through
Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. For he has made known to
us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in
Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to recapitulate all things in him, things in heaven and things
on earth.
In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his
will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.
In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in
him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we
acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
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ADVERSUS HAERESES 3.20.2, 21.9-22.3; (1997) TR. GRANT
This Word of God which dwelt in man was made Son of man to accustom man to perceive God and to
accustom God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of the Father.
And he recapitulated in himself the work he originally fashioned, because, just as through the
disobedience of one man sin entered in, and through sin death prevailed, so also through the
obedience of one man justice was brought in and produced the fruit of life for men who were
formerly dead. Just as the first-formed Adam received his substance from uncultivated and still virgin
earth and was fashioned by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, so also the Word,
recapitulating Adam in himself, rightly received from Mary ever-virgin the conception that is the
recapitulation of Adam. If then the first Adam had had a man for father and had been born of the
seed of a man, the heretics could rightly say that the second Adam was generated by Joseph. But if
the first Adam was taken from the earth and fashioned by the Word of God, it was necessary that the
Word himself, working in himself the recapitulation of Adam, possessed a similar origin. One might
object, why did God not take dust anew and why did he make what he fashioned proceed from Mary?
The reason is so that there would not be another creation nor another work made to be saved, but
that the same creature might be recapitulated, with the likeness preserved.
Why would Christ have come down into her if he was to receive nothing from her? And if he had
received nothing from Mary he would never have taken foods derived from the earth; after fasting
forty days like Moses and Elijah he would not have felt hunger because his body needed food; John
his disciple would not have written of him: Jesus sat, wearied from the journey; nor would David have
proclaimed, They have added to the pain of my wounds; he would not have wept over Lazarus; he
would not have sweated drops of blood; he would not have said, My soul is sorrowful, nor would
blood and water have come forth from his pierced side. All these are signs of the flesh taken from the
earth, which he recapitulated in himself, saving what he had formed.
This is why Luke presents the genealogy of seventy-two generations from the birth of our Lord back to
Adam, linking the end to the beginning. He shows that Christ is the one who recapitulated in himself,
with Adam, all the nations and languages and generations of men dispersed after Adam. Therefore
Paul calls Adam, the figure of the one to come because the Word, Fashioner of all, established in
Adam the future divine plan for humanity to come to perfection in the Son of God, since from the
very beginning God obviously predestined the physical man to be saved by the spiritual man. Since he
who would save pre-existed, what would be saved had to come into existence so that the Saviour
would not be in vain.
MONDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S PRAYER FOR THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE FAITHFUL: EPHESIANS 1:15-23
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the
saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of
him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has
called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he
accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the
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heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that
is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet
and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills all in all.

SERMON 46; FOC 93 (1996) TR. FREELAND & CONWAY
Those who are not disillusioned by the death of Christ and not deceived about his human birth are
the true witnesses and worshippers of his Resurrection. Those who are ashamed of the Gospel of the
Cross of Christ, so as foolishly to empty of its meaning the suffering undertaken for the redemption of
the world, have denied the very nature of the Lord’s true flesh. They do not understand that the
unchangeable Divinity of the Word of God, subject to no suffering, so humbled itself for the salvation
of humanity that in power it did not lose its own nature but in mercy it took up ours. So there is one
Person of the twofold nature in Christ, and the Son of God, also the son of man, is one Lord, in the
wisdom of his mercy taking on the form of a servant.
Thus, dearly beloved, if in reading or hearing the Gospel you recognise certain things in our Lord Jesus
Christ that are subject to injury, and certain things illumined by miracles, as if he at one time
appeared human and at another time shone as divine, do not consider anything of this are false – as if
in Christ there was humanity alone or divinity alone – but in faith believe both and in humility worship
both. In the unity of the Word and flesh there is no division. The testimony for each nature is true and
abundant in him, coming together from the height of divine wisdom to teach that the divinity in the
flesh and the flesh in the divinity take part in every way in the inviolable Word, unseparated from the
suffering of the flesh.
Thus, Christian soul, disciple of truth, you have fled deceit; now use the Gospel story with faith, and
note carefully, here with a spiritual mind and there with bodily sight, what things were visibly done by
the Lord, as if you yourself were there together with the Apostles. Give to the man what as a child he
took from a woman; give to God the fact that his Mother’s virginity was in no way harmed by his
Conception nor by his Birth.
It is characteristic of true man to relieve the tired body in quiet sleep; but of true God to restrain the
force of raging storms by the rebuke of his command. It is the work of human kindness and a
responsible spirit to provide food for the hungry; but to satisfy five thousand men, as well as their
wives and children, with five loaves and two fish, who would dare to deny that this is the work of the
divinity which, these functions of true flesh cooperating with divinity, showed itself to be in man and
man in itself? In no other way could the ancient wounds of original sin be healed in human nature but
by the Word of God assuming flesh from the womb of the Virgin and, in one and the same Person
together, both being born as flesh and being the Word.
Keep in a firm heart this faith of the Lord’s Incarnation, dearly beloved, keep it safe from all the
deceits of the heretics. Cast out those questions of worldly wisdom, hateful to the Lord, for by it, no
one can come to the knowledge of truth. Rather, hold fixed in your mind what you have learned in the
Creed.
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TUESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SINNERS ARE SAVED IN CHRIST JESUS: EPHESIANS 2:1-10
And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of
mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we
were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been
saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the
gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

DE NATURA ET GRATIA 3.3 – 6.6; WSA (1997) TR. TESKE
Human nature was in the beginning created blameless and without any defect. But that human
nature, in which each of its is born of Adam, now needs a physician, because it is not in good health.
All the goods which it has in its constitution: life, the senses, and the mind, it has from the sovereign
God, its creator and maker. But the defect which darkens and weakens those natural goods so that
there is need for enlightenment and healing did not come from its blameless maker. It came from the
original sin which was committed by free choice. And thus a nature subject to punishment is part of a
punishment that is completely just. After all, if we are now a new creature in Christ, we were,
nonetheless, by nature children of anger, just as the others. But God who is rich in mercy, on account
of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead by sins, brought us to life with
Christ, by whose grace we have been saved.
This grace of Christ without which neither infants nor adults can be saved is not a recompense for our
merits, but a free gift. This is the reason it is called grace. Paul says that they have been gratuitously
justified by his blood. Hence, those who are not set free by it are rightly condemned. It makes no
difference whether it is due to the fact that they are still unwilling to hear the word or that they are
unwilling to obey or even that, though they could not hear the word by reason of their age, they did
not receive the bath of regeneration which they could receive and by which they might be saved.
They are rightly condemned because they are not free from sin, either that which they contracted
from their origin or that which they have added to it by their evil lives. All have, after all, sinned –
whether in Adam or in their own persons – and lack the glory of God.
The whole mass of humanity owes a debt of punishment, and if all suffered the penalty of damnation
they deserved, they certainly would not be paying an unjust penalty. Those then who are set free
from it by grace are not called vessels of their own merits, but vessels of mercy. Of whose mercy, if
not the mercy of him who sent Christ Jesus into this world to save the sinners? He foreknew,
predestined, called, justified, and glorified them. Who then is going to be so wildly insane as not to
offer inexpressible thanks to the mercy of God, if he sets free those whom he wills, since one could in
no way find fault with his justice, if he condemned absolutely everyone?
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If we hold this in accord with the Scriptures, we are not forced to argue against the grace of Christ
and to say things by which we try to prove that in little ones human nature has no need of a physician,
because it is healthy, and that in adults it is able to be self-sufficient for righteousness, if it wants.
These claims have the semblance of cleverness, but they are spoken with that worldly wisdom that
does away with the cross of Christ. Such wisdom does not came down from above. I do not want
to mention what follows for fear of being thought to do an injustice to our friends, for we want their
vigorous and quick minds to move in the right direction, not in the wrong one.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE GENTILES ARE RECONCILED WITH THE JEWS AND WITH GOD: EPHESIANS 2:11-22
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is
called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands – remember that you were at that time
separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one,
and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of
commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so
making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing
the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those
who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no
longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being
the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the
Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PSALM 126 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

TREATISE ON PSALM 126, 7-9; (1950) TR. SHEPPARD
God chose Sion for his abode and his dwelling-place. But Sion came to be destroyed. Where, then, is
now the everlasting throne of the Lord, where his eternal resting-place, where the Temple in which
he can reside? You, says the Apostle, are the Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells within you.
This is the house and this the Temple of God, filled with divine knowledge and virtue, made fit for
God’s indwelling by holiness of heart; to which the prophet bore witness: Holy is your Temple,
wonderful in justice. It is the holiness, the justice, the purity of man that is a Temple for the Lord.
This Temple must be built by God. Raised by man’s endeavour, it will never last; founded on worldly
wisdom, it will never hold together; kept by our foolish exertions and care, it will never be preserved.
On no shifting sand is it to be founded, but set firm on the foundation of the prophets and the
Apostles; with living stones must it take shape, held fast by the Corner-Stone. With its materials
securely joined together it must grow unto the perfect man, unto the stature of the body of Christ,
and its adorning must lie in the beauty and splendour of spiritual gifts.
Israel is now in captivity, but when the full host of Gentiles is come then it will pursue the building of
this house. By the multifarious labours of the faithful it will grow into as many houses, will become a
great and beautiful city. For long now, has the Lord kept faithful watch over his city: guarding Abra-
ham on his pilgrimage, preserving Isaac from immolation, rewarding Jacob for his years of service,
giving power to Joseph. a slave in Egypt. He strengthens Moses in his conflict with Pharaoh, makes
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Joshua a leader in battle, rescues David from every danger, confers on Solomon the gift of wisdom.
He is there among his prophets, taking up Elijah, choosing Elisha, feeding Daniel, bringing refreshment
to the children in the fiery furnace. Joseph he tells by an angel of his virgin birth, Mary he reassures,
John he sends before him. He chooses the Apostles and prays to his Father: Holy Father, keep them
safe … while I was with them I kept them in thy name. And after his passion he promises that he
himself will have an everlasting care of us: Behold, I am with you always, even until the end of the
world. Such is the everlasting protection of this blessed and holy city which, made up of many come
together in one, and found in each one of us, forms indeed the city of God.
THURSDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL, HERALD OF THE MYSTERY OF GOD: EPHESIANS 3:1-13
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles – assuming that you have
heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made
known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this you can perceive my insight
into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it
has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that is, how the Gentiles are
fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel.
Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the
working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to
preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of
the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold
wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realised in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we
have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over
what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY OF

NYSSA
ON THE SONG OF SONGS, 8 (JAEGER, 6:254-7); WORD IN SEASON VI
Somewhere in his letter to the Ephesians, when speaking of that great divine plan by which God
appeared in the flesh, the Apostle says that it was not only mankind which was taught the divine
mysteries through grace: the manifold wisdom of God as revealed through Christ’s life among men
was also made known to the heavenly principalities and powers. The text says: so that now, through
the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in the
heavenly realms, according to the eternal purpose which he fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom
we have free access to God with the confidence born of faith in him.
It is indeed through the Church that the heavenly powers discover the manifold wisdom of God that
accomplished great wonders by contrary means: how life resulted from death, righteousness from
sin, a blessing from a curse, glory from disgrace, power from weakness. In earlier times the heavenly
powers were aware only of the simple, unqualified wisdom of God working wonders in a manner
appropriate to its nature. There was nothing complex in what they saw when in its mighty power the
Godhead created the universe by a simple act of will, bringing the natural world into being and
endowing all things with the great beauty that springs from the source of all beauty.
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Now, however, through the Church, they have been clearly shown this manifold kind of wisdom which
consists in the combination of opposites. They have learned how the Word became flesh; how life
mingled with death; how Christ healed our wounds by his own bruises; and how by the weakness of
the cross he overcame the power of the adversary. They have learned how the Invisible was revealed
in flesh; how he redeemed captives, being himself both the Redeemer and the price, since he gave
himself up to death to pay our ransom; how he also entered the realm of death without abandoning
life, and became a servant without ceasing to be a king. All these and similar things contained in the
manifold and not simple works of Wisdom the friends of the Bridegroom learned through the Church,
and were fascinated to perceive in the mystery yet another mark of the divine Wisdom. Indeed, if it is
not too bold a thing to say, perhaps in gazing at the beauty of the Bridegroom reflected in the bride,
they beheld with wonder that which is invisible and incomprehensible to all created beings.
For God, whom no one has ever seen, as John says, or can see, as Paul testifies, has made the Church
his body, and by the addition of those who are saved he builds it up in love until we all attain full
maturity, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ. If then the Church is the body of
Christ, and Christ is the body’s head who impresses his own features on its face, this may explain why
the friends of the Bridegroom were fascinated to see the Church, since through her they beheld more
clearly the invisible Bridegroom. Just as one cannot look straight at the sun but can see its brilliance
reflected on water, so they too see the Sun of Righteousness in the clear mirror of the Church, in
which they contemplate him through his reflection.
FRIDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S PRAYER THAT THE FAITHFUL MAY KNOW CHRIST’S LOVE: EPHESIANS 3:14-21
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is
named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might
through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you,
being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON 165, 1-5, 9; WSA (1992) TR. HILL
Listen to the Apostle saying to you, But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Let us too make it our boast, if only because we lean totally upon it. Perhaps it is there that we
shall find both width, and length, and height, and depth. These words of the Apostle, you see,
somehow set up the cross before our very eyes. I mean, it has width, where the hands are fixed; it has
length, where the post goes down from there to the ground; it also has height, which goes up a little
from the crossbar on which the hands are fixed, where the head of the crucified is laid; and it also has
depth, that is, the part fixed in the ground which cannot be seen. Notice what a great, significant
mystery it is; from that depth which you cannot see rises everything that you can see.
So where is the width? Turn your mind to the life and behaviour of the saints, who say, Far be it from
me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find in their way of life and behaviour the
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width of charity; which is why the Apostle himself gives them this advice: Open yourselves wide, lest
you should be bearing the yoke with unbelievers. So width means charity, which alone does good
works.
But because the Lord said, When iniquity abounds, the charity of many will grow cold, he gave me also
length. What is meant by length? Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved. This is the length of
the cross, where the whole body is stretched; where after a fashion it is standing, the kind of standing
by which one perseveres. So if you are seeking, you that make the cross your boast, to have the width
of the cross, make sure you have the virtue to do good. If you want to have the length of the cross,
make sure you have the long suffering capacity to persevere.
But if you want to have the height of the cross, make sure you know the meaning of the words you
hear, ‘Lift up your hearts’, and of where you hear them. Well, what does it mean, ‘Lift up your
hearts’? Place your hope up there, place your love up there, ask for strength from up there, look for
your reward from up there. Because if you do good, and give cheerfully, you seem to have the width;
if in the same good works you persevere to the end, you seem to have the length. But if you don’t do
any of this for the sake of the reward up above, you won’t have the height; which means you won’t
have the real width and real length either.
Then there is also the frightening passage of the gospel: To you it has been given to know the mystery
of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, will be given. But who does have,
so as to be given, except the one to whom it has been given? But whoever does not have, even what
he has will be taken away from him. But who doesn’t have, except the one to whom it has not been
given? So why was it given to this one, and not given to that one? It doesn’t embarrass me to say, this
is the depth of the cross. From heaven knows what depths of God’s judgements, which we are quite
unable to scrutinise or contemplate, proceeds everything that we can scrutinise. Why this person is
saved and not that – it is too much for me, it is an abyss, the depth of the cross; I can cry out in
wonder, I cannot explain by reasoned argument.
SATURDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BODY OF CHRIST IS BUILT UP IN UNITY: EPHESIANS 4:1-16
called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you
were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according
to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of
captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended”, what does it mean but that he had also
descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all
the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
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the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that
we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to
grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and
knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes
bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH TO THE EPHESIANS

EPHESIANS, 1, 3-6, 8; ACW 1 (1946) TR. KLEIST
Ignatius, also called Theophorus, sends good wishes for unalloyed joy in Jesus Christ to the Church at
Ephesus in Asia; a Church deserving of felicitation, blessed, as she is, with greatness through the
fullness of God the Father; predestined, before time was, to be – to her abiding and unchanging glory
– for ever united and chosen, through real suffering, by the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our
God.
Since affection does not permit me to be silent where you are concerned, I am at once taking this
opportunity to exhort you to live in harmony with the mind of God. Surely, Jesus Christ, our
inseparable life, for his part is the mind of the Father, just as the Bishops, though appointed
throughout the vast, wide earth, represent for their part the mind of Jesus Christ. Hence it is proper
for you to act in agreement with the mind of the Bishop; and this you do. Certain it is that your
presbytery is a credit to God; for it harmonises with the Bishop as completely as the strings with a
harp. This is why in the symphony of your concord and love the praises of Jesus Christ are sung. But
you, the rank and file, should also form a choir, so that, joining the symphony by your concord, and by
your unity taking your key note from God, you may with one voice through Jesus Christ sing a song to
the Father. Thus he will both listen to you and by reason of your good life recognize in you the
melodies of his Son. It profits you, therefore, to continue in your flawless unity, that you may at all
times have a share in God.
For in fact, if I in a short time became so warmly attached to your Bishop – an attachment based not
on human grounds but on spiritual – how much more do I count you happy who are as closely knit to
him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father! As a result, the symphony of
unity is perfect. Let no one deceive himself: unless a man is within the sanctuary, he has to go without
the Bread of God. Assuredly, if the prayer of one or two has such efficacy,-how much more that of the
Bishop and the entire Church! It follows, then: he who absents himself from the common meeting, by
that very fact shows pride and becomes a sectarian; for the Scripture says: God resists the proud. Let
us take care, therefore, not to oppose the Bishop, that we may be submissive to God.
Furthermore: the more anyone observes that a Bishop is discreetly silent, the more he should stand in
fear of him. Obviously, anyone whom the Master of the household puts in charge of his domestic
affairs, ought to be received by us in the same spirit as he who has charged him with this duty. Plainly,
then, one should look upon the Bishop as upon the Lord himself. Now your Bishop Onesimus for his
part overflows with praise of the good order that, thanks to God, exists in your midst. Let no one,
then, deceive you, as indeed you are not being deceived, belonging wholly to God. For as long as no
dissension calculated to plague you has taken firm root among you, it follows that you are leading a
life conformable to God. Your lowliest servant, I also consecrate myself to you Ephesians – that
Church whose renown will go down the ages.
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SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PUTTING ON THE NEW MAN: EPHESIANS 4:17-24
Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility
of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of
the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have
given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. You did not so
learn Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in
Jesus. Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after
the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

SERMON 9.5-8; WSA (1990) TR. HILL
Suppose then I'm a popular singer – what more could I sing to you? Here you are – I have brought a
harp; it has ten strings. You were singing this yourselves a little earlier on, before I began to speak.
You were my chorus. O God, I will sing you a new song, on a harp of ten strings I will play to you? Now
I am strumming these ten strings.
You see, the decalogue of the law has ten commandments. These ten commandments are arranged
in such a way that three refer to God and seven refer to men. I have already mentioned God’s three.
If we were told, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul
and with your whole mind, and nothing was said about our neighbour, it would not be a ten-stringed
hut a three-stringed instrument. But because the Lord added, And you shall love your neighbour as
yourself, and joined them together by saying, On these two commandments hangs the whole law
and the prophets; the whole law is contained in two commandments, in love of God and love of
neighbour. Three strings relate to the first, because God is three. But to the other commandment,
that is, the love of neighbour, seven strings refer.
You see, the Jewish people received the Law. They did not observe what is in the decalogue. And any
who did comply did so out of fear of punishment, not out of love of justice. They were carrying the
harp, but they weren’t singing. If you are singing, it’s enjoyable; if you are fearing, it’s burdensome.
That’s why the old man either doesn’t do it, or does it out of fear, not out of love of holiness, not out
of delight in chastity, not out of the calmness of charity, but out of fear. It’s because he is the old
man, and the old man can sing the old song but not the new one. In order to sing the new song, he
must become the new man. How can you do this?
Listen, not to me but to the Apostle: Put off the old man and put on the new. And in case anyone
should imagine, when he says Put off the old man and put on the new, that something has to be laid
aside and something else taken up, where in fact he is giving instructions about changing the man, he
goes on to say, Therefore, putting aside lying, speak the truth. That’s what he means by Put off the old
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man and put on the new. What he is saying is: ‘Change your ways.’ You used to love the world; love
God. You used to love the futilities of wickedness, you used to love passing, temporary pleasures; love
your neighbour. If you do it out of love, you are singing the new song. If you do it out of fear but do it
all the same, you are indeed carrying the harp but you are not yet singing. But if you don’t do it at all,
you are throwing the harp away. It’s better at least to carry it than to throw it away. But again, it’s
better to sing with pleasure than to carry the thing as a burden. And you don’t get to the new song at
all unless you are already singing it with pleasure. If you are carrying the harp with fear, you are still in
the old song.
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

“BE IMITATORS OF GOD”: EPHESIANS 4:25 – 5:7
Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are
members one of another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give
no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work
with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no evil talk come out of your
mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those
who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you,
with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
forgave you.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting
among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let
there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man, or one who is covetous (that
is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with
empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of
disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them.

CONFERENCE XII 3.1-4.2; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
We see that many people have so abandoned what is theirs for the sake of Christ, that they have
forever cut out from their hearts not only the possession of money, but even the desire for it. If this is
so, it follows that we should believe that even the fire of fornication can be extinguished in the same
way. For the Apostle would not have joined something impossible to something possible. And so
confident is the blessed Apostle that fornication and impurity can be rooted out of our members, that
he declares that not only should they be put to death, but that they should not even be mentioned
among us. As he says, Fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among
you, nor filthiness nor foolishness nor levity, which are not fitting.
He also teaches that these things are equally destructive and cut us off from the Kingdom of God
when he says, Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man or one who is covetous (that is, an
idolater) has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Hence there must be no doubt that
the contagion of fornication and impurity can be done away with in our members, since he has not
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commanded that they should be cut off in some other way than covetousness, foolishness and levity,
which are easily cut off.
Yet we should be certain that although we undergo all the rigours of abstinence – namely, hunger and
thirst, along with vigils and constant work and an unceasing pursuit of reading – we are still unable to
acquire the perpetual purity of chastity through these efforts unless, while exerting ourselves
constantly in them, we are taught in the school of experience that its incorruption is granted to us by
the bounty of divine grace. For this reason alone everyone should realise that he must persevere
tirelessly in these practices; but he must not believe that through these things he will attain by
himself the unspoiled bodily chastity that he seeks.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

“WALK AS CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT”: EPHESIANS 5:8-21
Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of
light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take
no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak
of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for
anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light.”
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time,
because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your
heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO MARCELLINUS OF ST ATHANASIUS

LETTER TO MARCELLINUS, 10-12, 14, 27-29; CWS (1980) TR. GREGG
The Book of Psalms has a certain grace of its own. For in addition to the other things in which it
enjoys fellowship with the other books of the Bible, it possesses this marvel – that it contains all the
emotions of each soul and their various changes. Thus, through hearing, it teaches us not only not to
disregard passion, but also how to heal passion through speaking and acting.
There is also this astonishing thing in the Psalms. After the prophecies about the Saviour and the
nations, he who recites the Psalms is uttering the rest as his own words, and each sings them as if
they were written concerning him. And it seems to me that these words become like a mirror to the
person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul. For in fact he
who hears the cantor receives the song that is recited as being about him, and either, when he is
convicted by his conscience, he will repent, or hearing of the hope that resides in God, and how this
kind of grace exists for him, he exults and begins to give thanks to God. Therefore, when someone
sings the third psalm, recognising his own tribulations, he considers the words in the psalm to be his
own. And then when someone sings the fiftieth, he is speaking the proper words of his own
repentance. If the point needs to be put more forcefully, let us say that the entire Holy Scripture is a
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teacher of virtue and the truths of faith, while the Book of Psalms presents the perfect image for the
soul’s course of life.
Such, then, is the help for mankind to be gained from the Book of Psalms. It is important not to pass
over the question of why words of this kind are chanted with melodies. For some of the simple among
us, although they believe indeed that the phrases are divinely inspired, imagine on account of the
sweetness of sound that the psalms are sung for the sake of the ear’s delight alone. But this is not so.
For Scripture did not just seek pleasant things; even these have been fashioned for the benefit of the
soul. This is because it is fitting for Divine Scripture to praise God not in compressed speech alone, but
also in the voice that is richly broadened.
Some things are said in close sequence; such as the Law and the Prophets and the histories, along
with the New Testament. But on the other hand, some things are expressed more broadly, such as
the psalms, odes, and songs, so that men will love God with their whole strength and power. Just as
the harmony that unites flutes effects a single sound, so also, seeing that different movements appear
in the soul, reason intends man to be neither discordant in himself, nor to be at variance with himself.
Reason intends the soul possessing the mind of Christ to use this as a leader, and by it to be a master
of its passions. A man then becomes a stringed instrument and, devoting himself completely to the
Spirit, obeys the mind of Christ, which acts like a plectrum in all his members and emotions, thus
enabling him to serve the will of God. The harmonious singing of the Psalms is a figure and type of
such order and tranquillity. For just as we discover the ideas of the soul and communicate them
through the words we put forth, so also the Lord, wishing the melody of the words to be a symbol of
the spiritual harmony in a soul, has ordered that the odes be chanted tunefully, and the Psalms
recited with song.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE GIFTS OF MARRIAGE: EPHESIANS 5:22-33
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is
the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. As the church is subject to Christ, so let
wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the
church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love
their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh. This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the
church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects
her husband.
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SERMON 341, 12-13; WSA (1995) TR. HILL
Sometimes in the Scriptures Christ is presented as the Word equal to the Father. Sometimes he is
presented as the Mediator, since the Word became flesh to dwell amongst us, taking the form of a
servant and becoming obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Sometimes, however, he is
presented in such a way that you are to understand the head and the body together, as when the
Apostle expounds what was said about husband and wife in Genesis: they shall be two in one flesh.
Notice his exposition, for I don’t want to give the impression of saying something I made up myself:
for they shall be two in one flesh. And he adds, this is a great sacrament. Now just in case anyone
should still think this is about a husband and wife according to the natural joining of the sexes and
their bodily coming together, he goes on, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church.
And just as with bridegroom and bride, so also head and body, because the head of the woman is the
man. So, whether I say head and body, or whether I say bridegroom and bride, you must understand
the same thing. And that’s why the same Apostle, while he was still Saul, heard the words, Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me?; because the body is joined to the head.
So present yourselves to such a head as a body worthy of him, to such a bridegroom as a worthy
bride. To present himself, it says, with a glorious Church, without stain or wrinkle or any such thing.
This is the bride of Christ, without stain or wrinkle. Do you wish to have no stain? Do what is written,
wash yourselves, be clean, remove the wicked schemes from your heart. Do you wish to have no
wrinkle? Stretch yourself on the cross. You see, you don’t only need to be washed, but also to be
stretched, in order to be without stain or wrinkle; because by the washing sins are removed, while by
the stretching a desire is created for the future life, which is what Christ was crucified for. Listen to
Paul himself, once he was washed: he has saved us by the washing of rebirth; and listen to him as he is
stretched: forgetting what lies behind, and stretching forward to what lies ahead I press on towards
the goal for the prize of God’s calling from above in Christ Jesus.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DOMESTIC DUTIES: EPHESIANS 6:1-9
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother (this is the
first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the
earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of
heart, as to Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the
will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men, knowing
that whatever good any one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is a slave
or free. Masters, do the same to them, and forbear threatening, knowing that he who is both their
Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
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A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE SMYRNAEANS OF ST IGNATIUS OF
ANTIOCH
TO THE SMYRNAEANS, 6-9; ACW 1 (1946) TR. KLEIST
Let no one be deceived! Even the heavenly powers and the angels in their splendour and the
principalities, both visible and invisible, must either believe in the Blood of Christ, or else face
damnation. Let him grasp it who can. Let no rank puff up anyone; for faith and love are paramount –
the greatest blessings in the world. Observe those who hold erroneous opinions concerning the grace
of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how they run counter to the mind of God! They concern
themselves with neither works of charity, nor widows, nor orphans, nor the distressed, nor those in
prison or out of it, nor the hungry or thirsty.
From the Eucharist and prayer they hold aloof, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the
flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father in his loving-
kindness raised from the dead. And so, those who question the gift of God perish in their con-
tentiousness. It would be better for them to have love, so as to share in the resurrection. It is proper,
therefore, to avoid associating with such people and not to speak about them either in private or in
public, but to study the Prophets attentively and, especially, the Gospel, in which the Passion is
revealed to us and the Resurrection shown in its fulfilment. Shun division as the beginning of evil.
You must all follow the lead of the Bishop, as Jesus Christ followed that of the Father; follow the
Presbytery as you would the Apostles; reverence the Deacons as you would God’s commandment. Let
no one do anything concerning the Church, apart from the Bishop. Let that celebration of the
Eucharist be considered valid which is held under the Bishop or anyone to whom he has committed it.
Where the Bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic
Church. It is not permitted without authorisation from the Bishop either to baptize or to hold an
agape; but whatever he approves is also pleasing to God. Thus everything you do will be proof against
danger and valid.
It is consonant with reason, therefore, that we should come to our senses, while we still have time to
change our ways and turn to God. It is well to revere God and Bishop. He who honours a Bishop is
honoured by God. He who does anything without the knowledge of the Bishop worships the devil.
May all things, then, be yours in abundance through grace, for you deserve it. You have brought relief
to me in every respect, and may Jesus Christ do so to you! Whether I was absent or present, you have
shown me love. Your reward is God, to whom you will come if you endure all things for his sake.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE. EPILOGUE: EPHESIANS 6:10-24
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that
you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and
blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole
armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand
therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the
shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all
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prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the
saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the
mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought
to speak.
Now that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful
minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may
know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.
Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love undying.
A READING FROM THE LIFE OF ANTONY BY ST ATHANASIUS

THE LIFE OF ANTONY, 21-23, 26-28; CWS (1980) TR. GREGG
Antony said: Let the contest be ours, so that anger does not rule us or desire overwhelm us.
Conducting our lives in this manner, let us keep our heart in all watchfulness. For we have terrible
and villainous enemies – the evil demons, and our fight is against these, as the Apostle said – not
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of
this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So the mob of
them is great in the air around us, and they are not far from us. But the difference between them
is great. A speech about their natures and distinctions would be lengthy, and such a discourse is
for others greater than us. For the present, that which is pressing and necessary for us is simply
to know their unscrupulous tricks against us.
First we ought to understand this: The demons were not created as the figures we now identify by
‘demon’, for God made nothing bad. They were made good, but falling from the heavenly wisdom and
thereafter wandering around the earth, they deceived the Greeks through apparitions. And envious of
us Christians, they meddle with all things in their desire to frustrate our journey into heaven, so that
we might not ascend to the place from which they themselves fell. Therefore much prayer and as-
ceticism is needed so that one who receives through the Spirit the gift of discrimination of spirits
might be able to recognize their traits – for example, which of them are less wicked, and which more;
and in what kind of pursuit each of them exerts himself, and how each of them is expelled. For
numerous are their treacheries and the moves in their plot. Therefore I, having had my share of trial
from them, address you as my children.
Should they see any Christians – monks, especially – labouring gladly and advancing, they first attack
and tempt them, placing stumbling blocks in the way. Their stumbling blocks consist of evil thoughts.
But we need not fear their suggestions, for by prayers and fasting and by faith in the Lord they are
brought down immediately. But even after they fall they do not cease, but approach again, with
malice and cunning. When they are unable to deceive the heart by conspicuous and filthy pleasure,
again they make another kind of assault, and pretend to frighten it by fabricating phantasms,
transforming themselves, and imitating women, beasts, reptiles, and huge bodies and thousands of
soldiers. Nevertheless we need not fear their apparitions, for they are nothing and they disappear
quickly-especially if one fortifies himself with faith and the sign of the cross.
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It is not fitting for us, who possess the holy Scriptures and the freedom of the Saviour, to be taught by
the devil, the one who did not maintain his own rank, but has turned his mind in one direction after
another. The Lord, as God, silenced the demons; but it is fitting for us, since we have learned from the
holy ones, to act as they acted and to emulate their courage. Since the Lord made his stay among us,
the enemy is fallen and his powers have diminished. For this reason, though he is able to do nothing,
nevertheless like a tyrant fallen from power he does not remain quiet, but issues threats, even if they
are only words. Let everyone of you consider this, and he will be empowered to treat the demons
with contempt.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO PHILEMON

THE APOSTLE’S SUPPLICATION FOR ONESIMUS: PHILEMON 1-25
Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and
the church in your house:
I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the
faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith
may promote the knowledge of all the good that is ours in Christ. For I have derived much joy and
comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through
you.
Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s
sake I prefer to appeal to you--I, Paul, an ambassador and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus – I
appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. (Formerly he
was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you,
sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me
on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your
consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will.
Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no
longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to
you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would
receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul,
write this with my own hand, I will repay it – to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes,
brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the
same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted to you.
Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus,
Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118, 14.24-26 (CSEL 62:313-316); WORD IN SEASON VI
It makes a big difference whether you do what is pleasing to God willingly or from necessity. The
Apostle was completely free; but freely, not from necessity, he became the servant of all in order to
win over as many people as possible. He became all things to all men not because of any legal
requirement but of his own free will. He has shown me the loftiness of his intention in the letter he
wrote to Philemon. Because he wished another person to be like himself, he made it clear that it was
out of no necessity but of his own free will that he had returned the slave Onesimus to his master.
Interceding for Onesimus, he says: ‘Receive him as my own heart. I should have liked to keep him with
me to serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do
anything without your consent, so that your goodness might not be from compulsion but of your own
free will.’
How eagerly he endeavours to persuade! He was God’s chosen instrument, yet he did not disdain to
share his thoughts with another, because he did not want to do him out of his reward for doing
something freely.
The Lord looks for voluntary servants. In the book of Isaiah he says: ‘Whom shall I send?’ He could
certainly have commanded his servant, whom he had found worthy of being sent, but he preferred
not to do him out of his reward for making a spontaneous offering. He waited for him to offer himself;
although he knew his good will, God still awaited his words so that he might earn a greater
recompense. Thus it was that Isaiah volunteered, saying: ‘Here am I, send me’, and so was sent to the
people.
Jeremiah excused himself saying: ‘Lord God, I am not a good speaker; I am too young.’ The Lord said
to him: ‘You shall go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you to say.’ The prophet made his age
an excuse out of diffidence, fearing that because of his youth he would be unable to carry out the
divine commands. But God judged that age should be considered in terms of character rather than
years, and discerned beforehand in his youthful servant the maturity of robust wisdom. He said there-
fore: ‘Do not say you are too young.’ In other words, he was not to judge his powers by thinking of his
lack of years, for faith had given him the grey hairs of wisdom. And again, when the same prophet
said later: ‘Lord, you have deceived me, and I have been deceived’, And I said: ‘I will not mention his
name, or say anything else in his name,’ he added: ‘and there rose in my heart a burning like fire
blazing in my bones, and I was completely broken and unable to bear it.’
We see then that even if some have reason to think they should be excused from their office, or
should refuse to undertake it, our Lord nevertheless either persuades them to think better of it, or
inspires them with a desire for prophetic revelation, wishing them to undertake the office freely, not
from necessity, so that they may receive a greater recompense for their total dedication.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

REIGNS OF AMAZIAH IN JUDAH AND JEROBOAM II IN ISRAEL: 2 KINGS 14:1-27
In the second year of Joash the son of Joahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah,
began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine
years in Jerusalem. His mothers name was Jeho-addin of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the
eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father; he did in all things as Joash his father had done. But
the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
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And as soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he killed his servants who had slain the king his
father. But he did not put to death the children of the murderers; according to what is written in the
book of the law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the
children, or the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.”
He killed ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt and took Sela by storm, and called it Jokthe-el,
which is its name to this day.
Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying,
“Come, let us look one another in the face.” And Jehoash king of Israel sent word to Amaziah king of
Judah, “A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a
wife’; and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. You have indeed smitten
Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Be content with your glory, and stay at home; for why should
you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”
But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah
faced one another in battle at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah. And Judah was defeated by
Israel, and every man fled to his home. And Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the
son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of
Jerusalem for four hundred cubits, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. And he seized all the
gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of
the kings house, also hostages, and he returned to Samaria.
Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king
of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And Jehoash slept
with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in
his stead.
Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of
Jehoahaz, king of Israel. Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, are they not written in the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to
Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. And they brought him upon horses;
and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. And all the people of Judah took
Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. He built Elath
and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of
Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. And he did what was evil in the sight
of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel
to sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah,
according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of
Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was
very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the LORD had
not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand
of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
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A READING FROM ON FIRST PRINCIPLES BY ORIGEN
PERI ARCHÓN, 4. 2; (1973) TR. BUTTERWORTH
Let us outline what seems to us to be the marks of a true understanding of the Scriptures. In the first
place we must point out that the aim of the Spirit who enlightened the servants of the truth, that is,
the prophets and Apostles, was pre-eminently concerned with the unspeakable mysteries connected
with the affairs of men. His purpose was that the man who is capable of being taught might, by
searching out the deep things revealed in the spiritual meaning of the words, become partaker of all
the doctrines of the Spirit’s counsel.
Now while these and similar subjects were in the mind of the Spirit, there was a second aim, pursued
for the sake of those who were unable to endure the burden of investigating matters of such
importance. This was to conceal the doctrine relating to these subjects in words forming a narrative
that contained a record dealing with the visible creation, the formation of man and the first human
beings until the time when they became many; and also in other stories that recorded the acts of
righteous men and the sins that these same men occasionally committed, seeing they were but
human, and the deeds of wickedness, licentiousness and greed done by lawless and impious men. But
the most wonderful thing is, that, by means of stories of wars and the conquerors and the conquered,
certain secret truths are revealed to those who are capable of examining these narratives; and, even
more marvellous, through a written system of law, the laws of truth are prophetically indicated. For
the intention was to make even the outer covering of the spiritual truths, I mean the bodily part of
the Scriptures, capable of improving the multitude in so far as they receive it.
But if in every detail of this outer covering, that is, the actual history, the sequence of the law had
been preserved and its order maintained, we should certainly not have believed that there was
anything else buried within them beyond what was indicated at a first glance. Consequently the divine
Wisdom has arranged for certain stumbling-blocks and interruptions of the historical sense to be
found therein. A number of impossibilities and incongruities have been inserted into the text, in order
that the very interruption of the narrative might as it were present a barrier to the reader and lead
him to refuse to proceed along the pathway of the ordinary meaning. Thus, through the entrance of a
narrow footpath, the reader might be brought to a higher and loftier road where the immense
breadth of the divine Wisdom might be opened to him.
And not only did the Holy Spirit supervise the writings which were previous to the coming of Christ,
but because he is one and the same Spirit and proceeds from the one God he has acted similarly in
regard to the gospels and the writings of the Apostles. Even in them the Spirit has mingled not a few
things by which the historical order of the narrative is interrupted and broken, with the object of
turning and calling the attention of the reader, by the impossibility of the literal sense, to an
examination of the inner meaning.
MONDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE JUDGEMENTS OF THE LORD ON THE NATIONS: AMOS 1:1 – 2:3
The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the
days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years
before the earthquake. And he said: “The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”
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Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. So I will send a fire
upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. I will break the bar of
Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him that holds the scepter from
Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the LORD.
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom. So I will send a fire upon
the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds. I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and
him that holds the sceptre from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the
Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord GOD.
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of
brotherhood. So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour her strongholds.”
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger tore
perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever. So I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the
strongholds of Bozrah.”
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment; because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their
border. So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds, with shouting
in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; and their king shall go into exile, he
and his princes together,” says the LORD.
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment; because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom. So I will send a fire upon
Moab, and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amid uproar, amid shouting
and the sound of the trumpet; I will cut off the ruler from its midst, and will slay all its princes with
him,” says the LORD.
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL ON THE

CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, GAUDIUM ET SPES 37
Sacred Scripture teaches the human family what the experience of the ages confirms: that while
human progress is a great advantage to man, it brings with it a strong temptation. For when the order
of values is jumbled, and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and groups pay heed solely to their
own interests and not to those of others. Thus it happens that the world ceases to be a place of true
brotherhood. In our own day, the magnified power of humanity threatens to destroy the race itself.
For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The
battle was joined from the very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord
has attested. Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is
good, nor can he achieve his own integrity without great efforts and the help of God’s grace.
That is why Christ’s Church, trusting in the design of the Creator, acknowledges that human progress
can serve man’s true happiness, yet she cannot help echoing the Apostle’s warning: Be not conformed
to this world. Here by the world is meant that spirit of vanity and malice which transforms into an
instrument of sin those human energies intended for the service of God and man.
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Hence, if anyone wants to know how this unhappy situation can be overcome, Christians will tell him
that all human activity, constantly imperiled by man’s pride and deranged self-love, must be purified
and perfected by the power of Christ’s cross and resurrection. For redeemed by Christ and made a
new creature in the Holy Spirit, man is able to love the things themselves created by God, and ought
to do so. He can receive them from God and respect and reverence them as flowing constantly from
the hand of God. Grateful to his benefactor for these creatures, using and enjoying them in
detachment and liberty of spirit, man is led forward into a true possession of them, as having nothing,
yet possessing all things. All are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE JUDGEMENTS OF THE LORD ON JUDAH AND ISRAEL: AMOS 2:4-16
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment; because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but
their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked. So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it
shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”
Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes – they that trample the
head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his
father go in to the same maiden, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside
every altar upon garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those
who have been fined.
“Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and who
was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above, and his roots beneath. Also I brought you up out
of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And
I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not indeed
so, O people of Israel?” says the LORD.
“But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not
prophesy.’
“Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down. Flight shall perish
from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; he who
handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who
rides the horse save his life; and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in
that day,” says the LORD.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE OF ST CYPRIAN ON THE LAPSED

DE LAPSIS 35-36: FOC 36 (1958) TR.DEFERRARI.
Those among you, my brothers, who are responsive to the fear of God and who despite your fall are
conscious of your plight, let the sight of your sins move you to penance and sorrow; acknowledge
how grievously your conscience reproaches you, open your soul to the realization of your crime,
neither despairing of God’s mercy nor yet claiming instant pardon. While God in his fatherly affection
is ever forgiving and kind, in his majesty as judge he deserves our fear. Let the earnestness of our re-
pentance correspond to the gravity of our sin. When the wound is so serious, let it have the exacting
and prolonged treatment it needs; let the penance meet the measure of the crime.
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You must beg and pray assiduously, spend the day sorrowing and the night in vigils and tears, fill every
moment with weeping and lamentation; you must lie on the ground amidst clinging ashes, chafing in
sackcloth and foulness; having once been clothed with Christ, refuse all other raiment now; having
supped with the devil, choose rather now to fast; apply yourself to good deeds which can wash away
your sins, be constant and generous in giving alms, whereby souls are freed from death.
And the prophet Joel, at the bidding of the Lord, declares the Lord’s loving-kindness: Return, he says,
to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and kind and patient and full of mercy and ready to revoke His
sentence upon wicked deeds. He can be indulgent; he can revoke his own condemnation. Towards
sorrow, good works, pleadings, he can show clemency and forgive; he can take into account what the
Martyrs have asked for on their behalf and what the Bishops have done for them. Nay, when a man’s
reparation is such as to touch his heart still more, when the sincerity of his pleading appeases his
anger at the offence, he even rearms one who has suffered defeat, and restores and reinforces the
vitality whereby faith is renewed and can bear fruit. A soldier once more he will return to the fray, he
will engage anew and challenge the enemy-and will do so with all the more courage for his remorse.
He who has made such satisfaction to God, he who by his repentance and shame for his sin, draws
from the bitterness of his fall a fresh fund of valour and loyalty, shall by the help he has won from the
Lord, rejoice the heart of the Church whom he has so lately pained; he will earn not merely God’s
forgiveness, but his crown.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VISITATION OF THE LORD ON SAMARIA AND BETHEL: AMOS 3:1-15
Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family
which I brought up out of the land of Egypt: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
“Do two walk together, unless they have made an appointment? Does a lion roar in the forest, when
he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? Does a bird fall in a
snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has
taken nothing? Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does evil befall a city,
unless the LORD has done it? Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his
servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but
prophesy?”
Proclaim to the strongholds in Assyria, and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble
yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressions
in her midst,” “They do not know how to do right,” says the LORD, “those who store up violence and
robbery in their strongholds.” Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "An adversary shall surround the
land, and bring down your defences from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”
Thus says the LORD: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an
ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part
of a bed.”
“Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,” says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, “that on the day I
punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be
cut off and fall to the ground. I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of
ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” says the LORD.
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A READING FROM A LETTER TO A LAPSED MONK BY ST BASIL
LETTER 44, TO A LAPSED MONK; NPNF2 8 (1894) TR. JACKSON
I do not wish you joy, for there is no joy for the wicked. Even now I cannot believe it; my heart cannot
conceive iniquity so great as the crime which you have committed: if, that is, the truth really is what is
generally understood. I am at a loss to think how wisdom so deep can have been made to disappear;
how such exact discipline can have been undone; whence blindness so profound can have been shed
round you; how with utter inconsiderateness you have wrought such destruction of souls. Even
senseless stones have shed tears at your madness; even your enemies have wept at the greatness of
your iniquity.
Once more I grieve over you, unhappy man. You were proclaiming to all the power of the kingdom,
and you fell from it. You were making all stand in fear of your teaching, and there was no fear of God
before your eyes. How is Lucifer that was rising in the morning fallen and dashed on the ground? Both
the ears of every hearer will tingle. How is the Nazirite, brighter than gold, become darker than pitch?
How has the glorious son of Sion become an unprofitable vessel! Of him, whose memory of the
sacred Scriptures was in all men’s mouths, the memory today has perished with the sound.
If you have any hope of salvation; if you have the least thought of God, or any desire for good things
to come; if you have any fear of the chastisements reserved for the impenitent, awake without
delay, lift up your eyes to heaven, come to your senses, cease from your wickedness, shake off the
stupor that enwraps you, make a stand against the foe who has struck you down. Make an effort to
rise from the ground. Remember the good Shepherd who will follow and rescue you. Though it be but
two legs or a lobe of an ear, spring back from the beast that has wounded you. Remember the
mercies of God and how he cures with oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Remember your
recollection of how it is written in the Scriptures that he who is falling rises and he who turns away
returns; the prey of beasts escapes; he who admits his sin is not rejected. The Lord wills not the death
of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live.
There is a time of endurance, a time of long suffering, a time of healing, a time of correction. Have
you stumbled? Arise. Have you sinned? Cease. Beware lest, from your wish to keep certain
obligations, you break the obligations to God which you professed before many witnesses. Pray do
not hesitate to come to me for any earthly considerations. When I have recovered my dead I shall
lament, I shall tend him, I will weep because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. All are ready
to welcome you, all will share your efforts. Remember the days of old. There is salvation; there is
amendment. Be of good cheer; do not despair. It is not a law condemning to death without pity, but
mercy remitting punishment and awaiting improvement. The doors are not yet shut; the bridegroom
hears; sin is not the master. Make another effort, do not hesitate, have pity on yourself and on all of
us in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and might now and for ever and ever. Amen.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AGAINST THE WOMEN OF SAMARIA AND THE WORSHIP OF ISRAEL: AMOS 4:1-13
“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor,
who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’ The Lord GOD has sworn
by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with
hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you shall go out through the breaches, every one
straight before her; and you shall be cast forth into Harmon,” says the LORD.
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“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every
morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and
proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” says the Lord
GOD.
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not
return to me,” says the LORD.
“And I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would
send rain upon one city, and send no rain upon another city; one field would be rained upon, and the
field on which it did not rain withered; so two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water, and
were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD.
“I smote you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; your fig trees and
your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD.
“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword; I
carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did
not return to me,” says the LORD.
“I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand
plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD.
“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O
Israel!”
For lo, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought;
who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth – the LORD, the God of
hosts, is his name!
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST AMBROSE

ON THE HOLY SPIRIT, 2.6; FOC 44 (1962) TR. DEFERRARI
The heretics have been accustomed to object that the Holy Spirit seems to have been created on this
account, because many of them advance as an argument to establish their impiety what Amos said
about the blowing of the wind, as the very words of the Prophet declare. For you have these words:
Behold I am he that established the thunders, and creates the spirit, and declares his Christ to men,
that makes the light and mist, and walks upon the high places of the earth; the Lord the God of hosts is
his name.
If they make an argument out of this, that he said ‘spirit’ was created, Ezra taught us that spirit is
created, saying in the fourth book: And again on the second day you made the spirit of the
firmament; yet, to stick to the point, manifestly from these words which Amos spoke, does
not the order of the words clearly prove that the Prophet spoke of the creation of this world?
He begins thus: I am he that established the thunders, and creates the spirit. Let the very order of the
words teach us; for, if he had wished to speak of the Holy Spirit, surely he would not have placed the
thunders first. For the thunders are not more ancient than the Holy Spirit. We know from daily
experience and example that, when the storms of this world take place, thunders come first, blasts of
wind follow, the sky grows dark with clouds, and the light comes forth again from the darkness. For
the blasts of the winds are also called spirits, as it is written: Fire and brimstone and storms of spirits.
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So, as to that which the Prophet declared as the daily working of God in the firmament of thunder and
in the creation of the wind, it is impious for us to consider any such thing of the Holy Spirit, whom the
impious themselves cannot deny to exist before the ages. Therefore, with pious assertion we testify
both that he always is and always abides. For he who before the world moved over the waters cannot
seem to have begun after the world.
Yet if anyone thinks that the words of the Prophet refer to the Holy Spirit, because he says: declaring
His Christ to men, he will easily divert the words to the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation. For if it
troubles you that he said spirit, and so you think that this should not be diverted to the
assumption of human nature, read the Scriptures further, and you will find that it agrees very
well with reference to Christ, of whom it is well fitting that he established thunders by his
coming, namely, the force and sound of the heavenly Scriptures, by a kind of thunder of which,
as it were, our minds are struck with astonishment, so that we learn to fear and offer reverence
to the heavenly pronouncements.
So we ought to refer this entire passage either to the simple understanding of that spirit or wind
which is drawn in by living or to the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, for, if he had said here that the
Holy Spirit was created, surely Scripture could have declared the same elsewhere also, just as we
often read about the Son of God that according to the flesh he was both made and created.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

LAMENTATIONS AND WARNINGS: AMOS 5:1-17
Hear this word which I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: “Fallen, no more to rise, is
the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.” For thus says the Lord GOD: “The
city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall
have ten left to the house of Israel.”
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not
enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come
to nought.”
Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to
quench it for Bethel, O you who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!
He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day
into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of the earth, the
LORD is his name, who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes
upon the fortress.
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore
because you trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of
hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not
drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins – you
who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. Therefore he who is
prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time.
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Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you
have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God
of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing;
and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing
those who are skilled in lamentation, and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through
the midst of you,” says the LORD.

LETTER 22; ACW 33 (1963) TR. MIERAN
Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this world
and of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. As long as we are imprisoned
within this frail little body, as long as we have this treasure in earthen vessels, and the spirit lusts
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, there is no sure victory. Our adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, goes about seeking what he may devour. The devil seeks not unbelievers, not those that
are without and whose flesh the Assyrian king boils in a pot: he makes haste to drag victims from the
Church of Christ. The elect, according to Habakkuk, are his food. The Saviour came not to send peace
on the earth but the sword.
Take care, I pray, lest sometime God may say of you: The virgin of Israel has fallen; there is none to
raise her up. I speak audaciously: although God can do all things, he cannot rise up a virgin after she
has fallen. He has power, indeed, to free her from the penalty, but he has no power to crown one
who has been corrupted. Let us fear that prophecy, lest it be fulfilled in us: and good virgins shall
faint. Note what he says: good virgins shall faint – because there are also bad virgins. Whoever shall
look on a woman to lust after her, he says, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Virginity, therefore, may be lost even by thinking. Those are the bad virgins, virgins in the flesh, not in
the spirit: foolish virgins who, having no oil, are shut out by the bridegroom. But if those virgins are
also virgins, but because of other faults are not saved by bodily virginity, what will become of those
who have prostituted the members of Christ and have turned the Temple of the Holy Spirit into a
brothel?
How often, when I was established in the desert and in that vast solitude which is scorched by the
sun’s heat and affords a savage habitation for monks, did I think myself amid the delights of Rome! I
would sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. My limbs were roughly clad in sackcloth – an
unlovely sight. My neglected skin had taken on the appearance of an Ethiopian’s body. Daily I wept,
daily I groaned, and whenever insistent slumber overcame my resistance, I bruised my awkward
bones upon the bare earth. There was I, therefore, who from fear of hell had condemned myself
to such a prison, with only scorpions and wild beasts as companions. Yet I was often surrounded by
dancing girls. My face was pale from fasting, and my mind was hot with desire in a body cold as ice.
Though my flesh, before its tenant, was already as good as dead, the fires of the passions kept boiling
within me.
And so, destitute of all help, I used to lie at Jesus’ feet. I bathed them with my tears, I wiped them
with my hair. When my flesh rebelled, I subdued it by weeks of fasting. I was even afraid even of my
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little cell, as though it were conscious of my thoughts. Angry at myself and tense, I used to go out
alone into the desert. Whenever I saw some deep valley, some rugged mountain, some precipitous
crags, it was this I made my place of prayer, my place of punishment for the wretched flesh. And – as
my Lord Himself is witness – after many tears, after fixing my eyes on the heavens, I sometimes
seemed to myself to be surrounded by companies of angels and rejoiced, singing happily: We run
after you in the fragrance of your perfumes.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DAY OF THE LORD. AGAINST WORSHIP AND FALSE CONFIDENCE: AMOS 5:18 – 6:14
Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is
darkness, and not light; as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and
leaned with his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and
not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer
me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your
fatted beasts I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your
harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing
stream.
“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You
shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for
yourselves; therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the
God of hosts.
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the
notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! Pass over to Calneh, and
see; and thence go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than
these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory, O you who put far away the evil day,
and bring near the seat of violence?
“Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs
from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
and like David invent for themselves instruments of music; who drink wine in bowls, and anoint
themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now
be the first of those to go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away.”
The Lord GOD has sworn by himself (says the LORD, the God of hosts): “I abhor the pride of Jacob,
and hate his strongholds; and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”
And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. And when a man’s kinsman, he who burns him,
shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost
parts of the house, “Is there still any one with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Hush! We
must not mention the name of the LORD.”
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For behold, the LORD commands, and the great house shall be smitten into fragments, and the little
house into bits. Do horses run upon rocks? Does one plough the sea with oxen? But you have turned
justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood – you who rejoice in Lodebar, who
say, “Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?” “For behold, I will raise up
against you a nation, O house of Israel,” says the LORD, the God of hosts; “and they shall oppress you
from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

HOMILIES ON GENESIS, 1.10-12; FOC 74 (1985) TR. HILL
Let us not be careless, dearly beloved, in dealing with matters concerning our salvation. After all, we
are warned against intemperance not only in the New dispensation by its greater attention to right
thinking, its more frequent struggles and greater effort, its many rewards and ineffable consolations.
Not even people living under the Old Law were permitted to indulge themselves in that way, even
though they were sitting in the dark, dependant upon tapers, and brought forward gradually into the
light, like children being weaned off milk.
Lest you think I am idly finding fault with intemperance in what I say, listen to what the prophet Amos
says: Woe to those who fall on evil days in sleeping on beds of ivory, luxuriating on their couches, living
on a diet of goats picked from the flocks and suckling calves from the herds, and drinking strained
wines, anointed with precious unguents – like men treating this as a lasting city, and not seeking one
to come. Do you see the heavy accusation the prophet levels against intemperance in charging the
Jews with these faults of stupidity, sensuality and daily gluttony? I mean, note the accuracy of the
words: after attacking their gluttony and their drinking to excess, he added, like men treating this as a
lasting city, and not seeking one to come, all but stating that their satisfaction got as far as lips and
palate, and they went on to nothing better. Pleasure, however, is brief and fleeting, whereas pain
never lets up and has no end. The truth of this comes from experience, the true meaning of lasting
realities – like men treating this as a lasting city – and fleeting things – not seeking one to come – that
is, not lasting for a moment.
All human and carnal things, after all, are of this kind like pleasures, human glory and power, like
wealth and all the prosperity of this present life; these things have nothing firm about them, nothing
steady, nothing fixed, but shift more rapidly than the currents of a river, leaving naked and desolate
those swept along in them. Spiritual things, on the other hand, are not like that, quite the opposite in
fact: firm and immovable, not subject to change, lasting forever. What folly, then, would it be to
exchange the immovable for the tottering, the permanent for the passing, the enduring for the
fleeting, what promises to give joy in eternity for what offers us terrible punishment there?
Considering all this, therefore, dearly beloved, and placing great store on our salvation, let us despise
intemperance as mindless and harmful, let us embrace fasting, and right attitudes along with it; let us
display a renewed lifestyle, and address ourselves daily to performance of good deeds. In this way,
having spent all the holy season of Lent dealing in spiritual goods and amassing great wealth of virtue,
we would thus merit to arrive at the Day of the Lord and approach with confidence that awesome
spiritual banquet, and with conscience pure share in those ineffable and immortal goods, being filled
therefrom with grace and with the prayers and intercessions of those well pleasing to Christ our
loving God, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power and honour, now and
forever, for ages of ages. Amen.
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SUNDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VISIONS OF DISASTERS: AMOS 7:1-17
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of
the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. When they had finished
eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee! How can Jacob stand? He is
so small!” The LORD repented concerning this; “It shall not be,” said the LORD.
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it
devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said, “O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee!
How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” The LORD repented concerning this; “This also shall not be,”
said the Lord GOD.
He showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line
in his hand. And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the
Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by
them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired
against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus
Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’”
And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and
prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of
the kingdom.”
Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a
dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me,
‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ “Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, ‘Do not
prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the LORD:
‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and
your land shall be parcelled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely
go into exile away from its land.’”

ORATION 41 ON PENTECOST, 14; NPNF2 7 (1989) TR. BROWN
The Holy Spirit shares with the Son in the work both of Creation and Resurrection, as you may see
from these words of Scripture: By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the power of
them by the breath of his mouth; and this, The Spirit of God that made me, and the Breath of the
Almighty that teaches me; and again, You shall send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and
you shall renew the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit is also the author of spiritual regeneration. Here
is your proof: None can see or enter into the Kingdom, except he be born again of the Spirit and be
cleansed from the first birth. This rebirth is a mystery of the night, a remoulding of the day and of the
light, by which everyone individually is created anew.
This same Spirit, who is most wise and most loving, if he takes possession of a shepherd, makes him a
Psalmist, subduing evil spirits by his song, and proclaims him King; if he possess a herdsman and
dresser of sycamore trees, he makes him a Prophet. Call to mind David and Amos. If he takes
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possession of a goodly youth, he makes him a Judge of Elders, even beyond his years, as Daniel
testifies, who conquered the lions in their den. If he takes possession of fishermen, he makes them
catch the whole world in the nets of Christ, taking them up in the meshes of the Word. Look at Peter
and Andrew and the Sons of Thunder, thundering the things of the Spirit. If he takes possession of tax
collectors, he makes gain of them for discipleship, and makes them merchants of souls; witness
Matthew, yesterday a tax collector, today an Evangelist. If he possesses zealous persecutors, he
changes the current of their zeal, and makes them Pauls instead of Sauls, and as full of piety as he
found them of wickedness.
He is the Spirit of meekness, and yet is provoked by those who sin. Let us therefore prove him gentle
and not wrathful, by confessing his dignity; and let us not desire to see him implacably wrathful. It is
he who has made me today a bold herald to you; – if this means no rest for myself, God be thanked;
but if this means that I am in danger, I thank him nevertheless. In the one case, we pray that he may
spare those who hate us; in the other, we pray that we may receive this reward for our preaching of
the Gospel: that he may consecrate us and make us perfect by the shedding of our blood.
MONDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

OTHER VISIONS: AMOS 8:1-14
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, “Amos, what do you
see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come upon my
people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the Temple shall become wailings in that
day,” says the Lord GOD; “the dead bodies shall be many; in every place they shall be cast out in
silence.”
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end, 5 saying,
“When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the sabbath, that we may offer wheat
for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false
balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse
of the wheat?”
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 Shall not
the land tremble on this account, and every one mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
“And on that day,” says the Lord GOD, “I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in
broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring
sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land; not a
famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from
sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they
shall not find it.
“In that day the fair virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. Those who swear by Ashimah of
Samaria, and say, ‘As thy god lives, O Dan,’ and, ‘As the way of Beer-sheba lives,’ they shall fall, and
never rise again.”
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A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS OF ORIGEN
HOMILIES ON GENESIS, 16 (SC 7BIS:382-384); WORD IN SEASON VI
The time is coming, says the Lord, when I shall send a famine on the land, not the hunger for bread or
a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.
Do you know what the hunger is that holds sinners in its grip? Do you know what kind of hunger is
weighing on the land? It is those who are of the earth and care only for earthly things, being unable to
accept what belongs to the Spirit of God, who suffer hunger for the word of God. They do not listen to
the commandments of the law, are ignorant of the admonitions of the Prophets as also of the
consolations of the Apostles, and have no experience of the healing of the Gospel. It is therefore
rightly said of them: There was famine throughout the land.
But for the righteous and for those who meditate day and night on the law of the Lord, Wisdom
prepares her table, kills her victims, mixes her wine in a bowl and cries with a loud voice, not to
summon all, not to have the well-to-do and the wealthy and those full of the wisdom of this world
turning aside to her, but Let those who are simple come to me, she says; in other words, those with
humble hearts, who have learned to be gentle and humble of heart from Christ. Elsewhere referred to
as the poor in spirit, though they are rich in faith – these are the people who gather at the feasts of
Wisdom to be refreshed and to rid the land of the famine weighing on it.
Be careful, then, that you too do not become an Egyptian in the grip of famine. Take care not to be so
involved in worldly affairs, so bound by the chains of avarice or softened by sensual indulgence, that
the food of Wisdom, which is always offered in the Churches of God, becomes distasteful to you. For
if you close your ears to what is read or discussed in Church, without doubt you will suffer hunger for
the Word of God. But if you are of the line of Abraham, and preserve the nobility of the Israelite race,
the Law and the Prophets will always nourish you, and the Apostles will also offer you sumptuous
feasts. The Gospels, too, will invite you to sit at table in the company of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of the Father to eat of the tree of life there, and to drink wine from the true vine, to
drink the new wine with Christ in the kingdom of his Father. For it is impossible for the friends of the
bridegroom to fast or suffer hunger for this food as long as the bridegroom is with them.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SALVATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS: AMOS 9:1-15
I saw the LORD standing beside the altar, and he said: “Smite the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and what are left of them I will slay with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away, not one of them shall escape.
“Though they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I
will search out and take them; and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I
will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. And though they go into captivity before their
enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them; and I will set my eyes upon them for
evil and not for good.”
The Lord, GOD of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all
of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt; who builds his upper chambers in the
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heavens, and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out
upon the surface of the earth – the LORD is his name.
“Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel?” says the LORD. “Did I not bring up Israel
from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of
the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground; except
that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says the LORD.
“For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a
sieve, but no pebble shall fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who
say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’
“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its
ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the
nations who are called by my name,” says the LORD who does this.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper and
the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills
shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities
and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat
their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land
which I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

DE SANCTA TRINITATE, 4 (PL 168:376-7); WORD IN SEASON VI
Look at the fields, I tell you: they are already white, ready for harvesting. The reaper is drawing his pay
and bringing in a crop for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. The saying is
true then: ‘One sows, another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you did not sow. Others laboured, and
you have profited by their labours.
To explain briefly: those who laboured and sowed are the Patriarchs and Prophets; those who
profited by their labours are the Apostles. By labouring, that is by journeying from country to
country, from one kingdom to another, the Patriarchs sowed, that is, deserved to receive the
promises of the blessed descendant that was to come, namely Christ. They did not, however, see him
with their own eyes, but only served as ploughmen and sowers by eagerly hoping for him.
On the other hand, the Apostles had the joy of seeing Christ present with their own eyes,
which is why he said to them: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that
prophets and kings desired to see what you see but never saw it, and to hear what you hear, but never
heard it.
Therefore, when Amos says: The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, it is as though he were saying:
The Patriarchs and Apostles shall rejoice together in the descendant of Abraham, which is Christ, in
whom they shall both receive the promised blessing, so that, as the Prophet says, sower and reaper
may rejoice together. For the Apostles did not profit from the Patriarchs’ labours in such a way as to
exclude them, but both rejoiced together, those who sowed before Christ’s coming, and those who
reaped when he came.
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WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PROPHET AS A SIGN OF GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE: HOSEA 1:1-9; 3:1-5
The word of the LORD that came to Hosea the son of Be-eri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of
harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the LORD.” So
he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of
Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that
day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name Not pitied, for I
will no more have pity on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have pity on the house
of Judah, and I will deliver them by the LORD their God; I will not deliver them by bow, nor by sword,
nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.”
When she had weaned Not pitied, she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said, “Call his name
Not my people, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”
And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an
adulteress; even as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes
of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said
to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days; you shall not play the harlot, or belong to another
man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince,
without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and
seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his
goodness in the latter days.

COMMENTARY ON ROMANS (PG 14:1151-1152); WORD IN SEASON VI
God says through Hosea: Those who were not my people I will call my people, and the unloved I will
call my beloved. And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people’, they shall be
called children of the living God.
This testimony, which the Apostle takes from Hosea, seems to refer in the Prophet not to the Gentiles
but to the Israelites themselves; but Paul uses a parallel situation as an example to make his point.
Just as when the Israelites, abandoned and without hope, were told, You are not my people, and I am
not your God, and yet in the very place where they were told, ‘you are not my people’ they will be
called children of the living God, so too, he says, we whom God has called not only from the Jews but
also from the Gentiles, who formerly were not his people, he has now called his people, and we who
were unloved he has called his beloved, and in the very place where we were told, You are not my
people, we shall be called children of the living God.
But perhaps the Jews will ask us where it was said to us that we were not the people of God, so that
in the same place we might be called sons of the living God. For they claim that God said this in Judea,
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since only there was he known. None of this refers to us because the Law speaks to those who are
under the Law.
But I will tell of a far worthier place in which it was fitting and possible for God to speak. It is hardly
appropriate for God to speak in the mountains and grottos and the other places where he is said to
speak, and fail to speak in the human mind, in the reason, in the sovereign place of the heart. There,
when conscience condemns us, convicting us of unworthy actions that estrange us from God, there,
in that same place it is declared, there it is said to each one of us: You are not my people. But if we
each cleanse and purify ourselves from those actions, and if the peace of God which is beyond all
understanding begins to guard our hearts, there, in the depths of hearts now at peace, we shall with
the assent of our conscience be called sons of God.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE LORD’S BRIDE AND HER FUTURE REINSTATEMENT: HOSEA 2:2, 4-
24
“Plead with your mother, plead – for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband – that she put
away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; Upon her children also I
will have no pity, because they are children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot; she
that conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my
bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ Therefore I will hedge up her way
with thorns; and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her
lovers, but not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I
will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.’ And she did not
know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished upon her silver and
gold which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its
season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will
uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. And I will
put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.
And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my hire, which my lovers
have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. And I will
punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned incense to them and decked herself with
her ring and jewellery, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the LORD.
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And
there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall
answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
“And in that day, says the LORD, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ and no longer will you call me, ‘My
Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name
no more. And I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the
air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the
land; and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to
me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in
faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.
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“And in that day, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; and the
earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; and I will sow him
for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Not pitied, and I will say to Not my people, ‘You are my
people’; and he shall say ‘Thou art my God.’”

CONFERENCES, 13.7.1 - 8.3; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
God’s purpose, according to which he did not make man to perish but to live forever, abides
unchanging. When his kindness sees shining in us the slightest glimmer of good will, which he himself
has in fact sparked from the hard flint of our heart, he fosters it, stirs it up, and strengthens it with his
inspiration, desiring all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For, he says, it is not
the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. And again he says:
God does not wish a soul to perish, but he withdraws and reflects, lest one who has been cast down
perish utterly.
Therefore the grace of Christ is at hand every day. It calls out and says to everyone without exception:
Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest, because he desires all to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But if he does not call all universally but only a
few, it follows that not all are burdened by original sin and by present sin and that these words are
not true: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Nor would it be believed that death has
passed through all men. And so true is it that all who perish do so contrary to God’s will that God is
said not to have made death itself, as Scripture testifies: God did not make death, nor does he rejoice
in the destruction of the living.
Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed this concern of his for us by using the
image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardour to the worship of idols. She says:
I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my
drink. The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will: Behold, I will

hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And
she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she
will say: I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.
Again, the obstinacy and contempt with which we rebelliously disdain God when he urges us to return
to our own salvation is described in this way: I said that you shall call me Father, he says, and that you
shall not cease to come after me. But just as a woman despises her lover, so the house of Israel has
despised me, says the Lord. Since he had compared Jerusalem to an adulteress abandoning her
spouse, he has also quite appropriately compared his love and abiding kindness to a man who is
desperately in love with a woman. For the graciousness and love of God could not be expressed by a
better comparison than the example of a man who is passionately in love with a woman and who is all
the more inflamed with desire for her the more he feels that he is neglected and despised by her.
The divine protection, then, is always inseparably present to us, and so great is the love of the Creator
for his creature that his providence not only stands by her but even goes constantly before her. The
prophet, who has experienced this, confesses it very clearly when he says: My God will go before me
with his mercy.
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FRIDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE UNIVERSAL DEPRAVITY OF ISRAEL, EVEN AMONG THE PRIESTS: HOSEA 4:1-10; 5:1-7
Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel; for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of
the land. There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing,
lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds and murder follows murder.
Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field, and the
birds of the air; and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall
stumble by day, the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from
being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your
children.
The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They
feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people, like priest; I
will punish them for their ways, and requite them for their deeds. They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the harlot, but not multiply; because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish harlotry.
Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Hearken, O house of the king! For the judgment
pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. And they have
made deep the pit of Shittim; but I will chastise all of them.
I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel
is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of harlotry is within
them, and they know not the LORD.
The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with
them. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has
withdrawn from them. They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

HOMILY 5 ON LEVITICUS, 3.2-5; FOC 83 (1990) TR. BARKLEY
What is the sacrifice which is offered for sin and is very holy except the only begotten Son of God,
Jesus Christ my Lord? He alone is the ‘sacrifice for sins’ and he is ‘a very holy offering’. But since it
added that ‘the priest who offers it will eat it’, it seems to be hard to understand. For that which it
says must be eaten seems to be referring to the sin; just as in another place the Prophet Hosea says
concerning the priests that they will eat the sins of my people. This also shows that the priest ought to
eat the sin of the one who is offering.
We frequently show from Holy Scripture that Christ is the sacrifice which is offered for the sin of the
world and also the priest who brings the offering. The Apostle explains this by one word when he
says, Who offered himself to God. Therefore, Christ is the priest who eats and consumes the sins of
the people, about whom it is said, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek. My Lord and
Saviour thus eats the sins of the people. How? Hear what is written: Our God is a consuming fire. What
does the God of fire consume? Will we be so senseless as to think that God consumes the firewood or
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straw or hay? The God of fire consumes human sins. He consumes them, devours them, purges them,
as he says in another place, I will purge you with fire for purity. To eat sin is to offer a sacrifice for sin,
for Christ took our sins and in himself he eats them and consumes them as if a fire.
Therefore, the Law says, The priest who offered it will eat it in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of
Witness. For it is logical that the ministers and priests of the Church receive the sins of the people
according to the example of the one who gave the priesthood to the Church. Imitating their teacher,
let them grant the people forgiveness of sins. Therefore, these priests of the Church ought to be so
perfected and learned in the priestly duties that they consume the sins of the people in a holy place, in
the court of the Tent of Witness, not sinning themselves.
But what does it mean to eat the sin in a holy place? It was a holy place into which Moses came when
it was said to him, For this place on which you stand is holy ground. In like manner, therefore, the holy
place in the Church of God is perfect faith and love from a pure heart and good conscience. Let him
who remains among these in the Church know that he stands in a holy place, because a sound faith
and holy conduct are a holy place.
And so, established in this place, let the priest of the Church consume the sins of the people so that
when he kills the sacrifice of God’s Word and offers sacrifices of holy doctrine he may cleanse the
consciences of the hearers from sins. Thus, the priest will eat the flesh of the sacrifice in the court of
the Tent of Witness when he can understand what is the reason for these mysteries which are
described concerning the courts of the Tent of Witness. For to these secret and hidden courts no one
approaches. These are open to no one except the priests. And yet they are only open to them if, by
their wisdom and mystical understanding, they can penetrate their secrets.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VANITY OF INSINCERE CONVERSION: HOSEA 5:15 – 7:2
I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their
distress they seek me, saying,
“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will
bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live
before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will
come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning
cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain
them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love
and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. Gilead is a city of
evildoers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests are banded together;
they murder on the way to Shechem, yea, they commit villainy. In the house of Israel I have seen a
horrible thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel is defiled.
For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.
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When I would restore the fortunes of my people, when I would heal Israel, the corruption of Ephraim
is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in, and the bandits
raid without. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil works. Now their deeds
encompass them, they are before my face.

ADVERSUS HAERESES, 4.17.4-6; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
God did not look for sacrifices or burnt offerings from his people; for their own salvation he looked for
faith, obedience and holiness. He taught them what his will was in the words of the prophet Hosea:
What I want is mercy, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts. Our Lord too gave them the
same warning when he said: If you had understood the meaning of the words, “What I want is mercy,
not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the blameless. By this testimony he confirmed the
teachings of the prophets and convicted the people of culpable folly.
Nevertheless, he counselled his disciples to offer to God the first fruits of his own creation; not that
God needed this, but so that they might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. He took an element of
creation, bread, and giving thanks said: This is my body. In the same way he declared the cup, which is
of the same creation as ourselves, to be his blood, and taught that it was the new offering of the new
covenant. It is this offering which the Church has received from the Apostles and which, throughout
the whole world, it offers to the God who gives us food, as the first fruits of his own gifts under the
new covenant. Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, foretold this in these words: I have no pleasure in
you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the
sun to its setting my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my
name, and a pure sacrifice; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. It is clearly
his meaning that the former people would cease to make offerings to God but that a sacrifice would
be offered to him in every place, a pure sacrifice, and that name would be glorified among the
nations.
What is this name which is glorified among the nations if not that of our Lord, by whom the Father is
glorified and man is glorified too? But because the name belongs to his own Son, and because by the
Father the Word was made flesh, he calls it his own. Take this example. If a king paints a portrait of his
son he is right to call that portrait his own for two reasons, because it is that of his son, and because it
was he himself who made it. So too with the name of Jesus Christ, which is glorified throughout the
whole world in the Church: the Father acknowledges this name as his own because it is the name of
his Son and because it was he himself who wrote it and gave it for man’s salvation.
Since the Son’s name, then, belongs properly to the Father, and since in every place the Church
makes her offering to almighty God through Jesus Christ, the Prophet’s words are doubly appropriate:
In every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. Incense is the prayer of the saints,
as John says in the Apocalypse.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AGAINST KINGS, IDOLATRY, TREATIES AND WORSHIP: HOSEA 8:1-14
Set the trumpet to your lips, for a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have broken
my covenant, and transgressed my law. To me they cry, My God, we Israel know thee. Israel has
spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.
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They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their
silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My
anger burns against them. How long will it be till they are pure in Israel?
A workman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall
yield no meal; if it were to yield, aliens would devour it. Israel is swallowed up; already they are
among the nations as a useless vessel. For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass wandering alone;
Ephraim has hired lovers. Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And
they shall cease for a little while from anointing king and princes.
Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning. Were I
to write for him my laws by ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing. They love
sacrifice; they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but the LORD has no delight in them. Now he will remember
their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and
built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall
devour his strongholds.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE STATUES BY S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

HOMILIES ON THE STATUES, 3.4-7; NPNF 9 (1889) TR. STEPHENS
Our city of Antioch is dearer to Christ than all others both because of the virtue of our ancestors, and
of your own. And as Peter was the first among the Apostles to preach Christ, so as I said before, this
city was the first of cities to adorn itself by assuming the Christian title as a sort of admirable crown.
But if God promised to save all who lived in the place where only ten just men were found, why
should we not expect a favourable result to the current crisis and be assured of all our lives, in this
city where there are not only ten, twenty, or twice so many, but far more who are serving God with all
strictness.
I have heard many full of dejection and lamentation saying, The threats of a king are like the wrath of
a lion. What should we say to them? He who said, The wolves and the lambs shall feed together; and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, will be able to convert
the lion into a mild lamb. Let us therefore pray to him; let us send an embassy to him; and he will
doubtless allay the Emperor’s wrath, and deliver us from the impending distress. Our Father the
Bishop has gone on an embassy to the Emperor. Let us go on embassy from here to the Majesty of
heaven! Let us assist him by prayers! The community of the Church can do much, if with a sorrowful
soul and contrite spirit we offer up our prayers! It is unnecessary to cross the ocean, or to undertake a
long journey. Let every man and woman among us, whether meeting together at Church, or
remaining at home, call upon God with great devotion and he will certainly accept these petitions.
Why is this so? It is because he wants us always to take refuge in him, and in everything to make our
requests to him. Hear what he reproves the Jews for: You have taken counsel, but not of Me, and
made treaties, but not by My Spirit. For this is the custom of those who love; they desire that all the
concerns of their beloved should be accomplished by means of themselves; and that they should
neither do anything, nor say anything, without them. On this account God spoke the same language in
rebuke through the Prophet Hosea: They have reigned, but not by me; they have ruled, and they did
not make it known to me. Let us not then be slow to take refuge in him continually: and whatever the
evil is, it will find its appropriate solution.
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Does a man frighten you? Hasten to the Lord above, and you will suffer no evil. Thus the ancients
were released from their calamities; and not men only, but also women. Esther rescued the whole
people of the Jews, when they were about to be delivered over to destruction, by prayer. Let this be
the prayer which we offer to God for our Teacher. For if a woman, supplicating on behalf of the Jews,
prevailed to allay the wrath of a barbarian, much rather will our Teacher, entreating on behalf of so
great a city, and in conjunction with so great a Church, be able to persuade this most mild and
merciful Emperor.
Let us not then despair of our safety, but let us pray; let us make invocation; let us supplicate; let us
go on embassy to the King that is above with many tears!
MONDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EXILE AND BARRENNESS ARE FORETOLD: HOSEA 9:1-14
Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.
You have loved a harlot's hire upon all threshing floors. Threshing floor and winevat shall not feed
them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not remain in the land of the LORD; but Ephraim
shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
They shall not pour libations of wine to the LORD; and they shall not please him with their sacrifices.
Their bread shall be like mourners’ bread; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for
their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the LORD. What will you do on the day of
appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the LORD? For behold, they are going to Assyria;
Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of
silver; thorns shall be in their tents.
The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The
prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. The
prophet is the watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God, yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibe-ah:
he will remember their iniquity, he will punish their sins.
Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw
your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Baal, and became
detestable like the thing they loved. Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird--no birth, no pregnancy,
no conception! Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I
depart from them! Ephraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey; Ephraim must lead forth
his sons to slaughter. Give them, O LORD – what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and
dry breasts.
A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST PAULINUS OF NOLA

LETTER 38: 3-4, 6 (CSEL 29:326-327); WORD IN SEASON VI.
From the beginning of the world Christ has been suffering in all his people; for he is the beginning and
the end, veiled in the Law, revealed in the Gospel, the Lord ever wonderful in his saints, in whom he
both suffers and triumphs. In Abel he was killed by his brother, in Noah mocked by his son, in
Abraham a sojourner, in Isaac offered in sacrifice, in Jacob a servant, in Joseph sold, in Moses
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exposed and put to flight, in the Prophets stoned and sawn in two, in the Apostles buffeted on land
and sea, and in the many varied torments of the blessed Martyrs put to death time and again.
And it is the same Lord who endures our sufferings and sorrows today. He identified himself with the
human race and so has continually borne the maltreatment inflicted upon us; for he knows how to
endure suffering, which without him we cannot endure and do not know how to endure. It is he, I say,
who continues to withstand the world in us and for us today, so that, overcoming it by his patient
endurance, he may bring his power to perfection in weakness. He it is who suffers the taunts you
endure, and by hating you this world is hating him.
But thanks be to him, for he is vindicated when he is judged. As you read in Scripture, the Lord
triumphs in us through his appearance as a slave, acquiring for his servants the gift of freedom
through that mystery of his love whereby he clothed himself in the nature of a slave and for our sakes
deigned to humble himself even to the extent of dying on a cross, so that by dwelling in our nature in
its visible lowliness, he might win for us invisible exaltation with the blessed.
Consider the position from which we fell in the beginning, and you will realize that it is by the design
of God’s wisdom and love that we are being restored to life. In Adam we were destroyed by pride,
and therefore we are humbled in Christ so as to wash away the guilt of that ancient crime by
practicing the opposite virtue. Having offended by arrogance, we win approval by service. Let us then
rejoice and make our boast in him who made his battle and victory ours when he said: Stand firm, for
I have overcome the world.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

LET IDOLS AND KING BE DESTROYED: HOSEA 10:1-15
Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased the more altars he built; as his
country improved he improved his pillars. Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The
LORD will break down their altars, and destroy their pillars.
For now they will say: “We have no king, for we fear not the LORD, and a king, what could he do for
us?” They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like
poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-
aven. Its people shall mourn for it, and its idolatrous priests shall wail over it, over its glory which has
departed from it. Yea, the thing itself shall be carried to Assyria, as tribute to the great king. Ephraim
shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.
Samaria’s king shall perish, like a chip on the face of the waters. The high places of Aven, the sin of
Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars; and they shall say to the
mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall upon us.
From the days of Gibe-ah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not war
overtake them in Gibe-ah? I will come against the wayward people to chastise them; and nations shall
be gathered against them when they are chastised for their double iniquity. Ephraim was a trained
heifer that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke, Judah must
plough, Jacob must harrow for himself. Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast
love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain
salvation upon you.
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You have ploughed iniquity, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you
have trusted in your chariots and in the multitude of your warriors, therefore the tumult of war shall
arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel
on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. Thus it shall be done to you,
O house of Israel, because of your great wickedness. In the storm the king of Israel shall be utterly cut
off.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HOSEA BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

COMMENTARY ON HOSEA (PG 71:253-256); WORD IN SEASON VI
Exhortations are usually given in one of two ways. As a rule we either speak of the punishment
awaiting those inclined to be careless, to frighten them into changing their way of life and to win
them over as soon as may be to a life of virtue; or else we tell of the rewards prepared for the just, to
make those we instruct eager henceforth to live a better and more upright life. That is how the God of
all creation is working now. He threatened those who had gone astray with wars, disasters, exile
among the Gentiles, the burning of their cities, and the brutality of their enemies. But he did not end
his exhortations there; he has another way of helping them. He bids them give up the useless things
that bring them nothing but misery, and choose instead what is most likely to profit them.
They should be like tillers of the soil, sowing justice, and reaping the fruit of life; for as St Paul wrote,
Whatever we sow we shall also reap. Those who sow evil will reap evil, says Scripture. But the just will
have salvation and life in full measure. They will be illustrious and worthy of emulation, and will
gather grapes for the wine that gladdens the human heart. Besides this, however, those who want to
win God’s approval must open their minds and hearts to receive the light of true knowledge, which is
lacking in those who worship the creation rather than the Creator.
How we can best go about sowing justice, reaping the fruit of life, and receiving the bright light of
knowledge the Prophet shows by adding the words: Seek the Lord until the fruits of justice come to
you. Not that there is any special place where we should seek God – we should be foolish to think so,
since the divinity is not contained in any space. No, God is to be sought by the dispositions of the soul,
by the eagerness of minds inclined toward whatever pleases him and reverencing true and clear
knowledge containing nothing that deserves censure. When we have found God in this way, we shall
be rich in the possession of every other blessing.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LORD’S COMPASSION FOR THE UNLOVABLE: HOSEA 11:1-11
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the
more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I
who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I
led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one, who eases
the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to
return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour
them in their fortresses. My people are bent on turning away from me; so they are appointed to the
yoke, and none shall remove it.
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How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! How can I make you like
Admah! How can I treat you like Zeboiim! My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm
and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not
man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy.
They shall go after the LORD, he will roar like a lion; yea, he will roar, and his sons shall come
trembling from the west; they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the
land of Assyria; and I will return them to their homes, says the LORD.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY PALAMAS

HOMILY 3 (PG 151:36); WORD IN SEASON VI
Before creating us our Maker brought this whole universe into being from nothing for the sustenance
of our bodily existence. But as for improving our conduct and guiding us toward virtue, what has the
Lord in his love of goodness not done for us? He has made the whole of this perceptible universe a
kind of mirror of heaven, so that by spiritual contemplation of the world around us we may reach up
to heavenly things as if by some wonderful ladder. He has implanted in us the natural law, as an
inflexible rule, an infallible judge and an unerring teacher: this is our conscience. If we look deep
within ourselves, then, we shall need no other teacher to show us what is good, and if we look
outside ourselves we shall find the invisible God visible in the things he has made, as the Apostle says.
After providing a school of virtue in our own nature and in the created world, God gave us the angels
to protect us, he raised up the Patriarchs and Prophets to guide us, he showed us signs and wonders
to lead us to faith, and gave us the written Law as a supplement to the law of our rational soul and the
teaching of the world around us. Then at last, when we had scorned all this in our indolence – how
different from his own continuing love and care for us! – he gave himself to us for our salvation. He
poured out the wealth of his divinity into our lowly condition; he took our nature and became a
human being like us, and was with us as our teacher. He teaches us the greatness of his love and
proves it by word and deed, at the same time persuading those who obey him not to be hard-
hearted, but to imitate his compassion.
Those who manage worldly affairs have a certain love for them, as do shepherds for their flocks and
owners for their personal possessions, but this cannot be compared with the love of those who share
the same flesh and blood, and especially the love of parents for their children. Therefore, to make us
realize how much he loves us, God called himself our Father; for our sake he became man, and then,
through the grace of the Holy Spirit conferred in baptism, he caused us to be born anew.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FINAL SENTENCE OF REJECTION: HOSEA 13:1 – 14:1
When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel; but he incurred guilt through Baal and
died. And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves molten images, idols skilfully made
of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. Sacrifice to these, they say. Men kiss calves!
Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that
swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window.
I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no
saviour. It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; but when they had fed to the
full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me. So I will be to them like a
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lion, like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will
tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rend them.
I will destroy you, O Israel; who can help you? Where now is your king, to save you; where are all your
princes, to defend you – those of whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”? I have given you kings
in my anger, and I have taken them away in my wrath.
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is kept in store. The pangs of childbirth come for him, but
he is an unwise son; for now he does not present himself at the mouth of the womb.
Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are
your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion is hid from my eyes.
Though he may flourish as the reed plant, the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come, rising from
the wilderness; and his fountain shall dry up, his spring shall be parched; it shall strip his treasury of
every precious thing. Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall
fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
A READING FROM ON THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID BY ST AMBROSE

ON THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID, 8.26 – 9.31; FOC 65 (1971) TR. MCHUGH
Job heeded what God had spoken to him and also knew through the Holy Spirit that the Son of God
would not only come to earth but was going to descend also into hell to raise up the dead – as indeed
was done at that time as a testimony of present things and a model of future ones. At the same time,
in saying, You will set a time for me, when you would remember me, Job is understood to be
prophesying that he was going to be raised up in the passion of the Lord, as is shown clearly in the
conclusion of that book. Yet he does not cease to lament, and the more he understands that a
resurrection awaits him, the greater his desire to flee from this life. For he sees that he has been
given over into the hands of his adversaries and cast down into the power of the unholy. Even his
friends have turned into enemies.
And so, the holy man tearfully laments the circumstances of such a life. I am dying with a tortured
spirit, I pray for burial and I do not obtain it. I am supplicating in distress. And what am I to do? My
days have passed in horror, the strings of my heart have been broken. Nevertheless, he does not
detract from God’s judgement at any point, for he knows that the depth of the wisdom and of the
knowledge of God is profound and that his judgements are incomprehensible and his ways
unsearchable. Why do you wish to search with care into something which is not advantageous for you
to know, nor is it given to you to be acquainted with it? Paul heard certain secrets of wisdom which
he was forbidden to make known to others, and so he was caught up into paradise, caught up even to
the third heaven, to hear things which he was not able to hear when he was on earth. If it was not
permitted to man to speak what he heard, how does he search out that which he has not heard? It is
not permitted you to know the counsels of your Emperor on earth, and do you wish to know God’s
counsels?
No one could have known wisdom, because no one knows the Son except the Father and no one
knows the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Therefore he
revealed him to John, since wisdom was with the Apostle, and so he spoke not his own thought, but
that which wisdom poured into him: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
Death does not know wisdom, wickedness does not know it. Death indeed could not hold it, for
wisdom said, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Wickedness does not know
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it, for wisdom said, The wicked will seek me and they will not find me. These can say, We have heard
the fame of it. But it is only God who knows it, because God has established well its way and knows its
place. Listen to the disciple the as he tells what wisdom’s receptacle is: The only-begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him. And so the Father, who knows all things, has seen
wisdom and has revealed it through his Prophets.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CALL TO CONVERSION. PROMISE OF SALVATION: HOSEA 14:2-9
Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept that which is
good and we will render the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses;
and we will say no more, ‘Our God’, to the work of our hands. In thee the orphan finds mercy.”
I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be as
the dew to Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, he shall strike root as the poplar; his shoots shall spread
out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell
beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom as the vine, their fragrance
shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen
cypress, from me comes your fruit.
Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the
ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in the
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HOSEA BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

COMMENTARY ON HOSEA (PL 168:198-199); WORD IN SEASON VI
Israel, come back to the Lord your God, for you have fallen headlong in your sin. It is Christ himself
who speaks thus at the end of the book of the Prophet Hosea – Christ, the goal of all achievement,
who when sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel began his preaching with the words: Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Some may reply with those who were filled with compunction and said to Peter and the other
Apostles: What shall we do, brethren? To these or suchlike words from frightened, contrite people
aware of their sinfulness his answer will come at once: Take words with you, return to the Lord and
say to him: Take away all our iniquity, accept what is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips.
You who are returning to the Lord, he says, take words with you. Why words rather than gifts?
Precisely to show that God is not one to make difficulties. He does not require for the redemption of
your souls things you might find it hard to come by. So I do not say: Take gold with you, take silver,
take a great many goats or calves, or things like that, not within the means of all, but words which
cost you nothing material, words of confession and supplication; take them with you and they will
help you at once, for in God’s eyes they suffice to save you and atone for your sins. Provided with
these return to the Lord God who has no need of your goods, and as I have already said, do not worry
if you have no rich gifts of precious gold or silver to honour and propitiate such a great and powerful
Lord; just say to him: Take away all our iniquity, and accept what is good.
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Do not say: ‘We have no iniquity’, for that would be a lie and you would be deceiving yourselves, but
say to him: Take away all our iniquity for our sins are many. Say with confidence, Accept what is good,
knowing what sort of good he desires, and with this in mind add: and we will offer not the offspring of
cattle, but the fruit of our lips. For you are entirely self-sufficient and have no need to eat the flesh of
bulls or drink the blood of goats; all you desire is that we offer you the fruit of our lips, that is to say a
sacrifice of praise. This will please you more, for it is evidence of a good will.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

REIGNS OF UZZIAH, JOTHAM AND AHAZ IN JUDAH: 2 KINGS 15:1-5, 32-35; 16:1-8
In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah,
began to reign. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in
Jerusalem. His mothers name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the
LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Nevertheless the high places were not taken
away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. And the LORD smote the king,
so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he dwelt in a separate house. And Jotham the
king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land.
In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of
Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen
years in Jerusalem. His mothers name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. And he did what was right
in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Nevertheless the high places
were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the
upper gate of the house of the LORD.
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began
to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in
Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had
done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according
to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. And
he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on
Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. At that time the king of Edom
recovered Elath for Edom, and drove the men of Judah from Elath; and the Edomites came to Elath,
where they dwell to this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am
your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the
hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me. Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in
the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of
Assyria.
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SERMON 137.3-6 (CCL 103:567-568); WORD IN SEASON VI
Those who close their eyes to the demands of love fall asleep in the desire for worldly pleasures.
Therefore be watchful. Eating, drinking, carousing, gambling and hunting are pleasures, but evils of
every kind follow in the wake of these vanities. No one can deny that they are enjoyable, but love of
God’s law must come first, for to love God means to keep his commandments. Which
commandments? You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and You must love your
neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
My brothers, to widen our hearts we need not depend upon ourselves. Ask God to help you love one
another – to love everyone without exception, not just your friends but enemies as well; not because
they are your brothers in Christ, but so that they may be. Pray that you may always have a warm
fraternal love for other people, both for those who have become your brothers, and for your enemies
that they may become such. Whenever you love brothers you love friends, for they are already with
you, joined to you in Catholic unity. If they live virtuously you love them as people who have been
changed from enemies into brothers. But suppose you love people who do not yet believe in Christ,
or if they do, yet believe as the devil believes - they believe in Christ but still do not love him. You
must love just the same, you must love even people like that, you must love them as brothers. They
are not such yet, but you must love them so that they may become such through your kindness. All
our love, then, must be fraternal.
I would ask you to consider and understand where it is that true pleasure for mind and heart is to be
found. Strength of body and mind, the fruits of one’s labours, the flowering of achievement, beauty,
charm, food and drink, chaste embraces – when accompanied by love, all these things bring true
pleasure. If such are the pleasures granted us while yet wayfarers, what delights will not be ours when
we reach our heavenly homeland? If the dew is so refreshing, how could the river fail to fulfil all our
desires? Through the sweetness of love our Lord and Saviour has given us a taste of heaven. Let us,
then, with his help, make every effort to preserve that love in all its perfection, so that when, after
our pilgrimage through this world, we reach our eternal homeland, we may deserve to enjoy its
delights more fully, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns forever. Amen.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL OF ISAIAH: ISAIAH 6:1-13
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train
filled the Temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face,
and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said:
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs
from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is
taken away, and your sin forgiven.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Hear
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and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat,
and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without men, and the land is utterly desolate,
and the LORD removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And
though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains
standing when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.

SERMO DE ADVENTU DOMINI (SSOC 1:32-33); WORD IN SEASON VI
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the whole
earth filled with his glory. O longed for time, time of divine favour, time all holy people yearn for when
they make the daily petition: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The
whole earth was full of his glory. I see this earth I tread upon, I feel the burden of this earthly body:
both mean toil and sighs for me; upon both rest the wrath of God rather than his glory. The prince of
this world still holds sway over the rebellious; every day he confronts believers, and there is scarcely
one among God’s holy people who does not experience his assaults. Yet the whole earth is full of his
glory.
I know that this earth I tread upon will be delivered from its enslavement to decay, and that there will
be a new earth and a new heaven, and he who sits upon the throne will say: See, I am making all
things new. Even my earthly body will be filled with the glory of the Lord. At present the earth yields
thorns and thistles for me, since Adam’s crime brought a curse upon it. My body is weak and languid,
lazy and burdensome, subject to strong passions and prone to grave illnesses. But why are you cast
down, my soul; why groan within me? The whole earth will be filled with his glory.
But when will this be? Undoubtedly, when the Lord takes his seat upon his throne, high and exalted,
and refashions our lowly bodies to be like his own glorious body; when that glory which was revealed
in the body of the Lord at his transfiguration on the mountain shines forth in our earthly bodies, now
risen from the dead and endowed with immortality. Then a new song will be sung and cries of
gladness and joy will be heard in the tents of the righteous, for winter is past, the rains are over and
gone, and flowers have appeared in the countryside.
The cause of our joy will be the vision of the Creator in his creatures, the love of the Creator in his
own being, and the praise of our Creator in both. His train filled the Temple, says Isaiah. What
Temple? Scripture says: God’s Temple is holy, and you are that Temple. Now although our bodies are
God’s Temple, nevertheless, because our souls control our bodies, our souls are God’s Temple in a
special way. This is the Temple in which during the present life we offer God the sacrifice of a
humbled, contrite heart which he does not spurn. This is the Temple in which, when the corruptible
life of the body is over, and we have been carried to the kingdom of eternal glory where God will wipe
away every tear from our eyes, we shall offer God a sacrifice of praise. As he himself says through the
Prophet: A sacrifice of praise honours me. Now, in the meantime, Lord, may our sacrifice of contrition
placate you, so that, when you sit upon your throne, high and exalted, our sacrifice of praise may
honour you.
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MONDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

REPROACHES AGAINST JERUSALEM: ISAIAH 3:1-15
For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff,
the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and
the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counsellor and the
skilful magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes, and babes shall rule over
them. And the people will oppress one another, every man his fellow and every man his neighbour;
the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the base fellow to the honourable.
When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: “You have a mantle; you shall
be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule”; in that day he will speak out, saying: “I
will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor mantle; you shall not make me leader of
the people.” For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because their speech and their deeds
are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.
Their partiality witnesses against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to
them! For they have brought evil upon themselves. Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his
hands have done shall be done to him. My people – children are their oppressors, and women rule
over them. O my people, your leaders mislead you, and confuse the course of your paths.
The LORD has taken his place to contend, he stands to judge his people. The LORD enters into
judgment with the elders and princes of his people: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the
spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of
the poor?” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

SERMON 25.7-8 (CCL 41:338-339); WORD IN SEASON VI
You who desired life, or, rather, who desire it, and long for happy days, turn away from evil and do
good; seek the peace which everyone longs for. Let everyone seek peace – seek peace and pursue it.
Where is it? Where am I to follow it to? Which way has it passed, so that I can follow it? It has passed
through you, but has not remained in you. Peace itself has passed through the human race. A blind
man cried out as it passed. Where did it go? First find out what peace is, then notice where it went
and follow it.
What is peace? Listen to the Apostle when he says of Christ: He is our peace, who has made us both
one. So peace is Christ. Where did he go? He was crucified and buried, he rose from the dead and
ascended into heaven. There, that is where peace went. How shall I follow him? Lift up your heart.
Learn how to follow him. You hear it in a word every day when you are invited to lift up your heart.
Follow him by raising your thoughts to higher things. But there is more you will have to learn if you
are to follow true peace, your own peace, the peace that faced combat for your sake, the peace that
although he endured combat for your sake yet prayed for the enemies of peace, saying as he hung on
the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
There was a combat, and peace passed away on the cross. He passed away, but then what happened?
He ascended into heaven. You must seek peace. How are you to follow him? Listen to the Apostle: If
you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand
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of God. Turn your thoughts to heavenly things, away from worldly concerns, for you have died and
your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with
him in glory. There is where happy days are – let us long for them; let us live for them, pray for them,
and give alms for them.
When the gospel about Zacchaeus is read, do we not all think him blessed when Christ looks up at him
as he sits in the tree hoping to see him pass by and when he looks forward to having Christ in his
house? When Christ says to him: Come down, Zacchaeus, for I must stay at your house today, I know
you congratulate him. You all seem to be one with him and to welcome Christ with him. You all say in
your hearts: ‘How blessed Zacchaeus was to have the Lord enter his house! Oh, how blessed!’ But can
the same thing happen to us? Christ is in heaven now. Read the New Testament to me, Christ. Make
me blessed through your law. Read it yourselves in order to realize that Christ’s presence is not
denied you. Hear what your future judge says: What you did for the least of those who belong to me,
you did for me.
You all hope to receive Christ enthroned in heaven. Care for him as he lies in your doorway, care for
him when he is hungry, cold, needy, a stranger. Continue to do what you did before. Begin to do what
you did not do before. Your knowledge has increased – see that your good deeds increase. You praise
the sower – see that you produce a harvest.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CURSING THE WICKED: ISAIAH 5:8-13, 17-24
Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you
are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely
many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. For ten acres of
vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into
the evening till wine inflames them! They have lyre and harp, timbrel and flute and wine at their
feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.
Therefore my people go into exile for want of knowledge; their honoured men are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst. Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, fatlings and
kids shall feed among the ruins.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, who say:
“Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the purpose of the Holy One of
Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!” Woe to those who call evil good and good
evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are
heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and
deprive the innocent of his right!
Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their
root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the
LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
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SERMON 5.5-6 (CCL 91A:922-923); WORD IN SEASON VI
When our Lord gave the commandment of love for one’s enemies, his hearers may have found it
bitter: I ask you, therefore, to taste the sweetness of his promise to those who obey. Let this sweet
delight abide in your heart, and the difficulty of that bitterness will be surmounted. People who love
their enemies and do good to those who hate them will be children of God!
The blessed Apostle reveals the reward these children of God are to receive: The Spirit himself bears
witness to our spirit that we are children of God. But if we are children then we are heirs as well: heirs
of God and co-heirs with Christ. Pay heed, then, Christians; pay heed, children of God; pay heed, heirs
of God and co-heirs with Christ: If you wish to receive your patrimony, love not only your friends but
also your enemies. Deny no one the love which all the righteous have as a common possession. Let
everyone have it at once, and so that you may have it more fully, bestow it upon good and bad alike.
Such a sharing of good things in common is by no means an earthly virtue: it is heavenly. There is
therefore nothing in it to restrict those who share in it.
Love increases as cupidity decreases; moreover, love never fails to free those whom worldly desires
do not hold captive. Love is a gift of God. As the Apostle says: God’s love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Avarice is a snare of the devil, and not only
a snare but a sword: by means of it he captures poor wretches and puts them to death. Love is the
root of all good; avarice is the root of all evil.
Avarice brings ceaseless torment because it is never satisfied with its booty. Love, on the other hand,
brings joy because the more it increases the more generously it gives. Consequently, while their
acquisitions impoverish those who desire evil, charitable givers are enriched by their gifts. The greedy
are troubled, seeking revenge for injuries inflicted on them; the charitable are at peace, delighting to
forgive any harm done to them. The avaricious avoid practising the works of mercy, while the chari-
table perform them cheerfully The object of the avaricious is to injure their neighbours; the charitable
do them no harm. By self-exaltation the greedy sink down into hell; by humbling themselves the
charitable ascend to heaven.
But when shall I ever be able fittingly to sing the praises of love, which is not solitary in heaven or
bereft on earth? For on earth it is fed by the words of God; in heaven it is filled by the words of God.
On earth it has the company of friends, in heaven the fellowship of angels. It toils in the world; it finds
rest in heaven.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

(THE SIGN OF EMMANUEL IN TIME OF WAR: ISAIAH 7:1-17)
In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah
the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not
conquer it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim”, his heart and the
heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the
conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, ‘Take heed, be quiet,
do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands,
at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and the
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son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let
us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabe-el as king in the midst of it, thus says the Lord
GOD:
It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of
Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be
a people.) And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you
will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”
Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as
heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear
then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall
call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and
choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land
before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. The LORD will bring upon you and upon
your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim
departed from Judah – the king of Assyria.”
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF ST BERNARD ON THE GLORIES OF THE VIRGIN

MOTHER
HOMILIES ON THE GLORIES OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER 2, 1-2.4; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
For God this kind of birth was fitting: that he should be born of none other than a Virgin; and such a
childbirth was fitting for the Virgin: to bring forth none but God. Man’s maker, then, when about to
be born of man in order to become man, had to choose, indeed create, a mother for himself from
among all such as he knew befitted himself and would be pleasing to him.
He therefore willed a virgin to exist without stain, from whom he himself would come without stain,
to cleanse away the stains of all.
He willed her humble, from whom he was to come forth meek and humble of heart, to show in
himself the example of these virtues that for all men was necessary and most healthful. So the
granted childbirth to the Virgin when he had already inspired in her the vow of virginity, and had
granted her the merit of humility.
Moreover, how does the angel, in the passage that follows, pronounce her full of grace, if she had
any, even a very little goodness that was not the effect of grace? So that she who was to conceive and
bring forth the Holy of holies might be holy in body, she received the gift of virginity; that she might
be holy also in mind, she received the gift of humility.
Adorned with these jewels of virtue, resplendent in the twin beauty of mind and body, and known in
heaven by her radiant loveliness, the royal Virgin attracted to herself the gaze of heaven’s citizens:
thus she drew the king’s heart to desire her, and from on high brought to herself the heavenly
messenger.
The angel, Scripture says, was sent to a virgin. Virgin in body; virgin in mind; virgin in her own claim;
virgin finally such as the Apostle describes, holy in mind and body: not newly discovered nor by
chance, but chosen from all ages, foreknown by the Most High and prepared for himself; guarded by
angels, prefigured by the fathers and promised by the prophets.
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THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD’S ANGER AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL: ISAIAH 9:7 – 10:4
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and
over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time
forth and for evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will light upon Israel; and all the people will know,
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: “The bricks have
fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put
cedars in their place.” So the LORD raises adversaries against them, and stirs up their enemies. The
Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his
anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still. The people did not turn to him who smote
them, nor seek the LORD of hosts. So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and
reed in one day – the elder and honoured man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the
tail; for those who lead this people lead them astray, and those who are led by them are swallowed
up. Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their
fatherless and widows; for every one is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all
this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.
For wickedness burns like a fire, it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest,
and they roll upward in a column of smoke. Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is
burned, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no man spares his brother. They snatch on the right,
but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours his neighbour’s
flesh, Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and together they are against Judah. For all this his
anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn
aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their
spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the storm which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your
wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his
anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.

SERMON; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Whenever we suffer some distress or tribulation there we find warning and correction for ourselves.
Our holy Scriptures themselves do not promise us peace, security and repose, but tribulations and
distress; the gospel is not silent about scandals; but he who perseveres to the end will be saved. What
good has this life of ours ever been, from the time of the first man, from when he deserved death and
received the curse, that curse from which Christ our Lord delivered us?
So we must not complain, brothers, as some of them complained, as the Apostle says, and perished
from the serpents. What fresh sort of suffering, brothers, does the human race now endure that our
fathers did not undergo? Or when do we endure the kind of sufferings which we know they endured?
Yet you find men complaining about the times they live in, saying that the times of our fathers were
good. What if they could be taken back to the times of their fathers, and should then complain? The
past times that you think were good, are good because they are not yours here and now.
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If you have now been delivered from the curse, if you have now believed in the Son of God; if you are
now well versed or trained in sacred Scripture, I am surprised that you should reckon Adam to have
had good times. Your parents carried the burden of Adam as well. Indeed it was Adam who heard the
words: In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, and you shall work the ground from which you
were taken; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you. He deserved this, he received this, he was
given this as a result of God’s just judgement. Why then do you think past times were better than
yours? From that Adam to the Adam of today, toil and sweat, thorns and thistles. Have we forgotten
the flood? Have we forgotten the burdensome times of famine and wars? They were written about to
prevent us complaining of the present time against God.
What times those were! Do not we all shudder to hear or read of them? So we have rather cause for
congratulating ourselves than grounds for complaining about our own times.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROPHECIES AGAINST SAMARIA AND THE PRINCES OF JUDAH: ISAIAH 28:1-6; 2:1-11
Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord has one who is
mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing
waters, he will cast down to the earth with violence. The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trodden under foot; and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the
rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when a man sees it, he eats it up as soon as
it is in his hand.
In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his
people; and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the
battle at the gate.
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! Because you
have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the
overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in
falsehood we have taken shelter”; therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘He who believes
will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and hail will
sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” Then your covenant with
death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming
scourge passes through you will be beaten down by it. As often as it passes through it will take you;
for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to
understand the message. For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it, and the covering too
narrow to wrap oneself in it. For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will be wroth as in the
valley of Gibeon; to do his deed – strange is his deed! and to work his work – alien is his work! Now
therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from
the Lord GOD of hosts upon the whole land.
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ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH (PG 70:617-619); WORD IN SEASON VI
Israel was not completely destroyed: in fulfilment of the Prophet’s words a remnant was saved, for no
small number came to believe in Christ. Of these the company of the holy Apostles formed the
original group: they were so to speak the first-fruits. Thus Scripture says: On that day the Lord will be
a crown of hope, a garland of glory for the remnant of my people.
It is the Lord of Hosts himself who will crown those who have believed with hope and glory: with hope
for the blessings to come, and with the glory in which they will reign with him; and when they have
attained their heavenly reward they will be the envy and admiration of all the world.
For those who hope, what could equal the glory of being crowned in Christ’s kingdom? Elsewhere
Isaiah tells them: You will be a beautiful crown, a royal diadem, in the hand of your God. For Christ will
crown those who believe in him with everlasting glory, while he refreshes them now with the most
magnificent hopes. There will be a share in these things for the remnant of my people, says the
Prophet, that is, the remnant of the Jews, as well as those belonging to another people, namely the
Gentiles, who are likewise devoted to Christ and pray to God their heavenly Father crying out: Lord,
you surround us with favour as with a shield.
It pleased God the Father that Christ should become for us an unbreakable shield. Placing himself
between us and the darts of the devil, he saved his people from being wounded or harmed in any way
by his malice. Some such meaning is implied, I think, in the words spoken about the people he had
won for himself, that is, those justified by faith. They will be preserved by a spirit of justice for him
who sits in judgement, and of courage for those who thrust back the attacker.
For once, long ago, Satan almost destroyed the sons of earth when he flung them into the pit of sin.
There was no one who did right, not a single one; they had all left the right path, they were depraved,
everyone, as the Psalmist says. But when the only-begotten Son, the Word of God, became man, he
judged our case, deciding between us and the tyrant Satan. The latter he condemned to destruction,
and removed him as the destroyer of earth-dwellers and a murderer, so saving us who were lost. This
is his teaching when he says: Now is the hour of judgement for this world; now shall the ruler of this
world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, shall draw the whole world to myself.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROPHECIES ABOUT SAMARIA AND JERUSALEM: MICAH 1:1-9; 2:1-11
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Hear, you peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth, and all that is in it; and let the Lord GOD be a witness
against you, the Lord from his holy Temple. For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place, and
will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him
and the valleys will be cleft, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is
for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of
Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I
will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards; and I will pour down her
stones into the valley, and uncover her foundations. All her images shall be beaten to pieces, all her
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hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste; for from the hire of a harlot she
gathered them, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.
For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable; and it has come to Judah, it has reached
to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns, they
perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields, and seize them; and houses,
and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus
says the LORD: Behold, against this family I am devising evil, from which you cannot remove your
necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time. In that day they shall take up a taunt
song against you, and wail with bitter lamentation, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the
portion of my people; how he removes it from me! Among our captors he divides our fields.”
Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
“Do not preach” – thus they preach – “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not
overtake us.” Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these his
doings? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly? But you rise against my people as an
enemy; you strip the robe from the peaceful, from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of
war. The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses; from their young children
you take away my glory for ever. Arise and go, for this is no place to rest; because of uncleanness that
destroys with a grievous destruction. If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will
preach to you of wine and strong drink”, he would be the preacher for this people

ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN, ORATION 14.21-22; FOC 107 (2003) TR. VINSON
Who is wise, and who will understand these things? Who will leave behind what is fleeting? Who will
throw in his lot with what abides? Who will think of the present as passing away? Who will distinguish
between appearance and reality, ignore the one and court the other? Who will distinguish between
fact and fiction, between the tabernacle below and the city above? Who between temporary and
permanent home? Who between darkness and light? Who will barter the things of the present for the
future? Who will exchange the wealth that slips away from the kind that is not lost, things visible for
things unseen?
Yes, blessed is the man who distinguishes between these things, dividing them in accordance with the
separation of the Word that divides the better from the worse, and purposes in his heart to go up,
as the divine David says at one point, and, fleeing this valley of weeping, seeks with all his might the
things that are above; he takes his place at Christ’s side, crucified to the world along with Christ, and
together with Christ ascends, heir to the life that no longer fails or deceives. The same David, like a
herald most loud of voice booming an important public proclamation, rightly cries out to us not to
cling so tightly to the visible world or to regard the sum of earthly happiness as nothing more than a
full supply of perishable food and drink. And I expect the blessed Micah too has something like
this in mind when he says, confronting those who make a show of virtue as they creep along
the ground, Draw near to the everlasting mountains. Arise; for this is not your rest. These are
almost the very words that our Lord and Saviour uses to admonish us. What does he say? Rise,
let us go hence. He is not merely conducting his disciples of the moment from that specific
place, as one might think, but he is drawing all his disciples as well away for all time from the
earth and the things of earth to the heavens and the blessings of heaven.
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So let us now follow the Word; let us seek the repose on high; let us cast aside the opulence of this
world; let us have recourse to only that portion of it that serves a good end; let us gain our lives by
acts of charity; let us share what we have with the poor that we may be rich in the bounty of heaven.
Give a portion of your soul too, not just your body; give a portion to God too, not just the world; take
something from the belly, dedicate it to the Spirit; pluck something from the fire, place it far from the
devouring flame below; rob from the tyrant, commit to the Lord. Give a portion to seven, that is, to
this life, and even to eight, the life that will receive us after this one; give a little to him from whom
you have so much; give even the whole to him who has bestowed all. You will never surpass God’s
generosity even if you hand over your entire substance and yourself in the bargain. Indeed, to receive
in the truest sense is to give oneself to God.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JERUSALEM WILL BE RUINED BECAUSE OF THE SINS OF HER RULERS: MICAH 3:1-12
And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?
– you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people, and their flesh from
off their bones; who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their
bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.
Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that
time, because they have made their deeds evil.
Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they
have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore it
shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down
upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; the seers shall be disgraced, and the
diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. But as for me, I
am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his
transgression and to Israel his sin.
Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and
pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong. Its heads give judgment for a
bribe, its priests teach for hire, its prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say,
“Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us.” Therefore because of you Zion shall
be ploughed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a
wooded height.
A READING FROM THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS

HERMAS: THE SHEPHERD, 11TH MANDATE, 4-8, 16-21 (SC 52:194-199); WORD IN SEASON VI
One who questions a false prophet upon any matter is a foolish idolater, ignorant of the truth. For no
spirit given by God needs to be questioned. Possessing divine authority, it always speaks
spontaneously, for it comes from above, from the power of the Holy Spirit. But the spirit that has to
be questioned and speaks according to human desires is earthly, fickle, and without authority; if it is
not questioned it says nothing.
Then how, O Lord, I ask, are we to distinguish the true from the false prophet? Listen, he says, to what
I am going to tell you about both prophets, and that will teach you how to test the true and the false.
Test whether prophets have the Holy Spirit by their lives. In the first place, one who has the Spirit
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from above is gentle, peaceable and humble. He refrains from all evil and the vain desires of this
world. He makes himself inferior to all others and gives no reply when he is questioned, nor does he
speak independently. The Holy Spirit does not speak at the will of any human being, but only when
God wishes him to do so.
Some who think they possess the Spirit exalt themselves, claiming the highest rank, and then
immediately become bold, impudent, and loquacious. They live amid great luxury and many other
delusions, accepting payment for their prophecies. Unless they are paid they refuse to prophesy. Can
the divine Spirit really accept payment to prophesy? The prophet of God cannot possibly do this, but
such people are possessed by an earthly spirit. So test those who claim to be inspired by the Spirit by
their deeds and their lives. Trust the Spirit that comes from God and has authority, but distrust the
spirit that is earthly and vain, since it has no authority, but comes from the devil.
Let me give you an illustration. Take a stone and throw it at the sky; see if you can hit it. Or again take
a syringe and squirt a jet of water at the sky, and see if you can make a hole in it. How, Lord, I ask, can
these things be done? They are both impossible. Just as these things are impossible, he says, so also
are earthly spirits weak and powerless. Now take the power that comes from above. Hailstones are
the smallest of pellets, but when they fall on your head how painful they are! Or again, take the drops
of water that drip from the roof to the ground and wear a hole in the stone. You see that the smallest
things falling to the earth from above have great power. So too is there power in the divine Spirit that
comes from above. Put your trust in this Spirit, then, but have nothing to do with the other.
MONDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LORD IN JUDGEMENT CONTENDS WITH HIS PEOPLE: MICAH 6:1-15
Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your
voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you
up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage; and I sent before you
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what
Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know
the saving acts of the LORD.”
“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before
him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul?” He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of
you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
The voice of the LORD cries to the city – and it is sound wisdom to fear thy name: “Hear, O tribe and
assembly of the city! Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the
scant measure that is accursed? Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful
weights? Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in
their mouth. Therefore I have begun to smite you, making you desolate because of your sins. You
shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger in your inward parts; you shall put away, but
not save, and what you save I will give to the sword. You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread
olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.”
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SERMON 10.1-2 (PL 65:746-747); WORD IN SEASON VI
Let us reflect together upon the passage from Saint Micah which we have listened to together, and as
we reflect on it in words, my friends, may we fulfil it in deeds. For we have listened to the words of a
holy man, a righteous man, a devout man, a man concerned for his own salvation, a man who knew
he had been created by God and considered himself subject to God, a man who awaited the divine
Judgement in great fear and trembling, knowing that then, before the tribunal of the just Judge, he
would have to give an account not only of his words and deeds but even of his thoughts. And so,
pondering on the future judgement of God – which each one of us should also fear and whatever we
are doing remember with hearts full of dread – pondering on this, that holy and just man asked what
he should do, or rather with what gifts he should implore the divine Judge.
But he knew that almighty God, who created the universe, who made everything from nothing, who
made nothing because he felt the pinch of poverty but all from a wealth of goodness, asks not only
for our gifts but for our deeds. Or rather he knew that the gifts most pleasing to God and acceptable
to him were a holy life and good works. So when he asked what gift one should offer God, he said:
What can I offer the Lord that is worthy? But what can be worthy to offer God but the most excellent
creature he has made? And assuredly, of all the creatures God has made upon earth none better can
be found than the one he created in his own image; and that earthly creature is a man.
Therefore those who want to offer God a worthy gift should begin by offering themselves. For since
God made us in his own image he is delighted to be offered that image, and commands us to present
it to him pure and innocent. Hence our Saviour’s answer to some who were trying to trap him: Render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. In other words, just as
you give Caesar his image on a coin, so give God his image in yourself. And when you give your
Creator his own image it must be righteous, not evil; humble, not proud; not debased by greed,
deformed by rapacity, reduced by vicious anger, worn away be earthly affections, soiled by envy,
defiled by debauchery; but kept undiminished by prudent care, pure by true faith, and shining by
good habits and deeds. The holy Prophet tells us how to give God his own image in ourselves when he
says: I will show you what is good and what the Lord requires of you. It is to act justly and righteously,
to love mercy, and to walk mindfully with your God.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE END OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL: 2 KINGS 17:1-18
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel,
and he reigned nine years. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of
Israel who were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became
his vassal, and paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea; for he had sent
messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by
year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria
invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. In the ninth year of
Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed
them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And this was so, because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had
brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had
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feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the
people of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced. And the people of Israel
did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high
places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city; they set up for themselves pillars and
Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree; and there they burned incense on all the high
places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things,
provoking the LORD to anger, and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall
not do this.” Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn
from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law
which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” But they
would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their
God. They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings
which he gave them. They went after false idols, and became false, and they followed the nations that
were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do
like them. And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves
molten images of two calves; and they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and
served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and
sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore
the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of
Judah only.
A READING FROM THE ASCETICON OF ABBA ISAIAH

ABBA ISAIAH, DISCOURSE 17 ; CS150 (2002) CHRYSSAVGIS & PENKETT
Before all else, the first struggle is exile. If you have fled alone, then the struggle is to leave your own
people and things and move to another place. You should bear perfect faith and hope, as well as a
stable heart with regard to your own desires, for thoughts will completely encircle you, frightening
you about temptations, hardships in poverty, and illnesses, suggesting to you questions about how
you will cope with these if you have no one who cares for, or knows you. God’s goodness is trying you
in order to reveal your effort and love for him. So when you are alone in the cell, they plant inside you
unbearable thoughts of fear, saying, ‘It is not only exile that saves a person, but obeying the
commandments’, bringing to your heart and saying, ‘What then, are they not also servants of God?’
They sow thoughts inside your heart regarding bad weather and bodily needs, until your heart is
weakened through discouragement, but, if love and hope are found and remain in you, the evil of
these things will not be activated.
Therefore, your effort before God becomes clear; it is evident that you love him more than bodily
rest. Those who endure the tribulation of exile are brought to the virtue of hope, and this hope
protects them, at least partially, from fleshly desire, for you are not in exile for its own sake, but in
order to prepare yourself, and have time to struggle against the enemy, so that you may learn how to
reject each foe in its time, until you reach the rest of dispassion and are liberated as a result of
being victorious at each battle, in its own time.
A man who loves human glory cannot attain apatheia, because envy and jealousy dwell in him. Such a
person has sold his soul to many temptations, and his heart is slaughtered by the demons because he
can never find the time to obey all his commands. If you cannot bear the word of your neighbour, and
return the wrong, struggle will arise in your heart, causing you great sorrow about everything you
said. This captivity will completely overcome you, and make you praise those who live alone in
silence, hardening your heart toward your neighbour, as having no love.
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Strive, instead, to acquire long-suffering, because it overcomes wrath, and love heals sorrow. The
man who is, for the sake of God and for the peace of his own thoughts, able to bear a harsh word
spoken by a difficult and unwise person, will be called a son of peace, and be enabled to acquire
peace of soul, body, and spirit. If these three are all in agreement, so that those who war against
the law of the intellect cease, and the captivity of the flesh is abolished, then that man will be
called a son of peace, and the Holy Spirit will dwell in him, because it has become his and will not
be separated from him.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE ORIGIN OF THE SAMARITANS: 2 KINGS 17:24-41
And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim, and
placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel; and they took possession of
Samaria, and dwelt in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the
LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the king of Assyria
was told, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know
the law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing
them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” Then the king of Assyria
commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away thence; and let him go and dwell
there, and teach them the law of the god of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had carried
away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
But every nation still made gods of its own, and put them in the shrines of the high places which the
Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they dwelt; the men of Babylon made
Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites
made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and
Anammelech, the gods of Sephar-vaim. They also feared the LORD, and appointed from among
themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of
the high places. So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the
nations from among whom they had been carried away. To this day they do according to the former
manner.
They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the ordinances or the law or the
commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. The LORD
made a covenant with them, and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves
to them or serve them or sacrifice to them; but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to
him you shall sacrifice. And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment
which he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, and you shall
not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear
the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” However they would
not listen, but they did according to their former manner.
So these nations feared the LORD, and also served their graven images; their children likewise, and
their children’s children – as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
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A READING FROM AGAINST THE PAGANS BY ST ATHANASIUS
CONTRA GENTES 2-3; TR. THOMSON (1971)
Evil has not existed from the beginning, even now it is not found amongst the holy ones. But it was
men who began to conceive of it and imagine it in their own likeness. Hence they fashioned for
themselves the notion of idols, considering non-existent things as real. For God, the Creator of the
universe and King of all, who is beyond all being and human thought, made mankind in his own image
through his own Word, our Saviour Jesus Christ; and he also made man perceptive and able to
understand reality through his similarity to him, giving him also a knowledge of his own eternity.
As long as he kept this likeness he would never abandon the concept of God or leave the company of
the holy ones. Retaining the grace bestowed on him by God and also the special power given him by
the Father’s Word, man could rejoice and converse with God, living an idyllic and truly blessed and
immortal life. For having no obstacle to the knowledge of the divine, man could continuously
contemplate in his purity the image of the Father, God the Word, in whose image he himself was
made; he could be filled with admiration in grasping divine providence towards the universe. Man in
this state would be superior to sensual things, and by the power of his mind could cling to the divine
and intelligible realities in heaven.
For when the mind of man has no intercourse with the body, and has nothing of the latter’s desires
mingled with it from outside but is entirely superior to them, it is self-sufficient as it was created in
the beginning. It then transcends the senses and all human things and it rises high above the world; it
beholds the Word and sees in him also the Father of the Word. It rejoices in contemplating him and is
renewed by its desire for him, just as the holy Scriptures say that the first man to be created, who was
called Adam in Hebrew, had his mind fixed on God in unembarrassed frankness. Adam lived with the
holy ones in the contemplation of intelligible reality, which he enjoyed in that place which the holy
Moses figuratively called Paradise. Indeed the purity of the soul makes it able to contemplate even
God by itself, as the Lord himself said Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
In this way the Creator fashioned the human race, and thus he wished it to remain. But men, con-
temptuous of the better things, sought rather what was closer to themselves – and what was closer
to them was the body and its sensations. So they turned their minds away from intelligible reality and
began to consider themselves; they fell into selfish desires and preferred their own good to the
contemplation of the divine. This is clearly seen from what the Holy Scriptures relate of Adam, the
first created man. For as long as he fixed his mind on God and contemplation of him, he kept away
from contemplation of the body. But when at the urging of the serpent he abandoned his thinking of
God and began to consider himself, then both Adam and Eve fell into fleshly desires and realised that
they were naked, and knowing it were ashamed. They realised that they were not so much stripped of
clothing as stripped of the contemplation of divine things.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PRIESTLY ACCOUNT OF KING HEZEKIAH’S PASSOVER: 2 CHRONICLES 29:1-2; 30:1-16
Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in
Jerusalem. His mothers name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the
eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.
Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they
should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the LORD the God of
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Israel. For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the
passover in the second month – for they could not keep it in its time because the priests had not
sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem – and the plan
seemed right to the king and all the assembly. So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all
Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the passover to the LORD the
God of Israel, at Jerusalem; for they had not kept it in great numbers as prescribed. So couriers went
throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had
commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of
Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your brethren, who were faithless to the LORD God of their
fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers
were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever,
and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the
LORD, your brethren and your children will find compassion with their captors, and return to this land.
For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return
to him.”
So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as
Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Only a few men of Asher, of Manasseh,
and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also upon Judah to
give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.
And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second
month, a very great assembly. They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and
all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the Kidron valley. And they killed the
passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were put
to shame, so that they sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.
They took their accustomed posts according to the law of Moses the man of God; the priests
sprinkled the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites.

SERMON 59.5, 7; FOC93 (1996) TR. FREELAND & CONWAY
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, as the Apostle says. Offering himself to the Father as
a new and real sacrifice of reconciliation, he was crucified – not in the Temple whose due
worship is now completed, nor within the enclosure of the city which was to be destroyed
because of its crime, but outside and beyond the camp. That way, as the mystery of the
ancient sacrifices was ceasing, a new victim would be put on a new altar, and the Cross of
Christ would be the altar not of the Temple but of the world.
O wonderful power of the Cross! O indescribable glory of the Passion! In this is the tribunal of the
Lord, and the judgement of the world, and the power of the Crucified. You have drawn all things to
yourself, Lord, and when you had stretched out your hands all day for an unbelieving and rebellious
people, all the world received the understanding to confess your majesty.
You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, when all the elements expressed the same feeling in
condemning that crime perpetrated by the Jews. With the lights of heaven darkened and day turned
to night, even the earth shook with unaccustomed motions, and all creation turned its back on the
practices of the wicked.
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You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, when the veil of the Temple was split apart and the Holy
of Holies withdrew from unworthy priests, so that figure was turned into truth, prophecies into
reality, and the law into the Gospel. You have drawn all things to yourself, Lord, so that what was
once done in the one Temple of Judea with concealed meanings, the devotion of all nations
everywhere now celebrates in a clear and open mystery.
Now, when the variety of animal sacrifices has ceased, the one oblation of your body and blood fulfils
all the many kinds of offering. You are the true Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, and
thus you perfect all mysteries in yourself. As one sacrifice is made on behalf of all victims, so there will
be one kingdom for all nations.
Now there is a higher order of Levites, a worthier order of Elders, and a holier anointing of Priests,
since your Cross is the fountain of all benediction, the cause of all graces, through which there is given
to believers strength from weakness, glory from reproach, and life from death.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CAPTIVITY OF THE EGYPTIANS AND THE ETHIOPIANS IS ANNOUNCED: ISAIAH 20:1-6
In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod
and fought against it and took it, – at that time the LORD had spoken by Isaiah the son of Amoz,
saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take off your shoes from your feet”, and he
had done so, walking naked and barefoot – the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked
and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of
Assyria lead away the Egyptians captives and the Ethiopians exiles, both the young and the old, naked
and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. Then they shall be dismayed and
confounded because of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitants of this
coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to
whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

LETTER 58; NPNF26 (1892) TR. FREEMANTLE
Do not, my dearest brother, estimate my worth by the number of my years. Grey hairs are not
wisdom; it is wisdom which is as good as grey hairs. Do not, I repeat, weigh faith by years, nor
suppose me better than yourself merely because I have enlisted under Christ’s banner earlier than
you. The Apostle Paul, that chosen vessel formed out of a persecutor, the last in the apostolic order, is
first in merit. For though last he has laboured more than they all.
As for you, when you hear the Saviour’s counsel, if you wish to be perfect, go and sell that you have,
and give to the poor, and come follow me, you translate his words into action. Naked, following the
naked cross, you mount Jacob’s ladder all the easier because you carry nothing. Your dress changes
with the change in your convictions, and you aim at no showy shabbiness which leaves your purse as
full as before. No, with your hands and a clear conscience you make it your glory that you are poor
both in spirit and in deed. There is nothing great in wearing a sad or a disfigured face, in simulating
and in showing off fasts, or in wearing a cheap cloak while you retain a large income. When Crates the
Theban – a millionaire of days gone by – was on his way to Athens to study philosophy, he cast away
untold gold in the belief that wealth would not be compatible with virtue. What a contrast he offers
to us, the disciples of a poor Christ! When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.
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What is praiseworthy is not to have been at Jerusalem but to have lived a good life while there. I
assure you that nothing is lacking to your faith although you have not seen Jerusalem and that I am
none the better for living where I do. Be assured that, whether you dwell here or elsewhere, a like
reward is in store for your good works with our Lord. Indeed, if I am frankly to express my own
feelings, when I take into consideration your vows and the earnestness with which you have
renounced the world, I hold that as long as you live in the country one place is as good as another.
Forsake cities and their crowds, live on a small patch of ground, seek Christ in solitude, pray on the
mount alone with Jesus, keep near to holy places: keep out of cities, I say, and you will never lose your
vocation. My advice does not concern bishops, priests, or the clergy, for these have a different duty. I
am speaking only to a monk who having been a man of note in the world has laid the price of his
possessions at the Apostles’ feet one who, to show men that they must trample on their money, has
resolved to live a life of loneliness and seclusion.
It would be the height of folly first to renounce the world, to forswear one’s country, to forsake cities,
to profess oneself a monk; and then to live among still greater numbers the same kind of life that you
would have lived in your own country. Men rush here from all quarters of the world, and the city is
filled with people of every race. So great is the throng of men and women that here you would have
to tolerate to the full an evil from which you desired to flee when you found it only partially
developed elsewhere.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE HEALING OF HEZEKIAH AND PROPHECY OF THE EXILE INTO BABYLON: 2 KINGS 20:1-19
In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of
Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, “Set your house in order; for you shall die,
you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying,
“Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a
whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah
had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Turn back, and say to
Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard
your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the
house of the LORD. And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the
hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s
sake.” And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may
recover.”
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up
to the house of the LORD on the third day?” And Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD,
that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go
back ten steps?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps;
rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” And Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD; and he brought
the shadow back ten steps, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.
At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a
present to Hezekiah; for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he
showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armoury, all
that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did
not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these
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men say? And whence did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far
country, from Babylon.” He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered,
“They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD: Behold, the days are coming, when all that
is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon;
nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken
away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah,
“The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be
peace and security in my days?”
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF PERFECTION OF BISHOP MARTYRIUS

BOOK OF PERFECTION, 39-43; CS101 (1987) TR. BROCK
We should not confine our ministry to the specific fixed times of the Hours; rather, it should be
continuous all the time, in accordance with the Apostle’s bidding to pray at all times in the spirit,
keeping vigil in prayer at every moment and praying continuously. And again he says, Let your
requests be made to known before God with all sorts of supplication, and, Be constant in prayer; be
filled with the Spirit; sing among yourselves with psalms and praise; sing spiritual songs in your hearts
to the Lord. Everywhere in his letters he urges strongly that we be constant in prayer; for he knows
that prayer is a mighty weapon for Christians, an impregnable rampart, made strong by God.
Prayer may do what it likes – just as God can. It gives orders on earth, it holds back in heaven. Prayer
is a god amongst men: it forgives sins and decrees healing. For the prayer of faith heals the person
who is sick, and if he has committed sins, they are forgiven. Great is the power of the prayer which the
righteous man prays. Elijah was a man subject to suffering just like us, yet he prayed on earth and
held back the heavens; he prayed over a dead man and brought him back to life.
Prayer sometimes does bring the dead back to life, but sometimes it may also slay the living, as
happened with the godly Peter: he brought Tabitha back to life by prayer, but he effected the death
of Ananias and Sapphira. Elisha, that spiritual man, brought to life the young son of the Shunamite
woman, but he brought to their end the wicked children, through the bears which he brought out
against them with the curse. The case of Hezekiah was also astonishing: through prayer he added to
the days of his life as King, but he routed the mighty army of the Assyrian through the agency of a
spiritual being.
How potent and mighty is the power of prayer! Prayer is able to put pressure on Satan who puts
pressure on the human race; it can rescue from his hands and bring deliverance from all the
temptations of the world. For this reason our Lord does well to bid us: Be wakeful and pray, so that
you do not enter into temptation; and again: Be watchful at all times and pray, so that you may be
held worthy to escape from the things to come and to take your stand before the Son of Man.
Those who stand in Christ’s presence, whose whole concern is with things divine, who are liberated
from all the cares of the world, should accordingly persevere at all times in the hidden prayer of the
heart and in spiritual thoughts of the mind, rejecting and pushing aside every worldly thought which
darkens the soul and prevents it from engaging in thoughts of God.
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SUNDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AGAINST THE FALSE CONFIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD: ISAIAH 22:1-14
The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the
housetops, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with
the sword or dead in battle. All your rulers have fled together, without the bow they were captured.
All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away. Therefore I said: “Look
away from me, let me weep bitter tears; do not labour to comfort me for the destruction of the
daughter of my people.”
For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a
battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains. And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and
horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen
took their stand at the gates. He has taken away the covering of Judah.
In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of
the city of David were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the
houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir
between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have
regard for him who planned it long ago.
In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and girding with
sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

SERMON 167 (PL 52:637-638); WORD IN SEASON VI
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent? Why not rather rejoice? Rejoice because
human things are giving place to divine, earthly to heavenly, temporal to eternal, evil to good; anxiety
is being replaced by security, affliction by beatitude; the perishable is yielding to the permanent. By all
means let those repent whose concerns have been human rather than divine, who have chosen
bondage to the world in preference to victory over the world with the Lord of the world. Let them
repent who have preferred to perish with the devil rather than reign with Christ. Let them repent who
have fled from the freedom that goes with virtue and voluntarily enslaved themselves to vice. Let
them repent and make amends who have surrendered themselves to the service of death rather than
life.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is the reward of the just but it brings
judgement for sinners and punishment for the ungodly. Blessed therefore was John the Baptist for his
desire that everyone should escape judgment by repenting; he did not want sinners to be condemned
but rewarded; he did not want the wicked to be punished but to enter the kingdom.
The world was still young, eagerly awaiting its maturity, when John prophesied that the kingdom of
heaven was at hand. But now we know that the kingdom of heaven is very near indeed, for the world
is worn out with extreme old age; it has lost the use of its limbs and senses and is racked with pain
and anxiety. Its life is ebbing away, only sickness remains; the failure of its powers testifies to its
approaching end. Are we not harder of heart than the Jews, then, if we follow this fleeting world,
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forgetting the future and intent only on the present; if we are not afraid now that judgement is upon
us; if we do not run to meet the Lord but prefer death to resurrection from the dead, and would
rather be slaves than kings, disparaging the great kingdom offered us by our Lord? Have we forgotten
the text: When you pray say: Thy kingdom come?
We need to be more penitent; the cure has to match the wound. Let us repent, my friends, let us
repent quickly, for our time is running out, the hour is at hand; there will be no chance to make
reparation on Judgement Day. Let us run along the path of repentance before our sentence overtakes
us. The Lord has not yet come but is waiting for us, and delays because he wants us to return to him
and not die. He has always spoken to us with such great love, saying: My desire is not for the death of
sinners, but for them to be converted and live.
MONDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FUTILITY OF TREATIES WITH ALIEN PEOPLES: ISAIAH 30:1-18
“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine; and who make
a league, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without
asking for my counsel, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow
of Egypt! Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow
of Egypt to your humiliation. For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes, every
one comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the
lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of asses, and
their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them. For Egypt's help is
worthless and empty, therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”
And now, go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to
come as a witness for ever. For they are a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will not hear the
instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “See not”; and to the prophets, “Prophesy not to us
what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel.” Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because
you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them; therefore this
iniquity shall be to you like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose crash
comes suddenly, in an instant; and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel which is smashed so
ruthlessly that among its fragments not a sherd is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to
dip up water out of the cistern.”
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in
quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” And you would not, but you said, “No! We will speed
upon horses”, therefore you shall speed away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”, therefore your
pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.
Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For
the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
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A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY
THIRD SERMON FOR THE ANNUNCIATION; CF 32 (1971) TR. MSB
Of all the human weaknesses or injuries which God deigned to bear for us, the first in time and, one
might say, the greatest in humility, was, I think, that the majesty which knows no bounds allowed
itself to be conceived in the womb and to be confined in the womb for the space of nine months.
Where else did he so empty himself out, or when was he seen so completely eclipsed? For so long a
time Wisdom says nothing, Power works nothing that can be discerned. The majesty which lies hidden
and enclosed is not betrayed by any visible sign. He was not seen so weak on the Cross. What was
weak in him immediately appeared stronger than all men, when he glorified the thief as he died and
with his last breath breathed faith into the centurion. The sorrow of the hour of his passion not only
made the elements of creation suffer with him but also subjected the opposing powers to a passion of
timeless sorrow. On the other hand in the womb he is as if he were not. Almighty power lies idle as if
it could do nothing. The eternal Word constrains himself to silence.
But to you, brethren, to you that silence of the Word speaks, to you it cries out, to you to be sure it
recommends the discipline of silence. For in silence and hope shall be your strength as Isaiah
promises, a man who defined the pursuit of justice as silence. As that Child in the womb advanced
towards birth in a long, deep silence, so does the discipline of silence nourish, form and strengthen a
man’s spirit, and produce growth which is the safer and more wholesome for being the more hidden.
Mere man with his natural gifts, who does not take in the thoughts of God’s Spirit, does not know the
way of the Spirit and how bones are built up in the womb of a woman with child. But my body was not
hidden from you, the Holy Man tells God, the body you made for me in the mind’s hidden depth under
the pall of silence. Neither from you is this mystery hidden, my brethren. You have shared your
experience with me and have told me how a quiet and disciplined spirit is strengthened, grows fat and
flourishes in silence, and how on the contrary by speaking it is broken up and dislocated as if by
paralysis, grows thin and withers and dries up. If there was not strength in silence Solomon would not
have said: Like an open city without any encompassing walls, so is the man who cannot restrain his
spirit from speaking.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THREATS OF THE ENVOYS OF THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS AGAINST JERUSALEM: 2 KINGS
18:17-36
And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from
Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived,
they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Fullers Field.
And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over
the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On
what do you rest this confidence of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for
war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are relying now on
Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is
Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. But if you say to me, “We rely on the LORD our God”, is
it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You
shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?” Come now, make a wager with my master the king of
Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. How
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then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my masters servants, when you rely on Egypt
for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this
place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Pray, speak to your
servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah
within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my
master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the
wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of
the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not
be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you to rely on the LORD by saying,
The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Do
not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to
me; then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of
you will drink the water of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own
land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you
may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, The LORD will
deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of
Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and
Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of the countries have
delivered their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not
answer him.”
A READING FROM THE WORKS OF ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

VARIOUS TEXTS ON THEOLOGY, 3.2, 3, 9-11; PHILOKALIA 2 (1981) TR. PALMER ETC.
When any devout philosopher fortified with ascetic practice and contemplation sees the power of evil
rising up against him through the passions, like the king of the Assyrians rising up against Hezekiah, he
is aware that only with God’s help can he escape. He invokes God’s mercy by crying out silently and by
striving to advance still further in virtue and knowledge. He then receives as an ally, or rather as his
salvation, an angel: one of the higher principles of wisdom and knowledge who cuts off every mighty
man, warrior, leader and commander in the camp.
Every passion has its origin in the corresponding sensible object. For without some object to attract
the powers of the soul through the senses, no passion would ever be generated. In other words,
without a sensible object a passion does not come into being: without a woman there is no
unchastity; without food there is no gluttony; without gold there is no love of money, and so on. Thus
at the origin of every impassioned stimulation of our natural powers there is a sensible object or, in
other terms, a demon inciting the soul to commit sin by means of the sensible object.
The wrath of God is the painful sensation we experience when we are being trained by Him. Through
this painful experience of unsought sufferings God often abases and humbles an intellect concerned
about its knowledge and virtue; for such sufferings make it conscious of itself and its own weakness.
When the intellect perceives its own weakness it rejects the vain pretensions of the heart.
The wrath of God is the suspension of gifts of grace – a most salutary experience for the self-inflated
intellect that boasts of the blessings bestowed by God as if they were its own achievement.
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The intellect of every true philosopher and gnostic possesses both Judah and Jerusalem; Judah is
practical philosophy and Jerusalem is contemplative initiation. Whenever by the grace of God such an
intellect repels the powers of evil with virtue and spiritual knowledge and wins a complete victory
over them, yet does not thank God the true author of this victory, but boasts that the achievement is
its own, it brings down the wrath of God’s abandonment not only on itself but also on Judah and
Jerusalem, that is, on both its practice of the virtues and its contemplative life. It has failed to give
thanks to God for the gifts that he has given. God at once permits shameful passions to vitiate its
practice of the virtues and to sully its conscience, which until then was pure. He also permits false
concepts to insinuate themselves into its contemplation of created beings and to pervert its spiritual
knowledge, which until then had been sound. For ignoble passions immediately attack an intellect
that is over-elated because of its spiritual knowledge and such an intellect will be permitted by God’s
just judgement to lapse from true contemplation.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HEZEKIAH’S PRAYER, STRENGTHENED BY ISAIAH. SALVATION OF JERUSALEM: 2 KINGS 18:3 -
19:19, 35-37
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the
son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of the
Rabshakeh.
When King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into
the house of the LORD. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary,
and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. They said to
him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come
to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the LORD your God heard all
the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and
will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the
remnant that is left.” When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to
your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with
which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he
shall hear a rumour and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own
land.’”
The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he heard that the
king had left Lachish. And when the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has
set out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall you speak to
Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that
Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the
kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered? Have the
gods of the nations delivered them, the nations which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph,
and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the
king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to
the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and
said: “O LORD the God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the God, thou
alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thy ear, O LORD,
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and hear; open thy eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to
mock the living God. Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their
lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands,
wood and stone; therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us, I beseech thee,
from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, O LORD, art God alone.”
And that night the angel of the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the
camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went home, and dwelt at Nineveh. And as he was
worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, slew him with the
sword, and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

INSTITUTES, 11: 1-3, 8-10; ACW 52 (2000) TR. RAMSEY
Our seventh struggle is against the spirit of kenodoxia, which we can refer to as vain or empty glory. It
is multiform, varied and subtle, such that it can hardly be seen or noticed by the sharpest eyes, to say
nothing of being guarded against. For it strikes the monk not only in his carnal part, as the other vices
do, but also in his spiritual part, pressing itself into the mind with its subtle wickedness in such a way
that men who could not be deceived by carnal vices are all the more brutally hurt as a result of their
spiritual successes. Like a very dangerous rock submerged under swelling waves, it threatens with an
unforeseen and miserable shipwreck those who sail with a favourable wind when no foresight is
exercised.
Other vices sometimes relent if the location is favourable, and they usually diminish if the matter of
sin and the occasion for it and the possibility of it have been removed. But this one penetrates the
desert along with him who is fleeing, and neither can it be excluded from a given place nor does it
weaken if matter has been taken away. Finally, the other disturbances are easily overcome when they
are opposed by their contrary virtues and are fought in the clear light of day. But this one, mingled
with the virtues and entangled in the fray, contends fiercely as it were in the dark of night and
deceives the unthinking and the incautious.
For thus we read that Hezekiah, the King of Judah, a man of consummate righteousness and approved
by the testimony of Holy Scripture, was, after innumerable commendations of his virtue, felled by a
single dart of pride. He who had been able with one prayer to obtain the destruction of one hundred
and eighty-five thousand members of the Assyrian army, when an angel destroyed them in the night,
was overcome by boastful vanity. This was a man who, after the end of his life had been determined
and the day of his death had been set by a decree of the Lord, deserved by a single prayer to exceed
the measure of his life by fifteen years.
After so many and such astonishing signs, listen to Scripture tell us how he fell as a result of his own
successes: In those days, it says, Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to the Lord, and the
Lord heard him and granted him a sign – namely, what we read in the Fourth Book of Kings was
granted through Isaiah the prophet with respect to the sun’s return. But, it says, he made no return in
proportion to the benefits that he had received, because his heart grew proud. And wrath went out
against him and against Judah and Jerusalem, and thereupon he humbled himself, because his heart
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had grown proud, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And so the wrath of the Lord did not come
upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
How dangerous is the disease of pride! Such righteousness, so many virtues, such faith and devotion,
which deserved to change nature itself and the laws of the whole world – this was all destroyed by a
single act of pride, in such a way that he would have been the immediate object of the Lord’s wrath,
and all his virtues would have been consigned to oblivion just as if they had never existed, had he not
placated it by resuming his humility. Thus he who had, at the impulse of pride, fallen from so lofty a
height of virtuousness could not mount once again to the summit that he had lost except by retracing
the steps of humility.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ISAIAH’S PROPHECIES ABOUT THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS: ISAIAH 37:21-35
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because
you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word that the LORD has
spoken concerning him: ‘She despises you, she scorns you – the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her
head behind you – the daughter of Jerusalem.
‘Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted
your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have
said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of
Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I came to its remotest height, its densest
forest. I dug wells and drank waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.
‘Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to
pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of
strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender
grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
‘I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you
have raged against me and your arrogance has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and
my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.’
“And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what
springs of the same; then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. And
the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;
for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of
the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, or
shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it. By the way
that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. For I
will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
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A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES OF ST AMBROSE ON THE PSALMS
ON PSALM 48, 14-15; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
When Christ reconciled the world to God, he himself certainly did not need reconciliation. For what
sin of his own was he to make propitiation, when he knew no sin? When the Jews were asking for the
didrachma, which according to law was given for sin, he said to Peter: ‘Simon, from whom do kings of
the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?’ Peter answered: ‘From others.’ Jesus
said to him: ‘Then the sons are free. However, not to give offence to them, go to the sea and cast a
hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take
that and give it to them for me and for yourself.
He is pointing out that he is not obliged to propitiation for sins on his own behalf, because he is not a
slave of sin, but the Son of God, free from all fault. For the Son sets free; it is the slave who is guilty.
So he was free from all sin, and gives no price of redemption for his own soul: the price of his blood
was more than sufficient to redeem all the sins of the world. Justly then he sets others free, owing
nothing for himself.
Furthermore: not only does Christ owe no price of redemption for himself or propitiation for sin, but
if you take the case of any man, it can be understood that no individuals owe propitiation for
themselves, since Christ is the propitiation of all, and himself the redemption of all.
What man’s blood has now the power to redeem him, when Christ shed his own blood for the
redemption of all? Is there anyone’s blood comparable to the blood of Christ? What man is so mighty
that he can offer propitiation for himself surpassing that which Christ offered in himself, Christ who
alone reconciled the world with God through his own blood? What greater victim is there, what
superior sacrifice, what better advocate than he who was made the atonement for the sins of all, and
gave his life as the redemption for us?
Individual propitiation or redemption, therefore, is not to be sought, because the price of all is the
blood of Christ, with which the Lord Jesus, who alone reconciled the Father, redeemed us. He
laboured to the end, since he took upon himself our labours, as he says, Come to me, all you who
labour, and I will refresh you.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE REIGNS OF MANASSEH AND AMON. BEGINNING OF JOSIAH’S REIGN: 2 KINGS 21:1-18, 23
– 22:1
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
His mothers name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the
abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. For he
rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal, and
made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served
them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem will I
put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the
LORD. And he burned his son as an offering, and practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with
mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And
the graven image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the LORD said to David
and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of
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Israel, I will put my name for ever; and I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the
land which I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have
commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.” But they
did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations had done whom the
LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed
these abominations, and has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites did, who were
before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel, Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of every one who hears
of it will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plummet of
the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
And I will cast off the remnant of my heritage, and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they
shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my sight
and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”
Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to
another, besides the sin which he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the
LORD.
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not
written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and
was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his house. But the people of
the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah
his son king in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the
Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza;
and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His
mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
A READING FROM THE GOOD OF PATIENCE BY ST CYPRIAN

THE GOOD OF PATIENCE, 3-4; FOC 36 (1958) TR. DEFERRARI.
We, beloved brethren, are philosophers not in words but in deeds; we exhibit our wisdom not by our
dress, but by truth; we know virtues by their practice rather than through boasting of them; we do
not speak great things but we live them. Therefore, as servants and worshippers of God, let us show
by spiritual homage the patience that we learn from heavenly teachings. For that virtue we have in
common with God. In him patience has its beginning, and from him as its source it takes its splendour
and dignity. The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God its Author. The quality that is
dear to God ought to be loved by man. If God is our Master and our Father, let us strive after the
patience of him who is both our Master and our Father, because it is fitting that servants be obedient
and it is not proper that sons be unworthy.
But how wonderful and how great is the patience of God! He endures most patiently the profane
Temples, the earthly images and idolatrous rites that have been set up by men in insult to his majesty
and honour. He makes the day to rise and the sun to shine equally over the good and the evil. When
he waters the earth with showers no one is excluded from his benefits, but he bestows his rains
without distinction on the just and the unjust alike. We see that, at the will of God - with an indivisible
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uniformity of patience towards the religious and the impious - the seasons obey and the elements
serve, the winds blow, fountains flow, harvests increase in abundance, the fruits of the vines ripen,
trees are heavy with fruit, the groves become green, and the meadows burst into flower.
Although God is provoked by frequent, yes even continual offences, he tempers his anger and
patiently waits for the day of retribution which he once foreordained. And although vengeance is in
his power, he prefers to be long-suffering in his patience, that is, waiting steadfastly and delaying in
his mercy, so that, if it is at all possible, the long career of malice at some time may change, and man,
however deeply he is infected with the contagion of error and crime, may be converted to God even
at a late hour, as he himself warns and says: I desire not the death of him that dies, as much as that he
may return and live. And again: Return to the Lord your God for he is merciful and loving and patient
and rich in pity, and one who turns aside his judgement in respect to the evils proposed. The blessed
Apostle Paul, calling back the sinner to penance by reminding him of this, putting the question says:
Or do you despise the wealth of his goodness and his long-suffering and patience? Do you not know
that the patience and goodness of God is meant to lead you to repentance? He said that the
judgement of God is just, because it is delayed. Punishment is finally paid by the impious and the
sinner when repentance of the sin can no longer avail.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE JUDGEMENT OF THE LORD: ZEPHANIAH1:1-7, 14 – 2:3
The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah,
son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
“I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” says the LORD. “I will sweep away
man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will overthrow the
wicked; I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” says the LORD. “I will stretch out my hand
against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the
remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests; those who bow down on the roofs to the host
of the heavens; those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom; those who
have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him.”
Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is at hand; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests. For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, “Short and sorrowful
is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to
return from Hades. Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we
had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the
beating of our hearts. When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve
like empty air.
The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter,
the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of
ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of
trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
I will bring distress on men, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the
LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their
gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealous wrath,
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all the earth shall be consumed; for a full, yea, sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the
earth.
Come together and hold assembly, O shameless nation, before you are driven away like the drifting
chaff, before there comes upon you the fierce anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the
day of the wrath of the LORD. Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek
righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the LORD.

SERMON 38:10-11; WSA (1990) TR. HILL
Realise that the one who made you the promises is truthful and trustworthy. He hasn’t yet shown you
everything, because it isn’t yet time for him to do so. He has already shown you a great many things,
though. He promised you his Christ, and he gave him; he promised his resurrection, and he gave it;
the very afflictions and disasters piled one on top of the other in human affairs, he foretold and has
shown. How much is left? What was promised has been fulfilled, what was foretold has been fulfilled.
And are you on tenterhooks that perhaps what’s left may not happen?
What should really frighten you would be not seeing fulfilled what has been foretold. There are wars,
there are famines, there are tribulations, there’s kingdom against kingdom, there are earthquakes,
there’s calamity piled on calamity, there’s no lack of scandals, charity is cold, there’s plenty of
wickedness. Read all this up, it’s been foretold. Read, observe that everything you see happening has
been foretold, and believe that you are eventually going to see what hasn’t yet come about, counting
up all the things that have. And do you, when you see God presenting you with what he has foretold,
refuse to believe that he is going to give you what he has promised? It’s precisely what has got you
upset that ought to give you grounds for trusting him.
If it’s the end of the world, then it's time to quit the world, not to love the world. Look, the world is in
a state of turmoil, and everyone loves the world! Suppose the world were at peace? How you would
cling to a beautiful world, seeing how fervently you embrace a world in a mess! How eagerly you
would gather its flowers, seeing that you don’t pull your hand back from its thorns! You don’t want to
leave the world, the world leaves you, and you follow the world.
So let us purify our hearts, dearly beloved, and not give up the virtue of endurance, but rather gain
wisdom and hold on to the virtue of restraint. Toil passes away, rest is coming; deceptive delights pass
away, and the good is coming which the faithful soul has been longing for, and for which every pilgrim
exiled in the world is fervently sighing: the good home country, our heavenly home, our home with
the angelic peoples, our home country where no citizen ever dies, where no hostile alien gains
admittance, our home where you will have God as your everlasting friend, and where you need fear
no enemy.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SALVATION IS PROMISED TO THE POOR OF ISRAEL: ZEPHANIAH 3:8-20
“Therefore wait for me,” says the LORD, “for the day when I arise as a witness. For my decision is to
gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all the heat of my
anger; for in the fire of my jealous wrath all the earth shall be consumed.
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“Yea, at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call
on the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my
suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.
“On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against
me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be
haughty in my holy mountain. For I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They
shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD, those who are left in Israel; they shall do no wrong and
utter no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall pasture and lie
down, and none shall make them afraid.”
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of
Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast out your enemies. The
King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear evil no more. On that day it shall be said to
Jerusalem: “Do not fear, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he
will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.
“I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. Behold, at that time I will
deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their
shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I
gather you together; yea, I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the LORD.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH OF ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

COMMENTARIUS IN SOPHONIAM PROPHETAM, 43-44 (PG 71:1013-1017); TR PLUSCARDEN
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of
Jerusalem! The plain meaning of the historical sense of these words is a promise of peace after the
return from Babylon. As far as the deeper meaning of this passage is concerned, it clearly commands
Jerusalem to rejoice exceedingly, to be especially glad, to be joyful wholeheartedly as its sins are
wiped out through Christ. The spiritual and holy Zion – that is, the Church, the holy multitude of
believers – is justified in Christ and only in him. By him and through him we are also saved as we
escape from the harm of the invisible enemies, for we have a Mediator who was incarnated in our
form, the King of all, who is the Word of God the Father. Thanks to him, we have been delivered from
the powers of evil. The Word of God is the armour of good will, the peace, the wall, the one who
bestows incorruption, the arbiter of crowns, who has ended the war of the incorporeal Assyrians and
made void the schemes of the demons.
Do not fear, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak. This is a clear warning, have confidence; he who
made this promise is certainly not a liar. We have heard Christ himself renewing this ancient prophecy
when he says that, you will have affliction in this world but have confidence, for I have overcome the
world. For now he is in our midst as a strong warrior who gives victory we have no excuse to be feeble
handed and weak kneed; now we too can be confident that Christ who is the all-powerful God in our
midst can redeem and save those who believe in him; for he dwells in our hearts through the Spirit
and he has given us a spiritual and worthy joy.
Why had the Holy Spirit been given us except in order to be our delight and joy and the grounds of
our spiritual happiness? When Christ gave us joy through the Holy Spirit he renewed us by his own
love. He came among us in the flesh in the order of time and, when he was alone and dying for us all,
he truly said: no one has greater love than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends. He
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indeed laid down his own life and was numbered for our sake among the dead. Although by nature he
was Life, he returned to life and renewed our nature in newness of life and restored it to its first
likeness: if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. For it pleased our God and Father to restore all
things in him. Therefore Christ gathered together those who had been smashed up by sin, those Satan
had torn apart and enfeebled, and, although they didn’t know what was happening, he brought them
back to enter the straight paths of the way of justice.
MONDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL OF JEREMIAH: JEREMIAH 1:1-19
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of
Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah,
in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of
Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the
captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I
formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a
prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am
only a youth.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you
you shall go, and whatever I command you you shall speak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to
deliver you, says the LORD.” Then the LORD put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD
said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and
over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a rod
of almond.” Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to
perform it.”
The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a
boiling pot, facing away from the north.” Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north evil shall break
forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the
north, says the LORD; and they shall come and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the
gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter
my judgments against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have burned incense to
other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to
them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole
land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight
against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.”

CONFERENCE 18, 13.1-5; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
True patience and tranquillity are not acquired or retained without profound humility of heart. If they
proceed from this source they will stand in need of neither the benefit of a cell nor the refuge of
solitude. For whatever is sustained within by the virtue of humility does not require the protection of
anything without. But if we are so provoked as to be angered by someone, it is certain that the
foundations of humility have not been firmly established in us, and it is for that reason that our edifice
is ruinously shaken by the onslaught of even an insignificant squall. For patience would not be
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praiseworthy or admirable if it maintained its intended tranquillity without having been assailed by
any of the enemy’s darts, but it is distinguished and glorious when it remains unmoved while storms
of trial break upon it. For it is strengthened at the very moment that it believes itself to be troubled
and broken by adversity. Everyone knows that patience takes its name from suffering and endurance,
and therefore it is clear that no one can be called patient but the man who puts up with everything
that is inflicted upon him without indignation. Therefore he is deservedly praised by Solomon: Better
is the man who is patient than he who is strong, and the man who restrains his anger than he who
captures a city.
When, therefore, someone who has suffered mistreatment is inflamed with the fire of anger, it must
not be believed that his bitterness at the abuse inflicted on him is the cause of his sin, but rather that
it is the manifestation of a hidden weakness. This is in accordance with the parable of the Lord, the
Saviour, which he told about the two houses – one that was established on solid rock and the other
on sand, upon the both of which there fell rainstorms and torrents and tempests. But the one that
was established on solid rock experienced no damage from that violent onslaught, whereas the one
that was built on the uncertain and shifting sands collapsed at once. It appears to have caved in not,
indeed, because it was struck by an outpouring of torrential rain but because it was foolishly built on
sand.
For the holy man does not differ from the sinner in that he is not similarly tested but rather in that he
is not conquered even by a great onslaught, while the other is overcome even by a slight trial. As we
have said, the fortitude of a righteous man would not be praiseworthy if he were victorious without
having been tried, when in fact there can be no place for victory without the adversity of a struggle.
For blessed is the man who undergoes trial, because when he has been tested he will receive the crown
of life, which God has promised to those who love him. According to the Apostle Paul too, strength is
perfected not in leisure and pleasure but in weakness. For, behold, the Lord says to Jeremiah, I have
made you today into a fortified city and an iron pillar and a brass wall over all the land, to the kings of
Judah and to its princes and its priests and to all the people of the land. And they will fight against you
and they shall not prevail, because I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE INFIDELITY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD: JEREMIAH 2:1-13, 20-25
The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says
the LORD, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the
wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate
of it became guilty; evil came upon them, says the LORD.”
Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the
LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after
worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from
the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and
deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ And I brought you into a
plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in you defiled my land, and
made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle
the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and
went after things that do not profit.
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“Therefore I still contend with you, says the LORD, and with your children’s children I will contend. For
cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been
such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have
changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be
utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the
fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water.
“For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yea, upon
every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down as a harlot. Yet I planted you a choice
vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? Though
you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord
GOD. How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals? Look at your way in the
valley; know what you have done – a restive young camel interlacing her tracks, a wild ass used to the
wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary
themselves; in her month they will find her. Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from
thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.’
A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS OF ST COLUMBANUS

INSTRUCTION 13; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
My dearest brethren, give ear to our words, as men about to learn something essential; slake the
thirst of your mind from the streams of the divine fountain of which we now wish to speak, but do not
quench it; drink, but be not sated; for now the living fountain, the fountain of life, calls us to himself,
and says, Let him that is thirsty come unto me and drink. What you are to drink, take note. Let
Jeremiah tell you, let the fountain himself tell you, They have forsaken me the fountain of living water,
says the Lord. Thus the Lord himself, our God Jesus Christ, is the fountain of life, and so he calls us to
himself the fountain, that we may drink of him. He who loves drinks of him, he drinks who is satisfied
by the word of God, who sufficiently adores, who longs sufficiently, he drinks who burns with the love
of wisdom.
Observe whence that fountain flows; it flows from that place whence also the bread came down;
since he is the same who is bread and fountain, the only Son, our God Christ the Lord, for whom we
should ever hunger. Though we eat him in loving, though we feast on him in desiring, let us still desire
him as though hungering for him. Likewise as the fountain, let us ever drink of him with overflows of
love, let us ever drink of him with fullness of longing, and let us be gladdened by some savour of his
loveliness.
The Lord is lovely and pleasant; though we eat and drink of him, yet let us ever hunger and thirst,
since our food and drink can never be consumed and drained entire; for though he is eaten he is not
consumed, though he is drunk he is not lessened, since our bread is eternal, and our fountain is
perennial, our fountain is sweet. Therefore the prophet says, Go to the fountain, you who thirst; for
that is the fountain of the thirsting, not of the surfeited, and thus he calls to himself the hungry and
the thirsty, whom he blessed elsewhere, who have never enough of drinking, but the more they
quaff, so much the more they thirst.
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Justly, my brethren, the fountain of wisdom, the Word of God on high, is to be desired by us, sought
after and ever loved, in whom are hid, according to the Apostle’s saying, all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge, which he calls them that thirst to drink. If you thirst, drink the fountain of life; if you
hunger, eat the bread of life. Blessed are they who hunger for this bread and thirst for this fountain;
ever eating and drinking they still long to eat and drink. For that is lovely to excess which is ever eaten
and drunk, and ever hungered and thirsted after, ever tasted and ever desired; wherefore the
prophet-king says, Taste and see how lovely, how pleasant is the Lord.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

INVITATION TO CONVERSION: JEREMIAH 3:1-5, 19 – 4:4
“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to
her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and
would you return to me? says the LORD. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have
you not been lain with? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land with your vile harlotry. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and
the spring rain has not come; yet you have a harlot's brow, you refuse to be ashamed. Have you not
just now called to me, ‘My father, thou art the friend of my youth – will he be angry for ever, will he
be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.”
“ ‘I thought how I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most
beauteous of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from
following me. Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless to me, O
house of Israel, says the LORD.’”
A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons, because they have
perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God. “Return, O faithless sons, I will heal
your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the LORD our God. Truly the hills are a
delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers laboured, their flocks
and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonour
cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to
this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
“If you return, O Israel, says the LORD, to me you should return. If you remove your abominations
from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the LORD lives’, in truth, in justice, and in
uprightness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.”
For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “Break up your
fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, remove the foreskin of
your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn
with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”
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A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF JOEL BY ST JEROME
ON JOEL; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Return to me with all your heart, and prove that your repentance is genuine by fasting and weeping
and lamentation. Fast now and you will feast hereafter; weep now and you will laugh hereafter.
Present mourning brings future joy. I know it is one of your customs to rend your garments as a mark
of distress and anger. The high priest did this to underline the charges against the Lord our Saviour,
and even Paul and Barnabas did it, though only because of the blasphemy they have heard. Well, I say
it is not your garments you must rend but your sinful hearts which like the wineskin will burst unless
you tear them. When you have done this you can return to the Lord your God from whom you have
been estranged by your former sins. Do not let the greatness of your sin make you despair of pardon.
The greater the sin, the more striking is the power of God’s mercy.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, preferring the repentance of the sinner to his death, slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love, not being impatient as we are but waiting a whole lifetime for our
return to him. He is high above evil or rather he repents of evil, so that if we repent of our sins he
repents of his threats and does not carry them out, his heart softening as we change our attitude. The
evil spoken of in this context is not the opposite of virtue but simply affliction, in the sense in which
our Lord said, Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Or as in that other quotation, Is there any evil in
the city which the Lord has not caused.
Joel speaks of God then as gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, high
above evil or rather repenting of evil. But he did not want us to make the thought of God’s great
mercy a pretext for careless living and so he adds prophetically: But who can guarantee that he will
return and repent and leave a blessing behind him? For my part, Joel says, I beg of you to repent and I
assure you that God’s mercy surpasses our wildest dreams, as David says: Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. But
since we cannot know the depth of the riches and wisdom and glory of God, I wish to take another
look at the words, Who can guarantee that he will return and repent?, and say that while I hope God
will return and repent, we cannot be sure he will. The words, Who can guarantee?, imply something
difficult or impossible.
The words which follow, sacrifice and libation for the Lord your God, mean that, after he has blessed
us and graciously forgiven our sins, we should offer the sacrifice to God.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DESTROYER COMING FROM THE NORTH: JEREMIAH 4:5-8, 13-28
Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet through the land; cry aloud
and say, ‘Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!’ Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for
safety, stay not, for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction. A lion has gone up from his
thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a
waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant. For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail;
for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned back from us.”
Behold, he comes up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles –
woe to us, for we are ruined! O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved.
How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims evil
from Mount Ephraim. Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, “Besiegers come
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from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field are they against her
round about, because she has rebelled against me, says the LORD. Your ways and your doings have
brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.”
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I
cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Disaster follows hard on
disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment.
How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? “For my people are foolish,
they know me not; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil,
but how to do good they know not.”
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I
looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and
lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a
desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger.
For thus says the LORD, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. For this
the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not
relented nor will I turn back.”

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH, 1.3-4 (SC 232:198-202); WORD IN SEASON VI
God condemned Jerusalem because of its sins, and sentenced its inhabitants to be delivered up to
captivity. Yet when the time came, God in his love for mankind again sent the prophet Jeremiah
during the third kingdom before the captivity, so that those who so wished might be led by the
prophet’s words to reflect and repent. He also sent him to prophesy both in the time of the second
king, and in that of the third, right up to the days of the captivity itself. For God is patient and granted
the people a respite at almost the very last moment, urging them to listen and repent, so that the
sufferings of captivity might be avoided. Thus it is written that Jeremiah prophesied until the captivity
of Jerusalem, until the fifth month. Even after the captivity had begun he continued to prophesy in
words such as: You are prisoners now but repent even so, for then the sufferings of captivity will not be
prolonged, but God will have mercy on you.
We can find something useful for ourselves in this passage concerning the days of prophecy when
God in his love for mankind urged his hearers not to undergo the sufferings of captivity. This warning
is for us as well. If we sin we too shall become prisoners, for handing over someone to Satan is no
different from handing over the people of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. Just as they were handed
over to Nebuchadnezzar because of their sins, so because of our sins we are handed over to Satan,
our Nebuchadnezzar. Referring to other sinners, the Apostle also speaks of those whom I have
handed over to Satan to teach them not to blaspheme.
Notice then how great an evil sin is, since they were handed over to Satan, who imprisons the souls of
those whom God abandons; and those whom God abandons are not abandoned without cause or
unjustly, for when he sends rain on a vineyard but instead of grapes it yields thorns, what is God to do
but command the clouds to withhold their rain from it?
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A captivity threatens us also, then, because of our sins, and unless we repent we shall be handed over
to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, the spiritual Babylonians, to be torn to pieces by them. With
this punishment hanging over our heads, the words of the prophets, of the law, of the Apostles and of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ exhort us to repent and urge us to amend our lives. If we hear them
let us trust him who said: I too shall repent of all the evil which I threatened to inflict on them.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A PROPHECY OF ILLUSORY TRUST SPOKEN OF IN THE TEMPLE: JEREMIAH 7:1-20
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and
proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these
gates to worship the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your
doings, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the Temple
of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD.’
“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, if
you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if
you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that
I gave of old to your fathers for ever.
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear
falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and
stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ – only to go
on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the LORD. Go now to my place that was in
Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people
Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, says the LORD, and when I spoke to you
persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the
house which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to
your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the
offspring of Ephraim.
“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with
me, for I do not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to
make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me
to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? says the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own confusion?
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place,
upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be
quenched.”
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

HOMILY 50.3-4; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Would you honour the body of Christ? Do not despise his nakedness; do not honour him here in
Church clothed in silk vestments and then pass him by it unclothed and frozen outside. Remember
that he who said, This is my body, and made good his words, also said, You saw me hungry and gave
me no food, and, insofar as you did it not to one of these, you did it not to me. In the first sense the
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body of Christ does not need clothing but worship from a pure heart. In the second sense it does
need clothing and all the care we can give it.
We must learn to be discerning Christians and to honour Christ in the way in which he wants to be
honoured. It is only right that honour given to anyone should take the form most acceptable to the
recipient not to the giver. Peter thought he was honouring the Lord when he tried to stop him
washing his feet, but this was far from being genuine homage. So give God the honour he asks for,
that is, give your money generously to the poor. God has no need of golden vessels but of golden
hearts.
I am not saying you should not give golden altar vessels and so on, but I am insisting that nothing can
take the place of almsgiving. The Lord will not refuse to accept the first kind of gift but he prefers the
second, and quite naturally, because in the first case only the donor benefits, in the second case the
poor get the benefit. The gift of a chalice may be ostentatious; almsgiving is pure benevolence.
What is the use of loading Christ’s table with gold cups while he himself is starving? Feed the hungry
and then if you have any money left over, spend it on the altar table. Will you make a cup of gold and
withhold a cup of water? What use is it to adorn the altar with cloth of gold hangings and deny Christ
a coat for his back! What would that profit you? Tell me: if you saw someone starving and refused to
give him any food but instead spent your money on adorning the altar with gold, would he thank you?
Would he not rather be outraged? Or if you saw someone in rags and stiff with cold and then did not
give him clothing but set up golden columns in his honour, would he not say he was being made a fool
of and insulted?
Consider that Christ is that tramp who comes in need of a night’s lodging. You turn him away and
then start laying rugs on the floor, draping the walls, hanging lamps on silver chains on the columns.
Meanwhile the tramp is locked up in prison and you never give him a glance. Well, again, I am not
condemning munificence in these matters. Make your house beautiful by all means but also look after
the poor, or rather look after the poor first. No one was ever condemned for not adorning his house,
but those who neglect the poor were threatened with hell fire for all eternity and a life of torment
with devils. Adorn your house if you will, but do not forget your brother in distress. He is a Temple of
infinitely greater value.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A CONDEMNATION OF BAD FAITH AND A LAMENTATION: JEREMIAH 9:1-11, 16-21
O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the desert a wayfarers’ lodging place, that I might
leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.
They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they
proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.
Let every one beware of his neighbour, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother is a
supplanter, and every neighbour goes about as a slanderer. Every one deceives his neighbour, and no
one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too
weary to repent. Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know
me, says the LORD.
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Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I
do, because of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each
speaks peaceably to his neighbour, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him. Shall I not punish
them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
“Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the
wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not
heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone. I will make Jerusalem a heap of
ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
“I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will
send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilful
women to come; let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with
tears, and our eyelids gush with water. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are ruined!
We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your
daughters a lament, and each to her neighbour a dirge. For death has come up into our windows, it
has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the
squares.

SERMON 14A.2-3 (CCL 41:219-220); WORD IN SEASON VI
How shall we act so as not to sin with our tongue? It is written that death and life are in the power of
the tongue, and again: Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but even more because of the
tongue. The Lord says the same thing: They have taught their tongues to speak lies. They have taught!
You see, the tongue becomes accustomed to telling lies. It tells lies even when you do not want it to.
It is like a wheel: if you spin it once, after that initial impetus its own shape and roundness or what
you might call its natural instability makes it go on turning. And it is the same with our tongues: once
started they run on of their own accord in the way that is easiest for them. You have one thing in your
mind, but sometimes out of habit the tongue chooses another.
What is to be done? You see what a balanced judgement must be made before the tongue is allowed
to say anything! For it does not in fact wag of its own accord; there is one within who wags it. There is
within us a certain power which moves both itself and the members that serve it. Let the one in
control be good and with the help of grace that person can overcome any bad habit whatever. Let the
servant be good and the service will be peaceful. The soldier has weapons but if he does nothing
neither do they. So too among our members our tongues are our souls’ weapons. Scripture calls the
tongue a restless evil. O restless member! Who made this evil if not a restless person? Do not be
restless yourself and this evil does not exist. Do not set it going and it will do nothing on its own. It is
not a spirit to move of its own accord. It is merely a body and lies still. It will not wag if you do not wag
it.
When you do use it, be careful how you do so. It is the tongue which many people make use of in the
service of greed as they plot their shady deals, and when they begin some transaction they thrust out
a member made for praising God and use it to blaspheme him. ‘By Christ,’ they say, ‘I bought this for
so much and I am selling it for so much.’ Why? Did I ask you, ‘Swear to me how much you are selling it
for?’
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What I asked you was, ‘How much are you selling it for?’ ‘I am selling it for ten or twenty denarii’, you
swear by Christ. Swear by your eyes, swear by your children and then your conscience will be afraid.
What an impious tongue! You have despised the Creator and respected the creature! Oh that restless
evil, full of deadly poison! We use it to praise our God and Father – God and also Father, God by
nature, Father by grace – then we use it to call down curses on other people made in God’s image. Be
careful, my friends, with what you are carrying about with you. But of course I should say, what we
are carrying about with us, for I am a man just as you are.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

(THE DISCOVERY OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW IN JOSIAH’S TIME. RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT
AND CELEBRATION OF PASSOVER: 2 KINGS 22:8, 10 – 23:4, 21-23
And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the book of the law in the
house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 10 Then Shaphan the
secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes. And the king
commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and
Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the kings servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for
the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the
wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this
book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the
prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she
dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they talked with her. And she said to them, “Thus says
the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will
bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book which the king of Judah
has read. Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might
provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this
place, and it will not be quenched. But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD,
thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words which you have
heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard
how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a
curse, and you have rent your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD.
Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace,
and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back
word to the king.
And the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the
keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the Temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for
Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron,
and carried their ashes to Bethel.
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And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in
this book of the covenant.” For no such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who
judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth
year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 8:95-100, 104-5; WORD IN SEASON VI
Josiah was but eight years old when his father was slain. We hear nothing of his boyhood; but scarcely
was he of age to think for himself, and to profess himself a servant of the true God, but he chose that
good part which could not be taken away from him. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still
young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. Blessed are they who so seek, for they shall
find. Josiah had not the aid of a revealed volume, at least not of the Law; he was surrounded by
diversities of idol-worship, the sophistries of unbelief, the seductions of sinful pleasure. He had every
temptation to go wrong; and had he done so, we might have made allowances, and said that he was
not so bad as the other kings, for he knew no better; he had not sinned against light. Yes, he would
have sinned against light – the event shows it; for if he had light enough to go right (which he had, for
he did go right), it follows that if he had gone wrong, it would have been against light. Not, indeed, so
strong and clear a light as Solomon disobeyed, or Joash; still against his better knowledge.
What, then, was it that guided him? Whence his knowledge? He had that which everyone has,
heathen as well as Christians, till they pervert or blunt it – a natural sense of right and wrong; and he
did not blunt it. His heart was tender; he acknowledged a constraining force in the divine voice within
him - he heard and obeyed. And further, amid all the various worships offered for his acceptance, this
same inward sense of his, strengthened by practice, unhesitatingly chose out the true one, the
worship of the God of Israel.
At twenty, then, he commenced his reformation. At first, not having the Book of the Law to guide
him, he took such measures as natural conscience suggested; he put away idolatry generally. Thus he
set out, not knowing whither he went. But it is the rule of God’s providence that those who act up to
their light shall be rewarded with clearer light. To him who has more shall be given. He set about
repairing the temple; and it was in the course of this pious work that the High Priest found a copy of
the law of Moses in the temple, probably the original copy which was placed in the ark.
When the King had heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes. He thought far more
of what he had not done, than of what he had done. He felt how incomplete his reformation had
been; and he felt how far more guilty his whole people were than he had supposed, receiving, as they
had, such precise guidance in Scripture what to do, and such solemn command to do it; and he
learned, moreover, the fearful punishment which was hanging over them. He assembled all Judah at
Jerusalem, and publicly read the words of the Book of the Law; then he made all the people renew
the covenant with the God of their fathers; then he proceeded more exactly in the work of
reformation in Judah and Israel, keeping closely to the directions of the law; and after that he held his
celebrated passover. Thus his greater knowledge was followed by stricter obedience. Like him there
was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all
his might, according to all the law of Moses.
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MONDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE PROPHET NAHUM

GOD’S JUDGEMENT ON NINEVEH: NAHUM: 1:1-8; 3:1-7, 12-15A
An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. The LORD is a jealous God
and avenging, the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and
keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and of great might, and the LORD will by no
means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and
makes it dry, he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, the bloom of Lebanon fades. The
mountains quake before him, the hills melt; the earth is laid waste before him, the world and all that
dwell therein.
Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out
like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him. The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of
trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a full end
of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and booty--no end to the plunder! The crack of whip, and
rumble of wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and
glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end--they stumble over the
bodies! And all for the countless harlotries of the harlot, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays
nations with her harlotries, and peoples with her charms. Behold, I am against you, says the LORD of
hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your nakedness and
kingdoms on your shame. I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt, and make you a
gazingstock. And all who look on you will shrink from you and say, Wasted is Nineveh; who will
bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for her?
All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs – if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.
Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your foes; fire
has devoured your bars.
Draw water for the siege, strengthen your forts; go into the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the
brick mould! There will the fire devour you, the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the
locust.
A READING FROM AGAINST MARCION BY TERTULLIAN

AGAINST MARCION 4.20; ANF 7 (1868) TR. HOLMES
But what manner of man is this? For he commands even the winds and water! Of course the heretics
say he is the new master and proprietor of the elements, now that the Creator is deposed and
excluded from their possession! Nothing of the kind. The elements recognise their own Maker, just as
they had been accustomed to obey his servants also. Examine well the Exodus, O Marcion; look at the
rod of Moses as it waves his command to the Red Sea, which is far greater than all the lakes of
Judaea. How the sea yawns from its very depths, then fixes itself in two solidified masses, and so, out
of the interval between them, makes a way for the people to pass dry-shod across. Again the same
rod vibrates, the sea returns in its strength, and in the concourse of the waters the army of Egypt is
engulfed! To that consummation the very winds subserved!
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Read, too, how the Jordan was as a sword, to help the emigrant nation in their passage across its
stream; how its waters from above stood still, and its current below wholly ceased to run at the
bidding of Joshua, when his priests began to pass over! What will you say to this? But I should have
been content with the examples I have given without adding any more, if a prediction of the Lord’s
present passage on the sea had not preceded Christ’s coming. A prophecy from a psalm is, in fact,
accomplished by the Lord’s crossing over the lake. The Lord, says the Psalmist, is upon many waters.
When he disperses its waves, Habakkuk’s words are fulfilled, where he says, Scattering the waters in
his passage. When at his rebuke the sea is calmed, Nahum is also verified: He rebukes the sea, and
makes it dry, including the winds indeed, whereby it was disquieted.
With what evidence would you have my Christ vindicated? Shall it come from the examples, or from
the prophecies, of the Creator? You suppose that he is predicted as a man of violence and an armed
warrior, instead of one who in a figurative and allegorical sense was to wage a spiritual warfare
against spiritual enemies, in spiritual campaigns, and with spiritual weapons – come now, when in one
man alone you discover a multitude of demons calling itself Legion, of course comprised of spirits, you
should learn that Christ also must be understood to be an exterminator of spiritual foes, who wields
spiritual arms and fights in spiritual strife; it was none other than Christ himself who now had to
contend with even a legion of demons. Therefore it is of such a war as this that the Psalm clearly
spoke: The Lord is strong, the Lord is mighty in battle. For with the last enemy, death, did he fight, and
through the trophy of the cross he triumphed.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CORRUPTION OF JUDAH. FIRST CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL: 2 CHRONICLES 35:20 – 36:12
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the Temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at
Carchemish on the Euphrates and Josiah went out against him. But he sent envoys to him, saying,
“What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but
against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to make haste. Cease
opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you.” Nevertheless Josiah would not turn away from
him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the
mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah; and the
king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” So his servants took him out of the
chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died, and was
buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered
a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments
to this day. They made these an ordinance in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments. Now the
rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds according to what is written in the law of the LORD, and
his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in his fathers stead in
Jerusalem. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three
months in Jerusalem. Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid upon the land a
tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his
brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; but Neco took Jehoahaz
his brother and carried him to Egypt.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in
Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. Against him came up
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Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters to take him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar
also carried part of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon and put them in his palace in
Babylon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations which he did, and what was
found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah; and
Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in
Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. In the spring of the year King
Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the
LORD, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in
Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before
Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 8:105-108; WORD IN SEASON VI
The archers shot at King Josiah; and the King said to his servants, Have me away, for I am badly
wounded. His servants, therefore … brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in one of
the sepulchres of his fathers. Thus the best King of Judah died like Ahab, the worst King of Israel; so
little may we judge of God’s love or displeasure by outward appearances.
God continued his promised mercies to his people through David’s line till they were too corrupt to
receive them; the last King of the favoured family was forcibly and prematurely cut off, in order to
make way for the display of God’s vengeance in the captivity of the whole nation. He was taken out of
the way; they were carried off to Babylon. As for Josiah, as it is elsewhere written of him, His
remembrance … is sweet as honey in all mouths, and as music at a banquet of wine. He behaved
himself uprightly in the conversion of the people, and took away the abominations of iniquity. He
directed his heart unto the Lord, and in the time of the ungodly he established the worship of God. All,
except David, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, were defective; for they forsook the law of the Most High;
even the kings of Judah failed.
In conclusion, my brethren, I would have you observe in what Josiah’s chief excellence lay. This is the
character given him when his name is first mentioned; he did … right in the sight of the Lord, and
walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. He kept
the narrow middle way. Now what is this strict virtue called? It is called faith. It is no matter whether
we call it faith or conscientiousness, they are in substance one and the same: where there is faith,
there is conscientiousness – where there is conscientiousness, there is faith; they may be
distinguished from each other in words, but they are not divided in fact. They belong to one, and but
one, habit of mind – dutifulness; they show themselves in obedience, in the careful, anxious
observance of God’s will, however we learn it. Hence it is that Saint Paul tells us that the just shall
live by faith under every dispensation of God’s mercy. And this is called faith because it implies a
reliance on the mere word of the unseen God overpowering the temptations of sight. Whether it be
that we read and accept his word in Scripture (as Christians do), or his word in our conscience, the
law written on the heart (as is the case with heathens); in either case, it is by following it, in spite of
the seductions of the world around us, that we please God.
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WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PRAYER IN TIME OF DESOLATION: HABAKKUK 1:1 – 2:4
The oracle of God which Habakkuk the prophet saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and thou
wilt not hear? Or cry to thee “Violence!” and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou make me see wrongs
and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the
law is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes
forth perverted.
Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that
you would not believe if told. For lo, I am rousing the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who
march through the breadth of the earth, to seize habitations not their own. Dread and terrible are
they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more
fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen come from
afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence; terror of them goes before
them. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at
every fortress, for they heap up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty
men, whose own might is their god!
Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast
ordained them as a judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast established them for chastisement. Thou who
art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong, why dost thou look on faithless
men, and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? For thou makest
men like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a
hook, he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his seine; for by them he lives in luxury, and his
food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and mercilessly slaying nations for ever?
I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say
to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the LORD answered me: “Write the
vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time; it
hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.
Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

HOMILIES DE DIVERSIS, 5.1-4; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
We read in the Gospel that when our Lord was preaching, he urged his disciples to share in his
suffering through the mystery of eating his body, and there were some who said: This is a hard saying,
and from then on were no longer of his company. He asked his disciples whether they, too, wished to
go away. Lord, they said, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.
And so too, my brothers, I tell you that to this very day it is evident that the words of Jesus are spirit
and truth to some people, and for that reason they follow him. To others, his words seem hard, and
they seek elsewhere a consolation that can only end in misery. Wisdom cries out loud in the street, in
the wide and open way that leads to death, seeking to call back those who walk that road.
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Again the Lord says: For forty years I was among this generation and I said, ‘They are a people who
always err in heart.’ In another psalm you will find it written: God has spoken once. Once: yes,
because always! For his word is a unity, not changing, but spoken continuously and always.
It calls the sinner back, to return to the heart; it convicts the errors of the heart, for God himself
dwells in the heart and speaks in the heart. He does exactly what he taught through the Prophet in
the words: Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
You can see then, my brothers, in what a salutary way the Prophet warns us that when we hear his
voice we should not harden our hearts. Almost identical words are to be read in the Gospel and in the
Prophet. For in the Gospel the Lord says: My sheep hear my voice; and in the psalm holy David says:
We are the people of his (he must mean the Lord’s) pasture and the sheep of his flock. O that today
you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts.
Listen also to Habakkuk the Prophet. He does not disguise the Lord’s thought, but reflects on it with
careful and thoughtful consideration. He says: I will take my stand to watch and station myself on the
tower to look forth, to see what the Lord will say to me, and what I will answer to him who accuses
me. I ask you then, my brothers: let us take our stand to watch, for now is the time for battle.
Let our life be in the heart, where Christ dwells; that is live in wise judgement and in justice and
counsel; but always so that we place no reliance upon this, and do not trust to a weak defence.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CURSES AGAINST THE OPPRESSORS: HABAKKUK 2:5-20
“Moreover, wine is treacherous; the arrogant man shall not abide. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like
death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations, and collects as his own all peoples.”
Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, in scoffing derision of him, and say, “Woe to him
who heaps up what is not his own – for how long? – and loads himself with pledges!” Will not your
debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be booty for
them. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of men and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell therein.
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of
harm! You have devised shame to your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your
life. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a city on iniquity! Behold, is it not from the
LORD of hosts that peoples labour only for fire, and nations weary themselves for nought? For the
earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Woe to him who makes his neighbours drink of the cup of his wrath, and makes them drunk, to gaze
on their shame! You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and stagger! The
cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory! The
violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of the beasts will terrify you, for the
blood of men and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell therein.
What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For the workman
trusts in his own creation when he makes dumb idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing,
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Awake; to a dumb stone, Arise! Can this give revelation? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and
there is no breath at all in it.
But the LORD is in his holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS OF ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS, 9, 12-13, 15-16; ACW 1 (1946) TR. KLEIST
I have heard of certain persons passing through Ephesus whose doctrine was bad. These you did not
permit to sow their seed among you; you stopped your ears, so as not to receive the seed sown by
them. You consider yourselves stones of the Father’s temple, prepared for the edifice of God the
Father, to be taken aloft by the hoisting engine of Jesus Christ, that is, the Cross, while the Holy Spirit
serves you as a rope; your faith is your spiritual windlass and your love the road which leads up to
God. And thus you all are fellow travellers, God-bearers and temple-bearers, Christ-bearers and
bearers of holiness, with the commandments of Jesus Christ for festal attire. At this I am jubilant,
privileged as I am to converse with you through this letter, and to congratulate you because in your
otherworldliness you have nothing but God alone.
I know who I am and to whom I am writing. I have been condemned, you have been spared; I am in
danger, you are in perfect safety. You are the highway of God’s martyrs. You are fellow initiates and
worthy of every felicitation, in whose footsteps I wish to be found when I come to meet God, and who
in an entire epistle remembers you in Christ Jesus.
Make an effort, then, to meet more frequently to celebrate God’s Eucharist and to offer praise. For,
when you meet frequently in the same place, the forces of Satan are overthrown, and his baneful
influence is neutralized by the unanimity of your faith. Peace is a precious thing: it puts an end to
every war waged by heavenly or earthly enemies.
It is better to keep silence and be something than to talk and be nothing. Teaching is an excellent
thing, provided the speaker practises what he teaches. Now, there is one Teacher who spoke and it
was done. But even what he did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has made the words of Jesus
really his own is able also to hear his silence. Thus he will be perfect: he will act through his speech
and be understood through his silence. Nothing is hidden from the Lord; no, even our secrets reach
him. Let us, then, do all things in the conviction that he dwells in us. Thus we shall be his temples and
he will be our God within us. And this is the truth, and it will be made manifest before our eyes. Let
us, then, love him as he deserves.
Do not be deceived, my brethren. Those who ruin homes will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Now, if
those who do this to gratify the flesh are liable to death, how much more a man who by evil doctrine
ruins the faith in God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a filthy creature will go into the
unquenchable fire, as will anyone that listens to him.
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FRIDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ORACLES AGAINST THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH: JEREMIAH 22:10-30
Weep not for him who is dead, nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he
shall return no more to see his native land.
For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of
Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, but in the place
where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes
his neighbour serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages; who says, ‘I will build myself a
great house with spacious upper rooms’, and cuts out windows for it, panelling it with cedar, and
painting it with vermilion. Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your
father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause
of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? says the LORD. But you have eyes
and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression
and violence.”
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not
lament for him, saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or ‘Ah sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah lord!’
or ‘Ah his majesty!’ With the burial of an ass he shall be buried, dragged and cast forth beyond the
gates of Jerusalem.” “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry from
Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed. I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not
listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice. The wind shall
shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and
confounded because of all your wickedness. O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how
you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in travail!”
“As I live, says the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on
my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into
the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and
into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country,
where you were not born, and there you shall die. But to the land to which they will long to return,
there they shall not return.” Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land which they do not know? O land, land, land,
hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall
not succeed in his days; for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and
ruling again in Judah.”
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BASIL OF CAESAREA

LETTER 236; CF. NPNF2 8 (1894) TR. JACKSON
This question has now been proposed to me by your Intelligence as a new one. I can give in reply the
answer I received when I was a boy, and which on account of my love for what is good, I have
received without question. I do not expect that it can undo the shamelessness of those who fight
against Christ, for where is the reasoning strong enough to stand their attack? It may, however,
suffice to convince all who love the Lord, and in whom the previous assurance supplied them by faith
is stronger than any demonstration of reason.
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As to Coniah, whom the Prophet Jeremiah declares in these words to have been rejected from the
land of Judah, the matter is plain and clear: Coniah was dishonoured like a broken pot for which there
is no more use; he and his children were cast out; and none of his children shall succeed in sitting on
the throne of David and ruling in Judah. When Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar the
kingdom had already been destroyed and there was no longer a hereditary succession of Kings as
before. Nevertheless, at that time, the deposed descendants of David were living in captivity. On the
return of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel the government was to a great extent exercised by the people, and
this sovereignty was afterwards transferred to the priesthood on account of the intermingling of the
priestly and royal tribes. It is from this fact that the Lord, in things pertaining to God, is both King and
High Priest.
Moreover, the royal tribe did indeed continue until the coming of the Christ; but nevertheless, the
children of Coniah sat no longer upon the throne of David. Plainly it is the royal dignity which is
described by the term ‘throne’. You remember the history, how all Judaea, Idumaea, Moab, both the
neighbouring regions of Syria and the further countries up to Mesopotamia, and the country on the
other side as far as the river of Egypt, were all tributary to David. None of his descendants had a
sovereignty so wide, but the tribe of Judah did not fail until he for whom it was destined came. But
even he did not sit upon the material throne. The kingdom of Judaea was transferred to Herod, the
son of Antipater the Ascalonite, and to his sons who divided Judaea into four principalities when Pilate
was Procurator and Tiberius was Master of the Roman Empire. It is the indestructible Kingdom which
the Prophet calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat. He is the expectation of the Gentiles and
not of the smallest division of the world, for it is written: In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an
ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek. I have called you as a covenant for the people, as a
light of the Gentiles; and thus God became a priest and, although he did not receive the actual sceptre
of Judah, he became King of all the earth. Thus the blessing of Jacob was fulfilled: in him shall the
nations of the earth be blessed, and all the nations shall call the Christ blessed.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SYMBOLIC ACTION: THE BROKEN FLASK: JEREMIAH 19:1-5, 10 – 20:6
Thus said the LORD, “Go, buy a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and
some of the senior priests, and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd
Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings
of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am
bringing such evil upon this place that the ears of every one who hears of it will tingle. Because the
people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by burning incense in it to other gods whom
neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this
place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire
as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind.’
“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and shall say to them, ‘Thus
says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that
it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. Thus
will I do to this place, says the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. The houses
of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah – all the houses upon whose roofs incense has been
burned to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods – shall be
defiled like the place of Topheth.’”
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Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the
court of the LORD’s house, and said to all the people: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
Behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against
it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.”
Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard
Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the
stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. On the morrow, when
Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call your name
Pashhur, but Terror on every side. For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself
and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give
all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay
them with the sword. Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized
belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall
plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in
your house, shall go into captivity; to Babylon you shall go; and there you shall die, and there you shall
be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH, 19.12.2-14.4; FOC 97 (1998) TR. SMITH
Then Paschor struck Jeremiah the Prophet. He even adds the phrase the Prophet. Here then he who
struck Jeremiah struck the Prophet. And it is recorded in Acts that a man who was commanded by
Ananias the High Priest struck Paul; therefore, Paul said, God shall beat you, you whitewashed wall!
And up to the present the Ebionites, placed under the illegitimate high-priest of the Word, beat the
Apostle of Jesus Christ with slanderous words. But why am I speaking about Paul and Jeremiah? My
Lord Jesus Christ himself said, I have given my back for whips and my cheeks for blows, and my face I
did not turn away from shame of spitting. The simple people know these things to have referred to
the single time when Pilate whipped him, but I see Jesus each day giving his back for whips. Consider
the Word of God being insulted, abused, hated by the unbelievers. Thus, Paschor struck Jeremiah the
Prophet and threw him into the pit which was in the Benjamin gate of the upper area.
The upper area being in the House of the Lord, he threw the Prophet into the pit. Let us exhort
ourselves, so that by taking Jeremiah now into the upper area, we will have ascended in the House of
the Lord. No one who enacts the Passover as Jesus wishes is in a room below. But if someone
celebrates with Jesus, he is in a great room above, in a furnished room adorned and prepared. But
these words are regarding Paschor, for though there was available an upper area in the House of the
Lord in the gate of Benjamin, he did not bring up the Prophet into the upper area, but he threw him
into the pit below. Then Jeremiah says to him what Paschor will suffer. What does he say to him? He
has not called your name Paschor but Exiled. Paschor will be exiled to Babylon, not only himself, but
also with his friends, according to the extent of his sins. For he is delivered to Nebuchadnezzar since
he threw the Prophet into the pit.
And the King of Babylon is Nebuchadnezzar according to history, but the Evil One according to the
spiritual sense. And the sinner is handed over to this person. Thus Paschor of the black mouth, is
delivered into the hands of the Babylonian King, and they exile him to Babylon. And they will cut them
up with swords. And I will deliver all the strength of this city. It is easy to say that these things are
prophesied about Jerusalem. It is easy to say that these words are prophesied about this city, which
was delivered to its enemies in the times of the Saviour, and the sons of Jerusalem went away into
captivity and the city was destroyed. But if you examine the circumstances and you see a city not as
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the stones, but as people, you will see that this very Jerusalem, the people, was delivered into the
hands of the King of Babylon on account of impiety and sin with respect to Christ, and you are now
Jerusalem. If then the Word now threatens Jerusalem, be fearful that you, if you sin, are a sinner like
Jerusalem and are being delivered, so that you may be Jerusalem no longer but become Babylon,
since Nebuchadnezzar the King of the Babylonians will have taken you over.
SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS: JEREMIAH 23:9-17, 21-29
Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man,
like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words. For the land is full
of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course is evil, and their might is not right. “Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my
house I have found their wickedness, says the LORD. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery
paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall; for I will bring evil upon them in the
year of their punishment, says the LORD. In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavoury thing: they
prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a
horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that
no one turns from his wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like
Gomorrah.” Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them
with wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink; for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has gone forth into all the land.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling
you with vain hopes; they speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They
say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to every
one who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”
“I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they
had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would
have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
“Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places
so that I cannot see him? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. I have heard
what the prophets have said who prophecy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have
dreamed!’ How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who
prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their
dreams which they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? Let the prophet
who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has
straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a
hammer which breaks the rock in pieces?

ASCETICON, LONGER RESPONSE 5; TR. PLUSCARDEN
The Lord teaches us always to keep before our eyes the purpose of the work we are given and the
intention of the one who told us to do it. He also teaches us to direct our effort towards God, for he
says: I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. For
just as secular crafts each have their own special purpose and the craftsman directs all his energies in
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accordance with these, so also there is one rule and purpose when we work hard to fulfil God’s
commandments in a manner pleasing to him. It is impossible to please God in this work unless it is
performed carefully in accordance with his will. Thus when we do our work with careful zeal
according to his will we shall be joined to God in memory.
For a craftsman who is making an axe certainly remembers the man who set him the task and always
has him in his thoughts. He makes sure the axe is the right shape and size and he directs all the work
according to the will of the man who ordered it – for if he forgets any of this he will produce
something different from what he set out to make. It is the same with the Christian who directs all his
energies small and great to the fulfilment of God’s will, at one and the same time he does his work
with care and always keeps in mind the plan of God who gave the commandments. Such a man fulfils
the words of Scripture, I shall keep the Lord always in my sight, because he is at my right hand I
shall not be moved. He does what is commanded in accordance with the Apostles words, whether
you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God; but if anyone departs from
the exactness of the commandment he is trying to fulfil, clearly his memory of God is weakened.
We ought therefore to perform every act as happening beneath the eyes of the Lord and think every
thought as if it were observed by him, remembering the voice of him who said, Do I not fill heaven
and earth? says the Lord, and, I am a God at hand, and not a God far off, and, where two or three
are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them. If we act and think like this we will
show that we truly possess the fear of God and we will come to perfect love, because we are
fulfilling what was said by the Lord: I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent
me. He who acts thus will come to know that his good deeds are acceptable to the Judge of our life,
while those who act in the opposite manner will receive condemnation from the same source.
MONDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CUP OF THE WRATH OF THE LORD AGAINST THE NATIONS: JEREMIAH 25:15-17, 27-38
Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and
make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because
of the sword which I am sending among them.”
So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it.
“Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and
vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I am sending among you.’
“And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says
the LORD of hosts: You must drink! For behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my
name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword
against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of hosts.’
“You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar
from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice; he will roar mightily against his fold, and
shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. The clamour will resound
to the ends of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into
judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, says the LORD.’
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“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, evil is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is
stirring from the farthest parts of the earth!
“And those slain by the LORD on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They
shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground. Wail,
you shepherds, and cry, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and
dispersion have come, and you shall fall like choice rams. No refuge will remain for the shepherds, nor
escape for the lords of the flock. Hark, the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock!
For the LORD is despoiling their pasture, and the peaceful folds are devastated, because of the fierce
anger of the LORD. Like a lion he has left his covert, for their land has become a waste because of the
sword of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.”

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 118, 12.3-6; (1998) TR. NI RIAIN
Your treasure is faith, devotion and mercy. Your treasure is Christ. Do not value him as you would
something earthly, that is, as some created thing; for he is Lord of every creature. A curse, says God,
on the man who puts his trust in man, through God alone hope comes to man. See what the Old
Testament has said of Christ: And he is man, but who recognises him? This is the man who has
forgiven – not by human but by divine power – all my sins. The Lord Jesus, God in bodily form,
reconciles to himself the world redeemed from guilt.
Our understanding is a precious treasure. If our intellect were of the earth, if it were frail, the moth of
heresy and the rust of irreverence would soon destroy it. So we must rise and build up our powers of
understanding. We need not think it impossible for this feeble human nature of ours to ascend to
knowledge of the heavenly mysteries. Remember that already the Lord Jesus in his divine mercy has
descended to us, he in whom were hidden the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. He has come
to open what was shut, to unbar what was sealed up, to reveal what was hidden. Come, then, Lord
Jesus. Open to us the door of this prophetic word, for though at first sight it may appear to be open, it
is closed to many.
He says: For eternity your word endured, Lord, in the heavens. You can see that what endures even in
the heavens should also endure and be steadfast in you. Therefore keep the word of the Lord, keep it
in your heart, and keep it in such a way that you do not forget it. Keep the law of God, meditate on it,
and do not let the Lord’s precepts slip from your heart. The meaning of the letter Lamed teaches you
to keep the word diligently. The Prophet teaches you where he later says: Unless your law had been
my meditation, I would have perished in my abjection. For eternity I will not forget your justifications.
Meditation on the Law makes us endure and bear patiently times of trial, times when we are humbled
by adversity. In this way our spirit will not be broken by humiliation and dejection. The Lord never
wishes us to be broken by humiliation to the point of despair. He wants only to correct us.
This is why the Prophet Jeremiah says under this same letter in his Lamentations: The Lord never said
to crush all the prisoners in a country and trample them underfoot, to override a man’s rights in
defiance of the Most High, or to deprive a man of justice. Therefore any humiliation that comes from
the Lord is perfectly fair and just, because evil does not come from the Lord’s mouth. That is why the
psalmist, when humiliated by the Lord, said: He saved me when I was humbled.
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TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SCROLL OF JEREMIAH’S PROPHECIES IS BURNED BY THE KING: JEREMIAH 36:1-10, 21-32
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the
LORD: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah
and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the
house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his
evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote upon a scroll at the dictation of
Jeremiah all the words of the LORD which he had spoken to him. And Jeremiah ordered Baruch,
saying, "I am debarred from going to the house of the LORD; so you are to go, and on a fast day in the
hearing of all the people in the LORD’s house you shall read the words of the LORD from the scroll
which you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of
Judah who come out of their cities. It may be that their supplication will come before the LORD, and
that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the LORD has
pronounced against this people.” And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet
ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the LORD in the LORD’s house.
In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in
Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before
the LORD. Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in
the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in
the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house.
Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary;
and Jehudi read it to the king and all the princes who stood beside the king. It was the ninth month,
and the king was sitting in the winter house and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him. As
Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into
the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. Yet
neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words, was afraid, nor did they rend their
garments. Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he
would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah the son of
Azriel and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but
the LORD hid them.
Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation,
the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that
were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. And concerning Jehoiakim king
of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD, You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you
written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it
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man and beast?” Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, He shall have
none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the
frost by night. And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; I will bring
upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have
pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’”
Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it
at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in
the fire; and many similar words were added to them.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH BY ST RABANUS MAURUS

EXPOSITIO SUPER IEREMIAM, 13 (PL 111:1073-75); WORD IN SEASON VI
In the Gospel he who is Truth himself says to his disciples: When you stand before kings and princes,
do not think how you are to speak, or what you are to say; what you are to say will be given you at the
time, for it is not you who will be speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. We
must realise that the grace of the Holy Spirit is necessary not only for those who teach but also for
those who are taught. Unless the Spirit is present in the heart of the listener, the teacher is wasting
his breath. Unless there is a teacher within us, the teacher without works in a vacuum. In Church we
all hear the same voice speaking, but all do not understand it in the same way. Since there is no
difference in what is said, why is there a difference in our understanding of it, unless there is an
interior teacher giving certain people special instruction through their understanding of words of
admonition addressed to all?
Concerning this grace of the Holy Spirit, John says: His anointing will teach you everything. No one
learns anything through speech, therefore, unless the mind is anointed with the Spirit. Because
Jehoiachim and his servants were not inwardly illumined by the grace of the Holy Spirit who inspired
the Prophet, their bodily ears could hear the words of God, but the ears of the heart were deaf to
them. It is this interior listening which our Lord demands in the Gospel when he says: Those who have
ears to hear, let them hear.
One has to marvel at the blindness of the human mind and the wickedness of the hardened heart.
Those whom salutary admonitions should have filled with compunction and sorrow for their sins were
at pains to burn the scroll containing the words of the Lord. They also took every opportunity to insult
the Prophet whom they ought to have honoured for his inspired teaching and admonitions. And why
did they do this? Was it not because there was in them the sort of wicked spirit that always resists
grace? Yet human pride is impotent when it sets itself to resist divine sovereignty. An earthly King
gave orders for the Prophet and his scribe to be arrested and sent to prison: the King of heaven
shielded his blameless saints from human malice so that they came to no harm.
Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch, son of Neriah, and he wrote on it at
Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the book that Jehoiakim King of Judah had burnt in the fire; and
much more was added. Why was this done if not because, when Judah was rejected by reason of its
infidelity, the books of the Law and the Prophets were preserved for the salvation of the Gentiles, to
whom on Christ’s coming passed the whole glory of the Old Testament; for all these things that
happened to them were symbolic, and they were written down as a warning to us, upon whom the
end of the ages has come.
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WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VISION OF THE TWO PORTIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD: JEREMIAH 24:1-10
After Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the princes of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths, and had
brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: Behold, two baskets of figs placed before
the Temple of the LORD. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had
very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the LORD said to me, “What do you see,
Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be
eaten.”
Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs,
so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of
the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will
build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not uproot them. I will give them a
heart to know that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall
return to me with their whole heart.
“But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat
Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those
who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a
reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send
sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land which I
gave to them and their fathers.”

IN ISAIAM, 5.2 (PG 70:1230-1231); WORD IN SEASON VI
Those who are called to be converted, redeemed and purified from sin must not disbelieve in the
grace that comes through Christ. This is what the Israelites did: when God called them to be
converted and repent they were pricked by the accusations of their consciences, and considering it
quite impossible to wash away the filth of their sins they kept saying: “Our sins are part of our nature,
we are born with them. How can we have true life?”
What was God’s answer to this? “Be converted, turn back from the way you are going, house of Israel,
so as not to be punished for your wickedness. When I, the Almighty, promise to cleanse you from
every stain and free you from your past sins, and yet you refuse to believe, you should consider who I
am and who you are, and that the difference between your ways and my ways, and your thoughts and
my thoughts is as great as the difference in our natures. For you are men and I am God.”
The difference, therefore, is immense, and the things of God beyond all comparison. He is pre-
eminent in strength, in glory and in kindness, and there is nothing whatever in creatures to equal his
excellence, or even appear to approach it. Men are prone to anger, but the supreme Being is not
subject to wrath. Men are malicious and much given to wickedness, but God is by nature good, or
rather, he is Goodness itself. As God, therefore, he will forgive and justify the ungodly, burying the
errors of ignorance in oblivion, and wiping away the pollution of those who have gone astray.
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There is also another way of looking at this subject. Formerly the gentile multitudes lacked
understanding and were easily led astray into excesses of every kind, and the desire to do what it is
not right even to speak of. But when faith led them to seek God and they called upon him,
abandoning their old ways and lawless impulses, they received his mercy and were transformed as if
into different people living a new life. As partakers of Wisdom they became wise and had knowledge
of all goodness. Shaking off the yoke of their past errors and conquering sin, they were no longer
easily led but firm and strong and ready to do whatever was pleasing to God. “But when I promise
these things,” God says, “do not disbelieve them or doubt that it is possible for you to have a change
of heart, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”
THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE YOKE OF BABYLON BORNE BY THE PEOPLE: JEREMIAH 27:1-15
In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah
from the LORD. Thus the LORD said to me: “Make yourself thongs and yoke-bars, and put them on
your neck. Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king
of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah
king of Judah. Give them this charge for their masters: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
This is what you shall say to your masters: “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm
have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it
seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of
Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations
shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations
and great kings shall make him their slave.
“‘“But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck
under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with
pestilence, says the LORD, until I have consumed it by his hand. So do not listen to your prophets,
your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall
not serve the king of Babylon.’ For it is a lie which they are prophesying to you, with the result that
you will be removed far from your land, and I will drive you out, and you will perish. But any nation
which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own
land, to till it and dwell there, says the LORD.”’”
To Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke in like manner: “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. Why will you and your people die by the sword, by
famine, and by pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning any nation which will not serve the
king of Babylon? Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, ‘You shall not
serve the king of Babylon’, for it is a lie which they are prophesying to you. I have not sent them, says
the LORD, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out and
you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.”

HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH, 1. 3-6; FOC 97 (1998) TR. SMITH
God sentenced Jerusalem for her sins, and those condemned were to be delivered into captivity.
Nevertheless, at the appointed time, the benevolent God sends Jeremiah under the third King before
the Captivity so that those who wish to consider it may repent by means of the words of the Prophet.
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He had charged the Prophet to prophesy under the second King also after the first King, and under
the third King until the times of her captivity. For the patient God was allowing a respite even, so to
speak, down to the day before the Captivity, urging hearers to repent so that he might prevent the
misfortune of the captivity. Hence it is written, Jeremiah prophesied until the captivity of Jerusalem,
until the fifth month. The Captivity begins, and still he prophesied, saying something like this:
“Become captives, provided in such circumstances you can repent! For when you repent, the
misfortunes of the captivity will not transpire, but God’s mercy will be realised for you.”
So it is also for us. If we sin, we also are liable to become captives. For to deliver such a one to Satan is
no different from delivering those captives from Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. For just as they are
delivered to him for their sins, so we are delivered for our sins to Satan, who is Nebuchadnezzar. And I
have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme, the Apostle says concerning
other sinners. Thus a captivity is also imposed on us for our sins, and, if we do not repent, we are
liable to be delivered to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in order that the spiritual Babylonians
may torture us.
But later it is written, The Word of the Lord came to him, that is, to Jeremiah. And what does the Word
of the Lord say to him? It is something special, beyond what is said of the other Prophets. Abraham
was called a Prophet, yet God did not say to him, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and
before you were born, I consecrated you. Isaac was born from a promise, and we do not discover any
such word said to him. And what need is there to recount the rest? Jeremiah obtains a special gift,
which is: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came from your mother, I
consecrated you.
We are aware that some people refer these words, in that they surpass Jeremiah, to our Lord and
Saviour. Referring these words to the Saviour is not troublesome for the interpreter, for Jeremiah in
such passages is a prefiguring of the Saviour.
FRIDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEREMIAH AND THE FALSE PROPHET: JEREMIAH 28:1-17
In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the
fourth year, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the
LORD, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God
of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place
all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place
and carried to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king
of Babylon.”
Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the
people who were standing in the house of the LORD; and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the
LORD do so; may the LORD make the words which you have prophesied come true, and bring back to
this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles. Yet hear now this
word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded
you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and
great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to
pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”
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Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, and broke
them. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: Even so will
I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two
years.” But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.
Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the
prophet, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Go, tell Hananiah, ‘Thus says the LORD: You have
broken wooden bars, but I will make in their place bars of iron. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the
God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke of servitude to
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of
the field.’” And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has
not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I
will remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you shall die, because you have uttered
rebellion against the LORD.’”
In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.

ON THE SOUL AND RESURRECTION; SVSP (1993) TR. ROTH, PP. 84-87
“So the divine judgement,” I said, “as it seems, does not primarily bring punishment on sinners. As our
discourse has just shown, it operates only by separating good from evil and pulling the soul towards
the fellowship of blessedness. It is the tearing apart of what has grown together which brings pain to
the one who is being pulled.”
“This is my opinion too,” said my teacher. “I also think that the measure of pain is proportional to the
quantity of evil in each person. For it is not likely that the one who has gone far in forbidden evils and
the one who has fallen into moderate transgressions will be distressed equally as they are purified
from their wretched condition. Probably that painful fire is kindled more or less hotly depending on
the quantity of matter, and it burns as long as it has fuel. So if a person’s material burden is great,
the consuming flame must also become great and long-lasting; but if someone is exposed to the
consuming fire more briefly, the punishment relaxes its severe and piercing operation in
proportion to the smaller measure of evil in the subject. For evil must be altogether removed in
every way from being, and, as we have said before, that which does not really exist must cease to
exist at all. Since evil does not exist by its nature outside of free choice, when all choice is in God,
evil will suffer a complete annihilation because no receptacle remains for it.”
“Freedom consists in becoming like that which has no master and is under its own control. This
likeness was given to us by God at the beginning, but has been veiled by the shame of our sins. All
freedom is one in nature and belongs together. Consequently, therefore, everything which is free will
be joined with its like. Virtue has no master. Therefore everything free will be in virtue, for that which
is free also has no master. But indeed the divine Nature is the source of all virtue. Hence those who
are released from evil will be in the divine Nature, so that, as the Apostle says, God may be all in all.
This word, which says that God becomes all and in all, seems to me to confirm clearly the idea which
we have examined previously. For while we carry on our present life in many different ways, there are
many things in which we participate, such as time, air, place, food and drink. clothing, sun, lamplight,
and many other necessities of life, of which none is God. The blessedness which we await, however,
does not need any of these, but the divine Nature will become everything for us and will replace
everything, distributing itself appropriately for every need of that life. If God will be in everything
which exists, evil obviously will not be amongst the things which exist; for if one should suppose that
evil existed, how would it remain true that God is in all?
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SATURDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEREMIAH’S LETTER TO THE EXILES OF ISRAEL: JEREMIAH 29:1-14
These are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the elders of
the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into
exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the eunuchs,
the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. The
letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom
Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: “Thus says the
LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to
Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have
sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may
bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I
have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your
welfare. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners
who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream, for it is a lie
which they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD.
“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will
fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, says the
LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me
and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with
all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you
from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you
back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTION OF BEGINNERS BY ST AUGUSTINE

THE INSTRUCTION OF BEGINNERS, CUA PATR. STUDS. 8:90-92; WORD IN SEASON VI
As Jerusalem signifies the city and fellowship of the righteous, so Babylon signifies the city and
fellowship of the unrighteous, since it is said to be interpreted ‘confusion’.
The captive city of Jerusalem, and the people led forth into Babylon, is bidden to go into bondage by
the Lord through Jeremiah, a Prophet of that time. And there arose kings of Babylon, under whom
they were in bondage, who, having been stirred by certain wonders occasioned by their presence,
came to know and worship and ordered to be worshiped the one true God, the author of all creation.
Moreover, they were bidden both to pray for those by whom they were held captive, and in the
peace of these to hope for peace, for the begetting of children and the building of houses and the
planting of gardens and vineyards. But deliverance from that captivity after seventy years was
promised them.
Now all this signified in a figure that the Church of Christ, in all his saints, who are citizens of the
heavenly Jerusalem, was to be in bondage under the kings of this world. For the teaching of the
Apostle also enjoins that everyone should be subject to the governing authorities and that all
should be paid what is due to them, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is
due, and so with other things which, saving the worship of our God, we render to the rulers of the
human order; since the Lord himself, that he might afford us an example of this sound teaching, did
not disdain to pay poll-tax on the humanity with which he was invested. Moreover, Christian servants
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and the good faithful are also bidden to serve their temporal masters with patience and fidelity,
whom they are to judge if they find them unrighteous to the last; or with whom they are to reign as
equals if they likewise turn to the true God. And by occasion of this captivity even earthly kings,
forsaking the idols for the sake of which they were wont to persecute the Christians, have come to
know and worship the one true God and Christ the Lord, and it is on their behalf, even when they
were persecuting the Church, that the Apostle Paul bids prayer be made. For these are his words: I
desire therefore in the first place that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be
made for Kings, for people in general, and for all that are in high station, that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all piety and charity.
And so through these very Kings peace was given to the Church, albeit temporal peace, temporal
quietude for the spiritual building of houses and planting of vineyards. For, behold, we too are
now building up and planting you by this discourse. And this is being done throughout the whole
world with the permission of Christian Kings, even as the same Apostle says: You are God’s
husbandry, God’s building.
SUNDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

(JERUSALEM IS CAPTURED AND LAID WASTE. THE EXILE OF JUDAH: KINGS 24:20B – 25:13, 18-
21)
And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; and
they built siegeworks against it round about. So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King
Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no
food for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city; the king with all the men of war
fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the kings garden, though the
Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. But the army of the
Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered
from him. Then they captured the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who
passed sentence upon him. 7 They slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of
Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and took him to Babylon.
In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month – which was the nineteenth year of King
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon – Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king
of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the LORD, and the kings house and all the
houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who
were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. And the rest of the
people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together
with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. But the
captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and ploughmen.
And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that
were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried the bronze to Babylon.
And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the
three keepers of the threshold; and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the
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men of war, and five men of the kings council who were found in the city; and the secretary of the
commander of the army who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the
land who were found in the city. And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought
them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death at
Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

IN ADVENTU, 10-11 (OPERA OMNIA 6.1.19-20); WORD IN SEASON VI
The holy city of Jerusalem still exiled in the depths of poverty is consoled by the words of the Prophet:
Do not weep, for your salvation will come quickly. For by the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept.
Babylon means confusion: the citizens of Jerusalem sit and weep in Babylon, or in confusion, because
even if they are not confused in their actions they are in their thoughts. They want to turn their
mental eye toward God but cannot because they are assailed by futile and unwanted distractions.
The rivers of Babylon are bad habits which are sweet to the memory. Quickly flowing, they sweep
those whom they seduce into the sea of this world. But thanks be to God who has given us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ, for even if bad habits press upon us, we are sitting beside the rivers of
Babylon, not in them; we make no answer to the allurements of a worldly life, we are deaf to its call
and hardened against its blandishments. Impeded therefore by these follies, it is no wonder that we
weep when we remember Zion, that is, when we call to mind the sweetness, the delightful savour of
which they have a foretaste who shall one day be found worthy to gaze on the glory of God with
unveiled face.
But even if I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I would fear no evil if you were
with me, or, rather, I would have no fear because you are with me. How do I dare to entertain this
hope? Because the rod of your correction and the staff of your support comfort me. For even though
you correct me and check my pride by reducing me almost to the dust of death, you still sustain my
life and support me, so that I do not sink into the place of the dead. I will not spurn the correction of
the Lord, nor take it amiss when he reproves me, for I know that all things work together for the good
of those who love God. Am I impatient then? No, I bear it patiently. Why? Because of him who made
creation subject in hope. For creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the
glorious freedom of the children of God.
Do not weep, then, city of Jerusalem, for your salvation will come quickly. If in your eyes he seems to
delay, in his there will be no delay, for to him a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone.
MONDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEREMIAH IN PRISON URGES ZEDEKIAH TOWARDS PEACE: JEREMIAH 37:21; 38:14-28
King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard; and a loaf of
bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah
remained in the court of the guard.
King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance of the Temple of
the LORD. The king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you a question; hide nothing from me.” Jeremiah said
to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not be sure to put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will
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not listen to me.” Then King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As the LORD lives, who made our
souls, I will not put you to death or deliver you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”
Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will
surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be
burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the princes of the
king of Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with
fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.” King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the
Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest I be handed over to them and they abuse me.”
Jeremiah said, “You shall not be given to them. Obey now the voice of the LORD in what I say to you,
and it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared. But if you refuse to surrender, this is the
vision which the LORD has shown to me: Behold, all the women left in the house of the king of Judah
were being led out to the princes of the king of Babylon and were saying, ‘Your trusted friends have
deceived you and prevailed against you; now that your feet are sunk in the mire, they turn away from
you.’ All your wives and your sons shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself shall not escape
from their hand, but shall be seized by the king of Babylon; and this city shall be burned with fire.”
Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words and you shall not die. If the princes
hear that I have spoken with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king
and what the king said to you; hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death,’ then you shall
say to them, ‘I made a humble plea to the king that he would not send me back to the house of
Jonathan to die there.’” Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him, and he answered them
as the king had instructed him. So they left off speaking with him, for the conversation had not been
overheard. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT 4 (ABR.): CWS (1982) TR. LUIBHEAD & RUSSELL
As the flower comes before every fruit, so exile of the body or will precedes all obedience. On these
two virtues, as on two golden wings, the holy soul rises serenely to heaven. Perhaps it was of this the
Prophet sang when, filled with the Holy Spirit, he said, Who will give me the wings of a dove? and, The
active life will give me flight and I will be at rest in contemplation and lowliness.
We ought not omit in this treatise a clear description of the weapons of those noble fighters, the
shield of faith which they hold up before God, and before their trainer, and with which they ward off,
so to speak, all thought of unbelief or backsliding; the spiritual sword that is always drawn and lays
low every selfish longing; the iron breastplate of meekness and patience to ward off every insult, ev-
ery jab and missile; the protective prayer of their spiritual master which they have as a saving helmet.
They do not stand with their feet close together, but one foot is advanced towards service, while the
other stays firmly planted in prayer.
Obedience is a total renunciation of our own life, and it shows up clearly in the way we act.
Obedience is the burial place of the will and the resurrection of lowliness. The beginning of the
mortification both of the soul’s will and also of the body’s members is hard. The halfway stage is
sometimes difficult, sometimes not. But the end is liberation from the senses and freedom from pain.
So you have decided to strip for the race of spiritual profession, to take Christ’s yoke on your neck, to
lay your own burden on the shoulders of another, to pledge your willing surrender to slavery? And for
this you want it in writing that you get freedom in return, even when you swim across this great sea
borne up on the hands of others? Very well, then. But you had better recognise that you have
undertaken to travel by a short and rough road, along which there is only one false turning, that
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which they call self-direction and if that is avoided – even in matters seemingly good, spiritual, and
pleasing to God - then straightaway one has reached journey’s end. For the fact is that obedience is
mistrust of self up to one’s dying day, in every matter, even the good.
Those who submit to the Lord with simple heart will run the good race. If they keep their minds on
leash they will not draw the wickedness of demons onto themselves.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEREMIAH IN PRISON BUYS THE FIELD AT ANATHOTH AS A SIGN OF HOPE: JEREMIAH 32:6-10,
16, 24-40
Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me: Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle
will come to you and say, ‘Buy my field which is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase
is yours.’ Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word
of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right
of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the
LORD.
“And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him,
seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on
scales.
“After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying:
‘Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and
pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What thou
didst speak has come to pass, and behold, thou seest it. Yet thou, O Lord GOD, hast said to me, “Buy
the field for money and get witnesses” – thou the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’”
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too
hard for me? Therefore, thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the
Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it. The Chaldeans
who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses on
whose roofs incense has been offered to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other
gods, to provoke me to anger. For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have done nothing but evil
in my sight from their youth; the sons of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the
work of their hands, says the LORD. This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was
built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and
the sons of Judah which they did to provoke me to anger – their kings and their princes, their priests
and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned to me their
back and not their face; and though I have taught them persistently they have not listened to receive
instruction. They set up their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. They
built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to
Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this
abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
“Now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, 'It is given
into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence: Behold, I will gather
them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation;
I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people,
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and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for
their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting
covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their
hearts, that they may not turn from me.

CONFERENCES 3.16-19; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY.
So much did the evangelical and apostolic men realise that every good thing is accomplished by the
Lord’s help, and so certain were they that they could not by their own power and free will preserve
their faith unharmed, that they besought this as a gift to them from the Lord. If there was need of the
Lord’s help in Peter so that he would not fail, who would be so presumptuous and blind as to believe
that he would not need the Lord’s daily assistance to preserve this? This is especially so as the Lord
himself expressed this very thing clearly in the Gospel when he said: Just as the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself unless it abides on the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. And again: Apart
from me you can do nothing. How foolish and sacrilegious it is, then, to assign any of our good acts to
our own effort and not to the grace of God. For every good gift and every perfect benefit is from
above, coming down from the Father of lights. Zechariah also says: Whatever is good is his, and
whatever is excellent is from him. And therefore the blessed Apostle says continually: What do you
have that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not
received it?
Finally the Prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God, clearly testifies that the fear of God, by which we may
hold fast to him, is poured into us by the Lord when he says: And I will give them one heart and one
way so that they may fear me all their days, and it shall be well with them and with their children after
them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not cease to do good to them. And
I will put my fear in their heart so that they may not depart from me. Ezekiel also says: I will give them
one heart, and I will place a new spirit in their bowels, and I will remove the stony heart from their
flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh so that they may walk in my precepts and keep my laws and
do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
By these words we are very clearly taught that the beginning of a good will is bestowed upon us at the
Lord’s inspiration, when either by himself or by human encouragement or through need a man draws
near to the path of salvation. We are also taught by these words that the perfection of the virtues is
granted by God in the same way, but that it is up to us to follow up God’s encouragement and help in
either a haphazard or a serious manner. Depending on the outcome, we have been promised either a
reward or punishment to the extent that we have either neglected or accepted that plan and
providence of his which has been most graciously directed toward us.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROMISES OF THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL: JEREMIAH 30:18 – 31:9
“Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and have compassion on
his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who make merry. I will multiply
them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honoured, and they shall not be small. Their
children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will
punish all who oppress them. Their prince shall be one of themselves, their ruler shall come forth
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from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself
to approach me? says the LORD. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
Behold the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head
of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand this.
“At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my
people.” Thus says the LORD: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest, the LORD appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting
love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O
virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with timbrels, and shall go forth in the dance of the
merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit. For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of
Ephraim: ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’”
For thus says the LORD: “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the
nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘The LORD has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.’
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the
earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who is in travail, together; a
great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead
them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not
stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH BY ST JEROME

COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH, 6.30 (PL 24:904-905); WORD IN SEASON VI
The Lord says this: I will restore the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings, and the city
shall be rebuilt on its hill. There was already a symbol of these things in the time of Zerubbabel and
Ezra, when the people returned to Jerusalem and the city began to be rebuilt on its hill and the law of
the Temple observed, and so on as related in the book of Ezra. But the prophecy was more fully and
perfectly fulfilled in the time of our Lord and Saviour, and of the Apostles, when that city of which it is
written: A city built on a hill cannot be hidden was built on its hill. Moreover, the Temple was
established with its rites and ceremonies, so that whatever was done outwardly among the people of
the past might be fulfilled spiritually in the Church.
Then songs of thanksgiving will come from them, for all the Apostles said: Grace and peace to you. It
will be the sound of people dancing, not like those who ate and drank and rose up to dance, but as
David danced before the ark of the Lord. And they will increase and not diminish, so that the whole
world may believe in God the Saviour. They will be honoured, so that what was written may be
fulfilled: Glorious things are told of you, city of God. And its sons, that is, the Apostles, will be like the
men of old, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who founded the Israelite race. At that time the Lord will
punish all the hostile powers that oppressed God’s people.
And their leader will be one of themselves – undoubtedly our Lord and Saviour who was born an
Israelite; their ruler will come from their own number. The Father placed him near himself, and he
came so close to him that his Son could declare: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; for no one
can place his heart so near the Lord, nor be as closely united to him as the Son is to the Father. And
the words: You shall be my people and I will be your God we see partly fulfilled in Israel and
completely in all the nations of the world.
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THURSDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SALVATION AND A NEW COVENANT ARE PRONOUNCED: JEREMIAH 31:15-22, 27-34
Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping
for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.”
Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be
rewarded, says the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for
your future, says the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country. I have heard
Ephraim bemoaning, ‘Thou hast chastened me, and I was chastened, like an untrained calf; bring me
back that I may be restored, for thou art the LORD my God. For after I had turned away I repented;
and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I
bore the disgrace of my youth.’ Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak
against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on
him, says the LORD.
“Set up waymarks for yourself, make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by
which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. How long will you waver, O
faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman protects a man.”
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of
Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched
over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over
them to build and to plant, says the LORD. In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But every one shall die for his own sin;
each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them
by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their
husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbour and each
his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
A READING FROM ON REPENTANCE BY ST AMBROSE

ON REPENTANCE 2.5-6 (36-39, 41-44): NPNF210 (1989) TR. DE ROMESTIN
Let us cover our falls by our subsequent acts of repentance; let us purify ourselves by tears, that the
Lord our God may hear us when we lament, as he heard Ephraim when he wept, as it is written: I have
surely heard Ephraim weeping. And he expressly repeats the very words of Ephraim: You have
chastised me and I was chastised, like a calf I was not trained. For a calf disports itself, and leaves its
stall, and so Ephraim was untrained like a calf far away from the stall; because he had forsaken the
stall of the Lord, followed Jeroboam, and worshipped the calves, a future event which was
prophetically indicated through Aaron. And so repenting, Ephraim said: Turn me, and I shall be turned,
for you are the Lord my God. Surely in the end of my captivity I repented, and after I learned I mourned
over the days of confusion, and subjected myself to you because I received reproach and made you
known.
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We see how to repent, with what words and with what acts, that the days of sin are called ‘days of
confusion’; for there is confusion when Christ is denied. Let us, then, submit ourselves to God, and
not be subject to sin, and when we ponder the remembrance of our offences, let us blush, as though
at some disgrace, and not speak of them as a glory. Let our conversion be such, that we who did not
know God may now ourselves declare him to others, that the Lord, moved by such a conversion on
our part, may answer to us: Ephraim is from youth a dear son, a pleasant child, for since my words are
concerning him, I will truly remember him, therefore I have hastened to be over him; I will surely have
mercy on him, says the Lord.
You see what God requires of you, that you remember that grace which you have received, and boast
not as though you had not received it. You see by how complete a promise of remission he draws you
to confession. Take heed, lest by resisting the commandments of God you fall into the offence of
those to whom the Lord Jesus said: We piped to you and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not
weep. The words are ordinary words, but the mystery is not ordinary. Dancing, then, which is an
accompaniment of pleasures and luxury, is not spoken of, but that spiritual dance by which Paul
danced, when for us he stretched forwards, and forgetting the things which were behind, and aiming
at those which were before, he pressed on to the prize of Christ. You, too, when you come to
baptism, are warned to raise the hands, and cause your feet to ascend to things eternal. This dancing
accompanies faith, and is the companion of grace.
This, then, is the mystery. Repentance came by John, grace by Christ. He, as the Lord, gives the one;
the other is proclaimed, as it were, by the servant. The Church, then, keeps both that it may both
attain to grace and not cast away repentance, for grace is the gift of One who confers it; repentance is
the remedy of the sinner.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JEREMIAH AND THE PEOPLE AFTER THE CITY IS CAPTURED: JEREMIAH 42: 1-16; 43 4-7
Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Azariah the son of
Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the
prophet, “Let our supplication come before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this
remnant (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us), that the LORD your God may show
us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I
have heard you; behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your request, and whatever the
LORD answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you.” Then they said to Jeremiah, “May
the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with
which the LORD your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or evil, we will obey the voice of the
LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of
the LORD our God.”
At the end of ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. Then he summoned Johanan the son
of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least
to the greatest, and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to
present your supplication before him: If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not
pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil which I did to you. Do not
fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not fear him, says the LORD, for I am with you, to
save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and
let you remain in your own land. But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land’, disobeying the voice
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of the LORD your God and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or
hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’ then hear the word
of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces
to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land
of Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard after you to Egypt; and there you
shall die.”
Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the
voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the
commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah
from all the nations to which they had been driven – the men, the women, the children, the
princesses, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the
son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. And they
came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they arrived at
Tahpanhes.

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, 8:127-8; WORD IN SEASON VI
No Prophet commenced his labours with greater encouragement than Jeremiah. A King had
succeeded to the throne who was bringing back the times of the man after God’s own heart. There
had not been a son of David so zealous as Josiah since David himself. The King, too, was young, at
most twenty years of age, in the beginning of his reformation. What might not be effected in a course
of years, however corrupt and degraded was the existing state of his people?
Whether or not, however, such hope of success encouraged Jeremiah’s first exertions, very soon, in
his case, this cheerful prospect was overcast, and he was left to labour in the dark. His trials were very
great, even in Josiah’s reign; but when that pious King’s countenance was withdrawn on his early
death, he was exposed to persecution from every class of people. When Jerusalem had been taken by
the enemy, Jeremiah was forcibly carried down to Egypt by people who at first pretended to
reverence and consult him, and there he came to his end – it is believed, a violent end.
All of us live in a world which promises well, but does not fulfil; it is in our nature to begin life
thoughtlessly and joyously; to seek great things in one way or other; to have vague notions of good to
come; to love the world, and to believe its promises, and seek satisfaction and happiness from it. And,
as it is our nature to hope, so it is our lot, as life proceeds, to encounter disappointment. That
disappointment in some shape or other is the lot of man (that is, looking at our prospects apart from
the next world) is plain from the mere fact, if nothing else could be said, that we begin life with health
and end it with sickness; or in other words, that it comes to an end, for an end is a failure.
Here then it is that God himself offers us his aid by his Word, and in his Church. Left to ourselves, we
seek good from the world, but cannot find it; in youth we look forward, and in age we look back. It is
well we should be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and to provide for the evil day.
Seek we great things? We must seek them where they really are to be found, and in the way in which
they are to be found; we must seek them as he has set them before us, who came into the world to
enable us to gain them. We must be willing to give up present hope for future enjoyment, this world
for the unseen. Let us prepare for suffering and disappointment, which befit us as sinners, and which
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are necessary for us as saints. Let us not turn away from trial when God brings it on us, or play the
coward in the fight of faith. Watch, stand fast in the faith, acquit yourselves like men, be strong; such
is Saint Paul’s exhortation. When affliction overtakes you, remember to accept it as a means of
improving your hearts, and pray God for his grace that it may do so. Look disappointment in the face.
Take ... the prophets ... for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them
happy who endure.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A VISION OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE EXILES: EZEKIEL 1:3-14, 22-28
The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the
river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round
about it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze.
And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance:
they had the form of men, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were
straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished
bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and
their wings thus: their wings touched one another; they went every one straight forward, without
turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man in front; the four
had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four
had the face of an eagle at the back. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above;
each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their
bodies. And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as
they went. In the midst of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of
fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the
fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.
Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, shining like crystal,
spread out above their heads. And under the firmament their wings were stretched out straight, one
toward another; and each creature had two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the
sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the thunder of the Almighty, a sound of
tumult like the sound of a host; when they stood still, they let down their wings. And there came a
voice from above the firmament over their heads; when they stood still, they let down their wings.
And above the firmament over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like
sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness as it were of a human form. And
upward from what had the appearance of his loins I saw as it were gleaming bronze, like the
appearance of fire enclosed round about; and downward from what had the appearance of his loins I
saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about him. Like the appearance
of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round
about.
Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my
face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
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THE SPIRITUAL HOMILIES OF MACARIUS, 1:1-3, 12 (PG 34:449-452, 461; WORD IN SEASON VI
After contemplating the divinely glorious vision he had seen, the Prophet Ezekiel wrote a description
of it full of unutterable mysteries. What he saw was the mystery of the soul that was to receive its
Lord and become his throne of glory. For the soul that is privileged to share in the light of the Holy
Spirit and is irradiated by the beauty of the unspeakable glory of him who has prepared her to be his
throne and dwelling is all light, all face, all eye: there is no part of her that is not full of the spiritual
eyes of light. In other words, no part of her is darkened, but through and through she has been made
light and spirit; she is full of eyes all over, and has no such thing as a back part but is face forward in
every direction, because the unutterable beauty of the glory of the light of Christ is mounted and
riding upon her. Christ drives, guides, carries and supports the soul, gracing and adorning her with
spiritual beauty: the Prophet says, A human hand was under the cherubim because it is Christ who is
carried by the soul and is her guide.
The four living creatures that bore the chariot symbolise the governing powers of the soul. For just as
the eagle is the king of birds, the lion of wild beasts, the bull of tame ones, and mankind of creatures
in general, so the soul also has its governing powers, which are the will, the conscience, the mind, and
the ability to love. By these the chariot of the soul is controlled, and God rests on them.
If, then, you have become a throne of God, and the heavenly charioteer has mounted you, and your
whole soul is a spiritual eye and has become all light; and if you have been nourished with that food
of the Spirit, given living water to drink, and donned the raiment of ineffable light; if your inner self is
grounded in the experience and full assurance of all these things, then indeed you already live the
eternal life and your soul is henceforth at rest with the Lord.
On the other hand, if you have no awareness of any of these things, then weep, mourn, and lament,
because you have not yet obtained the eternal spiritual riches; you have not yet received true life. Be
distressed at your poverty and pray to the Lord night and day because you have come to a halt in the
dreadful penury of sin. If only we were troubled by our poverty and did not go on without a care as
though we were completely satisfied! For one who is deeply troubled and seeks and prays to the Lord
unceasingly will soon be delivered and gain heavenly riches. As the Lord said in his story about the
unjust judge and the widow: How much more will God vindicate those who cry to him night and day?
To him be glory and power forever. Amen
SUNDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL OF EZEKIEL: EZEKIEL 2:8 – 3:11, 16-21
“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you; be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your
mouth, and eat what I give you.” And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and, lo,
a written scroll was in it; and he spread it before me; and it had writing on the front and on the back,
and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house
of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man,
eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth as
sweet as honey.
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And he said to me, “Son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel, and speak with my words to them.
For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel –
not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand.
Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for
they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel are of a hard forehead and of a
stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard
against their foreheads. Like adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead; fear them not, nor
be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, all
my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. And go, get you to
the exiles, to your people, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD’; whether they hear or refuse to
hear.”
And at the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, I have made you a
watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them
warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die’, and you give him no warning, nor speak
to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his
iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn
from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your
life. Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling
block before him, he shall die; because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his
righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your
hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live,
because he took warning; and you will have saved your life.”
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

HOMILY 9 ON EZEKIEL, TR. PLUSCARDEN
I saw a hand stretched out towards me, holding a rolled up scroll. It then spread out the scroll before
me, and I saw that it was written on within and without. In this vision the Prophet represents all
preachers of the Gospel, and the scroll given to him represents holy Scripture. It is rolled up, since the
words of Scripture are often obscure. Because of their profundity they are not easily understood by
everyone. But the scroll is then spread out before the Prophet, because holy preachers are able to
reveal the hidden meaning of Scripture to the faithful. Truth himself opened out this scroll when, He
opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures.
The scroll was written on within and without because Scripture has a literal or historical sense and a
spiritual or allegorical sense. The writing ‘without’ is the plain sense of the letter, attainable by the
weak. The writing ‘within’ is the spiritual understanding, given only to the strong. It is ‘within’ because
it promises invisible things, whereas what is written ‘without’ is visible and earthly. It is ‘within’ when
it sets forth heavenly realities, and ‘without’ when it shows how earthly things should be rightly used,
or properly excluded from what we may rightly desire.
The strong are able to feast on the hidden and sublime words of holy Scripture. We little ones,
though, must usually find our nourishment in its more open precepts. For this reason the Psalmist
said: The high mountains are a refuge for the stags, and the rock for the hedgehogs. Those who can
already make the leap of divine contemplation are able to attain the mountain heights of spiritual
understanding. But as for us: we are more like the hedgehogs who find refuge in the rocks, for we are
covered by the spines of our sins, and so unable to understand profound truths. Nevertheless, we are
safe in the haven of the Rock: that is, we are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ. St Paul therefore
told some people: I did not consider myself to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him
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crucified. Or in other words: Because I did not think you could grasp the mysteries of his divinity, I
spoke to you only about his human weakness.
The Prophet goes on: There were written on the scroll lamentations, songs and woe. By this he means
that holy Scripture contains everything we need to edify us and instruct us. Have you sinned, and
bitterly regret what you have done? Here you will find lamentations, teaching you how to repent. Do
you yearn for the consolation of heavenly joys? Here you will find a song for your comfort. Are you a
sinner who not only refuses to repent, but even disdains the hope of heavenly rewards? Here you will
find written the woes of your condemnation. It remains for us then, brethren, to wake up to the
words of this scroll. Let us afflict ourselves with tears for the sins we remember having committed, in
order that through our lamentation we may come at last to the song of life. The dreadful alternative is
to experience woe without end. We do not despair of avoiding that, because the magnitude of our
sickness cannot compare with the greatness of the divine doctor, to whom be praise and glory for
ever and ever. Amen.
MONDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IS REPRESENTED IN SYMBOLIC ACTION: EZEKIEL 5:1-17
“And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword; use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and
your beard; then take balances for weighing, and divide the hair. A third part you shall burn in the fire
in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed; and a third part you shall take and
strike with the sword round about the city; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will
unsheathe the sword after them. And you shall take from these a small number, and bind them in the
skirts of your robe. And of these again you shall take some, and cast them into the fire, and burn them
in the fire; from there a fire will come forth into all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord GOD: This is
Jerusalem; I have set her in the centre of the nations, with countries round about her. And she has
wickedly rebelled against my ordinances more than the nations, and against my statutes more than
the countries round about her, by rejecting my ordinances and not walking in my statutes. Therefore
thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are round about you,
and have not walked in my statutes or kept my ordinances, but have acted according to the
ordinances of the nations that are round about you; therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even
I, am against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. And
because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I
will never do again. Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their
fathers; and I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.
Wherefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your
detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will cut you down; my eye will not spare,
and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in the
midst of you; a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and a third part I will scatter to all
the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.
“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself; and they shall
know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy, when I spend my fury upon them. Moreover I will
make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations round about you and in the sight
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of all that pass by. You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations round
about you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious chastisements--I, the
LORD, have spoken – when I loose against you my deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction,
which I will loose to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you, and break your
staff of bread. I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children;
pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the LORD, have
spoken.”

ENARR. IN PS. 125, 1-3 (CCL 40:1844-1846); WORD IN SEASON VI
The Jerusalem above is eternal; the one upon earth is but its prefiguration. Therefore the earthly
Jerusalem fell, while the heavenly one remains. The one lasted during the time when the Messiah was
being foretold; the other endures for the eternity of our restoration. During this life we are wandering
exiles from the Jerusalem above; we long to return to it and have much toil and sorrow until we are
back there once more. But the angels, our fellow citizens, did not abandon us in our exile; on the
contrary, they announced the coming to us of the King in person. And he did come to us, but was met
with contempt among us. He was despised by us, and later he was despised with us. And he taught us
to bear contempt because he had borne it, to endure because he had endured, to suffer because he
had suffered. Moreover he promised that we should rise from the dead because he rose from the
dead, showing in himself what we were to hope for.
If then our fathers, the prophets of old, longed for that heavenly city even before our Lord Jesus
Christ came in the flesh, before he died, rose again, and ascended into heaven, how much more
should we not long for that city to which he has gone before us and which in fact he never left? When
our Lord came to us he did not leave the angels. He both remained with them and came to us: he
remained with them in majesty; he came to us in his human body.
But as for us, where were we then? If we call him our Redeemer, we must have been captives. Where
were we held captive so that he had to come and ransom us? Where were we held? Among the
barbarians perhaps? The devil and his angels are worse than barbarians. It was they who held
mankind captive; it was from them he ransomed us, not with gold or silver but with his own blood.
We were captives because we had been sold into sin. Who sold us then? We sold ourselves by
consenting to our seducer. We had the power to sell ourselves but not to redeem ourselves. We sold
ourselves by consenting to sin; we were redeemed by the faith that justifies. For innocent blood was
shed to redeem us. Whenever the seducer shed blood by persecuting the just, what kind of blood was
poured out? The blood of the righteous, certainly; the blood of the prophets, of our fathers, of the
upright and of martyrs, but these all came from a race tainted by sin. Once only did he shed the blood
of one who was born just and needed no justification; once that blood had been shed the seducer lost
his claim upon all his captives. Those for whom innocent blood had been poured out are redeemed,
and released from captivity they sing the psalm: When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage, we were
like those who are consoled.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JUDGEMENT ON SINFUL JERUSALEM: EZEKIEL 8:1-6, 16 – 9:11
In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the
elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. Then I beheld, and,
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lo, a form that had the appearance of a man; below what appeared to be his loins it was fire, and
above his loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming bronze. He put forth the form of
a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and
brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that
faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the
glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.” So I lifted up my
eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of
jealousy. And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations
that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still
greater abominations.”
And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.
Then said he to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall”; and when I dug in the wall, lo, there was a door.
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD; and behold, at the door of the
Temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs
to the Temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. Then
he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to
commit the abominations which they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence, and
provoke me further to anger? Lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I will deal in wrath; my
eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear
them.”
Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Draw near, you executioners of the city, each with
his destroying weapon in his hand.” And lo, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which
faces north, every man with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in
linen, with a writing case at his side. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherubim on which it rested to the threshold
of the house; and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his side. And the
LORD said to him, “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the
men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he
said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall
show no pity; slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no
one upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were
before the house. Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth.”
So they went forth, and smote in the city. And while they were smiting, and I was left alone, I fell upon
my face, and cried, “Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all that remains of Israel in the outpouring of thy
wrath upon Jerusalem?”
Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of
blood, and the city full of injustice; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does
not see.’ As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, but I will requite their deeds upon their
heads.” And lo, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his side, brought back word, saying,
“I have done as thou didst command me.”
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A READING FROM FOUR CENTURIES ON LOVE BY ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR
FOUR CENTURIES ON LOVE, 2.31-33; PHILOKALIA 2 (1981) TR. PALMER ETC.
The passions lying hidden in the soul provide the demons with the means of arousing impassioned
thoughts in us. Then, fighting the intellect through these thoughts, they force it to give its assent to
sin. When it has been overcome, they lead it to sin in the mind; and when this has been done they
induce it, captive as it is, to commit the sin in action. Having thus desolated the soul by means of
these thoughts, the demons then retreat, taking the thoughts with them, and only the spectre or idol
of sin remains in the intellect. Referring to this our Lord says, When you see the abominable idol of
desolation standing in the holy place (let him who reads understand)… For man’s intellect is a holy
place and a temple of God in which the demons, having desolated the soul by means of impassioned
thoughts, set up the idol of sin. That these things have already taken place in history no one, I think,
who has read Josephus will doubt; though some say that they will also come to pass in the time of the
Antichrist.
There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers and
rightness of intention. Natural instincts impel us when, for example, we do to others what we would
wish them to do to us, or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel
compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we
find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by rightness of intention when,
discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.
There are also three things that impel us towards evil: passions, demons and sinfulness of intention.
Passions impel us when, for example, we desire something beyond what is reasonable, such as food
which is unnecessary or untimely, or a woman who is not our wife or for a purpose other than
procreation, or else when we are excessively angered or irritated by, for instance, someone who has
dishonoured or injured us. Demons impel us when, for example, they catch us off our guard and
suddenly launch a violent attack upon us, stirring up the passions already mentioned and others of a
similar nature. We are impelled by sinfulness of intention when, knowing the good, we choose evil
instead.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE GLORY OF THE LORD ABANDONS THE CONDEMNED CITY: EZEKIEL 10:18-22; 11:14-25
Then the glory of the LORD went forth from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.
And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight as they went forth,
with the wheels beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the house of the LORD;
and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I
knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings
the semblance of human hands. And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the very faces whose
appearance I had seen by the river Chebar. They went every one straight forward.
And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, your brethren, even your brethren, your fellow
exiles, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have
said, ‘They have gone far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus
says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them
among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they
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have gone.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble
you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ And
when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I
will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh
and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey
them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after
their detestable things and their abominations, I will requite their deeds upon their own heads, says
the Lord GOD.”
Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them. And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon
the mountain which is on the east side of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the
vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from
me. And I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had showed me.

COMMENTARIA IN EZECHIELEM 3.11 (PL 25:95, 100-101); TR. PLUSCARDEN
The glory of the Lord and his splendour, which was at the threshold of the temple, stood over the
Cherubim.... What was this unusual thing that the Prophet saw, which he perceived as Cherubim and
had not previously understood? Cherubim in our language means much knowledge: the knowledge of
the mysteries of God, of his throne and of his place of rest. Therefore it is said in the psalm, You who
sit upon the Cherubim reveal yourself. For the glory of God always sits enthroned on much knowledge;
thus it is made clear that all things are directed with wisdom and nothing happens by chance. Hence
the contemplation of the Cherubim and their desire is to forget the things of the past and to stretch
out towards the future.
The heavenly Word speaks to those who were captives in the land of Babylon, to the brethren of the
Prophet Ezekiel, and utters these words: I shall gather you from the peoples and I shall give back the
land of Israel to you. Most people think that this refers to the inhabitants of Jerusalem who were
captured in the reign of King Zedekiah, or who fled to Egypt along with Jeremiah, but these were
scattered among the nations and never returned to the city of Jerusalem. The true return of the
captives and of the remnant of Israel is understood in Christ when the Acts of the Apostles records
that many were saved and on one day three thousand believed and on another five thousand.
And the Cherubim raised up their wings and along with them, the wheels, and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and rested over the
mountain which is to the east of the city. Gradually the glory of the Lord withdrew from Jerusalem.
Firstly, on leaving the Temple it remained in the court of the house and afterwards it was at the
entrance of the East Gate. Last of all, after the wings went up with the wheels following, it lingered
over the mountain, which is to the east of the city; doubtless by this mountain the Prophet means
Mount Olivet, whence our Saviour ascended to the Father. The glory of the Lord, which had left the
city of Jerusalem, was seen resting above Mount Olivet as a sign of the resurrection, so that by this
sign Jerusalem might foresee that it would be lost and would burn. It is said in the sacred text, His
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glory goes up from the midst of the city, and in another place the Lord addressed his disciples, Arise,
let us go from here. Elsewhere he says to the Jews, Your house will be left to you deserted, and
Josephus in The Antiquities refers to the voice of angels and of the heavenly powers being heard in
the Temple saying, Let us go from these dwellings.
In a marvellous way, even up to the present day, the glory of the Lord which abandoned the Temple
rests over Mount Olivet and, glowing red in the sign of the Cross, gazes across at the former Jewish
Temple which has been reduced to embers and ashes.
THURSDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PEOPLE’S JOURNEY INTO EXILE IS PRESENTED IN SYMBOLIC ACTION: EZEKIEL 12:1-16
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who
have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not; for they are a rebellious house.
Therefore, son of man, prepare for yourself an exile's baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight;
you shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand,
though they are a rebellious house. You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage
for exile; and you shall go forth yourself at evening in their sight, as men do who must go into exile.
Dig through the wall in their sight, and go out through it. In their sight you shall lift the baggage upon
your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark; you shall cover your face, that you may not see the land;
for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.”
And I did as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the
evening I dug through the wall with my own hands; I went forth in the dark, carrying my outfit upon
my shoulder in their sight.
In the morning the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the
rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’ Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: This oracle
concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are in it.’ Say, ‘I am a sign for you: as I
have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into captivity.’ And the prince who is
among them shall lift his baggage upon his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth; he shall dig
through the wall and go out through it; he shall cover his face, that he may not see the land with his
eyes. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to
Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it; and he shall die there. And I will scatter
toward every wind all who are round about him, his helpers and all his troops; and I will unsheathe
the sword after them. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the
nations and scatter them through the countries. But I will let a few of them escape from the sword,
from famine and pestilence, that they may confess all their abominations among the nations where
they go, and may know that I am the LORD.”

ENARR. IN PS. 64, 1-3 (CCL 39:822-825); WORD IN SEASON VI
The Israelites were taken captive and transported from the city of Jerusalem to a life of servitude in
Babylon. The holy man Jeremiah, however, prophesied that seventy years later they should return
from captivity and the city of Jerusalem, over whose fall into enemy hands he had lamented, should
be restored. At that time there were Prophets among the captive people in Babylon, and one of these
was Ezekiel. The people were looking forward to the end of the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah:
and indeed when the seventy years were up, the majority of the people did return and the Temple
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which had been destroyed was rebuilt. But since the Apostle says: These things happened to them as
a warning, and were written down as a lesson for us upon whom the end of the ages has come, we too
must first be aware of our captivity and then of our liberation; we must be aware of Babylon, where
we are enslaved, and of the Jerusalem, to which we long to return.
Consider the names of these two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon means ‘confusion’, Jerusalem
‘vision of peace’; now take note of the city of confusion in order to understand the vision of peace.
You endure the former while you long for the latter. How can these two cities be told apart? Can we
possibly separate them from one another in this world? They are intermingled; they have been from
the very origin of the human race, and shall remain so until the end of time. What proof have we now
then that they are intermingled? The Lord will make it plain when he places some at his right hand
and others at his left; Jerusalem will be on his right, Babylon on his left. Jerusalem will hear him say:
Come, you who have my Father’s blessing, take possession of the Kingdom prepared for you from the
beginning of the world. Babylon will hear: Depart into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. Nevertheless, with the Lord’s help we can suggest how believers can distinguish even now
between citizens of Jerusalem and citizens of Babylon. Two loves built these two cities. Love of God
built Jerusalem; love of the world built Babylon. We have only then to ask ourselves what we love,
and we shall learn which city we belong to. Those who find that they are citizens of Babylon should
root out avarice and plant charity; those who find that they are citizens of Jerusalem should endure
their captivity, looking forward to their release.
One can truthfully say of a ship riding at anchor that it has made land: though it still moves with the
waves, in a certain sense it is ashore, protected from gales and tempests. On our own pilgrimage we
have a similar safeguard against temptations, for hope set fast on the city of Jerusalem will prevent
our being dashed against the rocks.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROPHECY AGAINST THE FALSE PROPHETS: EZEKIEL 13:1-16
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, prophesy
and say to those who prophesy out of their own minds: ‘Hear the word of the LORD!’ Thus says the
Lord GOD, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! Your
prophets have been like foxes among ruins, O Israel. You have not gone up into the breaches, or built
up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the LORD. They have spoken
falsehood and divined a lie; they say, ‘Says the LORD’, when the LORD has not sent them, and yet they
expect him to fulfil their word. Have you not seen a delusive vision, and uttered a lying divination,
whenever you have said, ‘Says the LORD’, although I have not spoken?”
Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have uttered delusions and seen lies, therefore
behold, I am against you, says the Lord GOD. My hand will be against the prophets who see delusive
visions and who give lying divinations; they shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in
the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am
the Lord GOD. Because, yea, because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace’, when there is no
peace; and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets daub it with whitewash; say to
those who daub it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, great hailstones will
fall, and a stormy wind break out; and when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the
daubing with which you daubed it?’ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will make a stormy wind
break out in my wrath; and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath
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to destroy it. And I will break down the wall that you have daubed with whitewash, and bring it down
to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare; when it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it;
and you shall know that I am the LORD. Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall, and upon those
who have daubed it with whitewash; and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who daubed
it, the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her,
when there was no peace, says the Lord GOD.”

HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, 2.1-3 (PG 13:682-685); WORD IN SEASON VI
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy from their own hearts. This saying
can apply to those who teach in the Church, if their teaching is contrary to the truth. Those who teach
what our Lord Jesus Christ taught speak the word of Jesus the Son of God not from their own hearts
but inspired by the Holy Spirit. If they agree with the will of the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the
Apostles, they speak not from their own hearts but from the heart of the Holy Spirit, who spoke
through Paul, through Peter, and through the rest of the Apostles. On the other hand, those who read
the Gospel and interpret it according to their own ideas, misunderstanding the Lord’s words, are false
prophets, speaking against the Gospel out of their own hearts.
Woe to those who prophesy from their own hearts and follow their own spirit. There are two sins, one
of the heart, the other of the spirit. Let us look first at the better alternative, so as to be able to
consider also its opposite. The Apostle says: I will pray with my spirit; I will pray also with my mind.
(Now the mind has its dwelling in the heart.) I will sing psalms with my spirit; I will sing them also with
my mind.
We are possessed then of both spirit and mind. The saint prays with the spirit and also with the mind,
and sings psalms with the spirit and also with the mind, but false prophets prophesy from their own
hearts, not following the Spirit of God but their own spirit. For there is a certain spirit that dwells in
men, and God forbid that I should follow it. May I, on the contrary, understand the Holy Spirit of God
and follow my Lord Jesus.
The prophets, then, who prophesy from their own hearts and follow their own spirit rather than
God’s see nothing at all. For we have within us other eyes that are better than the eyes of our bodies.
These eyes either see the Lord Jesus, who created them to contemplate him, or else they are
completely blind. If I am a sinner I see nothing; I am incapable of looking at the light of truth. As the
Lord says: It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that the blind may see, and those
who see become blind. If I am righteous I receive God’s grace, and I too am called a seer just like the
Prophets of old. Blessed are those whose eyes the Lord opens, so that they can see the wonders of
God’s law, according to the Prophet’s entreaty: Open my eyes that I may behold the wonders of your
law.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SALVATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE DOWNFALL OF SINNERS: EZEKIEL 14:12-23
And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly,
and I stretch out my hand against it, and break its staff of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off
from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver
but their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord GOD. If I cause wild beasts to pass through
the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of
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the beasts; even if these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither
sons nor daughters; they alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. Or if I bring a
sword upon that land, and say, Let a sword go through the land; and I cut off from it man and beast;
though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor
daughters, but they alone would be delivered. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my
wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast; even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as
I live, says the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver but their
own lives by their righteousness.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four sore acts of
judgment, sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! Yet, if there
should be left in it any survivors to lead out sons and daughters, when they come forth to you, and
you see their ways and their doings, you will be consoled for the evil that I have brought upon
Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. They will console you, when you see their ways and
their doings; and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the
Lord GOD.”

ENARR. IN PS. 132, 1-5; WSA (2004) TR. BOULDING
This is a short psalm, very well known and frequently quoted. See how good and how pleasant it is for
brothers to dwell together in unity! These words of the psalm have given birth to monasteries.
Brothers longed to live as one when awakened by this song; this verse roused them like a trumpet. It
rang all around the world, and those who were dispersed came together into one sheepfold. What
does the psalm imply by the words, in unity? Scripture tells us: They had but one mind and one heart.
These, then, were the first to hear effectively the psalm’s words, See how good and how pleasant it is
for brothers to dwell together in unity! They were the first but not the only ones, for this love and
fraternal unity did not reach them only to end there.
In case you hear anyone insulting you, Catholics, about our monks, we should point out that it is from
the words of this psalm that their name is derived. Nonetheless, dearest friends there are spurious
monks too. Just as there are spurious clerics, and some among believers who do not deserve the
name, so too there are bogus monks. All these three classes of people have good and bad among
them. These three are mentioned in the Gospel: Two men will be in the field: one will be taken, the
other left. Two men will be in bed: one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be at the mill: one
will be taken, the other left. The ones in the field represent those who rule the Church; this is why the
Apostle says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. By the people in bed the Lord
meant us to understand those who love a quiet life – for a bed symbolises restful quiet – those who
do not mingle with the crowds but serve God in leisure. Then again, we are told that there will be two
women at the mill. This is put into the feminine because the Lord meant ordinary laity. But why are
they said to be at the mill? Because their business is in the world, a world continually revolving like a
millstone – and woe betide anyone crushed by it!
Ezekiel speaks in a similar way about three typical persons who represent the same three groups.
When the Lord unleashes a sword over the land, he says, even if Noah, Daniel and Job are among the
people, they will not save their sons or daughters. Only they themselves will be saved. Those three
individuals were indeed saved long ago, but under their three names three classes of people are
typified. Noah stands for the rulers of the Church, because he steered the ark through the flood. But
Daniel chose a quiet life, in which he might serve God in celibacy; he did not seek a wife. Daniel is
called a man of desires – chaste and holy desires, of course – and he stands for those servants of God
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of whom the psalm speaks: See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in
unity! Job corresponds to the one woman who is taken and freed from toiling at the mill. He had a
wife, he had children, he had a vast fortune; in fact he had so plentiful supply of worldly goods that
the devil was able to accuse him of worshipping God not disinterestedly but because of all he had
been given. Under these three names, then, three types of people are represented, just as they are by
the three groups in the Gospel, as I have explained
SUNDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JERUSALEM, THE ADULTEROUS BRIDE OF GOD: EZEKIEL 16:3, 5B-7A, 8-15, 35, 37A, 40-43, 59-
63
“Say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the
Canaanites; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. You were cast out on the open
field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.
“And when I passed by you, and saw you weltering in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live, and
grow up like a plant of the field.’
“When I passed by you again and looked upon you, behold, you were at the age for love; and I spread
my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I plighted my troth to you and entered into a
covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and
washed off your blood from you, and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth
and shod you with leather, I swathed you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I decked you
with ornaments, and put bracelets on your arms, and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your
nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. Thus you were decked with
gold and silver; and your raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth; you ate fine flour
and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful, and came to regal estate. And your renown went
forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendour which I had
bestowed upon you, says the Lord GOD.
“But you trusted in your beauty, and played the harlot because of your renown, and lavished your
harlotries on any passer-by.
“Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: Behold, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you
took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you loathed. They shall bring up a host against you,
and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. And they shall burn your houses and
execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women; I will make you stop playing the harlot, and
you shall also give hire no more. So will I satisfy my fury on you, and my jealousy shall depart from
you; I will be calm, and will no more be angry. Because you have not remembered the days of your
youth, but have enraged me with all these things; therefore, behold, I will requite your deeds upon
your head, says the Lord GOD.
“Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?
“Yea, thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in
breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will
establish with you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways, and be ashamed
when I take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and give them to you as daughters, but
not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know
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that I am the LORD, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again
because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord GOD.”

CITY OF GOD, 17.3.3; (1972) TR. BETTENSON.
Now the divine oracles given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the other prophetic signs or
words found in previous sacred writings, refer partly to the nation physically derived from
Abraham, but partly to those descendants of his in whom all nations are blessed as co-heirs of
Christ through the new covenant. The same is true of the rest of the prophecies from this
period of the Kings. Thus the prophecies refer in part to the maidservant whose children are
born into slavery, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, who is in slavery, as are also her sons; but in
part they refer to the free City of God, the true Jerusalem, eternal in heaven, whose sons are the
men who live according to God’s will in their pilgrimage on earth. There are, however, some
prophecies which are understood as referring to both; literally to the bondmaid, symbolically to the
free woman.
Thus the utterances of the prophets are found to have a threefold meaning, in that some have in view
the earthly Jerusalem, others the heavenly, and others refer to both. It is clear to me that I ought to
prove my point by examples. Nathan the Prophet was sent to convict King David of a grave sin and to
predict the coming misfortunes, misfortunes which in fact followed. Can anyone doubt that these
statements and others of the same tenor had reference to the earthly city?
On the other hand we have such a passage as: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall
ratify a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah... I shall establish it by
putting my laws in their minds; and I shall write them on their hearts, and I shall look on them. And I
shall become their God; and they will become my people. This is, without doubt, a prophecy of the
Jerusalem above, whose reward is God himself; and to possess him, and to be his possession, is the
Highest Good, and the Entire Good, in that City.
But the fact that Jerusalem is called the city of God has a double reference, combined as it is with the
prophecy of the future house of God in that city. This prophecy seems to have its fulfilment when King
Solomon builds that renowned temple. But this was not only an event in the history of the earthly
Jerusalem; it was also a symbol of the Jerusalem in heaven.
Now in my opinion it is certainly a complete mistake to suppose that no narrative of events in this
type of literature has any significance beyond the purely historical record; but it is equally rash to
maintain that every single statement in those books is a complex of allegorical meanings. That is why I
have spoken of a triple, instead of a double classification; for this is my own considered judgement. In
spite of that, I do not censure those who have succeeded in carving out a spiritual meaning from each
and every event in the narrative, always provided that they have maintained its original basis of
historical truth.
MONDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A PROPHECY OF RUIN AND REINSTATEMENT: EZEKIEL 17:3-15, 9-24
“Say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of
many colours, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar; he broke off the topmost of its young
twigs and carried it to a land of trade, and set it in a city of merchants. Then he took of the seed of the
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land and planted it in fertile soil; he placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig, and
it sprouted and became a low spreading vine, and its branches turned toward him, and its roots
remained where it stood. So it became a vine, and brought forth branches and put forth foliage.
“But there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage; and behold, this vine bent its
roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him that he might water it. From the bed where
it was planted 8 he transplanted it to good soil by abundant waters, that it might bring forth branches,
and bear fruit, and become a noble vine. Say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Will it thrive? Will he not pull
up its roots and cut off its branches, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a
strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots. Behold, when it is transplanted, will it thrive? Will
it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it – wither away on the bed where it grew?”
Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know what
these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and
her princes and brought them to him to Babylon. And he took one of the seed royal and made a
covenant with him, putting him under oath. (The chief men of the land he had taken away, that the
kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up, and that by keeping his covenant it might stand.) But
he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large
army. Will he succeed? Can a man escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet
escape?
“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely my oath which he despised, and my covenant
which he broke, I will requite upon his head. I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my
snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treason he has
committed against me. And all the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be
scattered to every wind; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Thus says the Lord GOD: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I
will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high
and lofty mountain; on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and
bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its
branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring
low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I
the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.”

COMMENTARIA IN EZECHIELEM 6 (PL 25:173-174); WORD IN SEASON VI
The true Nebuchadnezzar takes a tender shoot from the topmost branches of the tall cedar, so that
the kingdom may be brought low, unable to raise itself. But the Lord God, the almighty Father, who
spoke to Ezekiel, takes a royal seed from the line of David and plants it on a high and lofty mountain.
It is this seed that says in the psalm: He has made me King on Zion his holy mountain. For Judah had
lacked a prince and Israel a leader, until the one came about whom the promise was made: And he
will be the expectation of the nations.
He put out branches and produced fruit, and grew taller than all the cedars, so that the birds of the
air all nest beneath him, protected by his shade. Habakkuk says of him: Rays of light flash from his
hands; there his power is hidden. And it is he who longs to gather his people together as a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, so that, referring metaphorically to the faithful, all the trees of the field
may know that he is the Lord.
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It is he who brought down the once lofty tree of Israel, and exalted the lowly people of the Gentiles.
He dried up the green tree of the Jews, which blossomed and produced fruit under the Law and the
Prophets, and made the dry tree of the Gentiles green, so as to fulfil by deeds what he had always
foretold. This is also the meaning of the words of Simeon in the Gospel: He is destined to cause many
either to stand or to fall. We are reminded of the mustard seed which, though the smallest seed of all,
grows into a plant big enough for the birds to nest in.
Some give a different interpretation of the high tree brought low and the lowly one exalted, taking it
to refer to the passion of our Lord and Saviour, who though his state was divine did not cling to his
equality with God but emptied himself, assuming the condition of a slave. After the resurrection this
tree was exalted; green at first but dried up by death, it came to life again, recovering its original
vigour.
Others, after the manner of the Jews, refer both trees to Israel: at our Lord’s first coming this tree was
brought low and dried up and at his second it will be restored to its original dignity, fulfilling the
words of the Apostle Paul: When the Gentiles have entered in full strength, then all Israel will be
saved.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EVERYONE RECEIVES RETRIBUTION FOR THEIR ACTIONS: EZEKIEL 18:1-13, 20-32
The word of the LORD came to me again: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning
the land of Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I
live, says the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine;
the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins shall die.
“If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right – if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift
up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbour’s wife or approach a
woman in her time of impurity, does not oppress any one, but restores to the debtor his pledge,
commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not
lend at interest or take any increase, withholds his hand from iniquity, executes true justice between
man and man, walks in my statutes, and is careful to observe my ordinances – he is righteous, he shall
surely live, says the Lord GOD.
“If he begets a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, who does none of these duties, but eats upon
the mountains, defiles his neighbour’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does
not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes
increase; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominable things; he shall surely
die; his blood shall be upon himself.
“The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer
for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
“But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statutes
and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions
which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness which he has done
he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that he
should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and
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commits iniquity and does the same abominable things that the wicked man does, shall he live? None
of the righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is
guilty and the sin he has committed, he shall die.
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not
your ways that are not just? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits
iniquity, he shall die for it; for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die. Again, when a wicked
man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he shall
save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions which he had
committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is
not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD.
Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the
transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new
spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the
Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

LETTER 7 TO VENANTIA, 7-11; FOC 95 (1997) TR. ENO.
A salutary conversion consists of two aspects: if neither penance deserts the one who hopes nor hope
deserts the one who does penance. It also requires that one renounces his sin and with his whole
heart places his hope of forgiveness in God. But sometimes either the Devil takes the hope away from
a person doing penance, or he removes the penance from the one who hopes: when he burdens one,
he crushes him; when he lifts up the other, he casts him down. Judas who betrayed Christ did
penance for his sins but lost salvation because he did not hope for forgiveness. He repented worthily
because he sinned, betraying innocent blood, but he denied himself the fruit of his penance, because
he did not hope that the sin of his betrayal was to be washed away by the very blood which he had
betrayed.
The Devil holds many in their sins by a vain hope for forgiveness and forces them not to fear the
justice of God, and he persuades them foolishly to rejoice in God’s goodness. Such people say,
according to the rebuke of the Apostle, Let us do evil that good may come of it. Their penalty is what
they deserve. With these indications, we recognise clearly that a person does penance in vain if, while
penance is being done, forgiveness is despaired of and forgiveness is hoped for in vain without
penance for sins.
Finally, our God demonstrates that the whole time of the present life is fitting for conversions, saying,
But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and
do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says
the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn away from their ways and live? But when the
righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things
that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be
remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall
die. Each statement is right because each is divine, whether it be that the righteous deeds of the just
man will be consigned to oblivion because he has turned from justice, or whether it be that the
wicked person will be saved, and all his wicked deeds forgotten, when he has converted from
wickedness.
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No length of time closes off either the divine justice or mercy. Penance is never late with God in
whose sight things past as well as future things are always taken as present. If a long period of sinning
were to overcome the mercy of God, Christ would not have come in the last age of the world to take
away the sins of a perishing world, concerning which John says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world, and the Saviour says of himself, The Son of Man has come to seek and to
save what was lost.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

(THE STORY OF ISRAEL’S UNFAITHFULNESS: EZEKIEL 20:27-44)
“Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: In this
again your fathers blasphemed me, by dealing treacherously with me. For when I had brought them
into the land which I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there
they offered their sacrifices and presented the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their
soothing odours, and there they poured out their drink offerings. (I said to them, What is the high
place to which you go? So its name is called Bamah to this day.) Wherefore say to the house of Israel,
Thus says the Lord GOD: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go astray
after their detestable things? When you offer your gifts and sacrifice your sons by fire, you defile
yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live,
says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.
“What is in your mind shall never happen--the thought, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of
the countries, and worship wood and stone.’
“As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath
poured out, I will be king over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the
countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath
poured out; and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into
judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the
land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, says the Lord GOD. I will make you pass under
the rod, and I will let you go in by number. I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who
transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter
the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
“As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and
hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and
your idols.
“For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord GOD, there all the house of
Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land; there I will accept them, and there I will require your
contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. As a pleasing odour I will
accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries where you
have been scattered; and I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you
shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country which I swore to
give to your fathers. And there you shall remember your ways and all the doings with which you have
polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. And
you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your
evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.”
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ADVERSUS HAERESES, 4.17.5-18.3; PLUSCARDEN
The Lord told his disciples to offer to God the first-fruits of his created things, not as though he were
in want, but in order that they themselves might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. He took bread,
which is part of creation, and having given thanks, said, This is my Body; in the same manner he took
the cup, which is also part of that creation to which we belong, and confessed it to be his own Blood.
Thus he taught men the new oblation of the New Covenant which the Church, having received it from
the Apostles, offers to God throughout the whole world. Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, spoke
about this offering beforehand: My pleasure is not in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not
receive sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun until its going down my name is
glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice:
for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord Almighty. This most plainly shows that,
while the former people ceased to make offerings to God, in every place a pure sacrifice shall
continue to be offered to him and his name shall be glorified among the Gentiles. The offering
of the Church, which the Lord has taught to be offered in the whole world, is reckoned by God as a
pure sacrifice and accepted by him: not that he needs a sacrifice from us, but because he who offers
receives glory because of his offering, if his gift is accepted.
We must therefore offer to God the first-fruits of his creation, as Moses says, You shall not appear
empty before the Lord your God. The general concept of offerings has not been set aside, for as there
were sacrifices there among the Jews, so also are there sacrifices here among the Christians in the
Church. The form alone has been changed, inasmuch as the offering is now made, not by slaves, but
by free men. With God nothing is insignificant, nor without symbolical meaning, for at the beginning
he had respect for the gifts of Abel, because he offered with simplicity and justice, but he had no
respect for the sacrifice of Cain because his heart was divided through envy and malice towards his
brother. God is not appeased by sacrifice. It follows that sacrifices do not sanctify a man; for God does
not need sacrifice: but the pure conscience of him who offers sanctifies the sacrifice and causes God
to accept it as from a friend.
THURSDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET A SIGN FOR THE PEOPLE: EZEKIEL 24:15-27
Also the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your
eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep nor shall your tears run down. Sigh,
but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet;
do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of mourners.” So I spoke to the people in the morning, and
at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.
And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting
thus?” Then I said to them, “The word of the LORD came to me: ‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says
the Lord GOD: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes,
and the desire of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the
sword. And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of mourners.
Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but
you shall pine away in your iniquities and groan to one another. Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign;
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according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the
Lord GOD.’
“And you, son of man, on the day when I take from them their stronghold, their joy and glory, the
delight of their eyes and their heart’s desire, and also their sons and daughters, on that day a fugitive
will come to you to report to you the news. On that day your mouth will be opened to the fugitive,
and you shall speak and be no longer dumb. So you will be a sign to them; and they will know that I
am the LORD.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW BY ORIGEN

COM. IN MATH., 12.1-3; ANF 10 (1995) TR. PATRICK
And the Sadducees and Pharisees came, and tempting him kept asking him to show them a sign from
heaven. The Sadducees and Pharisees who disagreed with each other in regard to the most essential
truths, – for the Pharisees champion the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, hoping that there
will be a world to come, while the Sadducees know nothing after this life in store for a man whether
he has been advancing towards virtue, or has made no effort at all to come out from the mountains
of wickedness, – these, I say, agree that they may tempt Jesus.
They agree together and ask him to show them a sign from heaven. For, not satisfied with the
wonderful signs our Saviour showed among the people by healing all forms of disease and sickness,
they wished him to show to them also a sign from heaven. And I think they suspected that the signs
upon earth might possibly not be of God; for they did not hesitate indeed to say, Jesus casts out
demons by Beelzebub the prince of the demons; and it seemed to them that a sign from heaven could
not spring from Beelzebub or any other wicked power. But they erred in regard to both types of sign,
not being approved money changers nor knowing how to distinguish between spirits from God and
those that have revolted against him. And they ought to have known that even many of the portents
wrought against Egypt in the time of Moses, though they were not from heaven, were clearly from
God. On the other hand one should note that which is said by the Apostle about the man of sin, the
son of perdition, that with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceit of
unrighteousness he shall be manifested to them that are perishing, imitating all kinds of wonders,
even those of truth.
Next let us note that when asked in regard to one sign from heaven, he answers the Pharisees and
Sadducees, An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and there shall be no sign given to it, other
that the sign of Jonah the Prophet. But the sign of Jonah was not merely a sign but also a sign from
heaven, so that even to those who tempted him and sought such a sign he gave one. For if, as Jonah
passed three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of man was in the heart of the
earth, and after this rose up from it, – whence but from heaven shall we say that the sign of the
resurrection of Christ came? In his passion, after he became a sign to the thief who entered into the
paradise of God, he descended into Hades to the dead, as free among the dead. This was the sign of
Jonah, the meaning of which was found in the fact that the Saviour suffered, and passed three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Seek out therefore every sign in the Old Scriptures as indicative of some passage in the New Scripture;
and also take everything which is called a sign in the new covenant as indicative of something either
in the age to come or in the generations after the sign has taken place.
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FRIDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROPHECY AGAINST THE PROUD CITY OF TYRE: EZEKIEL 28:1-19
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD:
Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart
of the seas’, yet you are but a man, and no god, though you consider yourself as wise as a god – you
are indeed wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you; by your wisdom and your understanding
you have gotten wealth for yourself, and have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your
great wisdom in trade you have increased your wealth, and your heart has become proud in your
wealth – therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you consider yourself as wise as a god, therefore,
behold, I will bring strangers upon you, the most terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their
swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendour. They shall thrust you down into
the Pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the seas. Will you still say, ‘I am a god’,
in the presence of those who slay you, though you are but a man, and no god, in the hands of those
who wound you? You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners; for I have
spoken, says the Lord GOD.”
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre,
and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect
in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian,
topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and wrought in gold
were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. With
an anointed guardian cherub I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the
stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till
iniquity was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you
sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you
out from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted
your wisdom for the sake of your splendour. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to
feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you
profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought forth fire from the midst of you; it consumed you, and I
turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the
peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more for ever.”

HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL, 13.1-2; TR. PLUSCARDEN
My subject is the passage in Ezekiel about the Prince of Tyre. What follows will be in obedience to the
Bishops, who have expressly asked me to comment on it.
The passage has the form of a lament. Its stated subject is the Prince of Tyre: but we mustn’t think it
is about any historical human person. For no man could have been created in the midst of the
Cherubim, as our literal text has it, or, brought up in the paradise of God. Yet this is said of the Prince
of Tyre. Who then is he? How are we to understand this lament which is made over him?
Let us note, first of all, how good is our God, who mourns even over those who have rejected him!
This can only come from the impulse of love. For no one mourns over someone he hates. If he
mourns over someone who is dead, even then his mourning expresses his abiding love, his desire to
see that person still alive, his continued yearning for them. Jeremiah mourned in this way over
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Jerusalem after it had been destroyed. And Isaiah mourned over Nebuchadnezzar, as the Lord
inspired him to do. Of this King of Babylon it is said: How did Lucifer fall from heaven, this day star
who rose up in the morning? He has fallen to earth. This fallen King is clearly the same as the Prince of
Tyre who is said to have been brought up in the paradise of delights.
Notice how both are said to have ‘fallen’ not ‘descended’ from heaven to earth. For my Lord, the Son
of man, descended; but Satan fell. As Jesus said of him: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yet
the Saviour was not the only one to have descended. On the contrary: a multitude daily descends and
ascends above him. For he once told Nathaniel: You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God
ascending and descending above the Son of Man. We too, then, await our own ascent. Like Jerusalem
we hear the call: Rise up from your ruin. For we are the ones who are to enter the promise lost by the
one who fell. For, salvation has come to the nations through the sin of Israel.
I am bold now to utter a great mystery. We will ascend into the very place from which the angels fell;
and the mystery which had been entrusted to them will be entrusted instead to us. For we have been
called ‘the light of the world’. We have therefore been appointed ‘Lucifers’ in place of him, the
morning star, who fell from heaven. If we are now truly the seed of Abraham, we will be numbered
among the stars of heaven. For God led Abraham outside and said to him: Look up, for your
descendants will be as numerous as these stars. And Jesus indeed prophesied that the stars will fall
from the sky like leaves. Paul commented: The glory of the sun is one thing, another is the glory of the
moon, and another the glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So it will be when the dead
rise again. But elsewhere, when speaking about the grafting-in of olive branches, he warns us not to
boast about the branches which were cut off because of their infidelity. We only stand because of our
faith. It is by our faith, therefore, alone, that we will ascend.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ISRAEL IS THE LORD’S FLOCK: EZEKIEL 34:1-6, 11-16, 23-31
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy,
and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have
been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe
yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you
have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed
you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have
ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all
the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high
hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As a
shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out
my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds
and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries,
and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the
fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and upon
the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land,
and on fat pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my
sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the
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strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will
watch over; I will feed them in justice.
“And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed
them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince
among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.
“I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may
dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round
about my hill a blessing; and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of
blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they
shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their
yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be a prey to
the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them; they shall dwell securely, and none shall
make them afraid. And I will provide for them prosperous plantations so that they shall no more be
consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall
know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people,
says the Lord GOD. And you are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord
GOD.”

SERMON 46, 1-2; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
This is not the first time, my dear people, you have learned that all our hope is in Christ, and that all
real and saving glory for us is in him. For you are part of his flock, the guide and shepherd of Israel.
But as there are shepherds who desire to be called shepherds, but refuse to fulfil the office of
shepherds, let us recall what is said to them through the Prophet Ezekiel. For your part, listen with
attention; I must listen with fear and trembling.
The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesied
even to the shepherds.’ We have just heard this lesson as it was being read; hence I have decided to
speak to you, good people. He himself will help me to speak the truth, if I do not speak just what is my
own. For if I speak my own opinions, I shall be a shepherd feeding myself not my sheep; but if what I
say is his, it is he who feeds you, no matter who is speaking. Thus says the Lord God, Ho, shepherds of
Israel, who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? That is, shepherds
feed not themselves but their sheep. This is the first reason why those shepherds are accused, that
the feed themselves not the sheep. Who are those who feed themselves? Those of whom the Apostle
says: All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.
The Lord, as he thought fit, and not according to my own merits, appointed me to this position, for
which the account to be rendered is fraught with danger; and I exhibit two clearly distinct features:
one, that I am a Christian; two, that I am appointed overseer of others. The fact that I am a Christian is
for my benefit; that I am appointed an overseer is for yours. My own good is to be considered in my
being a Christian; in my being an overseer, only yours.
There are many who, as Christians and not leaders, attain to God, travelling maybe an easier road,
and the more speedily, perhaps, the lighter the load they carry. But I, besides being a Christian, and
for this having to render an account of my life, am a leader also, and for this shall render to God an
account of my ministry.
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CHRIST THE KING
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE APOCALYPSE

(A VISION OF THE SON OF MAN IN HIS MAJESTY: APOCALYPSE 1:4-6, 10, 12-18; 2:26, 28; 3:5,
12, 20-21)
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits
who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and
the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his
God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet Then I
turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and
in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden
girdle round his breast; his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were
like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like
the sound of many waters; in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-
edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not,
I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have
the keys of Death and Hades.”
He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and I
will give him the morning star.
He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of
life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I
will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which
comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to
him and eat with him, and he with me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne,
as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

ON PRAYER 25; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
According to the saying of our Lord and Saviour, the Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as
to be seen. No one will say, “Look, here it is!”, or, “There it is!”; because the Kingdom of God is within
us. The word is very near us; it is on our lips and in our heart. It is clear from this that when a man
prays that God’s Kingdom may come, he is praying, as he should, for the Kingdom of God which is
within him, that it may rise, flourish and reach its full growth. Every saint is subject to God’s reign and
obeys the spiritual laws of God who dwells in him as in a well-governed city. The Father is present
within him and Christ reigns with the Father in the soul which has become perfect, as he said: We will
come to him and make our home with him.
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For those of us who press forward unceasingly, the Kingdom of God which is within us will reach its
full competition when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, that Christ, with all his enemies subject to him,
will deliver the Kingdom to God the Father so that God maybe all in all. And so, praying unremittingly
in the Spirit which the Word inspires in us, we say to our Father who is in heaven: Hallowed be thy
name; thy Kingdom come.
We must understand this about the Kingdom of God – as there is no partnership between
righteousness and iniquity, no fellowship of light with darkness, no accord of Christ with Belial, so the
kingdom of sin cannot coexist with the Kingdom of God.
If we would have God reign over us, then, sin must have no reign in our mortal body. We must put to
death what is earthly in us and bear the fruits of the Spirit, so that God may walk in us as in a spiritual
garden and reign alone in us with his Christ, so that Christ may be seated within us at the right hand
of that spiritual power for which we pray, seated until all his enemies within us are made a footstool
for his feet and all the principalities and authorities and powers are destroyed in us.
This can happen in each one of us. The last enemy also, death, can be destroyed, so that Christ can
say in us too, O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Now therefore, let what is
perishable in us close itself in holiness and imperishability, let what is mortal put on the Father’s
immortality when death has been destroyed, so that God may reign over us and we may live even
now amid the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.
MONDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FUTURE RENEWAL OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD: EZEKIEL 36:16-36
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,
they defiled it by their ways and their doings; their conduct before me was like the uncleanness of a
woman in her impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood which they had shed in
the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they
were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged
them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that
men said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I
had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel caused to be profaned among the nations to
which they came.
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of
Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the
nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been
profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations will know
that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your
own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within
you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. You
shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses; and I will summon the grain and make it abundant
and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant,
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that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember
your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities
and your abominable deeds. It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord GOD; let that be known
to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
“Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities
to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled,
instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, ‘This
land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined
cities are now inhabited and fortified.’ Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that
I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places, and replanted that which was desolate; I, the LORD, have
spoken, and I will do it.”
A READING FROM ON TEACHING CHRISTIANITY BY ST AUGUSTINE

DE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA, 3.48-49 (CCL 32:108-110); WORD IN SEASON VI
The Lord said: I mean to display the holiness of my great name, which was profaned among the
nations, which you profaned in their midst, and the nations will know that I am the Lord. Let the
reader therefore take note of how a single people will be superseded and all peoples added to it, for
he continues: when, through you, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
And I shall take you out of the nations and gather you from every land, and bring you to your own
land; and I shall pour clean water over you, and cleanse you of all your idolatry, and I shall purify you
and give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
Now no one who looks into the matter can doubt that this is a prophecy of the New Testament, which
applies not only to the remnant of that one people, of whom it is written elsewhere: Even if Israel
should have as many descendants as there are grains of sand on the seashore, a remnant will be
saved, but also to the other nations according to the promise made to their fathers who are also our
fathers; and that it is also a promise of those waters of regeneration that we now see imparted to all
nations. Thus the spiritual Israel is composed not of one people but of all peoples, who were
promised to the patriarchs in their offspring, which is Christ.
This spiritual Israel is therefore distinguished from the natural Israel, which consists of one nation, by
newness of grace, not nobility of descent, and by sentiments rather than race. But while the sublime
prophecy speaks of or to the natural Israel, it secretly refers to the spiritual Israel, in such a way that
while speaking of or to the latter it still seems to be speaking of or to the former. It does this not from
an unfriendly attitude that begrudges us an understanding of the scriptures, but rather, like a
physician, to exercise our understanding.
Therefore, when the Lord says: And I shall bring you to your own land, and a little later, more or less
repeating himself, And you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers, we ought to understand this
not literally as though it referred to the natural Israel, but spiritually, of the spiritual Israel. For the
Church without spot or wrinkle, gathered from every nation and destined to reign eternally with
Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living. We are to understand that it was given to
our fathers when it was promised to them by the certain and immutable will of God; for what they
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believed would be given in its own time was for them, on account of the firmness of the promise and
predetermination, the same as if it were already given. Writing to Timothy about the grace given to
the saints, the Apostle says: not for any merit of ours but for his own purpose and by the grace
granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, and now revealed by the coming of our Saviour. He
speaks of the grace as given when those who were to receive it did not yet exist, because by the
arrangement and predetermination of God what was to take place in its own time, or, as the Apostle
says, be revealed, had already been accomplished.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A VISION OF THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL: EZEKIEL 37:1-14
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD, and set me
down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among them; and behold,
there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man,
can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” Again he said to me, “Prophesy
to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to
these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon
you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you
shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling;
and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and
flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he
said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord
GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” So I
prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon
their feet, an exceedingly great host.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our
bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them,
Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my
people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when
I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you,
and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have
spoken, and I have done it, says the LORD.”

ON THE SOUL AND RESURRECTION; SVSP (1993) TR. ROTH, PP. 104-108
“Don’t you know,” I said, “how great a swarm of objections our opponents bring forward against this
hope?” At the same time I tried to tell her how many arguments are invented by contentious people
to overthrow the doctrine of the resurrection.
But Macrina answered, “I think that we should first run briefly through what is set forth in various
places by the divine Scripture concerning this doctrine. I have heard, indeed, what David sings in his
divine odes, when he has made the ordering of the universe the subject of his hymn. Near the end of
the one hundred and third Psalm he says, You will take away their spirit, and they will die and return
to their dust. You will send out your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the
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earth. He is saying that the power of the Spirit both gives life to those whom it enters and removes
from life those from whom it departs. He says that the death of the living happens by the departure
of the Spirit, and by its presence the renewal of the dead takes place. Because the death of those who
are being renewed comes first in the order of the words, we can say that the mystery of the
resurrection is being proclaimed to the Church, as David has foretold this grace by his spirit of
prophecy.
“Furthermore, it is possible,” she said, “to gather many other testimonies from the holy Scriptures to
support the doctrine of the resurrection. Ezekiel, for example, leaping over the whole interval of time
and space by his spirit of prophecy, takes his stand at the very moment of the resurrection by his
power of foreknowledge. As if already beholding that which will be, he brings it before the view of his
narration. He sees a vast plain extended without limit and on it a great heap of bones, thrown about
here and there haphazardly. Then he sees them moved together by divine power towards the bones
which belong to them, and growing into their own joints. Then sinews, flesh, and skin enwrap them
(which the psalm calls ‘covering’), and a spirit gives life and awakens all that were lying dead.
“Why should one mention the Apostle’s enumeration of the miracles connected with the
resurrection, which is readily available for the reader? The Lord does not merely say in words that the
dead will rise, but he brings about the actual resurrection, beginning his wonder-working with those
miracles which are nearer to us and less likely to be disbelieved. First he shows his life-giving power in
mortal diseases, dispelling sufferings by his word of command. Then he wakes a newly dead child.
Next he raises from the coffin a young man who is already being carried to the tombs and gives him
back to his mother. After this, when the dead Lazarus has already begun to decompose, after four
days he leads him out living from the tombs. Then, when his own humanity has been pierced with nail
and spear, he raises it from the dead on the third day, keeping the prints of the nails and the wound
of the spear as evidence of his resurrection. Concerning these it is not necessary to go into detail, as
there is no doubt among those who have accepted the Scriptures.”
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE UNION BETWEEN ISRAEL AND JUDAH IS REPRESENTED: EZEKIEL 37:15-28
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the
children of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph (the stick
of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him’; and join them together into one stick,
that they may become one in your hand. And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not show us
what you mean by these?’ say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick
of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him; and I will join
with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. When the sticks
on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD:
Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather
them from all sides, and bring them to their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land,
upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer
two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves any more with
their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all
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the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I
will be their God.
“My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my
ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. They shall dwell in the land where your fathers
dwelt that I gave to my servant Jacob; they and their children and their children’s children shall dwell
there for ever; and David my servant shall be their prince for ever. I will make a covenant of peace
with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and
will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My dwelling place shall be with them; and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify
Israel, when my sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore.”

COMMENTARIA IN EZECHIELEM, 11.37 (PL 25: 351-354); TR. PLUSCARDEN
The history of the Kings tells us that under Rehoboam, son of Solomon, the twelve tribes of Israel
were divided. Two, that is Judah and Benjamin along with the Levites and the Priests, followed
Rehoboam who reigned in Jerusalem, and his Kingdom was called Judah. The other ten tribes,
however, bent their necks to Jeroboam son of Nebat of the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, and
they were called by the ancient name of Israel. These ten tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians
and some time later Judah was led as spoil to Babylon by the Chaldeans. After seventy years the tribe
of Judah was returned to its ancient land: but the ten tribes of Israel serve as slaves in the mountains
and cities of the Medes right up to our day.
This prophecy from the mouth of the Lord promises that the kingdoms of Judah and Israel are to be
joined together. Under the sign of the Prophet, who is a type of our Lord and Saviour, they are not to
be held by two hands but by the one hand of Christ. The angel in the Gospel says of Christ that, he will
reign over the house of Jacob and there will be no end to his reign; and that he will possess such great
mercy that he will not only be called a King but also a Shepherd, softening the proud term of
sovereignty, ‘King’, with the word ‘Shepherd’. This Shepherd-King is indeed my servant David, who
when he was in the nature of God, did not consider being equal to God as plunder, but he emptied
himself, receiving the nature of a slave and became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on
the cross. This King shall establish a covenant with them, not like the covenant of battles and wars in
the Old Testament, but a covenant based on the peace he gave to the Apostles: My peace I give you,
my peace I leave you. This is the Church in which his people will grow in number and in virtue, and of
which he says, I shall make my holy dwelling in their midst forever. The Jews explain this as being
about their Temple which was constructed under Zerubbabel. But how can this be so, as it is said to
last ‘forever’ and the Temple constructed by Zerubbabel and later restored was destroyed by the
Romans? We thus have to refer all these things to the Church and to the time of our Saviour, when he
became our God and we his people.
He sanctified not the Israel of the flesh but the Israel of the spirit when his holy dwelling was set for
ever in the midst of those who believe. Truly, at the coming of our Lord and Saviour the two rods have
been joined into one sceptre. Those who were previously separated have been united by the baptism
of Christ, so that they are a single new man and one nation. They will never again be polluted by idols
and abominations; they are set free from sin by baptism to be the people of God governed by Christ;
they live in that fruitful land which he had given to his servant Jacob who had supplanted the people
of Israel in the womb of his mother.
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THURSDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A VISION OF THE LAST DAYS: EZEKIEL 38:14 – 39:10
“Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my
people Israel are dwelling securely, you will bestir yourself and come from your place out of the
uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great
host, a mighty army; you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the
latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog,
I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
“Thus says the Lord GOD: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of
Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? But on that day,
when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused. For in my
jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of
Israel; the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things
that creep on the ground, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall quake at my
presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall
tumble to the ground. I will summon every kind of terror against Gog, says the Lord GOD; every man’s
sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him;
and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples that are with him, torrential rains and
hailstones, fire and brimstone. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in
the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
“And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against
you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you about and drive you forward, and
bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel; then
I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. You
shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples that are with you; I
will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the wild beasts to be devoured. You shall fall in the
open field; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD. I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell
securely in the coastlands; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
“And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let my holy name
be profaned any more; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. Behold,
it is coming and it will be brought about, says the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken.
“Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go forth and make fires of the weapons and burn
them, shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, handpikes and spears, and they will make fires of them
for seven years; so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the
forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons; they will despoil those who despoiled them, and
plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord GOD.
A READING FROM THE SERMON ON GOG AND MAGOG OF ST EPHREM THE SYRIAN
SERMON ON GOG AND MAGOG 1, 5-8, 12; (1963) TR. TOAL.
O Son, who of your own goodness humbled yourself and became man, because it pleased you, and
who of your own will tasted death on a Cross on Golgotha, grant me, Lord, to speak of the end of the
world and of the consummation that shall come upon the whole world. Men shall fall, one upon the
other, peoples shall destroy one another, iniquity wax strong upon the face of the earth, and
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wickedness be multiplied in the world. Then the Divine Justice shall summon kings and the mightiest
armies from beyond the gates of Alexander. Armies shall pass through them, numberless as the stars
of heaven; dust like smoke ascends from the earth and obscures the sun, covering the air like a thick
cloud as Ezekiel, the son of Busi, has prophesied.
The rumour has scarce arisen in a country that the Huns are coming, when they appear as if by magic,
on every side and from everywhere. Their chariots fly like the wind between heaven and earth. Their
arms flash terrible as lightnings. For these fearful Huns terrify the whole earth, which they cover like
the waters in the days of Noah. They spread to the ends of the world and there is no one to withstand
them. This is the great multitude of whom Ezekiel said: in the last days Gog and Magog shall burst
forth and come from the land, and Gog and Magog shall come to the mount of Jerusalem to place
their camp there.
Then Divine Justice shall call upon Michael, the Leader of the Hosts, and send him to destroy their
camps, as the camps of Sennacherib. At the command, and with his mighty and terrible sword, the
Angel shall go forth and destroy their armies in the twinkling of an eye. The bow of Gog, the evil king,
shall fall from his left hand, and the arrows from his right; and his camp shall be wholly destroyed.
Then the Lord from his glorious heaven shall set up his peace. And the kingdom of the Romans shall
rise in place of this latter people, and establish its dominion upon the earth. But after iniquity shall
have multiplied, and all creatures have become defiled, then Divine Justice shall appear and shall
wholly destroy the people and the man of iniquity shall be revealed upon the earth.
Then leaping up, Gabriel and Michael, the leaders of the heavenly hosts, shall descend and restore
the Saints to life. The Evil One, together with all his followers, shall be humiliated and the Angels shall
thrust them down to Gehenna. A Throne shall be prepared, and the Son shall sit upon the right hand,
and twelve seats shall be placed for the Twelve Apostles. The Angels shall sound their trumpets, and
the dead shall rise from their graves. The just shall fly to heaven, and sinners shall be burned with fire.
The martyrs shall fly to the bridal chambers, and the evil go out into darkness. But Christ shall reign
forever, and he shall be King unto generations of generations. To him be glory; and upon us be his
mercy, for all time. Amen, amen.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A VISION OF THE RESTORATION OF THE TEMPLE AND OF ISRAEL: EZEKIEL 40:1-4; 43:1-12;
44:6-9
In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in
the fourteenth year after the city was conquered, on that very day, the hand of the LORD was upon
me, and brought me in the visions of God into the land of Israel, and set me down upon a very high
mountain, on which was a structure like a city opposite me. When he brought me there, behold, there
was a man, whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand;
and he was standing in the gateway. And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and
hear with your ears, and set your mind upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in
order that I might show it to you; declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”
Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel
came from the east; and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters; and the earth
shone with his glory. And the vision I saw was like the vision which I had seen when he came to
destroy the city, and like the vision which I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. As
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the glory of the LORD entered the Temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up, and brought
me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the Temple.
While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the Temple; and he said to
me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will
dwell in the midst of the people of Israel for ever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy
name, neither they, nor their kings, by their harlotry, and by the dead bodies of their kings, by setting
their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between
me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed, so
I have consumed them in my anger. Now let them put away their idolatry and the dead bodies of their
kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst for ever.
“And you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the Temple and its appearance and plan, that
they may be ashamed of their iniquities. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, portray
the Temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, and its whole form; and make known to them
all its ordinances and all its laws; and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe and
perform all its laws and all its ordinances. This is the law of the Temple: the whole territory round
about upon the top of the mountain shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the Temple.
“And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: O house of Israel, let
there be an end to all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to
be in my sanctuary, profaning it, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have
broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy
things; but you have set foreigners to keep my charge in my sanctuary.
“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the
foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary.”

COMMENTARIA IN EZECHIELEM (PL 25:434-437); WORD IN SEASON VI
The glory of the God of Israel enters by the East Gate through which it departed when the anger of
the Lord struck the city. It enters, or, rather, it returns to it, for this glory was the distinguishing mark
of the Lord’s Temple on the mountain. Yet something much greater follows: The Spirit of the Lord
lifted me up and brought me into the outer court. And behold, the house of the Lord was filled with his
glory. First the glory of the Lord merely entered; now the fullness of the glory is said to be in the
Temple. Of this glory Isaiah wrote: I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up. Our house is
full of this glory when with unveiled faces we contemplate the glory of the Lord, and are transformed
into the likeness of our Creator.
The voice of the Lord was like the sound of many waters – like the sound of many peoples throughout
the world, or like the voice of an army, or of multitudes massing together as the hosts of heaven
come to know the mysteries of God. In another place it is said: The chariots of God are thousands
upon thousands. The heavenly hosts, the thousands upon thousands, all make the same utterance
since all are united in the praise of God. To the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit they sing: Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth are full of his glory.
And the earth shone with his glory. This was only really fulfilled in the coming of Christ when the
preaching of the Apostles went forth through all the earth, and their words to the utmost bounds of
the world. It is daily fulfilled in believers, and will come to perfection when this corrupt nature puts on
incorruption and this mortal nature is clothed with immortality.
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I heard someone speaking to me from within the Temple. This must surely have been the Lord, for
who else could have said, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, the place where I set my feet, and
where I shall dwell among the Israelites forever, but he who dwells in the Church, in the midst of the
Israel that recognises the Lord, and who will dwell there, not only for a time, as he did in the Temple
of Solomon, but forever. And his dwelling-place, writes the Psalmist, will be peace, that peace which
passes all understanding.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VISION OF THE CLEANSING WATERS FLOWING FROM THE TEMPLE: EZEKIEL 47:1-12
Then he brought me back to the door of the Temple; and behold, water was issuing from below the
threshold of the Temple toward the east (for the Temple faced east); and the water was flowing down
from below the south end of the threshold of the Temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out
by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate, that faces toward the
east; and the water was coming out on the south side.
Going on eastward with a line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me
through the water; and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the
water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it
was up to the loins. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through,
for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And
he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?”
Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw upon the bank of the river very
many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern
region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water
will become fresh. And wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live, and there
will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so
everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea; from En-gedi to En-
eglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the
Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the
banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither
nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from
the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

SERMON 256, 1.2.3; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Let us sing Alleluia here below while we are still anxious, so that we may sing it one day there above
when we are freed from care. Why are we troubled here? Do you not expect me to be troubled when
I read: Is not a man’s life upon earth full of trial? Do you not expect me to be troubled when I hear the
words: Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation? Do you not expect me to be troubled
when temptation and trial so abound that the Lord’s Prayer orders us to say when we pray: Forgive us
our debts as we also forgive our debtors? Every day we pray, every day we are debtors. Do you think I
can be free from care when every day I seek pardon for my sins and help in peril? When I have said
for my past sins: Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, I go on at once to add, because
of perils still to come: Lead us not into temptation. But how can the congregation be in security when
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it cries with me: Deliver us from evil. And yet, brethren, in this evil plight of ours here below we must
sing Alleluia to the good God who delivers us from evil.
Here, too, amidst the dangers and the trials we and others must sing Alleluia, for God is faithful and
he will not let you be tempted to beyond your strength, as Paul says. So then we must also sing here
Alleluia. Man is still a sinner, but God is faithful. Scripture does not say, He will not let you be tempted,
but, He will not let you be tempted to beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide
the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. You have entered into temptation, but God will
also provide a way of escape that you may not perish in temptation. As the potter makes a vase, you
are to be moulded by preaching; you are to be fired by tribulation. But when you enter into
temptation, think of the way of escape; for God is faithful: The Lord will keep your coming in and your
going out.
And so it is too, when this body has been made immortal and incorruptible, when every trial and
temptation has passed away. How happy will be our shout of Alleluia there, where there is no enemy,
where no friend perishes. There praise is offered to God, and here, too; but here it is by men who are
anxious, there by men who are free from care, here by men who must die, there by men who will live
forever. Here praise is offered in hope, there by men who enjoy the reality, here by men who are
pilgrims on the way, there by men who have reached their own country.
So, brethren, now let us sing Alleluia, not in the enjoyment of heavenly rest, but to sweeten our toil.
Sing as travellers sing along the road: but keep on walking. Solace your toil by singing – do not yield to
idleness. Sing but keep on walking. What do I mean by ‘walking’? I mean, press on from good to
better. The Apostle says there are some who go from bad to worse. But if you press on, you keep on
walking. Go forward then in virtue, in true faith and right conduct. Sing up – and keep on walking.
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APPENDIX A: ALTERNATIVE READINGS:
TUESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK ORD. TIME

THE SONG OF DEBORAH AND BARAK: JUDGES 5:1-31
Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abino-am on that day: “That the leaders took the lead in
Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the LORD!
“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the LORD I will sing, I will make melody to the LORD, the God of
Israel.
“LORD, when thou didst go forth from Seir, when thou didst march from the region of Edom, the
earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, yea, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked
before the LORD, yon Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel.
“In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans ceased and travellers kept to the
byways. The peasantry ceased in Israel, they ceased until you arose, Deborah, arose as a mother in
Israel. When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among
forty thousand in Israel? My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves
willingly among the people. Bless the LORD.
“Tell of it, you who ride on tawny asses, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way. To
the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the triumphs of the LORD, the
triumphs of his peasantry in Israel. Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.
“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of
Abino-am. Then down marched the remnant of the noble; the people of the LORD marched down for
him against the mighty. From Ephraim they set out thither into the valley, following you, Benjamin,
with your kinsmen; from Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear
the marshals staff; the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak; into the
valley they rushed forth at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds, to hear the piping for the flocks? Among the clans of
Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he
abide with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, settling down by his landings. Zebulun is a
people that jeopardised their lives to the death; Naphtali too, on the heights of the field.
“The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
they got no spoils of silver. From heaven fought the stars, from their courses they fought against
Sisera. The torrent Kishon swept them away, the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my
soul, with might! Then loud beat the horses hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.
Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD, curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they came not to the
help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
He asked water and she gave him milk, she brought him curds in a lordly bowl. She put her hand to
the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his
head, she shattered and pierced his temple. He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet; at her feet he
sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell dead.
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Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera gazed through the lattice: Why is his chariot so
long in coming? Why tarry the hoof beats of his chariots? Her wisest ladies make answer, nay, she
gives answer to herself, Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? – A maiden or two for every man;
spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera, spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered
for my neck as spoil?
So perish all thine enemies, O LORD! But thy friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.
HOLY TRINITY


ST ATHANASIUS, LETTER 1.28-30 (PG 26:594-595, 599); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church,
which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the Fathers. For upon
this faith the Church is built and if anyone were to lapse from it, that person would no longer be a
Christian either in fact or in name.
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In
this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a
blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and
undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit;
and in this way the unity of the Holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly in the Church one God is
preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all
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things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in
all things in the Holy Spirit
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to one God, the Father,
saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.
Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all
that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are
true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in
us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My Father and I will
come to him and make our home with him. For where the light is, there also is the radiance; and
where the radiance is, there too are its power and its resplendent grace.
This is also Paul’s teaching in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the
Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father
through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit But
when we share in the Spirit we possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the
fellowship of the Spirit himself.
CORPUS CHRISTI

And he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD; but the others shall
not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.’
Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All
that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw
it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in
accordance with all these words.’
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw
the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very
heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld
God, and ate and drank.

ST THOMAS AQUINAS, OPUSCULUM 57 IN FESTO CORPORIS CHRISTI 1-4; WORD IN SEASON
III, 1ST ED.
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Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that we should share in his divinity, he assumed our
nature in order that by becoming man he might make us divine. Moreover, when he took our flesh he
dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the
altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and
purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from
all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body
as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could
anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old Law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was
offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more
wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away,
virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in
the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for
the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament in which
spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing
love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord
instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the
Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his
passion. It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles while for those who
were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding
consolation.

glorified.
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his
own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any
charge against Gods elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes,
who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or

ST BONAVENTURE, OPUSCULUM 3.29-30, 47; THE DIVINE OFFICE
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You who have been redeemed, consider who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives
life to the dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, when even the hard stones are split.
Consider how great he is; consider what he is.
In order that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept on the cross, in order
that the word of Scripture might be fulfilled – They shall look on him whom they have pierced – God’s
providence decreed that one of the soldiers should open his sacred side with a spear, so that blood
with water might flow out to pay the price of our salvation. This blood, which flowed from its source
in the secret recesses of his heart, gave the sacraments of the Church power to confer the life of
grace, and for those who already live in Christ was a draught of living water welling up to eternal life.
Arise, then, bride of Christ, be like the dove that nests in the rock-face at the mouth of a cavern, and
there, like a sparrow which finds its home, do not cease to keep vigil; there, like a turtle-dove, hide
the fledglings of your chaste love; place your lips there to draw water from the wells of your Saviour.
For this is the spring flowing from the middle of paradise; it divides and becomes four rivers, then
spreads through all devout hearts, and waters the whole world and makes it fruitful.
O soul devoted to God, whoever you may be, run to this source of life and light eager longing. And
with the power of your inmost heart cry out to him: O indescribable beauty of God most high! O pure
radiance of everlasting light! O life that gives life to all life! O light that illuminates every light, and
preserves in its undying splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your
Godhead from the dawn of time!
‘O water eternal and inaccessible, clear and sweet, flowing from the spring that is hidden from the
eyes of all mortal men; the spring whose depths cannot be plumbed, whose height cannot be
measured, whose shores cannot be charted, whose purity cannot be muddied.’
From this source flows the river which makes glad the city of God, so that with glad shouts we sing to
you our hymns of praise, and by experience prove that with you is the fountain of life; and in your
light we shall see light.
CHRIST THE UNIVERSAL KING

A VISION OF THE SON OF MAN RECEIVING THE KINGDOM: DANIEL 7:1-17, 23-27
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in
his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, and told the sum of the matter. Daniel said, “I saw in my
vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great
beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles'
wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to
stand upon two feet like a man; and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a
second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side; it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth;
and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ After this I looked, and lo, another, like a leopard, with four
wings of a bird on its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I
saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong; and
it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was
different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and
behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns
were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth
speaking great things. As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his
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seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery
flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; a
thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court
sat in judgment, and the books were opened.
“I looked then because of the sound of the great words which the horn was speaking. And as I looked,
the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of
the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I
saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and
he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and
glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
“As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious and the visions of my head alarmed me. I
approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me,
and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who
shall arise out of the earth.’
“Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be
different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it
to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after
them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak
words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change
the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, two times, and half a time. But
the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed
to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole
heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.’”
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
Year II
ADVENT & CHRISTMASTIDE

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SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT
REPROVING THE PEOPLE: ISAIAH 1:1-18
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: “Sons have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel
does not know, my people does not understand.”
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They
have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.
Why will you still be smitten, that you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart
faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores
and bleeding wounds; they are not pressed out, or bound up, or softened with oil.
Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your
land; it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.
If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like
Gomorrah.
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of
Gomorrah! “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of
burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or
of he-goats.
“When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no
more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of
assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you
spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not
listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your
doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression;
defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

CATECHESIS 15. 1-3, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
We preach not one coming only of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the first. The first
revealed the meaning of his patient endurance; the second brings with it the crown of the divine
kingdom.
Generally speaking, everything that concerns our Lord Jesus Christ is twofold. His birth is twofold:
one, of God before time began; the other, of the Virgin in the fullness of time. His descent is twofold:
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one, unperceived, like dew falling on the fleece; the other, before the eyes of all, is yet to happen. In
his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger. In his second coming he is
clothed with light as with a garment. In his first coming he bore the cross, despising its shame; he will
come a second time in glory accompanied by the hosts of angels.
It is not enough for us, then, to be content with his first coming; we must wait in hope of his second
coming. What we said at his first coming, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we shall
repeat at his last coming. Running out with the angels to meet the Master we shall cry out in
adoration, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Saviour will come not to be
judged again but to call to judgement those who called him to judgement. He who was silent when he
was first judged, will indict the malefactors who dared to perpetrate the outrage of the cross, and say,
These things you did and I was silent. He first came in the order of divine providence to teach men by
gentle persuasion; but when he comes again they will, whether they wish it or not, be subjected to his
kingship.
The prophet Malachi has something to say about each of these comings. The Lord whom you seek will
suddenly come to his temple. That is the first coming. Again, of the second coming he says, And the
angel of the covenant whom you seek. Behold, the Lord almighty will come: but who can endure the
day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s
soap; he will sit like a refiner and a purifier. Paul pointed to the two comings when he wrote to Titus,
The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and
worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope,
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. You see how he has spoken
of the first coming for which he gives thanks and of the second to which we look forward.
Hence it is that by the faith we profess, which has just been handed on to you, we believe in him ‘who
ascended into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead; and his kingdom will have no end.’ Our Lord Jesus Christ will,
then, come from heaven. He will come in glory at the end of this world on the last day. Then there will
be an end to this world, and this created world will be made new.
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

THE JUDGEMENT AND SALVATION OF ZION; A GATHERING OF THE NATIONS: ISAIAH 1:21-27;
2:1-5
How the faithful city has become a harlot, she that was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. Your princes are
rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the
fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
Therefore, the Lord says, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will vent my wrath on my
enemies, and avenge myself on my foes. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your
dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your
counsellors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful
city.”
Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
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The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in
the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the
mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples
shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of
Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall
decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

THE LITURGICAL SERMONS 3.7-13, TR. BERKELEY & PENNINGTON (2001), FROM CISTERCIAN
FATHERS 58
Let us take a look at ourselves and our city. Our way of life is a strongly fortified city surrounded on all
sides by sound observances which, like walls and towers, rise up to prevent our enemy from deceiving
us and enticing us away from our Emperor’s army. What a wall poverty is! How well it defends us
against the pride of the world, against harmful and ruinous vanities and superfluities. What a tower
silence is! It repels the assaults of contention, quarrelling, dissension, and detraction. What about
obedience, humility, cheap clothing? What about a restricted diet? They are walls, they are towers
against vices, against the attacks of our enemies. In this city we declare ourselves, not Romans, but
angelic beings. For these observances demonstrate that we belong to the fellowship of the angels and
are not among the slaves of the Romans. When we make profession of this way of life the words of
Isaiah are fulfilled: They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Then he
goes on: Nation shall not lift sword against nation nor ever again be trained for war.
Everyday this is being fulfilled literally, not in the treacherous nation of the reprobate that neither
does, nor has, nor shall enjoy peace, but in the race of the just which is blessed. Do you not see men,
nobles in the world, experiencing conversion to monastic life, laying down their spears and swords
and earning their food by manual labour like peasants? But this is better, more obviously and more
fully understood as being fulfilled in a spiritual way among every class, poor as well as rich, clerical as
well as lay.
Let us think about the sword of which the Lord said: Everyone who takes up the sword will perish
by the sword, and the ploughshares by which the earth of our heart is broken, in accordance with
the text: Rend your hearts and not your garments. And we shall see at the present time countless
persons changing their swords into ploughshares. The sword is wrongdoing. With this sword a person
wounds himself before he does anyone else; as Saint Augustine says: ‘Every person who is a
wrongdoer harms himself before he harms anyone else because, even before he injures the other
person, by making up his mind to injure someone else he injures himself, slaying himself with the
sword of wrongdoing. This is the sword of which the Lord says to Peter: Everyone who takes up the
sword will perish by the sword.
How many there are, brothers, who at the present time are beating this sword of wrongdoing into the
ploughshare of compunction! Many who have previously killed their soul with the sword of sin now
rend their heart by the compunction of penance. Many today are also changing their spears - that is,
the subtlety of their wits by which they used to drag many others down into sin with them - into
sickles with which they are reaping a spiritual harvest so that they may come to meet the Lord
bearing in their hands the sheaves of justice and salvation.
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TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT

THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD: ISAIAH 2:6-22; 4:2-6
For thou hast rejected thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of diviners from the east
and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with foreigners. Their land is filled with
silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no
end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what
their own fingers have made. So man is humbled, and men are brought low – forgive them not! Enter
into the rock, and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his
majesty. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall be humbled; and
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high;
against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the
high mountains, and against all the lofty hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified
wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the haughtiness of man
shall be humbled, and the pride of men shall be brought low; and the LORD alone will be exalted in
that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And men shall enter the caves of the rocks and the
holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he
rises to terrify the earth.
In that day men will cast forth their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for
themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts
of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to
terrify the earth. Turn away from man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?
In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be
the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will
be called holy, every one who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have
washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its
midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site
of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by
night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy and a pavilion. It will be for a shade by day from the
heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

ORATIO 45. 9,22,26,28, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The Son of God himself, who is before all ages, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the bodiless, the
beginning from the beginning, the light from the light, source of life and immortality, image of the
archetype, immovable seal, unchangeable image, the Father’s definition and Word, he it is who came
to his own image and took to himself flesh for the sake of our flesh. Then he united himself w i t h an
intelligent soul for my soul’s sake, purifying like by like. He took to himself all that is human, except
sin. He was conceived by the Virgin who was first purified in body and soul by the Spirit. It was
necessary both that childbearing be honoured and that virginity be honoured still more highly.
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He came forth as God with what he had taken to himself. Out of two contraries, flesh and spirit, he
made one. The Spirit conferred the godhead on the flesh that received it. He who enriches others
becomes poor. He took to himself the poverty of my flesh so that I might obtain the riches of his
godhead. He who is full empties himself. H e emptied himself of his godhead for a brief time so that I
might share in his fullness.
What is this wealth of goodness? What is this mystery that touches me? I received the divine image
and I did not keep it. He receives my flesh to save the image and grant immortality to the flesh. This,
his second communion with us, is far more marvellous than the first. It was necessary that holiness be
conferred on man through the humanity God took to himself. In this way, conquering the tyrant by
force, he freed us and led us back to himself through his Son, the mediator. The Son brought this
about to the honour of the Father to whom in all things, he is seen to defer.
The good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep, set out after the strayed sheep, on the
mountains and hills on which you used to sacrifice. When he found the stray sheep he carried it on
those same shoulders that bore the wood of the cross, and brought it back with him to the life above.
The brightest of all lights follows the lamp that goes before him. The Word follows the voice in the
wilderness. The bridegroom follows the friend of the bridegroom who is making ready for God a
special people, cleansing them with water in anticipation of the Spirit.
We needed an incarnate God who would die that we might live. We died with him that we might be
cleansed. We rose again with him because we died with him. We were glorified with him because we
rose again with him.
WEDNESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT

AGAINST THE LORD’S VINEYARD: ISAIAH 5:1-7
Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very
fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in
the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild
grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my
vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it
to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I
will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or
hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon
it.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant
planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!

SERMON 5 ON ADVENT 1-3, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
We have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord. The third coming takes place between the
other two. They are clearly manifest but the third is not. In the first coming the Lord was seen on
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earth and lived among men in the days when, as he himself bears witness, they saw and hated him. In
his last coming all flesh shall see the salvation of our God, and they shall look on him whom they have
pierced. The other coming is hidden. In it, only the chosen see him within themselves and their souls
are saved. In brief, his first coming was in the flesh in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the
spirit and in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty.
This intermediary coming is like a road leading from the first to the last coming. In the first coming
Christ was our redemption, in the last he will appear as our life, in this intermediary coming he is our
rest and consolation.
Do not imagine that what we are saying about the intermediary coming is simply our own fabrication.
Listen to Christ himself, If a man loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we
will come to him. I have read elsewhere, The man who fears the Lord will do good, but it is my opinion
that more was said of the one who loves, namely that he will keep the words. Where, then, are they
to be kept? Without any doubt they are to be kept in the heart, as the prophet says, I have kept your
words in my heart, lest I sin against you. Keep the word of God in that way for, blessed are they who
keep it. Let it pierce deep into your inmost soul and penetrate your feelings and actions. Eat well and
your soul will delight and grow. Do not forget to eat your bread or your heart will wither, but let your
soul feast richly.
If you keep the word of God in this way without a doubt you will be kept by it. The Son with
the Father will come to you. The great prophet who will renew Jerusalem will come and he will make
everything new. The effect of this coming will be that just as we have borne the image of the earthly
man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. Just as the old Adam was poured out
throughout the whole man and filled him completely, so now let Christ take possession of the whole
man, for he created the whole man, he redeemed the whole man and he will glorify the whole man.
THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT

ZION THE REFUGE OF THE MOABITES; THE CONVERSION OF EPHRAIM: ISAIAH 16:1-5; 17:4-8
They have sent lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the
daughter of Zion. Like fluttering birds, like scattered nestlings, so are the daughters of Moab at the
fords of the Arnon. “Give counsel, grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; hide
the outcasts, betray not the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a refuge to
them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who
tramples under foot has vanished from the land, then a throne will be established in steadfast love
and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do
righteousness.”
And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean. And it
shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one
gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is
beaten – two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit
tree, says the LORD God of Israel.
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In that day men will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel; they will not
have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers
have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

COMMENTARY ON THE DIATESSARON 18. 15-17, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
To prevent his disciples from questioning him about the time of his coming Christ said, Of that hour
no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son. It is not for you to know the times or moments. He hid
the time from us so that we would be on the watch and so that each of us might think that the
coming will happen in his own lifetime. If he had revealed when he was to come again, his coming
would have been made pointless and the peoples and ages in which it will take place would no longer
yearn for it. He said that he will come again but he did not say exactly when. Hence, all generations
and ages live in eager expectation of him. The Lord pointed out the signs of his coming but we have
no knowledge of when they will be completed. In many varied ways they have happened and passed
away and are still happening. His last coming is, in fact, like his first.
The just and the prophets longed for him, thinking that he was to appear in their day. So, today, each
of the faithful wants to receive him in his own lifetime, just because he did not reveal the day of his
coming. His chief reason for this was so that no one might think that he who has power and authority
over numbers and times is subject himself to a command and an hour. How could that have been
hidden from him which he himself had determined, and for which he had given signs? He gave
prominence to those signs so that, from that day onwards, all generations and all ages might think his
coming would happen in their own time.
Be on the watch. When the body sleeps, nature gets the better of us. Then, our actions do not come
from our will but by force from the impulse of nature. When the soul is overcome by a heavy sleep of
timidity or sadness, the enemy takes control of it and works through it what it does not want to do.
Force dominates nature and the enemy dominates the soul. The Lord’s command about vigilance
holds good for both parts of man. The body must avoid overpowering sleep and the soul must
guard against sluggishness and timidity. In the words of Scripture, Awake you just, and I rose up
and am still with you, and, Do not lose heart. That is why we do not lose heart in the ministry
which is entrusted to us.
FRIDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT

THE FUTURE CONVERSION OF THE EGYPTIANS AND THE ASSYRIANS: ISAIAH 19:16-25
In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand which the LORD
of hosts shakes over them. And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; every one to
whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose which the LORD of hosts has purposed against
them.
In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear
allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.
In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD
at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to
the LORD because of oppressors he will send them a saviour, and will defend and deliver them. And
the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day
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and worship with sacrifice and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform
them. And the LORD will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he
will heed their supplications and heal them.
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and
the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom
the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my
hands, and Israel my heritage.”
A READING FROM THE PROSOLOGION OF ST ANSELM

THE PROSOLOGION 1, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
Come now, insignificant man, fly for a moment from your affairs, escape for a little while from the
tumult of your thoughts. Put aside now your weighty cares and leave your wearisome toils. Abandon
yourself for a little to God and rest for a little in him. Enter into the inner chamber of your soul, shut
out everything save God and what can be of help in your quest for him and having locked the door
seek him out. Speak now, my whole heart, speak now to God: I seek your face, O Lord, your face I
seek.
Come then, Lord my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you.
Lord, if you are not present here, where, since you are absent, shall I look for you? On the other hand,
if you are everywhere why then, since you are present, do I not see you? But surely you dwell in light
inaccessible. And where is this inaccessible light, or how can I approach the inaccessible light? Or who
shall lead me and take me into it that I may see you in it? Again, by what signs, under what aspect,
shall I seek you? Never have I seen you, Lord my God, I do not know your face.
What shall he do, most high Lord, what shall this exile do, far away from you as he is? What shall your
servant do, tormented by love of you and yet cast off far from your face? He yearns to see you and
your face is too away from him. He desires to come close to you, and your dwelling place is
inaccessible; he longs to find you and does not know where you are; he is eager to seek you out and
he does not know your face.
Lord, you are my God and my Lord, and never have I seen you. You have created me and re-created
me and you have given me all the good things I possess, and still I do not know you. In short, I was
made in order to see you, and I have not yet accomplished what I was made for.
And you, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord, will you be unmindful of us? How long will you turn your
face from us? When will you look upon us and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes and show
your face to us? When will you give yourself again to us? Look upon us, Lord; hear us, enlighten us,
show yourself to us. Give yourself to us that it may be well with us, for without you it goes so ill for us.
Have pity upon our efforts and our strivings towards you, for we can avail nothing without you.
Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me as I seek, because I can neither seek you if you do
not teach me how, nor find you unless you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in desiring you; let me
desire you in seeking you; let me find you in loving you; let me love you in finding you.
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SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT

THE WATCHMAN ANNOUNCES THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON: ISAIAH 21:6-12
For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman, let him announce what he sees. When he sees
riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on asses, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently.”
Then he who saw cried: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am
stationed whole nights. And, behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!” And he answered, “Fallen,
fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.” O my threshed and
winnowed one, what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.
The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?” The watchman says: “Morning comes, and also the night. If you will
inquire, inquire; come back again.”
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE ADVANTAGE OF PATIENCE BY ST

CYPRIAN
ON THE ADVANTAGE OF PATIENCE 13, 15, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The command of our Lord and Master which will save us is: He who endures to the end will be saved.
And, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth
will make you free.
The hope of truth and of freedom is already ours, dearly beloved, but if we are to attain truth and
freedom in reality we must endure and persevere. The very fact that we are Christians is the
substance of faith and hope. But in order that faith and hope may attain their full fruit, there is need
of patience. We are pursuing a future, not a present glory, in accordance with the admonition of Paul
the Apostle: It is in hope that we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for
what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Waiting and
patience are necessary if we are to fulfil what we have begun to be, and to receive, through God’s
unfailing help, what we hope for and believe.
In another passage from the same Apostle, those who are holy, who work at laying up a treasure for
themselves in heaven by increasing the capital that God has given them, are instructed to be patient
as well: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of
the household of the faith. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap. He
urges us that no one give up his work through impatience, that no one stop halfway on the road to
praise and glory, being turned aside or overcome by temptations so that past achievement perishes,
while what is begun is not brought to completion.
The Apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. Love, he
says, is large-souled, love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it thinks no evil; loves all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. He shows that it can tenaciously
persevere, for the very reason that it knows how to endure all things.
And in another passage: Forbearing one another, he says, in love, using every effort to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He proved that neither unity nor peace could be kept unless
the brethren treat one another with mutual forbearance, and preserve the bond of concord through
patience
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SUNDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

AGAINST THE PRIDE OF JERUSALEM AND OF SHEBNA; ISAIAH 22:8B-23
In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of
the city of David were many, and you collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the
houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir
between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have
regard for him who planned it long ago.
In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and girding with
sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
“Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you till you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.
Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household,
and say to him: What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you have hewn here a tomb
for yourself, you who hew a tomb on the height, and carve a habitation for yourself in the rock?
Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you, and
whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there
shall be your splendid chariots, you shame of your master’s house. I will thrust you from your office,
and you will be cast down from your station. In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of
Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your
authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of
Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall
shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will
become a throne of honour to his father’s house.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 40, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our
God. This makes clear that the events spoken of in the prophecy are to take place not in Jerusalem,
but in the wilderness. By this is meant that the glory of the Lord will appear, and the salvation of God
will be made known to all flesh.
This prophecy was fulfilled historically and literally, when John the Baptist preached the saving advent
of God, in the wilderness by the Jordan, where the salvation of God was in fact seen. For Christ and
his glory became known to all when, after he had been baptized, the heavens were opened, and the
Holy Spirit came down under the appearance of a dove, and rested upon him. Then was the Father’s
voice heard in testimony to the Son: This is my Son, my Beloved; listen to him!
These things were said because God was about to come to the wilderness, which had been
impenetrable and inaccessible for a whole age. For all the nations were empty of the knowledge of
God: access to them had been prohibited to all the men of God and the prophets. That was why that
voice ordered a way to be prepared for the Word of God, and the pathless and rugged lands levelled,
so that at his coming, our God might find the road clear for his advance. Prepare the way of the Lord:
this is the Gospel preaching, the new consolation, the ardent desire that the salvation of God come to
the knowledge of all men.
Get you up to a high mountain, O herald of good tidings to Sion, lift up your voice with strength, O
herald of good tidings to Jerusalem.
These words fit in very well with the meaning of our first quotation. They make an appropriate
reference to the preachers of the Gospel, and announce the coming of God among men, after we
have heard of the voice crying in the wilderness. It is fitting that after the prophecy about John the
Baptist, the preachers of good tidings be mentioned.
Who then is this Sion, except she who earlier was called Jerusalem? For she too is a mountain,
according to that passage of Scripture, The mountain of Sion, where you made your dwelling, and the
Apostle says, You have come to Mount Sion. Does this perhaps refer to the band of Apostles, chosen
from among the former people of the circumcision?
This Sion and Jerusalem is she who receives the salvation of God. She herself is placed on high on the
mountain of God, that is on his Only-begotten Word. To her he gives the command to get up on a high
mountain, and preach the word of salvation. But who preaches the good tidings, if not the band of those
who make the Gospel known? And what is meant by making the Gospel known? Preaching to all
mankind the coming of Christ on earth, and preaching it first to the cities of Judah.
MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

THE LORD IS REVEALED ON HIS DAY: ISAIAH 24:1-18
Behold, the LORD will lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and
scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with
his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the
lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. The earth shall be utterly laid
waste and utterly despoiled; for the LORD has spoken this word.
The earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with
the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated
the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and its
inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are
left. The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of the timbrels is
stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled. No more do they drink wine
with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The city of chaos is broken down; every house
is shut up so that none can enter. There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has reached
its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered
into ruins. For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is
beaten, as at the gleaning when the vintage is done.
They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west.
Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; in the coastlands of the sea, to the name of the LORD,
the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, “I pine away, I pine away. Woe is me! For the treacherous deal treacherously, the
treacherous deal very treacherously.”
Terror, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! He who flees at the sound
of the terror shall fall into the pit; and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For
the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
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A READING FROM THE LITURGICAL YEAR BY ABBOT PROSPER GUÉRANGER
THE LITURGICAL YEAR, ADVENT, 198-200, FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
The earth was in desolation when the Messiah came to deliver and save it. So diminished, so decayed,
were truths among men that the race was bordering on its ruin. The knowledge of the true God was
becoming rarer as the world got older; idolatry had made everything in creation an object of its
adulterous worship; the practical result of a religion which was but gross materialism was frightful
immorality; men were forever at war with one another, and the only safeguards of what social order
still existed in the world were the execrable laws of slavery and extermination. Among the countless
inhabitants of the globe a mere handful could be found who were seeking God; they were as rare as
the olives that remain on the tree after a careful plucking, or as grape-bunches after the vintage is
ended. Of this happy few were, among the people of the Jews, those true Israelites whom our Saviour
chose for his disciples; and, among the Gentiles, the Magi who came from the East asking for the
newborn King, and later on, Cornelius the Centurion, whom the angel of the Lord directed to Saint
Peter. But with what faith and joy did they not acknowledge the incarnate God!
Now all this will again happen when the time draws near for the Second Coming of the Messiah. The
earth will once more be filled with desolation, and mankind will be again a slave of its self-
degradation. The ways of men will again grow corrupt, and this time the malice of their evil will be
greater because they will have received him who is the Light of the World, the Word of Life. A
profound sadness will sit heavily on all nations, and every effort for their well-being will seem
paralysed; they, and the earth they live on, will be conscious of decrepitude; and yet it will never once
strike them that the world is drawing to an end. There will be great scandals; stars will fall from
heaven: that is, many of those who had been masters in Israel will apostatise, and their light will be
changed into darkness. There will be days of temptation, and faith will grow slack, so that when the
Son of Man appears faith will hardly be found on the earth.
Grant, O Lord, that we may be in the number of those chosen olives, of those select bunches of
grapes, wherewith you will complete the harvest which you gather forever into your house. Preserve
intact within us the deposit of faith which you have entrusted to us; let our eye be fixed on that
Orient of which the Church speaks to us, and where you are suddenly to appear in your majesty.
When that day of yours comes, and we behold your triumph, we shall shout our glad delight, and
then, like eagles that cluster round a body, we shall be taken up to meet you in the air, as your Apostle
says, and thus shall we be ever with you.
TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

THE KINGDOM OF GOD; THANKSGIVING: ISAIAH 24:19 – 25:5
The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers
like a drunken man, it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise
again.
On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the
earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after
many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the
LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his elders he will manifest his
glory.
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O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure. For thou hast made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the
palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will glorify thee;
cities of ruthless nations will fear thee. For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to
the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the blast of the
ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place. Thou dost subdue the noise of the
aliens; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND VATICAN

COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, LUMEN GENTIUM 48, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the
grace of God, will attain her full perfection only in the glory of heaven. Then will come the time of the
restoration of all things. Then the human race as well as the entire world, which is intimately
related to man and achieves its purpose through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.
Christ, having been lifted up from the earth, is drawing all men to himself. Rising from the dead, he
sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples and through this Spirit has established his body, the
Church, as the universal sacrament of salvation. Sitting at the right hand of the Father, he is
continually active in the world, leading men to the Church, and through her joining them more closely
to himself and making them partakers of his glorious life by nourishing them with his own body and
blood.
Therefore, the promised restoration which we are awaiting has already begun in Christ, is carried
forward in the mission of the Holy Spirit, and through him continues in the Church. There we learn
through faith the meaning, too, of our temporal life, as we perform, with hope of good things to
come, the task committed to us in this world by the Father, and work out our salvation.
The final age of the world has already come upon us. The renovation of the world has already been
irrevocably decreed and in this age is already anticipated in some way. For even now on this earth the
Church is marked with a genuine though imperfect holiness. However, until there is a new heaven and
a new earth where justice dwells, the pilgrim Church in her sacraments and institutions, which pertain
to this present time, takes on the appearance of this passing world. She herself dwells among
creatures who groan and travail in pain until now and await the revelation of the sons of God.
WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

GOD’S BANQUET; THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED: ISAIAH 25:6 – 26:6
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on
the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined. And he will destroy on this
mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will
swallow up death for ever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of
his people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.
It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is
the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
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For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, as
straw is trodden down in a dung-pit. And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer
spreads his hands out to swim; but the LORD will lay low his pride together with the skill of his hands.
And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the
dust.
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as
walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in. Thou
dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust in the
LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. For he has brought low the inhabitants of the
height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”

IN IS. LIB. 3, T. 1 (PG 70, 563-566), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Death prevailed and swallowed us up, but God has wiped away the tears from every face. Death had
power over Adam, our first parent, because of his sin, and like some savage and cruel beast, it
attacked him and carried him off. After that lamentations, wailings, tears, and mourning for the dead
were the lot of all who dwelt upon earth. But in Christ they came to an end. Coming to life again on
the third day, he trampled death under foot and became the way by which we were to escape
corruption. Christ became the firstborn from the dead and the firstfruits of all who had fallen asleep.
Now the firstfruits, the one who comes first, will undoubtedly be followed later by others, that is by
us. And so sorrow has been turned into joy; we are no longer clad in mourning but girded with a God-
given gladness that inspires the jubilant cry: Death, where is your victory? Grave, where is your sting?
And in that day they will say: Behold your God in whom we have trusted and exulted. We shall rejoice
in our salvation, for God will give rest upon this mountain. In other words, you will recognise the one
who fills the cup of gladness with wine and anoints with sweet oil the inhabitants of the spiritual Zion. You
will recognise him to be truly God and by his very nature the Son of God, even though for the life and
salvation of all he appeared in the nature of a slave and became in every respect except sin a man like those
who live upon earth.
Behold our God in whom we have trusted. We have exulted in our salvation. I think these words may
best be taken as spoken by the Israelites, for since they had been brought up on the teachings of
Moses and were familiar with all the prophets had foretold, they expected a saviour and redeemer,
who is our Lord Jesus Christ come at the appointed time. Prompted by the Spirit to prophesy
Zechariah, the father of John, declared that a mighty saviour been raised up for his people, and
Simeon likewise when he received the holy infant in his hands said: My own eyes have seen the
salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people.
And so, recognizing as the hope of our race the Saviour and Redeemer foretold long before, they will
cry out in the words the Prophet: Behold, our God, and will proclaim that God will give rest upon this
mountain. The mountain referred to must surely be the Church, for it is there that rest is given. We
have heard the words of Christ: Come to me, all who are weary and overburdened and I will give you
rest. By faith in Christ we have laid aside the grievous, the insupportable burden of sin. And we have
been given rest in another way too, for we have been delivered from dread of the punishment we
should have had to suffer for our sins. Nor are these the only effects of the presence in us of the
grace of Christ our Saviour. We have in addition the hope o f blessings yet to come, the kingdom of
heaven, eternal life, and freedom from every cause of distress.
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THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

THE SONG OF THE RIGHTEOUS; A PROMISE OF RESURRECTION: ISAIAH 26:7-21
The way of the righteous is level; thou dost make smooth the path of the righteous. In the path of thy
judgments, O LORD, we wait for thee; thy memorial name is the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for
thee in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee. For when thy judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favour is shown to the wicked, he does not learn
righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals perversely and does not see the majesty of the
LORD. O LORD, thy hand is lifted up, but they see it not. Let them see thy zeal for thy people, and be
ashamed. Let the fire for thy adversaries consume them. O LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us, thou
hast wrought for us all our works. O LORD our God, other lords besides thee have ruled over us, but
thy name alone we acknowledge. They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not
arise; to that end thou hast visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.
But thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou
hast enlarged all the borders of the land.
O LORD, in distress they sought thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs, when she is near her time, so were
we because of thee, O LORD; we were with child, we writhed, we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. Thy
dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For thy dew is a
dew of light, and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.
Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little
while until the wrath is past. For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her, and will
no more cover her slain.

As God sees the world tottering to ruin because of fear, he acts unceasingly to bring it back by love,
invite it by grace, to hold it by charity and clasp it firmly with affection. Hence, he washes the earth
grown old in evil with the avenging flood. He calls Noah the father of a new world, speaks to him
gently and gives him kindly confidence. He gives him fatherly instruction about the present and
consoles him with good hope for the future. He did not give orders but instead shared in the work of
enclosing together in the ark all living creatures on the earth. In this way the love of being together
was to banish the fear born of slavery. What had been saved by a shared work was to be preserved by
a community of love.
God calls Abraham from among the nations and makes his name great. He also makes him the father
of those who believe, accompanies him on his journeys, and takes care of him among foreign peoples.
He enriches him with possessions, honours him with triumphs, and binds himself to him by promises.
He snatches him from harm, looks after him hospitably, and astonishes him with a son he had given
up hope of ever having. All this he does, so that filled with so many good things, and drawn by the
great sweetness of divine love, Abraham might learn to love God and not to be afraid of him, to
worship him by love, not by trembling in fear.
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He comforts the fugitive Jacob in his sleep. On his way back he calls him to the contest and grasps him
with a wrestler’s arms. This was to teach him to love and not to fear the father of the contest. He
invites Moses to be the liberator of his people, calling him with a fatherly voice and speaking to
him father’s love.
The events that we have recalled where the hearts of m en w ere fired with the flame of the love of
God and their senses flooded to intoxication with that love, led them, wounded by love, to begin to
want to look upon God with their bodily eyes. How could the narrowness of human vision enclose
God whom the world cannot contain? The law of love has no thought about what will be, what ought
to be or what can be. Love knows nothing about judgement, is beyond reason, and is incapable of
moderation. Love takes no relief from the fact that its object is beyond possibility, nor is it cured by
difficulties.
If love does not attain what it desires, it kills the lover. So, it goes where it is led, not where it ought to
go. Love breeds desire that becomes so inflamed as to make its way towards what is forbidden. Love
cannot bear not to have sight of what it loves. That is why holy people thought all that they had
merited was nothing if they could not see the Lord. That is why love that longs to see God has the
spirit of devotion even though it lacks judgement. That is why Moses dares to say, If I have found
favour in your sight, show me your face. Finally, that is why the nations fashioned images. In these
false things they wanted to see with their own eyes what they were worshipping.
FRIDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD IS CULTIVATED AGAIN: ISAIAH 27:1-13
In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing
serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
In that day: “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest
any one harm it, I guard it night and day; I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to
battle! I would set out against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my
protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.”
In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole
world with fruit.
Has he smitten them as he smote those who smote them? Or have they been slain as their slayers
were slain? Measure by measure, by exile thou didst contend with them; he removed them with his
fierce blast in the day of the east wind. Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated, and this
will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like
chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing. For the fortified city
is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes, there he lies
down, and strips its branches. When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a
fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have
compassion on them, he that formed them will show them no favour.
In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you
will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel. And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and
those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will
come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
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IN IS. LIB. 3, T.1 (PG 598-599), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Let us make peace with him, let us who are coming make peace. Jacob will put forth buds and Israel will
blossom, and the whole world will be filled with his fruit. Like a wise counsellor the blessed prophet
spoke before the event to the nations who are coming from all sides. It seems as though he
foresaw that the Jews would refuse to give Christ, the Saviour of the world, their love and
faith, that the people God loved would prove recalcitrant, that Christ would send his call to the
Gentiles instead and through his holy Apostles would now be spreading his nets to catch men
from the very ends of the earth.
And so, in the name of these Gentiles who are coming, the prophet says: Israel has abandoned its Master,
the firstborn has grown recalcitrant. Israel is denying its faith and has apostatised from the Redeemer. But
as for us who are coming, or who will be coming when the time is ripe – whose coming is nothing less
than a passage from darkness into light, from pagan ignorance to the recognition of him who is truly God,
from sins to justification – let us make peace with him. Let us destroy the ancient enmity and live at
peace with God. Sin has been done away with and Satan rendered powerless; no longer is there
anything to stand in our way, to set us at variance with Christ or to separate us from him. Let us
then accept his revelation, obey his every wish and word, and bow before the Gospel preaching,
for thus we shall make peace with him. Paul also in his great wisdom says to those called from
among the Gentiles: Being justified by faith we enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
After exhorting those who are on their way to Christ, the prophet turns to the holy Apostles themselves.
Realising, or rather having learned through the Holy Spirit, that they will win the whole world for God, he
almost leaps for joy and overwhelmed by gladness he cries, The children of Jacob will put forth buds;
Israel will blossom, and the whole world will be filled with his fruit. The Lord’s inspired disciples
were born of the blood of Jacob whose new name was Israel, but from the rising of the sun to its
setting through all the world their voice has gone out, and their words to the ends of earth. The
multitude of the Gentiles has been called to knowledge of God. The prophecy is coming true, for
the whole world has been filled with fruit. Whose fruit? Why, surely, Israel’s; in the sense that the
fruit is borne by those who are the descendants of Israel.
Christian believers are the fruit of the Apostles’ toiling. Paul was inspired to call them his joy and his
crown; for truly the holy men who initiated us in the faith have cause for boasting and a title to glory in
those who through their work have reached salvation.
SATURDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT

GOD’S JUDGEMENT ON JERUSALEM: ISAIAH 29:1-8
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. Yet I will
distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. And I will
encamp against you round about, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siege-works against
you. Then deep from the earth you shall speak, from low in the dust your words shall come; your voice
shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
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But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake
and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. And the multitude of all
the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be
like a dream, a vision of the night. As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger
not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not
quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED ISAAC OF STELLA

IN IS. LIB. 4, ORATIO 2 (PG 70, 955-958), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
The Son of God is the firstborn among many brethren; though by nature he is the Only-begotten, by grace
he united many to himself, to be one with him. For to those who receive him he gave the power of
becoming sons of God. When therefore he was made a son of man, he made many to be sons of God. By
his love and power he united– as one – many to himself; in themselves, by their birth in the flesh they are
many, but by their divine rebirth they are one with him.
For Christ, Head and Body, is one, whole and in the body of a woman who was one of the inhabitants of
earth. So when he is said to be the fruit and offspring of the earth you must understand this to mean that
according to the flesh he was born of one of those fashioned from the earth, from a woman especially
chosen for this service.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

GOD’S JUDGEMENT IS ANNOUNCED: ISAIAH 29:13-24
And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honour me with their lips, while
their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote; therefore,
behold, I will again do marvellous things with this people, wonderful and marvellous; and the wisdom of
their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”
Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD their counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say,
“Who sees us? Who knows us?” You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;
that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who
formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall
be regarded as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and
darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among
men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless shall come to nought and the scoffer cease, and
all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare
for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
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Therefore, thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no
more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands,
in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of
the God of Israel. And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will
accept instruction.”

SERMON 293, 3, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
John was a voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John was a voice for a time, Christ the
eternal Word in the beginning. Take away the word and what is a voice? When it conveys no meaning, it
is just an empty sound. A wordless voice strikes the ear, but it does not make the heart grow.
However, as we engage in building up our heart, let us pay attention to the order of things. If I think of
what I want to say, the word is already in my heart. And if I want to talk to you, I look for some means
whereby what is in my heart may also be in yours. So, wanting the word, which is already in my heart, to
come over to you, and make its way into your heart, I make use of my voice to talk to you. The sound of
the voice brings you to understand the word. And when my voice has done this, it ceases; but the word
carried to you by the sound is now already in your heart, and has not left mine.
Take this sound then. After the word has passed into your possession, does it not seem to say, ‘He must
increase, but I must decrease’? The sound of the voice cried out, performing its service, and then passed
away, as though it said ‘This joy of mine is now full.’ Let us hold on to the word, and not let slip the word
we have inwardly conceived.
Do you want to see a transient voice, and the abiding divinity of the Word? Where is John’s baptism now?
He served his purpose and left. It is Christ’s baptism which is now administered. We all believe in Christ,
and hope for salvation in him. This is precisely what the voice told us.
Since it is difficult to distinguish the voice and the word, John himself was thought to be Christ. The voice
was taken to be the Word. But the voice admitted his identity, lest he might displease the Word. I am not
the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. In reply to, Who are you? he said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, the voice
of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way of the Lord, is as though he said: I cry out to lead him into
your heart – but he will not condescend to come where I am leading, unless you prepare the way.
What does to prepare the way mean, except to pray as you ought, to be humble-minded? Take an
example of humility from John himself. He is thought to be the Christ, but he says he is not what people
think. He does not use the mistake of others to feed his own pride. Suppose he had said: I am the Christ.
How easily would he have been believed, since that was what people were thinking before he spoke! But
he did not say it. He acknowledged who he was, distinguished himself from Christ, humbled himself.
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MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

FUTURE HAPPINESS IS PROMISED: ISAIAH 30:18-26
Therefore, the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For
the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Yea, O people in Zion who dwell at
Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he
hears it, he will answer you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of
affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your
ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it”, when you turn to the right or when
you turn to the left. Then you will defile your silver-covered graven images and your gold-plated molten
images. You will scatter them as unclean things; you will say to them, “Be gone!”
And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground,
which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures; and the oxen and the
asses that till the ground will eat salted provender, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And
upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the
great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and
the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the
hurt of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON CONTEMPLATING GOD BY ABBOT WILLIAM OF

SAINT-THIERRY
ON CONTEMPLATING GOD 9-11, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
You alone are the Lord. To be ruled by you is for us salvation. For us to serve you is nothing else but to be
saved by you!
Now how is it we are saved by you, O Lord, from whom salvation comes and whose blessing is upon your
people, if it is not in receiving from you the gift of loving you and being loved by you? That, Lord, is why
you willed that the Son of your right hand, the Man whom you made strong for your own self, should be
called Jesus, that is to say, Saviour, for he will save his people from their sins. There is no other in whom is
salvation except him who taught us to love himself when he first loved us, even to death on the cross. By
loving us and holding us so dear he stirred us up to love himself, who first had loved us to the end.
You who first loved us did this, precisely this. You first loved us so that we might love you. And that was
not because you needed to be loved by us, but because we could not be what you created us to be,
except by loving. Having then in many ways and on various occasions spoken to the fathers by the
prophets, now in these last days you have spoken to us in the Son, your Word, by whom the heavens
were established, and all the power of them by the breath of his mouth. For you to speak thus in your Son
was an open declaration, a setting in the sun as it were, of how much and in what sort of way you loved
us, in that you spared not your own Son, but delivered him up for us all. Yes, and he himself loved us and
gave himself for us.
This, Lord, is your word to us, this is your all-powerful message: he who, while all things kept silence (that
is, were in the depths of error), came from the royal throne, the stern opponent of error and the gentle
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apostle of love. And everything he did and everything he said on earth, even the insults, the spitting, the
buffeting, the cross and the grave, all that was nothing but yourself speaking in the Son, appealing to us
by your love, and stirring up our love for you.
For you, O God, our souls’ creator, knew that this affection cannot be forced in the souls of the sons of
men, but has to be evoked. And this is for the obvious reason that there is no freedom where there is
compulsion, and, where freedom is lacking, so too is righteousness.
Now we on our part hold you dear by the affection of love which you have implanted in us. But, O you
who are One supremely good and the ultimate Goodness, your love is your goodness, the Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Father and the Son! From the beginning of creation, he has been borne upon the
waters – on the tossing souls of men, that is – offering himself to all, drawing all to himself. And breathing
into and upon them, by warding off things harmful and supplying things useful, he unites God to us and
us to God.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT, YEAR II

JERUSALEM’S SALVATION FROM THE ASSYRIANS: ISAIAH 30:27-33; 31:4-9
Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips
are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; his breath is like an overflowing stream that
reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the
peoples a bridle that leads astray.
You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets
out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. And the LORD will
cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and
a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-
stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he smites with his rod. And every stroke of the staff of
punishment which the LORD lays upon them will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres; battling with
brandished arm he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared; yea, for the king it is
made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like
a stream of brimstone, kindles it.
For thus the LORD said to me, As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of
shepherds is called forth against him is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the
LORD of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill. Like birds hovering, so the LORD
of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it, he will spare and rescue it.
Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of Israel. For in that day every one shall cast
away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he
shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labour. His rock shall pass away in
terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose
furnace is in Jerusalem.
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A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST BERNARD
SERMO 1 DE ADVENTU DOMINI 7-8 (PL 183, 38-39), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
See, the name of the Lord is coming from afar, says the prophet. Who could doubt that something
tremendous was responsible, when sublime majesty deigned to come down from such a distance to so
unworthy a place? Something tremendous it assuredly was: great mercy, abundant compassion, and
overwhelming charity were the cause.
For what purpose did he come, according to our faith? It will be no arduous task to find out, since both
his words and his deeds clearly proclaim the reason for his coming. It was to search for the hundredth
sheep which had strayed that he hastened down from the mountains; he came for our sake so that his
tender mercies and his wonderful dealings with the children of Adam might more evidently give
glory to the Lord. How astonishing the condescension on the part of God who searches; how great the
value of those he sought! If we should wish to boast of it we shall not be acting foolishly; not that we can
claim to be anything as of ourselves, but because he who made us has made us worth so much. All riches,
all the glory of the world and whatever in it is an object of desire pale before this glory, compared with
which they are nothing. Lord, what is man that you make so much of him and set your heart on
him?
All the same I should like to know what it means that he came to us, rather than our going to him. The
need was ours, and it is not customary for the rich to go in search of the poor, even if they wish to make
them some gift. It would have been seemly, therefore, for us to go to him, but there was a double
hindrance. First, our eyes were dim, whereas he dwells in unapproachable light. Second, lying
paralysed on our pallet as we were, we tacked the strength to reach the summit of the Godhead. So our
most kindly Saviour, the physician of souls, came down from his great height and tempered his glory to
our weak eyes. He shielded himself in a lantern when he took to himself that glorious body entirely free
from all stain. This body assuredly is that very swift and shining cloud upon which the prophet foretold
that he would ride to descend into Egypt.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

THE KINGDOM OF TRUE JUSTICE: ISAIAH 31:1-3; 32:1-8
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are
many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult
the LORD! And yet he is wise and brings disaster, he does not call back his words, but will arise against the
house of the evildoers, and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are men, and
not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will
stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.
Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place
from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a grea
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t rock in a weary land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear
will hearken. The mind of the rash will have good judgment, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak
readily and distinctly. The fool will no more be called noble, nor the knave said to be honourable. For the
fool speaks folly, and his mind plots iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink. The knaveries of the
knave are evil; he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the
needy is right. But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things he stands.

ADVERSUS HAERESES BK 4, 20, 4-5, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
There is one God, who by his Word and Wisdom made and ordered all things. His Word is our Lord Jesus
Christ w h o in these last times became man among men, that he might unite the end with the beginning,
that is, Man with God. Therefore the prophets who received from this same Word their prophetic gift,
proclaimed his advent in the flesh, by which was effected the mingling and uniting of God and man
according to the Father’s pleasure.
For the Word of God foretold from the beginning that God would be seen by men and would live with
them on earth and converse with them; that he would be present with his creatures to bring salvation to
them and to be perceived by them; that he would free us from the hands of those who hate us, that is,
from the whole spirit of transgression; and would make us serve him all our days in holiness and
righteousness; that man, taking to himself the Spirit of God, would pass to the glory of the Father. The
prophets therefore indicated beforehand that God would be seen by men; as the Lord also says, Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
I grant that in respect of his greatness and marvellous glory, no man shall see God and live, for the Father
is incomprehensible. But in respect of his love and kindly mercy, and of his infinite power, he grants even
this to such as love him, I mean, to see God, as the prophets also foretold. Because the things which are
impossible with men are possible with God.
Man does not see God by his own powers; but God of his own will appears to men, to whom he wills, and
when he wills, and as he wills. For God can do all things: he was seen in former times prophetically
through the Spirit, he is seen in the Son by adoption, and he will be seen in the kingdom of heaven as
Father. The Spirit prepares man for the Son of God, the Son brings him to the Father, and the Father
bestows on him incorruptibility for eternal life, which comes to everyone from his beholding God.
As those who see the light are in the light, and partake of its splendour, so those who see God are in God,
partaking of his splendour. But God’s splendour gives life; those therefore who see God will partake of
life.
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THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

SALVATION IS PROMISED; THE EXPECTATION OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE: ISAIAH 32:14 – 33:6
For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens
forever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the
wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and
the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in
secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. And the forest will utterly go down, and the city will be
utterly laid low. Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the ass range
free.
Woe to you, destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed; you treacherous one, with whom none
has dealt treacherously! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have
made an end of dealing treacherously, you will be dealt with treacherously.
O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for thee. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of
trouble. At the thunderous noise peoples flee, at the lifting up of thyself nations are scattered; and spoil is
gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, men leap upon it.
The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness; and he will be
the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is his
treasure.
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION OF THE SECOND

VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, DEI VERBUM 3-4, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
God, who creates and maintains all things by his Word, provides men with constant evidence of himself in
created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to heavenly salvation, he manifested
himself to our first parents from the very beginning. After the fall, he buoyed them up with the hope of
salvation, by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to take care of the human race. For he
wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing. In his own time God
called Abraham, and made him into a great nation. After the era of the Patriarchs, he taught this nation,
by Moses and the Prophets, to recognize him as the only living and true God, as a provident Father and
just Judge. He taught them, too, to look for the promised Saviour. And so, throughout the ages, he
prepared the way for the Gospel.
After God had spoken many times and in various ways through the Prophets, in these last days he has
spoken to us by a Son. For he sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, to dwell among men
and to tell them about the inner life of God. Hence, Jesus Christ, sent as a man among men, speaks
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the words of God, and accomplishes the saving work which the Father gave him to do. As a result, he
himself - to see whom is to see the Father - completed and perfected Revelation and confirmed it
with divine guarantees. He did this by the total fact of his presence and self-manifestation - by words
and works, signs and miracles, but above all by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead,
and finally by sending the Spirit of truth. He revealed that God was with us, to deliver us from the
darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life.
The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away; and
no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

FUTURE SALVATION: ISAIAH 33:7-24
Behold, the valiant ones cry without; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste, the
wayfaring man ceases. Covenants are broken, witnesses are despised, there is no regard for man. The
land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert; and
Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
“Now I will arise,” says the LORD, “now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted. You conceive chaff, you
bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you. And the peoples will be as if burned to
lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in
Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who
among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who
despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from
hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of
defence will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.
Your eyes will see the king in his beauty; they will behold a land that stretches afar. Your mind will muse
on the terror: “Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who
counted the towers?” You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech which
you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue which you cannot understand. Look upon Zion, the city
of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose
stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there the LORD in majesty will be
for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. For
the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler, the LORD is our king;
he will save us.
Your tackle hangs loose; it cannot hold the mast firm in its place, or keep the sail spread out.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey. And no inhabitant will
say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
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EN. IN PS. 37, 13-14, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
I cried aloud with the groaning of my heart. There is a hidden groaning which human ears cannot catch.
However, if a man’s heart is so obsessed with the thought of some longed-for object that his inward
suffering is expressed very audibly, somebody will want to know the reason, and will say to himself:
‘Perhaps such and such a thing has caused his grief; perhaps this or that is the matter with him.’ Who can
know, except he in whose sight and hearing the suppliant groans? The reason why the psalmist says: I
cried aloud with the groaning of my heart is that when men hear another man groaning, what they hear is
often the groaning of the flesh, they do not hear the groaning of the heart.
Now who has understood why he cried aloud? He goes on: And all my desire is before you. Not indeed
before men, who cannot see into the heart: but before you is all my desire. Set your desire on him, and
the Father who sees in secret will repay you. This very desire of yours is your prayer. If your desire is
continual, your prayer is continual too. It was not for nothing that the Apostle said: Pray without ceasing.
Was it so that we should be continuously on our knees, or prostrating our bodies or raising our hands that
he says: Pray without ceasing? If that is how we say our prayers, then my opinion is that we cannot do
that without ceasing.
But there is another and interior way of praying without ceasing, and that is the way of desire. Whatever
else you are doing, if you long for that sabbath, you are not ceasing to pray. If you do not want to cease
praying, do not cease longing. Your unceasing desire is your unceasing voice. You will lapse into silence if
you lose your longing. Who did lapse into silence? Those of whom it was said: Because wickedness is
multiplied, the charity of many will grow cold. The coldness of charity is the heart’s silence; its glowing
ardour, the heart’s outcry. If charity is always present, you are ever crying out; if always crying out, you
are ever longing; if longing, you have not forgotten repose.
And all my desire is before you. What if the desire is before him and the actual groaning is not?
Would it be possible, since the groaning is merely the expression of the desire? Therefore, the
psalmist continues: And my groaning is not hidden from you. From you it is not hidden; from many a
human being it is. Sometimes one hears a lowly servant of God crying: And my groaning is hidden
from you. And sometimes one sees the same servant of God with a cheerful face: has that desire
perished from his heart? No; if the desire is always within, so too is the groaning: it does not always
come to the ears of men, but it is never absent from the ears of God.
17 T H DECEMBER

THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL THROUGH CYRUS: ISAIAH 45:1-13
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before
him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before
you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, I
will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the
LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”
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“For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though
you do not know me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I gird you, though
you do not know me, that men may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is
none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and
create woe, I am the LORD, who do all these things.”
“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that
salvation may sprout forth, and let it cause righteousness to spring up also; I the LORD have created it.”
“Woe to him who strives with his Maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who
fashions it, `What are you making'? or `Your work has no handles'? Woe to him who says to a father,
`What are you begetting?' or to a woman, `With what are you in travail?'”
Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Will you question me about my children, or
command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my
hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have aroused him in
righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for
price or reward,” says the LORD of hosts.

IN IS. LIB. 4, ORATIO 2 (PG 70, 955-958), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Isaiah speaks at some length of Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians. Raised up against the Chaldeans,
he was urged on by God himself, who opened their bronze doors to him and shattered their iron bars.
Having conquered the land of Babylon and laid it waste, Cyrus released enslaved Israel from captivity and
caused the foundations of the Temple in Jerusalem to be laid.
But this is only part of the story, for after indicating that the rejoicing and the release from captivity were
for those of Israelite blood and for them alone, Isaiah goes on to apply these images to Emmanuel, who
was consecrated by God the Father to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind; that
is to say, to deliver those inescapably bound by the chains of their own sins, to declare them free from
the devil’s tyranny, and so to prepare the inhabitants of the earth to return to himself, to be led by him
to God the Father.
He has become the mediator between God and men, and through him we have been reconciled in the
one Spirit to the Father. As Scripture says, He is our peace. He himself has rebuilt his own holy Temple,
which is the Church, and has taken her to himself as a pure virgin, having neither spot nor wrinkle,
nor any such imperfection, for she is holy and without fault. Thus one can very easily see in Cyrus
and his deeds an image of the divine blessings bestowed by God upon all the inhabitants of the
earth.
Let heaven rejoice, says Isaiah, meaning the angels and archangels who inhabit the heavenly city,
possessors of that radiant and awesome dwelling place. Now the reason, surely, for the heavenly spirits’
rejoicing is because through Christ, the Saviour of us all, earth’s erring inhabitants have been converted
to God, because the blind have received sight; in a word, because the lost have been saved. If they rejoice
over one repentant sinner, how can there be any doubt of their joy at seeing the world saved? Let
heaven rejoice then, says Scripture, and let the clouds rain down justice. Let earth open and bring
forth both mercy and justice.
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Mercy is the love which is the fulfilment of the law, for it goes hand in hand with the justice of the Gospel
that Christ himself teaches us and bestows on us. It could also be said that mercy and justice coming forth
and growing from the earth is our Lord Jesus Christ himself. If anyone thinks it strange for the earth to be
commanded to bring forth justice, let him remember that the psalmist also says that God the Father and
Emmanuel himself wrought justice in the midst of the earth. For Christ did not bring his own body
down to us from heaven, but was born in the body of a woman who was one of the inhabitants of earth.
So when he is said to be the fruit and offspring of the earth you must understand this to mean that
according to the flesh he was born of one of those fashioned from the earth, from a woman especially
chosen for this service.
18 T H DECEMBER

(THE LORD OPPOSES THE IDOLS OF BABYLON: ISAIAH 46:1-13)
Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle; these things you carry are loaded as
burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save the burden, but
themselves go into captivity.
“Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me
from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I
have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
“To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? Those who
lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship! They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and
it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his
trouble.
“Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will
accomplish all my purpose’, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far
country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
“Hearken to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from deliverance: I bring near my deliverance, it
is not far off, and my salvation will not tarry; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”

EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS 8, 5-9, 6, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
No man has ever seen God or known him. He himself has given us the revelation of himself. But he has
only revealed himself to faith, by which alone are we permitted to know God. For God, though Lord and
architect of the whole world, who made and set in order each single thing that is, was something more
than loving towards mankind, he was long-suffering as well. So he has always been, and is, and shall be:
merciful, kind, slow to anger, and true. There is none so good as he. He conceived a design, great and
beyond all telling, and he imparted it to none but his son alone.
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So long as he maintained this secrecy, and kept his own wise counsel, it seemed as though he had no care
for us and had put us out of his mind. But as soon as he disclosed it, through his beloved Son, and
revealed what had been planned from the beginning, then straightaway he poured out all the fullness of
his bounty upon us, permitting us to share his benefactions and to see and know such blessings as none
of us could ever have looked for.
Next, after making these dispositions in his mind with the Son, he left us to live for the meanwhile as we
pleased, giving free rein to our unruly instincts and being at the mercy of sensuality and lust. This was not
because he took any pleasure in those sins of ours; all he was doing was to put up with them. It was not
that he was sanctioning that former era of lawlessness. Rather, he was preparing this present ere of
righteousness. His purpose was that we, who had been proved by our own works unworthy to achieve
life, might in these days be made worthy of it by the goodness of God. After clearly showing our inability
to enter into the kingdom of God by our own power, we might now by God’s power be made able.
Accordingly, when our iniquity had come to its full height, and it was clear beyond all mistaking that
retribution in the form of punishment and death must be looked for, the hour arrived in which God had
determined to make known from then onwards his loving-kindness and his power.
How surpassing is the love and tenderness of God! In that hour, instead of hating us and rejecting us and
remembering our wickedness against us, he showed how longsuffering he is. He bore with us, and in pity
he took our sins upon himself. He gave his own Son as a ransom for us – the holy for the wicked, the
sinless for sinners, the just for the unjust, the incorrupt for the corrupt, the immortal for the mortal. For
was there, indeed, anything except his righteousness that could have availed to cover our sins? In whom
could we, in our lawlessness and ungodliness, have been made holy, but in the Son of God alone?
O sweet exchange! O unsearchable working! O benefits unhoped for! – that the wickedness of multitudes
should thus be hidden in the One who is holy, and the holiness of One should sanctify the countless
wicked!
19 T H DECEMBER

LAMENT OVER BABYLON: ISAIAH 47:1, 3B-15
Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O
daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. I will take vengeance,
and I will spare no man. Our Redeemer-- the LORD of hosts is his name – is the Holy One of Israel.
Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the
mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with my people, I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand,
you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. You said, “I shall be
mistress forever”, so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.
Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there
is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”: These two things shall come
to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.
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You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you
astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” But evil shall come upon you,
for which you cannot atone; disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate; and ruin
shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have laboured from your
youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your
many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons predict what shall befall you.
Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of
the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! Such to you are those with whom you
have laboured, who have trafficked with you from your youth; they wander about each in his own
direction; there is no one to save you.

ADV. HAER. 3,. 20, 2-3, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL.
God is man’s glory, but it is man who receives the effect of God’s activity, who is the recipient of all God’s
wisdom and power. Just as a doctor proves himself in his patients, so God reveals himself in men. That is
why Paul states: God has imprisoned all in unbelief that he may have mercy on all. He is speaking here of
man, who was excluded from immortality as a result of his disobedience to God, but then obtained mercy
through the Son of God by receiving adoption in him.
Without pride or boastfulness, man should have a true evaluation of created things and of their creator,
that is, of God, the supremely powerful, who gave existence to all things. He should abide in love of God,
in submission, in thanksgiving. If he does, he will receive a greater glory from God and will go on until he
becomes like the one who died for him.
He too was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, in order to condemn sin and, as something now
condemned, to expel it from the flesh. He came to invite man to become himself, commissioning him to
imitate God, placing him under obedience to the Father so as to see God, giving him the power to
apprehend the Father. He who did this is the Word of God, who dwelt in man and became Son of man in
order to accustom man to receive God and accustom God to dwell in man, in accordance with the
Father’s will.
That is why he is a sign of our salvation, Immanuel, born of the Virgin, a sign given us by the Lord himself.
It was the Lord who saved men, because they were incapable of saving themselves. When Paul says: I
know that nothing good dwells in my flesh, he is affirming this weakness of man, and he is indicating that
the ‘good’ which is our salvation comes not from ourselves but from God. In another passage he says:
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?, and then he introduces the
rescuer: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah too makes the same point: Be strong, weak hands and feeble knees; pluck up your courage, faint-
hearted. Be strong, do not be afraid. See, our God is coming with justice and with retribution; he is
coming himself to save us – it is not by ourselves but by the help of God that we are saved.
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20 T H DECEMBER

GOD ALONE IS THE LORD OF THE FUTURE: ISAIAH 48:1-11
Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of
Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For
they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his
name.
“The former things I declared of old, they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then
suddenly I did them and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an
iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I
announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image
commanded them.’
“You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new
things, hidden things which you have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today you
have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ You have never heard, you have
never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very
treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel.
“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut
you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my
own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to
another.”

ON PSALM 49 1-2 (BAREILLE, T.9, 286-288), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
God will come openly, says the Prophet. Do you wonder whether he ever came in another way? Indeed
he did. His first coming was without a sound, hidden from almost everyone and for many years
unnoticed. But why do I say ‘almost everyone’ when even the Virgin carrying him had no knowledge of
the mystery, his own relatives did not believe in him, and the man presumed to be his father did not
regard him as being anyone very exalted?
I speak of men, but even the devil himself did not know who he was. If he had known he would not, many
years later on the mountain, have asked him if he was the Son of God and repeated the question three
times. So John was going to make him known, but Jesus said to him: Let it be so for now, ‘Say nothing
for the present.’ The time has not yet come to reveal the mystery of my incarnation, which I still wish to
keep hidden from the devil. Keep silence. It is fitting that we should.
Christ came to earth as a shepherd seeking his lost sheep, and in order to catch the rebellious creature he
kept himself hidden. As a doctor takes care not to alarm his patient at the outset, so the Saviour did not
wish to make himself known immediately, but only little by little. Referring to this silent coming the
Prophet says: He shall descend like rain on a fleece, like raindrops on the earth.
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He did not come with a crash of thunder amid a great upheaval, earthquakes, flashes of lightning, and
disturbance in the heavens. He did not come with an escort of angels, tearing the heavens apart to
descend upon the clouds. No, he came without a sound. For nine months he was carried in the womb of
the Virgin. He was born as the son of a carpenter and laid in a manger. He was plotted against while
still in swaddling-bands and with his mother he fled into Egypt. Later, after the death of the
perpetrator of such great crimes, he returned and continued to live a wandering life, being to
all appearance just an ordinary man.
But this is not how he will come the second time. That coming will be so open that there will be no need
to announce it. How open it will be he himself revealed when he said: If they say he is in the inner
room, do not go in; if they say he is in the desert, do not go out. For as the lightning flashes
across the sky, from east to west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. It will manifest and
proclaim itself.
21 S T DECEMBER

THE NEW EXODUS: ISAIAH 48:12-21; 49: 9B-13
“Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am He, I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid
the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand
forth together.
“Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he
shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken
and called him, I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. Draw near to me, hear this: from the
beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord
GOD has sent me and his Spirit.
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you
to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had hearkened to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your
offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be
cut off or destroyed from before me.”
Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the
end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!” They thirsted not when he led them
through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he cleft the rock and the water gushed
out.
“They shall feed along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall smite them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by
springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be raised
up. Lo, these shall come from afar, and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the
land of Syene.” Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the
LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
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A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST LUKE’S GOSPEL BY ST AMBROSE
IN EV. LUC. 2, 19, 22-23, 26-27, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
When the angel was announcing the mysteries to the Virgin Mary, he also told her as a precedent, to help
her to believe, that an old and barren woman had conceived. This was to show that God can do
everything that pleases him. When Mary heard this she hurried off to the hill country. This was not
because she disbelieved the oracle, or was uncertain about the messenger, or doubted the precedent
offered, but because she was overjoyed with desire, eager to fulfil a duty of piety, and impelled by
gladness.
Where could she who was filled with God hasten to, except to the heights? There is no such thing as
delay in the working of the Holy Spirit. The arrival of Mary and the blessings of the Lord’s presence are
also speedily declared. As soon as Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and
she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Notice the choice of words and their precise meaning. Elizabeth was
the first to hear the voice; but John was the first to experience grace. She heard according to the order of
nature; he leaped because of the mystery. She recognized the arrival of Mary; he the arrival of the Lord.
The woman recognized the woman’s arrival; the child, that of the child. The women speak of grace; the
babies make it effective from within to the advantage of their mothers who, by a double miracle,
prophesy under the inspiration of their babies.
The infant leaped, the mother was filled with the Spirit. The mother was not filled before the son, but
after the son was filled with the Holy Spirit, he filled his mother too. John leaped and the spirit of Mary
rejoiced. As John leaped, Elizabeth is filled, but we know that Mary was not filled but her spirit rejoiced.
For he who cannot be comprehended was working in his mother’s womb in ways beyond comprehension.
Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit after she had conceived, and Mary before. Blessed are you, she said,
who believed.
But you too, who have heard and have believed, are blessed. Every soul who has believed both conceives
and generates the Word of God and recognizes his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you to
magnify the lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one to exult in God. According to the flesh one woman
is the mother of Christ, but according to faith, Christ is the fruit of all men. Every soul, indeed, receives
the Word of God, provided it remains unstained and free from sin and preserves its chastity in unviolated
modesty. The soul who has been able to reach this state magnifies the Lord, as Mary’s soul magnified the
Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God her saviour.
22 N D DECEMBER

THE RESTORATION OF ZION: ISAIAH 49:14 – 50:1
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not
forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
Your builders outstrip your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go forth from you. Lift up your eyes
round about and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall put them all on
as an ornament, you shall bind them on as a bride does.
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“Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land – surely now you will be too
narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children born in the
time of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to
dwell in.’ Then you will say in your heart: ‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled
and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; whence then have these come?’”
Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground
they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those
who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a
tyrant be rescued? Surely, thus says the LORD: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the
prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your
children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as
with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One
of Jacob.”
Thus says the LORD: “Where is your mother’s bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or which of my
creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your
transgressions your mother was put away.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST LUKE’S GOSPEL BY ST BEDE

IN EV. LUC. 1, 46-55, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour. The Lord, she said, has
exalted me with a great and unheard of gift, which cannot be explained in any words and can scarcely be
understood by the deepest feelings of the heart. And so I offer up all the strength of my soul in
thanksgiving and praise. In my joy I pour out all my life, all my feeling, all my understanding in
contemplating the greatness of him who is without end. My spirit rejoices in the eternal divinity of Jesus,
my Saviour, whom I have conceived in time and bear in my body.
For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Mary looks back to the beginning
of the canticle, to the words: My soul glorifies the Lord. Only the soul for whom the Lord does great things
can glorify and praise him as he deserves; only that soul can call on those who share the same desire and
intent: Glorify the Lord with me. Together let us praise his name. The man who refuses to glorify with all
his power the Lord whom he knows, and to keep his name holy, will be called least in the kingdom of
heaven. God’s name is called holy because he transcends the whole of creation by the loftiness of his
unparalleled power, and because he is set apart from all those things which he has made.
He has lifted up Israel, his child, remembering his mercy. In beautiful fashion Mary calls Israel the child of
the Lord, for Israel has been lifted up by him to be saved, seeing that Israel was obedient and humble, in
accordance with the words of Hosea: Because Israel was a child, I loved him. Now anyone who refuses to
humble himself simply cannot be saved, nor can he say with the prophet: Behold, the Lord is my helper; it
is God who lifts up my life. But whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven.
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As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever. Mary does not mean the natural but
the spiritual posterity of Abraham; that is, not those who have only descended from him physically, but
those who follow in the steps of his faith, whether they are circumcised or uncircumcised. For he too
believed while uncircumcised and it was considered as justifying him. The coming of a Saviour
therefore was promised to Abraham and to his posterity forever, that is, to the children of the promise, to
whom are addressed the words: If you belong to Christ, then you are the posterity of Abraham, the heirs
he was promised.
It was right that the mothers of both the Lord and John should anticipate the birth of their children in
prophecy. Just as sin began from women, so too it was fitting that blessings should spring from women,
and that life which was lost through the deception of one woman, should be given back to the world by
these two women who rival each other in giving praise.
23 R D DECEMBER

SALVATION IS PROMISED TO THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM: ISAIAH 51:1-11
“Hearken to me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek the LORD; look to the rock from which you
were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who
bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many. For the LORD will
comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like
the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.
“Listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go forth from me, and my justice
for a light to the peoples. My deliverance draws near speedily, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms
will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the
heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out
like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be for ever, and my
deliverance will never be ended.
“Hearken to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the
reproach of men, and be not dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool; but my deliverance will be for ever, and my salvation to all
generations.”
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago.
Was it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the dragon? Was it not thou that didst dry
up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that didst make the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed
to pass over? And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy
shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
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A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST THE HERESY OF NOETUS BY ST HIPPOLYTUS
ADV. NOETUS 9-12, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
There is one God, and we can come to know him only through sacred Scripture. So then, let us look at
what Scripture proclaims, let us discover what its teaching is. As the Father wants to be believed, so let us
believe; as he wants the Son to be glorified, so let us glorify him; as he wants the Holy Spirit to be given,
so let us receive him. We must not act in accordance with our own mind or our own will; we must not do
violence to what God has given. We must look at things rather as God has chosen to make them known
through Scripture.
God, existing alone, without contemporary of any sort, decided to make the world. He conceived it in his
mind, willed it, spoke the word, and so made it, and immediately it came into being, formed as he had
willed it. It is enough for us simply to know that God had no contemporary; apart from him there was
nothing. But though alone, God was manifold. He was not without reason or wisdom or power or counsel.
All things were in him and he was all. When he willed, and as he willed, he revealed his Word, at times
which he himself had determined. Through his Word he made all things.
The Word was in God and was invisible to the created world, but God made him visible. He spoke, as he
had done before, and, begetting light from light, he sent forth his own mind to the world as its Lord. He
who formerly had been visible only to God and invisible to the world was now made visible, so that
through this manifestation the world could see him, and be saved. The Word is the mind of God; he came
into the world and was shown forth as Son of God. All things, then, come into being through him, and he
alone is from the Father. It was this one God who gave the law and the prophets. In giving them, he made
them speak by the Holy Spirit: the Father’s power inspires them, and they proclaim the Father’s purpose
and will.
And so the Word was manifested. Saint John sums up what the prophets said and shows that this is the
Word through whom all things came to be: In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and
the Word was God. Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him. Later
he goes on: The world had its being through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own
domain and his own people did not accept him.
24 T H DECEMBER

JERUSALEM IS EVANGELISED: ISAIAH 51:17 – 52:2, 7-10
Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD the
cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl of staggering. There is none to guide her among
all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up.
These two things have befallen you-- who will condole with you? – devastation and destruction, famine
and sword; who will comfort you? Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of every street like an
antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: Thus says your Lord, the
LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of
staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; and I will put it into the hand of your
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tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’; and you have made your back like
the ground and like the street for them to pass over.”
Shake yourself from the dust, arise, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive
daughter of Zion.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace,
who brings good tidings of good things, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Hark, your watchmen lift
up their voice, together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. Break
forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has
redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends
of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Wake up, O man — it was for you that God was made man! Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light. For you, I say, was God made man. Eternal death would have awaited you
had he not been born in time. Never would you be freed from your sinful flesh, had he not taken to
himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Everlasting would be your misery, had he not performed this act of
mercy. You would not have come to life again, had he not come to die your death. You would have
broken down, had he not come to help you. You would have perished, had he not come.
Let us joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the hallowed day
on which the great eternal day came from the great eternal day into this, our so short and temporal day.
He has become our justice, and our sanctification, and our redemption. And so, as Scripture says: Let him
who glories, glory in the Lord.
Truth, then, is sprung out of the earth: Christ who said, I am the truth, is born of a virgin. And justice
looked down from heaven: man, believing in him who has been born, has been justified not by himself,
but by God. Truth is sprung out of the earth, for the Word was made flesh. And justice looked down from
heaven, for every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above. Truth is sprung out of the earth — flesh
born of Mary. And justice looked down from heaven, for a man cannot receive anything, unless it be
given him from heaven.
Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God, for justice and peace have kissed each other, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, for Truth is sprung out of the earth. Through him we have obtained access to this
grace in which we stand, and we glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God. Saint Paul does not say, our
glory, but the glory of God; because justice does not proceed from us, but has looked down from heaven.
Let him who glories then, glory, not in himself, but in the Lord. Because of this, when the Lord was born
of the Virgin, the angels announced, Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.
Whence is peace on earth, if not from the fact that Truth is sprung out of the earth, that is, Christ is born
of flesh? And he is our peace, who has made both one, that we might be men of good will, bound
together by the sweet bonds of unity.
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Let us, then, rejoice in this grace, that our glory may be the testimony of our conscience, and we may
glory, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. Obviously, it was because of this that it was said, my glory, who
lifts up my head. For what greater grace could have dawned upon us from God, than that he, who had
only one Son, made him the son of man, and so in turn made the son of man a son of God. Ask yourself
whether this involved any merit, any motivation, any right on your part; and see whether you find
anything but grace!
25 T H DECEMBER, THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

THE ROOT OF JESSE: ISAIAH 11:1-10
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the
Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall
judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the
rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle
of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion
and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young
shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole
of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in
all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

SERMON 192, 1 & 3. TR. PLUSCARDEN.
Today Truth has sprung up from the earth ; Christ is born in the flesh. We must celebrate this day of joy as
worthily as we can. It=s a day which of its nature impels us to consider also the everlasting day, so we
must not fail to turn our minds to that also: with hope that cannot be shaken, we should yearn for gifts
that are eternal. Today we have received the power to be called children of God, so let us boldly be what
we are. For our sake, the bringer-about of all time was himself brought into time; for our sake the maker
of the world appeared in the flesh; for our sake the Creator was created. So why do we who must still die
still seek our joy in perishable things; why do we put so much futile effort into clutching on to this fleeting
life? A much brighter hope has now lit up the whole earth: it promises, even to us who live on earth,
eternal life in heaven.
Is this difficult to believe? Well, something much more difficult to believe has already happened. God=
promise is to make men gods. Well, God has already himself been made a man. He did not lose what he
was, yet he chose to become what he himself had made. He added our humanity to his divinity, but he
did not in any way lose his divinity in our humanity.
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We wonder when told that a child has been born of a Virgin. When we try to convince unbelievers, we tell
them it=s a completely new way of being born. A new shoot of the human race has sprung up as if from
soil without seed; a son of man has been born without any intervention of a human father; virginal
integrity has remained intact, both in the conception of a child, and in its bringing to birth. The power
that can accomplish all this makes us wonder: but even more wonderful was the mercy that prompted it.
It=s wonderful that he could be born in this way: it=s even more wonderful that he chose to be born in
this way. For he was the only-begotten of his Father, and he was born today as the only-begotten of his
mother. He was made within his mother; yet he was the one who had previously made his mother for
himself. He who existed eternally with his Father, today was born in time of his mother. He who was
made from his mother, after his mother had been made, was before all creation with his Father; and like
his Father was himself unmade. The Father was never without his Son. Without her Son, his mother
would never have existed at all.
Let us all together then, perfectly united in mind and heart, celebrate today the birthday of the Lord. Let
us celebrate with chaste hearts and holy affections the day on which Truth sprang up from the earth.
Does anyone think lightly of this Truth, if it sprang up from the earth? Let him consider that in order that
it might come from the earth, it first came down from heaven. He who is this Truth came down in order
to raise us up. Let us then learn to be rich in the one who became poor for our sake. Let us accept
freedom from the one who for our sake accepted the form of a slave. In the one who for our sake sprang
up from the earth, let us in turn take possession of heaven.
THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: HOLY FAMILY

ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN FAMILY AND SOCIETY: EPHESIANS 5:21 – 6:4
Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its
Saviour. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify
her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to
himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without
blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves
himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, 30
because we are members of his body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying
that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the
wife see that she respects her husband.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother (this is the first
commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the
Lord.
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A READING FROM AN ADDRESS BY POPE PAUL VI
ADDRESS 5 JANUARY 1964, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus — the school of the
Gospel. The first lesson we learn here is to look, to listen, to meditate and penetrate the meaning — at
once so deep and so mysterious — of this very simple, very humble and very beautiful manifestation of
the Son of God. Perhaps we learn, even imperceptibly, the lesson of imitation. Here we learn the method
which will permit us to understand who Christ is. Here everything is eloquent, all has a meaning.
Here, in this school, one learns why it is necessary to have a spiritual rule of life, if one wishes to follow
the teaching of the Gospel and become a disciple of Christ. How gladly would I become a child again, and
go to school once more in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth: close to Mary, I wish I could make
a fresh start at learning the true science of life and the higher wisdom of divine truths. But I am only a
passing pilgrim. I must renounce this desire to pursue in this home my still incomplete education in the
understanding of the Gospel. I will not go on my way however without having gathered — hurriedly, it is
true, and as if wanting to escape notice — some brief lessons from Nazareth.
First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of
mind, revive in us, besieged as we are by so many uplifted voices, the general noise and uproar, in our
seething and over-sensitised modern life. May the silence of Nazareth teach us recollection, inwardness,
the disposition to listen to good inspirations and the teachings of true masters. May it teach us the need
for and the value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of personal inner life, of the prayer which God
alone sees in secret.
Next, there is a lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its
austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character. Let us learn from Nazareth that the
formation received at home is gentle and irreplaceable. Let us learn the prime importance of the role of
the family in the social order.
Finally, there is a lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the ‘Carpenter’s Son’, in you I would choose to
understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work; here I would restore the
awareness of the nobility of work; and reaffirm that work cannot be an end in itself, but that its freedom
and its excellence derive, over and above its economic worth, from the value of those for whose sake it is
undertaken. And here at Nazareth, to conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to
them their great pattern, their brother who is God. He is the prophet of all their just causes, Christ our
Lord.
29 T H DECEMBER

THE CHURCH, THE BRIDE OF CHRIST, DESIRES THE LOVE OF THE KING: SONG OF SONGS 1:1-10
The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your
love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the
maidens love you. Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We
will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.
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I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of
Solomon. Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me. My mother's sons
were angry with me, they made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept! Tell
me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why
should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?
If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside
the shepherds’ tents.
I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your
neck with strings of jewels.
SIXTH DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: 30 T H DECEMBER

DIALOGUE BETWEEN LOVER AND BELOVED, CLEARLY CHRIST AND THE CHURCH: SONG OF
SONGS 1:11 – 2:7
We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.
While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh,
that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.
Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Behold, you are
beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are
pine.
I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.
As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I
sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his
banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am sick with love. O that
his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me! I adjure you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.

SERMON 46 ON THE SONG OF SONGS, TR. KILIAN WALSH OCSO (1976), FROM CISTERCIAN
FATHERS 7
Our bed is covered with flowers; the beams of our houses are of cedar, the panelling of cypress. She is
singing her marriage-song, describing in beautiful language the marriage bed and bridal suite. She invites
the bridegroom to repose: for the better thing is to remain at ease and be with Christ; but necessity
drives one forth to help those who are to be saved. So now when she feels that the opportunity presents
itself, she announces that the bridal suite has been furnished, and pointing to the bed with her finger she
invites, as I have said, the Beloved to rest there. Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus she cannot
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contain the ardour in her heart, but entices him to be the guest of her soul, compels him to spend the
night with her. With Peter she says: Lord it is good for us to be here.
Let us now seek the spiritual content of these words. And indeed in the Church the ‘bed’ where one
reposes is, in my opinion, the cloisters and monasteries, where one lives undisturbed by the cares of the
world and the anxieties of life. This bed is seen to be adorned with flowers when the conduct and life of
the brothers brightly reflect the examples and rules of the Fathers, as if strewn with sweet smelling
flowers. By ‘houses’ understand the ordinary communities of Christians. Those who enjoy high office, the
Christian leaders of both orders, strongly bind them together with laws justly imposed, as beams bind the
walls, lest living by their own law and will, they should fall apart from each other like tilting walls and
tottering fences, and thus the whole building fall to the ground and be destroyed. The panelling however,
which is firmly attached to the beams, and impressively adds to the beauty of the house, seems to me to
designate the courteous and disciplined behaviour of a well-trained clergy, who carry out their duties
correctly. For how shall the clerical orders stand and fulfil their duties unless they are sustained, as by
beams, by the beneficence and munificence of those who govern and protect by their power?
It is worth noting how beautifully every state of the Church is comprehended in one brief expression: the
authority of prelates, the good repute of the clergy, the dutifulness of the people, the peacefulness of the
monks. As she reflects on these, holy Mother Church rejoices when everything is right; and then she
presents them to the beloved to contemplate, since she refers everything to his goodness as the author
of all things, attributing nothing of them all to herself.
For the rest, when you hear or read these words of the Holy Spirit, do you think you can apply to yourself
some of what is said? Can you recognize in yourself any share in the happiness of the bride that is
celebrated by the Holy Spirit himself in this song of love?
SEVENTH DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: 31 S T DECEMBER

THE BRIDE HEARS THE BRIDEGROOM’S VOICE AND SEARCHES FOR HIM: SONG OF SONGS 2:8 –
3:5
The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My
beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the
windows, looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the
time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its
figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely. Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”
My beloved is mine and I am his, he pastures his flock among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the
shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon rugged mountains.
Upon my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not; I called him,
but he gave no answer. “I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek
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him whom my soul loves.” I sought him, but found him not. The watchmen found me, as they went about
in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him
whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's
house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the
gazelles or the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST GREGORY OF

NYSSA
HOMILY 5 ON THE SONG OF SONGS (JAEGER 6, 140-159), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
How should we interpret the words, Behold he comes, leaping over the mountains? Perhaps they foresee
the divine plan, spoken of in the Gospel and foretold by the prophets, whereby the Word of God became
visible to us by his coming in the flesh. See, there he stands, looking through the windows, peeping
through the lattices. The Word unites humanity to God methodically, step by step. First he enlightens us
through the prophets and the precepts of the law; for we take the prophets to be the windows admitting
the light and the network of the law’s commands to be the lattice. Through both of these steals the
brilliance of the true light. Afterward comes the full illumination when by union with our nature the true
light shines upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. First the light of the ideas
contained in the prophets and the law shines upon the soul through windows and lattices apprehended
by our minds, filling it with a desire to see the sun in the open air. Then the desire is fulfilled.
Rise up my companion, my fair one, my dove, and come. How much the Word teaches us in these few
words! We watch him leading the bride to the heights along the ascending path of virtue, as though up a
flight of steps. First he sends her a ray of light through the windows which are the prophets and the
lattice which is the precepts of the law, calling her to approach the light and to become beautiful as she
takes on in the light the form of a dove. Then when she has taken on as much of the divine beauty as she
can, as though she had not yet received any part in it, he draws her once again from the beginning
toward the supreme Beauty in which she is to share. As a result her desire becomes more intense the
further she advances toward what is continually being revealed to her. Moreover, because of the
surpassing greatness of the blessings she is always receiving by his grace who surpasses all, she seems to
be making the journey for the first time.
And so, after she has risen the Word again says ‘Rise’ and after she has come he says ‘Come’. One who
has thus risen never lacks the opportunity to rise further and one who is running toward the Lord never
reaches the end of the space available for the divine race. We should always be rising and those whom
the race is bringing close to the goal should never stop. Each time the Word says ‘Rise’ and ‘Come’ he
gives the power to ascend to still loftier heights.
THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS: MARY, MOTHER OF GOD

CHRIST IS LIKE HIS BRETHREN IN ALL THINGS: HEBREWS 2:9-17
But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour
because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
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For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should
make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are
sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, “I will proclaim
thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.” And again, “I will put my
trust in him.” And again, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that
through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those
who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. For surely it is not with angels that he is
concerned but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every
respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make
expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to
help those who are tempted.
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO EPICTETUS BY ST ATHANASIUS

LETTER TO EPICTETUS 5-9, FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE VOL. I
The Word took to himself descent from Abraham, as the Apostle says, and therefore it was essential that
he should in this way become completely like his brothers, and take a body similar to ours. That is why
Mary is really part of his plan, so that he may take this body from her and offer it up for us as something
that is his own. Accordingly, Scripture mentions his birth, and says: She wrapped up in swaddling clothes;
the breasts that suckled him were called blessed; sacrifice was offered because he was the first-born.
Gabriel announced the good news to Mary with all clarity: he did not say simply: ‘what is born in you’, in
case it might be thought that the body had been introduced into her from outside; he said: what is born
of you, so that it would be accepted that what she gave birth to, came from her in the natural way.
The Word took this course of action so that he could take on himself what was ours, offer it in sacrifice,
and do away with it altogether, and then clothe us in what was his, as he inspired the Apostle to say: This
perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. This was no
mere fiction, as some have thought. For our Saviour really did become man, and this brought about the
salvation of the whole man. Our salvation is no illusion, nor is it salvation of the body only: the salvation
of the whole man, body and soul, was really brought about in the Word himself.
What was born of Mary, according to Scripture, was by nature human; the Lord’s body was a real one -
real, because it was the same as ours. This was so because Mary was our sister, since we are all
descended from Adam. This is the meaning of John’s words: The Word became flesh, as can be seen from
a similar passage in Paul: Christ became a curse for us. The human body has been greatly
enhanced through the fellowship and the union of the Word with it. From being mortal, it has become
immortal; though physical, it has become spiritual; though made from the earth, it has passed through
the gates of heaven. Though the Word took a body from Mary, the Trinity remains a Trinity, and admits
neither addition nor diminution. It is always perfect. In the Trinity one Godhead is acknowledged, and so
in the Church one God proclaimed, the Father of the Word.
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BEFORE EPIPHANY: 2 N D JANUARY

CHRIST DESIRES THE LOVE OF HIS BRIDE, THE CHURCH: SONG OF SONGS 4:1 – 5:1
Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your
hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them is bereaved. Your
lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand
bucklers, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed
among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will hie me to the mountain of myrrh and
the hill of frankincense. You are all fair, my love; there is no flaw in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my
bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.
You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace. How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride! how much better is your
love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! Your lips distil nectar, my bride; honey and
milk are under your tongue; the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon. A garden locked is
my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with
all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of
frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices – a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing
streams from Lebanon.
Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its fragrance be wafted abroad.
Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.
I come to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gather my myrrh with my spice, I eat my honeycomb with my
honey, I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink: drink deeply, O lovers!
MEMORIA OF SS BASIL AND GREGORY NAZIANZEN:
SEE SANCTORAL FOR 2 N D NOCTURN READING.

FERIAL READING: A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ST
BERNARD
SERMO 31 IN CANT. 8-10 (OPERA OMNIA, EDIT. CIST. 1 1957] 224-226), FROM WORD IN
SEASON 1
Throughout the whole of the Song of Songs you will find God the Word foreshadowed. This leads me to
think there is a reference to the Word in the prophetic text: Christ the Lord is the breath of life to us;
under his shadow we shall live among the peoples. We do not yet see him face to face, but only
obscurely as in a mirror. However, this is true only as long as we are living among the peoples of this
world. When we are with the angels, it will be different; we shall enjoy exactly the same happiness as
they have now. We too shall see him as he is in his divine nature, and not in shadow.
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We know that in ancient times the truth was veiled in shadows and figures, but that now the reality itself
shines upon us through the grace of Christ, present in the flesh. In the same way we ourselves live at
present in the shadow of the truth concerning the world to come. No one will deny this unless he refuses
to accept what the Apostle says: Our knowledge is only partial and so is our prophesying; or again: I
do not consider that I have fully grasped what I aspire to. There is surely a distinction between
those who walk by faith and those who enjoy clear sight; whereas the upright live by faith, the blessed
rejoice in the beatific vision. We can say, then, that during this earthly life holy men live in Christ’s
shadow, but the holy angels in heaven are bathed in the splendour of the glory of his face.
Happy the shadow of faith that tempers the light to the sighted eye and prepares the eye to bear it!
Scripture speaks of God cleansing our hearts by faith, which shows that faith does not extinguish the light,
but preserves it. All that the angels see is preserved for me by the obscurity of faith; it is stored up in the
believer’s heart, ready to be revealed when the time is ripe. Even the Lord’s mother lived in the obscurity
of faith; was she not told: Blessed are you because you have believed? It was the shadow of Christ’s
body that fell upon her when she heard the angel say: The power of the Most High will overshadow
you. Now this could be no ordinary shadow, coming as it did from the power of the Most High. There was
indeed power in Christ’s flesh as it cast its shadow over the Virgin. Under the protecting shadow of his
life-giving body she was able to endure the presence of the divine glory and to bear light
unapproachable, a thing impossible for mortal man. Clearly this was the power that defeated all
the forces of the enemy; it was both strength and shade, invigorating and refreshing, scattering
demons and protecting men.
BEFORE EPIPHANY: 3 R D JANUARY

THE BRIDE SEEKS AND PRAISES THE BRIDEGROOM: SONG OF SONGS 5:2 – 6:3
I slept, but my heart was awake. Hark! my beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my perfect one; for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” I had put off my
garment, how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet, how could I soil them? My beloved put his hand to
the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with
myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought
him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. The watchmen found me, as they went
about in the city; they beat me, they wounded me, they took away my mantle, those watchmen of the
walls. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love.
What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved more
than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?
My beloved is all radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. His head is the finest gold; his
locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside springs of water, bathed in milk, fitly set.
His cheeks are like beds of spices, yielding fragrance. His lips are lilies, distilling liquid myrrh. His
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arms are rounded gold, set with jewels. His body is ivory work, encrusted with sapphires. His legs are
alabaster columns, set upon bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. His
speech is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters
of Jerusalem.
Whither has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Whither has your beloved turned, that we may
seek him with you?
My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to
gather lilies. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

NYSSA
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, 11 (JAEGER, 6.321-325), WORD IN SEASON VOL. 2
Those who gaze upon the infinite beauty of God never cease to find in that vision new and amazing
depths, surpassing all the mind had previously comprehended. The bride in the Song of Songs is in
constant wonder and amazement at what she is beginning to see, yet never stops longing to see more.
Listening in silence she hears the voice of the Word re-echo: Open to me, my sister, my companion,
dove, my perfect one. Reflection will teach you the meaning of these words.
At first God appeared to Moses in light; then he spoke to him in a cloud. Later, when Moses had
progressed and become more perfect, he saw God in darkness. The lesson this teaches us is that our
original abandonment of false and mistaken ideas about God is a passage from darkness to light. Then a
deeper understanding of hidden things leads the soul through sense phenomena to the invisible. This
understanding becomes a kind of cloud obscuring all that can be seen, and leading and
accustoming the soul to look upon what is hidden.
Journeying upward through all these stages, the soul leaves behind everything human nature can attain,
and enters the sanctuary of God where it is enveloped on all sides by the divine darkness. Everything that
can be apprehended by sense or reason is abandoned; the soul has nothing to contemplate but what is
invisible and incomprehensible; and there God is. As Scripture says of the Lawgiver: Moses entered the
dark cloud where God was.
In the Song of Songs the bride is surrounded by a divine darkness in which the Bridegroom approaches
but does not reveal himself. How could the Invisible reveal himself in darkness? Concealed by the
invisibility of his nature he eludes clear comprehension, although he gives the soul a certain perception of
his presence. What then is the mysterious teaching which the soul receives in the night? The Word
touches the door; and by the door, we may understand the intelligence which is able to apprehend the
unutterable, and through which the One whom we seek makes his entrance. Truth stands outside our
nature because, as the Apostle says, our knowledge is only partial. Truth knocks at the door of our
intelligence with allegories and symbols, saying: Open, and along with this command gives us a hint as to
how we are to open the door, handing us, so to speak, as keys to unlock it, the beautiful names: sister,
companion, dove, perfect one; for the meanings of these names really are keys that can open up
mysteries.
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Truth says: ‘If you wish to open the door, and to lift up the gates of your soul so that the King of glory may
enter, you must become my sister by accepting my will in your soul; for as the Lord says in the Gospel,
those who live according to his will become his brethren. You must come close to truth and become its
inseparable companion. You must be perfect like a dove, in other words, without any defect; you must be
completely pure and innocent.’

PRAISE OF THE BRIDE: SONG OF SONGS 6:4 – 7:9
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Turn away
your eyes from me, for they disturb me – Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of
Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, that have come up from the washing, all of them bear twins,
not one among them is bereaved. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. There
are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. My dove, my perfect one, is only
one, the darling of her mother, flawless to her that bore her. The maidens saw her and called her happy;
the queens and concubines also, and they praised her. “Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as
the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?”
I went down to the nut orchard, to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had
budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom. Before I was aware, my fancy set me in a chariot
beside my prince. Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you. Why should
you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?
How graceful are your feet in sandals, O queenly maiden! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of
a master hand. Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat,
encircled with lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory
tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
overlooking Damascus. Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is
held captive in the tresses.
How fair and pleasant you are, O loved one, delectable maiden! You are stately as a palm tree, and your
breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its branches. Oh, may your
breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your kisses like the best
wine that goes down smoothly, gliding over lips and teeth.

SERMO 27 IN CANT., 6-7 (PL 183, 916-917), FROM WORD IN SEASON VOL. 1
I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven, adorned like a bride for her
husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying: This is the dwelling place of God among men,
where he will live with them. Why should God choose to live among men? I believe his purpose
was to take a wife to himself from the human race. He came to earth in search of a bride, yet,
paradoxically, he did not come without one. Does this mean that there were two brides? Not at
all. In the Song of Songs the bridegroom says: My dove is one and unique. But it was the Lord’s
will to gather his sheep together in a single flock so that there would be one fold and one
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shepherd. While the angels in their myriads had been espoused to him from the beginning, it
was his good pleasure to call men together to form a Church which he would then unite to his
heavenly bride, and so there would be one bride and one bridegroom. The source of this
oneness is our conformity with the angels in love during our earthly life and our participation
with them in glory in the life to come.
From heaven, then, we have the bridegroom Jesus, and the bride Jerusalem. In order to be seen on earth
Jesus emptied himself, taking the nature of a servant, fashioned in human form and presenting himself to
us in the likeness of man. But how did the bride present herself when she came down from heaven? Was
it in the form of a throng of angels descending and ascending upon the Son of Man?
I think this question is better answered by saying that we were given a vision of the bride when we saw
the incarnate Word, and understood that bride and bridegroom were two in one flesh. When Emmanuel,
the Holy One, brought his divine teaching to earth and showed us the beauty of that heavenly Jerusalem
which is our mother by revealing to us her visible likeness in himself, were we not then given a vision of
the bride in the bridegroom? No one can ascend to heaven except the one who has descended from
heaven - the Lord who is one and the same, bridegroom as head and bride as body. Nor was his appearing
on earth a fruitless mission: it had the effect of making a great many earthborn men heavenly like himself,
so fulfilling the text: The heavenly man is the model for all who are heavenly.
From that time onward men began to live the kind of life on earth that the angels live in heaven. Like
those blessed celestial spirits, the Church comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon. With chaste love she cleaves to her heavenly bridegroom. Though not yet visibly united to him
in the way the angels are, she is betrothed to him by faith, in accordance with the promise made through
the prophet: I will betroth you to myself in mercy and compassion; I will betroth you to myself in fidelity.

THE LAST WORDS OF THE BRIDE AND A PRAISE OF LOVE: SONG OF SONGS 7:10 – 8:7
I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields, and lodge in
the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards, and see whether the vines have budded, whether the
grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. The
mandrakes give forth fragrance, and over our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have
laid up for you, O my beloved.
O that you were like a brother to me, that nursed at my mother’s breast! If I met you outside, I would kiss
you, and none would despise me. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, and into
the chamber of her that conceived me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my
pomegranates. O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me! I adjure
you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.
Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in travail with you, there she who bore you
was in travail.
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Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as
the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly
scorned.
A READING FROM THE SERMONS ON THE SONG OF SONGS BY ABBOT JOHN OF FORD
CANTICI CANTICORUM SERMONES, SERMO 110, 13 (CCCM 18, 749), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
I despise it as nothing, can be quite appropriately taken as referring to the wealth of one’s house but also
to love. I mean, of course, the love with which a man loves, not the love with which God first loved this
person. However great the love a man like this may have, it can only be human love. But God’s love,
purely out of kindness, anticipated it, and every moment the free gift of that love is all that keeps it alive,
governs and nourishes it. In comparison with this love, what is a man’s love but a wind that passes and
returns not again? If for a single moment that love did not inspire it, there would be nothing left for it but
to expire. So God’s love gives life to our love, but our love is of no advantage to God’s.
But the prudent merchant, who has given up all that he owns for love, must keep safely what has cost
him dearly, and should make his new treasure grow greater every single minute. So he must take the
advice of the true Solomon, God’s wisdom who is Christ, and feel utter scorn for his own feeble love. If he
does, he will be able to keep faithfully what he has gained and make a great profit on what he is keeping
safe. He must always say: “It is unimportant, it is unimportant”, and think of himself, not as a true lover
but as an unprofitable servant. Certainly he must love, but he must realize that he has not yet even begun
to love; he must love, while holding his love in utter scorn, as meagre, unworthy, unprofitable.
God’s love is love at its highest, eternally full to repletion, and so has no need of our love, but if our love is
to live by him, it must ever draw life from its fullness, by the help of the only Son, who with the Father
and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, forever and ever. Amen.

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, LIGHT OF THE NATIONS: ISAIAH 49:1-9
from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow
of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me,
“You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent
my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my
God.”
And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honoured in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has
become my strength – he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation
may reach to the end of the earth.”
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Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the
nations, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Thus says the LORD: “In a time of favour I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you; I
have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate
heritages; saying to the prisoners, ‘Come forth’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear’. They shall feed
along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their pasture.”

IN PS. 35, 4-5 (CCL 64, 52-54), FROM WORD IN SEASON VOL. 1
We have, I believe, given fitting testimony to the poverty and suffering of the Lord, testimony provided by
holy men, one announcing a prophetic vision, the other a message he had been set apart to preach. Let
us now set out their testimony, trustworthy witnesses as they are, to the role of the Lord as servant:
indeed, their evidence is his own, for through them he spoke about himself. Listen then to what he says:
Thus says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring back Jacob
and Israel to himself. We see from this how it was to gather God’s people into unity that Christ took
the nature of a servant.
The Lord, he says, gave me my name from my mother’s womb. Let us hear what this name is, the name
given him by the Father. Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and his name shall be
called Emmanuel, meaning God with us. What else is Christ’s name but ‘the Son of God’? Consider
another text. Gabriel also had spoken to Joseph about Mary: She shall bear a son, and you shall call his
name Jesus. Now listen to God’s voice: You, Bethlehem of Judea, are not the least among the princes of
Juda, for from you shall come a prince to rule my people.
Here is a mystery: in order to establish a kingdom for God in human hearts, the child came forth from the
Virgin’s womb as both servant and Lord, servant to obey and Lord to command. Both are one. There are
not two persons, one born from the Father and the other from the Virgin. The same person, born of the
Father before all ages, was later to take a human nature from the virgin. This is why he is called both
servant and Lord. Born as a servant for our sake, in the unity of the divine nature he is God born of God, a
king born of a king, an equal born of an equal. The Son in whom the Father declared himself well pleased
is none other than the true-born Son of the Father who begot him.
It is a great thing, God says, for you to be called my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob. Christ
always retains those designations that belong to his intrinsic dignity: great God, great servant. Even in his
human nature he never loses his title to that greatness which has no end. So then, in his
unending greatness he is equal to God as God’s Son, yet he assumed the condition of a
servant in his human nature and tasted death, because the end of the law is Christ, who
justifies everyone who believes in him. Let us have faith in him and adore him in the depth
of our hearts. How perfect was that service by which he made us all free! How perfect was
his humility, the effect of which is that at his name all bend the knee in heaven, on earth,
and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God
the Father!
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THE JOYS AND THE BEAUTY OF THE REBORN CITY: ISAIAH 54:1-17
“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in
travail! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her that is married, says the
LORD. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not
back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the
left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame; for you will
forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For
your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in
spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I forsook you, but with
great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with
everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer.
“For this is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the
earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may
depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of
peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
“O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your
foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall
of precious stones. All your sons shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the prosperity of your
sons. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up
strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and
produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is
fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in
judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, says the LORD.”
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES BY ST

HIPPOLYTUS
CAP. 10, 33-34 (PG 16, 3452-3453), FROM WORD IN SEASON VOL. 1
Our faith is not founded upon empty words; nor are we carried away by mere caprice or beguiled by
specious arguments. On the contrary, we put our faith in words spoken by the power of God, spoken by
the Word himself at God’s command. God wished to win us back from disobedience, not by using force to
reduce us to slavery, but by addressing to our free will a call to liberty. The Word spoke first of all
through the prophets, but because the message was couched in such obscure language that it
could only dimly be apprehended, in the last days the Father sent the Word in person, commanding him
to show himself openly so that the world could see him and be saved.

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We know that by taking a body from the Virgin he refashioned our fallen nature. We know that his
humanity was of the same clay as our own; if this were not so, he would hardly have been a teacher who
could expect to be imitated. He wanted us to consider him as no different from ourselves, and so he
worked, he was hungry and thirsty, he slept. Without protest he endured his passion, he submitted to
death and revealed his resurrection. In all these ways he offered his own manhood as the firstfruits of our
race to keep us from losing heart when suffering comes our way and to make us look forward to receiving
the same reward as he did, since we know that we possess the same humanity.
When we have come to know the true God, both our bodies and our souls will be immortal and
incorruptible. We shall enter the kingdom of heaven, because while we lived on earth we acknowledged
heaven’s king. Friends of God and co-heirs with Christ, we shall be subject to no evil desires or
inclinations, or to any affliction of body or soul for we shall have become divine. It was because of our
human condition that God allowed us to endure these things, but when we have been made sharers in his
godhead and immortal, he has promised us that his attributes will be ours.
The saying, ‘Know yourself’, means that we should recognize and acknowledge in ourselves the God who
made us in his own image, for if we do this, we in turn will be recognized and acknowledged by our
Maker. So let us not be at enmity with ourselves, but change our way of life without delay. For Christ
who is God, exalted above all creation, has taken away our sin and refashioned our fallen nature. In
the beginning God made us in his image and so gave proof of his love for us. If we obey his holy
commands and learn to imitate his goodness, we shall be like him and he will honour us. God is not
beggarly, and for the sake of his own glory he has given us a share in his divinity.
THE EPIPHANY

THE REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD OVER JERUSALEM: ISAIAH 60:1-22
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness
shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will
be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Lift up your eyes round about, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come
from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart
shall thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations
shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those
from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall
come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify my glorious house.
Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows? For the coastlands shall wait for me,
the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the
LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you. Foreigners shall build up
your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I smote you, but in my favour I have had
mercy on you. Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut; that men may
bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. For the nation and kingdom that
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will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. The glory of Lebanon shall come
to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the
place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who oppressed you shall come bending low to you; and all
who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the
Holy One of Israel.
Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic for
ever, a joy from age to age. You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breast of kings; and you
shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead
of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness. Violence shall no
more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls
Salvation, and your gates Praise.
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night;
but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go
down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of
mourning shall be ended. Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land for ever, the
shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. The least one shall become a clan,
and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.

SERMO 3 IN APPARITIONE DOMINI (PL 195, 228-229), FROM WORD IN SEASON VOL. 1
Arise, Jerusalem, and be enlightened, for your light has come. The Jerusalem addressed in this text is the
city whose true and supreme peace is the Lord Jesus, the city he is building out of stones, the Jerusalem
on the march toward that blessed vision of her Lord which she firmly believes will one day be hers. This
Jerusalem is holy Church; it is also any religious community, any soul in a state of grace.
Arise, Jerusalem, and be enlightened, Scripture urges her. Such an exhortation is indeed appropriate for
one who is lying prostrate and blind in darkness, error, and depravity. Arise, she is told; he who would lift
you up is stooping down to you. Be enlightened; he who would shine upon you is already here. Today’s
new star reiterates the heavenly message: Arise and be enlightened! A sign of the Lord’s birth has
appeared in the sky to invite us to detach ourselves from the love of earthly things and raise ourselves
heavenward; and this sign consists of a star, so that we may understand that through Christ's birth we
shall be flooded with new light.
But to whom was the star’s invitation originally made? Unquestionably it was to that Jerusalem
represented by the queen who hastened from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
Solomon’s name means Peacemaker; consequently, the queen who came to see him stands for Jerusalem
whose name means Vision of Peace. This queen is a type of the Church formed from the pagans, for she
was a pagan queen. When we see how many nations and peoples the Church rules over, we easily
recognize her as the queen of whom David says: On your right stands the queen in robes of gold.
Today is the birthday of the Church among those pagans who saw the star and understood its message; it
is therefore the day on which this queen comes from the ends of the earth to see the face of the one
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described in the words: Behold a greater than Solomon here. Greater indeed is he then Solomon, for
Solomon was a peacemaker only, whereas the Lord Jesus makes peace by being peace incarnate. As the
Apostle says: He is our peace; he has made both Jew and pagan one. This queen of ours, then, is well
named Jerusalem, Vision of Peace, since she hastens to see the King who is himself peace in person.
She is also called Queen of Sheba; a felicitous title, for Sheba means ‘captivity’. The Queen of Sheba is
evidently the Church who disposes and governs all things well during her time of captivity in exile from
that kingdom which knows neither captivity nor distress, the kingdom she herself will receive on the Day
of Judgment when the Lord says to her: Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you. Until today our queen, the holy Church of the Gentiles, has lain prostrate in the dust without sight,
but now the summons comes to her: Arise, and be enlightened!
MONDAY AFTER EPIPHANY YEAR II

THE JOYS AND THE BEAUTY OF THE REBORN CITY: ISAIAH 54:1-17
“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in
travail! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her that is married, says the
LORD. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not
back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the
left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame; for you will
forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For
your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in
spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I forsook you, but with
great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with
everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer.
“For this is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the
earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may
depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of
peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
“O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your
foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall
of precious stones. All your sons shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the prosperity of your
sons. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up
strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and
produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is
fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in
judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, says the LORD.”
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SERMON 34: 6 JANUARY 444 (RECENSION A), TR. FREELAND & CONWAY (1996)
Justice and reason demand a service of genuine reverence, dearly beloved, in these days which make
known the works of' divine mercy. We must rejoice with all our hearts and celebrate with honour the
things that have been done for our salvation. Even the law of recurring seasons calls us to this devotion,
which, after the day on which the Son of God, co-eternal with the Father, was born of the Virgin, in a
short time introduced to us the feast of the Epiphany, consecrated by the Lord’s appearance.
Consequently, it came about by the great goodness of the divine plan that a nation living in the distant
regions of the East, a nation which possessed the skill of reading stars, should receive a sign that the child
who was to rule in Israel had been born. The unusual clarity of a brighter star appeared to the wise men
and filled the hearts of those looking on with an admiration for its splendour. As a result, they felt that
they must not neglect what had been shown through so great a portent.
As the nature of the event had shown, it was the grace of God that governed this miracle. Although, up to
this point, not even all of Bethlehem had learned about Christ’s Nativity, this sign brought knowledge of
his birth to nations that were going to believe. What could not yet be described with human eloquence
was made known by the proclamation of heaven. The wise men were also able to be reminded through
the ancient pronouncements of Balaam, for they knew that it had at one time been spread abroad in a
famous and memorable prediction: A star will appear out of Jacob, and a man will rise up from Israel. He
will rule over the nations. So the three men, stirred by God through the shining of this unusual star, follow
the course of its gleaming light ahead of them, thinking that they would find the indicated child in the
royal city of Jerusalem.
When this conjecture had failed them, however, they learned from scribes and teachers of the Jews what
the Sacred Scriptures had told about the Birth of Christ. Encouraged by the double evidence, they sought
him out with an even more ardent faith, the one to whom both the brightness of the star and the
authority of prophets pointed. When the divine oracle was put forth in the responses made by priests,
the word of the Spirit was made clear, the one which said: And you, Bethlehem of Judah, are not least
among the princes of Judah, for out of you will come the leader who will rule my people Israel.
Then, dearly beloved, when the wise men had been led into Bethlehem by following the star’s guidance,
they rejoiced with a very great joy, as the Evangelist has related, and, entering the abode, they saw the
Child with Mary his Mother. Prostrating themselves, they adored him. Upon opening their treasure chests,
they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
TUESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

AN EVERLASTING COVENANT IS PROMISED TO ALL BY THE WORD OF THE LORD: ISAIAH 55:1-13
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come,
buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not
bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in fatness. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I
will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a
witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call nations that you
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know not, and nations that knew you not shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy
One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him, and
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I
purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break
forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up
the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for
an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off.”

SERMO 203 (PL 38, 1035-1037), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
The Redeemer of all nations was manifested, and so he has made a feast day for all nations. As this is the
day on which he is believed to have been worshipped by the Magi, it seemed only right, was indeed right
and just, that the nations should dedicate it to Christ the Lord with a solemn service of thanksgiving.
Those Magi, the first Gentiles to recognize Christ the Lord, had not yet been moved by any word of his,
but they followed the star that appeared to them and that spoke visibly, like a heavenly tongue, on behalf
of the infant inarticulate Word.
The shepherds, of course, were the firstfruits of the Jews as regards faith in Christ and his revelation.
Coming from close at hand, they saw him on the very day of his birth. They received the news from
angels, whereas the Magi received it from a star. The shepherds heard the words: Glory to God in the
highest; for the Magi, the prophecy: The heavens declare the glory of God, was fulfilled. The two of
them were like the beginnings of two walls coming from opposite directions, one of the circumcision, the
other of the uncircumcision, and running toward the cornerstone so that he might be their peace, and make
the two one.
The shepherds, then, came from nearby to see, and the Magi came from a great distance to worship. This
is the humility for which the wild olive deserved to be grafted into the cultivated one and to produce
olives contrary to its nature, since grace enabled it to change its nature. For like the wild olive the whole
world had grown wild and bitter, but by the grace of ingrafting it became fertile. People come from the
ends of the earth saying in the words of Jeremiah: Truly our ancestors worshiped lies. And they come not
just from one part of the world but, as the Gospel according to Luke says, from east and west, north and
south to sit at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
The Magi, the firstfruits of the Gentiles, came to see and worship Christ, and were found worthy not only
to receive their own salvation but also to be a sign of the salvation of all nations. Let us then celebrate
this day with the greatest devotion, worshipping the Lord Jesus in his heavenly dwelling, who was
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worshiped by those firstfruits of ours as he lay in an inn. They venerated in him what was still to come; we
venerate its fulfilment. The firstfruits of the nations worshipped him at his mother’s breast; now the
nations worship him seated at the right hand of God the Father.
WEDNESDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

FOREIGNERS AND EUNUCHS ARE ADMITTED INTO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD: ISAIAH 56:1-8
Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my
deliverance be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who
keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his
people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs
who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my
house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an
everlasting name which shall not be cut off.
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast my
covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their
burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of
prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather yet others
to him besides those already gathered.”

TRACT. 36, 1-2 (CCL 138, 195-196), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
Dearly beloved, the day on which Christ first showed himself to the Gentiles as the Saviour of the world
should be held in holy reverence among us. We should experience in our hearts the same joy as the three
wise men felt when the sign of the new star led them into the presence of the King of heaven and earth,
and they gazed in adoration upon the one in whose promised coming they had put their faith. Although
that day belongs to the past, the power of the mystery which was then revealed has not passed away; we
are not left with a mere report of bygone events, to be received in faith and remembered with
veneration. God’s bounty toward us has been multiplied, so that even in our own times we daily
experience the grace which belonged to those first beginnings.
The Gospel story specifically recalls the days when, without any previous teaching from the prophets or
instruction in the law, three men came from the far east in search of God; but we see the same thing
taking place even more clearly and extensively in the enlightenment of all those whom God calls at the
present time. We see the fulfilment of that prophecy of Isaiah which says: The Lord has bared his holy
arm in the sight of all nations, and the whole world has seen the salvation that comes from the
Lord our God. And again: Those who have not been told about him shall see, and those who have
not heard shall understand. When we witness people being led out of the abyss of error and called to
knowledge of the true light, people who, far from professing faith in Jesus Christ, have hitherto devoted
themselves to worldly wisdom, we can have no doubt that the splendour of divine grace is at work.
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Whenever a shaft of light newly pierces darkened hearts, its source is the radiance of that same star,
which impresses the souls it touches by the miracle of its appearance and leads them forward to worship
God.
If on the other hand we earnestly ask ourselves whether the same threefold oblation is made by all who
come to Christ in faith, shall we not discover a corresponding gift offering in the hearts of true believers?
To acknowledge Christ’s universal sovereignty is in fact to bring out gold from the treasury of one’s soul;
to believe God’s only Son has made himself truly one with human nature is to offer myrrh; and to declare
that he is in no way inferior to his Father in majesty is to worship him with frankincense.
THURSDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

THE LORD IS COMING: ISAIAH 59:15-21
Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and
wondered that there was no one to intervene; then his own arm brought him victory, and his
righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his
head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury as a mantle. According
to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies; to the coastlands he will
render requital. So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of
the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives.
“And he will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the LORD.
“And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD: my spirit which is upon you, and my words
which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children,
or out of the mouth of your children’s children, says the LORD, from this time forth and for evermore.”

SERMO 9 IN DIE PENTECOSTES (PL 142, 1015-1016), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
In order that our fallen human birth might become a new birth in the Spirit, Christ was born of a spotless
virgin. He chose to be subject to the law of circumcision to make it clear that the law was of his own
making and to enable us too to be circumcised after his example through the experience of spiritual joy.
By this I mean that through our formation in the Christian life we might be found worthy of incorporation
into God’s heavenly building.
After his circumcision Christ received the homage of the wise men, who brought him gifts of three
different kinds. These gifts symbolized their belief that the child who had become man for our sake was
the King and Lord of all ages. He also chose to be presented in the temple and to have offered on his
behalf a turtledove and a pigeon. This he did to give us an example: when we come to the altar we must
bring chastity, innocence and all other virtues as our sacrificial offerings.
At the age of twelve years Jesus remained behind in the temple without the knowledge of his virgin
mother. An urgent, anxious search found him after a little while sitting among the doctors, not teaching
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them but listening to them and absorbing what they said. In answer to his mother’s question as to why he
had stayed there without telling her, he replied that he was in his Father’s house. These were the actions
of a young boy, yet they are supported by the certitude of Catholic belief. When we see the mother of
Jesus searching for him, we have no doubt that he is fully human. When Jesus declares that it is fitting for
him to be in his Father’s house, all the faithful believe him to be the true and only Son of God. When they
see him sitting among the doctors, listening and asking questions, they see in this a sign that only mature
adults should aspire to the work of preaching.
Although as Son of God he needed neither cleansing nor purifying, yet on a particular day at a determined
time when he was thirty years old he underwent the rite of baptism, that unique mystery by which alone
we receive salvation. By undergoing baptism he consecrated it, and by that consecration he bestowed as
a heavenly gift on all believers the holiness which baptism confers.
But while he has granted the faculty of baptizing to the ministers of his Church, the power of baptizing he
keeps in his own hands, as if claiming this as a special privilege of his own. This is what the divine voice
announced to the great and holy John when, without hesitation, Christ came to him for baptism. The
man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest, said that voice, is the one who is going to
baptize. John himself was the friend of the Bridegroom, the faithful and humble forerunner, and Truth in
person has testified that none greater than he has arisen among the sons of women. Yet even as John
baptized he preached another baptism. So it is written in the holy Gospel, where John is reported as
saying: I baptize you with water, but another is to follow me who will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit and with fire.
FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

ZION EXHORTS AND CONSOLES HER CHILDREN: BARUCH 4:5-29
Take courage, my people, O memorial of Israel! It was not for destruction that you were sold to the
nations, but you were handed over to your enemies because you angered God. For you provoked him
who made you, by sacrificing to demons and not to God. You forgot the everlasting God, who brought
you up, and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you. For she saw the wrath that came upon you from
God, and she said: “Hearken, you neighbours of Zion, God has brought great sorrow upon me; for I have
seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them. With joy I
nurtured them, but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow. Let no one rejoice over me, a widow and
bereaved of many; I was left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from
the law of God. They had no regard for his statutes; they did not walk in the ways of God’s
commandments, nor tread the paths of discipline in his righteousness. Let the neighbours of Zion come;
remember the capture of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them. For he
brought against them a nation from afar, a shameless nation, of a strange language, who had no respect
for an old man, and had no pity for a child. They led away the widow’s beloved sons, and bereaved the
lonely woman of her daughters.
“But I, how can I help you? For he who brought these calamities upon you will deliver you from the hand
of your enemies. Go, my children, go; for I have been left desolate. I have taken off the robe of peace and
put on the sackcloth of my supplication; I will cry to the Everlasting all my days.
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“Take courage, my children, cry to God, and he will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy.
For I have put my hope in the Everlasting to save you, and joy has come to me from the Holy One,
because of the mercy which soon will come to you from your everlasting Saviour. For I sent you out with
sorrow and weeping, but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness for ever. For as the
neighbours of Zion have now seen your capture, so they soon will see your salvation by God, which will
come to you with great glory and with the splendour of the Everlasting. My children, endure with
patience the wrath that has come upon you from God. Your enemy has overtaken you, but you will soon
see their destruction and will tread upon their necks. My tender sons have travelled rough roads; they
were taken away like a flock carried off by the enemy.
“Take courage, my children, and cry to God, for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon
you. For just as you purposed to go astray from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him. For he who
brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.”
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST FAUSTUS OF RIEZ

SERMO 5 DE EPIPHANIA 2 (PLS 3, 560-562), FROM WORD IN SEASON 1
On the third day there was a wedding. What wedding can this be but the joyful marriage of our salvation,
a marriage celebrated on the third day, according to the symbolic meaning of that number, by profession
of faith in the Trinity or by belief in the resurrection? When we turn to another passage of the Gospel we
read of the music, dancing, and wedding garments that welcomed the return of the younger son. Here
the conversion of the Gentiles is signified.
Like a bridegroom coming forth from his marriage chamber, our incarnate Lord descended to earth in
order to be espoused to the Church which was to be formed of all nations. To his Church he gave a pledge
of betrothal and a marriage dowry: a pledge when his divinity was joined to our humanity, a dowry when
he was offered in sacrifice for our salvation By the pledge we understand our present redemption; by the
dowry, eternal life.
To those who see only with the outward eye, all these events are strange and wonderful; to those who
understand, they are also signs. For if we look closely we can see a certain likeness to our baptismal
rebirth in the water itself. One substance is inwardly changed into another, and in a hidden way a lesser
creature is changed into a greater. All this points to the hidden reality of our second birth. At Cana water
was suddenly changed; it was destined later to change men.
By Christ’s action in Galilee, wine is made; that is, the law withdraws and grace takes its place, the
shadows fade and truth appears, the things of the flesh are paralleled by spiritual realities, and the old
covenant with its outward discipline is transformed into the new. As the blessed Apostle says, the old
order has passed away; now all is new. Like the water in the jars, which is not diminished in quantity but
has become a different substance, so the law is not destroyed by Christ’s coming but brought to
fulfilment.
When the wine fails, new wine is served. The wine of the old covenant is good, but the wine of the new is
better. The old covenant, which the Jews observed, has become obsolete according to the letter; the new
covenant, which belongs to us, has the savour of life and is filled with grace.
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SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

THE JOY OF THE NEW JERUSALEM: BARUCH 4:30 – 5:9
Take courage, O Jerusalem, for he who named you will comfort you. Wretched will be those who afflicted
you and rejoiced at your fall. Wretched will be the cities which your children served as slaves; wretched
will be the city which received your sons. For just as she rejoiced at your fall and was glad for your ruin, so
she will be grieved at her own desolation. And I will take away her pride in her great population, and her
insolence will be turned to grief. For fire will come upon her from the Everlasting for many days, and for a
long time she will be inhabited by demons.
Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God! Behold, your sons are
coming, whom you sent away; they are coming, gathered from east and west, at the word of the Holy
One, rejoicing in the glory of God.
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the
glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory
of the Everlasting. For God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. For your name will
forever be called by God, “Peace of righteousness and glory of godliness.”
Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height and look toward the east, and see your children gathered from
west and east, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went
forth from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory,
as on a royal throne. For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. The
woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God's command. For God will lead Israel with joy, in
the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
A READING FROM A SERMON ATTRIBUTED TO ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN

SERMO 45, 1-3 (CCL 23, 182-183)
Today the true Sun has risen upon the world; amid universal darkness light has dawned. God has become
man, so that men may become divine; the Lord has assumed the likeness of a slave, so that slaves may
become lords. He who created the heavens as his dwelling place has made his home on earth, in order
that earth’s inhabitants may find their way to heaven.
O the glory of this day, eclipsing the very sun in its splendour, the culmination of centuries of waiting! The
revelation to which the angels looked forward, the secret hidden from seraphim, cherubim, and every
heavenly spirit has been disclosed to our generation. What former ages perceived in figures and images,
we see in reality. The God who spoke to the people of Israel through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the
rest of the prophets now speaks to us through his Son. Mark the difference between the Old
Testament and New! In the Old Testament God spoke in a storm cloud; in the New he speaks in
the clear, calm light of day. In the Old Testament God appeared in a bush; in the New he is
born of a virgin. In the Old Testament God was present as a fire consuming the sins of his
people; in the New he is present as a man who forgives them - or rather, as the Lord who
pardons his servants, since no one can forgive sin but God alone.
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There are various opinions current in the world, since our ideas reflect a diversity of traditions, but
whether the Lord Jesus was born or baptized on this day, this much at least is clear: Christ’s birth both in
the flesh and in the spirit is to our benefit. Both are mysteries to me and both are advantageous to me.
The Son of God had no need to be born or baptized. He had committed no sin that required forgiveness
through baptism. On the contrary, his condescension is the cause of our exaltation, his cross our victory,
his gibbet our triumph.
Let us joyfully raise the banner of his cross on our shoulders and bear the ensign of his victory; better still,
let us carry this great standard as a sign emblazoned on our foreheads. Whenever the devil sees this sign
on our doorposts he trembles; demons who have no reverence for gilded temples fear the cross. They
may despise royal sceptres, grand banquets, and imperial purple, but they are cowed by the fasting and
humble garb of Christians.
Let us be filled with exultation then, dear friends, and lift up holy hands to heaven in the form of a cross.
When Moses held up his hands Amalek was defeated, but if he lowered them for a while Amalek
prevailed. Birds too resemble the cross in shape as they are borne aloft and glide through the air on
outstretched wings. Even our memorials and victory processions take the form of crosses. Surely then we
ought to bear the cross not on our foreheads only but within our very souls, so that by its protection we
may trample on the snake and the serpent in Christ Jesus, to whom belongs the glory for ever and ever.
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

(THE MEEK SERVANT OF THE LORD, THE LIGHT OF THE NATIONS: ISAIAH 42:1-9; 49:1-19)
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him,
he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth
justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands
wait for his law.
Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth
and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am
the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you
as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the
prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the LORD, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow
of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me,
“You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent
my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my
God.”
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And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honoured in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has
become my strength – he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation
may reach to the end of the earth.”
Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the
nations, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Thus says the LORD: “In a time of favour I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you; I
have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate
heritages; saying to the prisoners, ‘Come forth’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear’. They shall feed
along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their pasture.”

TRACTATUS XII IN MATH. III, 13-15 (CCL 9A, 244-246), FROM WORD IN SEASON 2
Since Jesus was to give a new baptism for the salvation of the human race and the forgiveness of sin, he
deigned to be himself baptized first, not in order to put off sins, since he alone had not sinned, but in
order to sanctify the waters of baptism that these might wash away the sins of believers. For the waters
of baptism could never have cleansed believers of their sins, unless they had first been sanctified by
contact with the Lord’s body. He was baptized, therefore, so that we might be washed clean of sins. He
was immersed in the water so that we might be cleansed of the filth of sin. He accepted the bath of
rebirth so that we might be reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, for as he himself says elsewhere: Unless
reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, no one shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
While John did indeed baptize our Lord and Saviour, in a deeper sense he was baptized by Christ, for
Christ sanctified the waters, John was sanctified by them; Christ bestowed grace, John received it; John
laid aside his sins, Christ forgave them. The reason? John was a man, Christ was God. For it is God’s
prerogative to forgive sins, as it is written: Who can forgive sins, except God alone? This is why John says
to Christ: I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? For John needed baptism, since he
could not be without sin; Christ, however, did not need a baptism, since he had committed no sin.
In this baptism, then, our Lord and Saviour washed away the sins first of John and then of the entire
world. It is for this reason that he says: Allow it to be so now. For it is fitting that we should fulfil all
justice. The grace of his baptism had been mystically prefigured long ago, when the people were led
across the river Jordan into the promised land. Just as at that time a way was opened for the people
through the Jordan, with the Lord going on before, so now through the same waters of the river Jordan
access has for the first time been given to the heavenly path by which we are led to that blessed land of
promise, that is, to possession of the kingdom of heaven. For the people long ago Joshua, son of Nun, was
their leader through the Jordan; our leader through baptism to eternal salvation is Jesus Christ the Lord,
the only-begotten Son of God, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY


Year II
ORDINARY TIME
WEEKS 1 TO 17

712
MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE CREATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH: GENESIS 1:1-2:4A
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God
separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And
there was evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from
the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven.
And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry
land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together
he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants
yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the
earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own
kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was
good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night;
and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament
of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set
them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the
night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening
and there was morning, a fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth
across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature
that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its
kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a
fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping
things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the
earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the
ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
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created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful
and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have
given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its
fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant
for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And
there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God
finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had
done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which
he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

ADVERSUS HAERESES, 5.1.3, 6.1, 16.2; TR. PLUSCARDEN
The heretics do not accept the Incarnation and so they remain in Adam who was conquered and cast out
of Paradise. They fail to see that, just as when we were formed in Adam the breath of life was added to
make a rational animal, so, at the end, the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God were united to the
same ancient substance of Adam. This made man truly alive and perfect, capable of knowing the perfect
Father. It was done so that, as in the ‘animal man’ we all die, so in the ‘spiritual man’ we might all be
made alive. Adam at no time escaped the hands of God, the Son and the Spirit, to whom the Father said,
Let us make man in our image and likeness. T hat is why, at the end, not by the will of the flesh or the will
of a man, but by the good pleasure of the Father, these hands of God made the living Man, so that Adam
might come at last into the image and likeness of God.
The soul and the spirit may be part of man, but they are certainly not the complete man. The complete
man is a mixture and a union: the soul, which has received the Spirit of the Father, mixed with the flesh
fashioned in the image of God. If you take away the substance of the flesh, the shaped clay, and consider
just the naked spirit, what you are left with is not ‘the spiritual man’, but merely ‘the spirit of a man’ or
‘the Spirit of God’. However, when this Spirit is blended with the soul and united to the shaped clay, the
result, thanks to the outpouring of the Spirit, is a spiritual and complete man. It is this, the complete man,
who is made in the image and likeness of God. Thus the Apostle, in his first letter to the Thessalonians,
explains that the redeemed man is this complete and spiritual man: May the God of peace sanctify you
completely, and may your whole being, spirit and soul and body, be kept blameless at the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The truth of all this was shown when the Word of God became man. He assimilated himself to man and
man to himself, so that man, by his resemblance to the Son, might become precious to the Father. For in
times past it was merely said that man was made in the image of God, but not shown, because the Word,
in whose image man was made, was still invisible. That is why man lost the likeness so easily. But when
the Word of God was made flesh, he confirmed both things: he showed the true image, when he himself
became what his image was; and he restored the likeness, making man like the invisible Father through
the visible Word.
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TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE CREATION OF MAN IN PARADISE: GENESIS 2:4B-9, 15-25
In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the
earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up – for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the
earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole
face of the ground – then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in
the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the
garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God
commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for
him.” So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and
brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every
beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the
man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called
Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and
cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not
ashamed.
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST HILARY OF POITIERS

TRACTATUS MYSTERIORUM, (SC19BIS:83-85); WORD IN SEASON VII
In Adam’s sleep and the creation of Eve we should see a revelation of the mystery hidden in Christ and
the Church, since it contains an analogy pointing to faith in the resurrection of the body. For in the
creation of woman dust is not taken from the ground as before; a body is not formed from earth;
inanimate matter is not transformed by the breath of God into a living soul. Instead flesh grows upon
bone, a complete body is given to the flesh, and the power of the spirit is added to the complete body.
That this is the way the resurrection will take place God proclaimed through the Prophet Ezekiel to teach
us what his power would accomplish in time to come. Then everything will happen at once: the body will
be there, the spirit will fly towards it, and none of his works will be lost to God.
Now this, according to the Apostle, is the mystery hidden for long ages in God, namely, that the Gentiles
are joint heirs with the Jews, part of the same body, having a share in his promise in Christ, who is able, as
the same Apostle says, to transform our humble bodies into the likeness of his own glorious body.
Therefore when the heavenly Adam rose again after the sleep of his passion, he recognised the Church as
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his bone, its flesh not now created from dust or given life by breath, but growing upon bone it became a
body made from a body and was perfected by the coming of the Spirit.
For those who are in Christ will rise again like Christ, in whom the resurrection of all flesh has already
taken place, since he himself was born in our flesh with the power of God by which the Father begot him
before the world began. And since Jew and Greek, barbarian and Scythian, the slave and the free, men
and women, are all one in Christ, since flesh is recognized as proceeding from flesh, and the Church is the
body of Christ, and the mystery which is in Adam and Eve is a prophecy concerning Christ and the Church,
all that has been prepared by Christ and the Church for the end of time was already accomplished in
Adam and Eve at the beginning of time.
WEDNESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE SIN OF ADAM: GENESIS 3:1-24
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to
the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the
serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said
to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit
and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD
God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the
woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” The
LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all
wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you
shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you
shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And to
Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I
commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all
the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
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The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for
Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now,
lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” – therefore the LORD
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the
man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
A READING FROM ON REBUKE AND GRACE BY ST AUGUSTINE

ON REBUKE AND GRACE, 27-31; WSA (1999) TR. TESKE
The Lord of all things created all things very good, he foreknew that evils would arise from good, and he
knew that it pertains to his omnipotent goodness to make good use of evils rather than not to allow evils
to exist. He made man with free choice and, though ignorant of his future fall, man was still happy
because he knew that it was in his power both not to die and not to become miserable. If through free
choice he had willed to remain in this upright state without defect, he would, without any experience of
death and unhappiness, certainly have received that fullness of beatitude enjoyed by the holy angels. But
because Adam abandoned God through free choice, he experienced the just judgement of God to the
point that he was condemned along with all his offspring which in its entirety had sinned in him and along
with him.
What then? Did Adam not have the grace of God? On the contrary, he had a great grace, but a different
grace from ours. He existed amid goods which he had received from the goodness of his Creator, but in
this life the Saints who have the grace of deliverance exist amid the evils from which they cry out to God,
Deliver us from evil. In those goods Adam did not need the death of Christ, whereas the blood of that
Lamb washes these Saints from inherited and personal sin. For in them the flesh has desires opposed to
the spirit and the spirit has desires opposed to the flesh, and in this struggle they ask that the grace of
Christ give them the power to fight and to conquer. What grace is more powerful than the only-begotten
Son of God, equal to and coeternal with the Father, who became man for them and, without any sin of his
own, either original or personal, was crucified by human sinners? God, therefore, assumed our nature,
that is, the rational soul and the flesh of Christ the man, and he assumed it in a singularly marvellous
manner. For, without any preceding merits of his own righteousness, Christ was the Son of God from the
first moment he began to be a man in such a way that he and the Word, which is without beginning, was
one person. Good works followed his birth; good works did not merit it. For there was no reason to fear
that the human nature assumed in this ineffable way into the unity of the person by God the Word would
sin by free choice of the will.
The first man did not have this grace with which he would never have willed to be evil, but even in his
free choice God did not leave Adam without grace. For free choice is sufficient for evil, but not sufficient
for good, unless it is helped by the Omnipotent Good. But that man abandoned this help through free
choice, he abandoned it and was in turn abandoned. This is the first grace which was given to the first
Adam, but there is a more powerful grace than this in the second Adam. For the first grace brought it
about that the man had righteousness if he willed to; but the second even makes one to will, and to will
so strongly and to love with such ardour that by the will of the Spirit one conquers the contrary desires of
the flesh.
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THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN: GENESIS 4:1-24
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the
help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a
tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel
and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his
countenance fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If
you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is
for you, but you must master it.”
Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up
against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He
said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of
your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which
has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall
no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the
LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me this day away from the
ground; and from thy face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will slay me.” Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance
shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should
kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city
after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad was the father of Me-huja-el, and Me-
huja-el the father of Me-thusha-el, and Me-thusha-el the father of Lamech. And Lamech took two wives;
the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of
those who dwell in tents and have cattle. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those
who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.
The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, hearken to what I say: I
have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly
Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has
appointed for me another child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him.” To Seth also a son was born, and he
called his name Enosh. At that time men began to call upon the name of the LORD.

IN PS. 39, 11-14 (PL14:1061-1062); WORD IN SEASON VII
At the beginning of the book Scripture speaks of me. In the opening chapters of Genesis it was foretold
that Christ would come to fulfil his Father’s will for the redemption of mankind. This was when the sacred
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writer described how in creating Eve to be man’s helpmate God made her a type of the Church. Where
indeed can we find help for our bodily weakness and protection against the upheavals of the world
around us, except in the grace of salvation which comes to us through the Church and the faith by which
we live?
In the first pages of the Bible we read: Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh! Because of this a man will
leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they will be two in one flesh. If you wish to know the
real speaker of these words, listen to the following: this is a great mystery; I tell you it refers to Christ and
the Church. The meaning is that the love that should exist between man and wife can be compared with
Christ's love for his Church. We are members of Christ's body, sharers of his flesh and bone. What greater
well-being can we have than to be so close to Christ, to cleave to him in a kind of bodily oneness, in a
union with that body of his which is without blemish or stain of sin?
We are told in the early pages of the same book that righteous Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable to God
while his murderous brother’s was rejected. This, surely, is a clear sign that the Lord Jesus was to offer
himself up for us, and that in and through his passion he would hallow a new sacrifice to supersede a rite
proper to a parricidal people. It is even more clearly expressed in the holy Patriarch Abraham’s offering of
his son Isaac, in whose stead a ram was ultimately immolated. And this showed that it was man’s flesh,
the flesh he has in common with the animals and not the divinity of the only Son of God, that was
destined to endure the rigours of the passion.
At the beginning of the book it is written that in due time there would come a man who held command
over the powers of heaven. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus arrived on earth and angels
ministered to him, according to his own prediction: You will see the heavens opened and God's angels
ascending and descending around the Son of Man.
Again at the beginning of the book it is said that you must choose out for yourselves a full-grown yearling
lamb, a male without blemish, which the whole assembly shall then ceremonially slay. The identity of that
lamb you know already: Behold the Lamb of God who is to bear away the sin of all the world! He is the
one that was slain by the entire Jewish people. It was indeed necessary that he should die for all men, so
that through his cross every sin might find forgiveness and in his blood the stains of all the world be
washed away.
FRIDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

GOD’S JUDGEMENT BY THE FLOOD: GENESIS 6:5-22; 7:17-24
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the
face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have
made them.” But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked
with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth,
and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, “I
have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I
will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover
it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its
breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and
set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a
flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven;
everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into
the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you
shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of
the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of
the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with
you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah
did this; he did all that God commanded him.
The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose
high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on
the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains
under the whole heaven were covered; the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen
cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures
that swarm upon the earth, and every man; everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath
of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and
creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those
that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

ORIGEN, HOMILIES ON GENESIS, 2.1, 3, 6; FOC 71 (1981) TR. HEINE
As we begin to speak about the ark which was constructed by Noah at God’s command, we can ascend
from the historical account to the mystical and allegorical understanding of the spiritual meaning and, if
these contain anything secret, we can explain it as the Lord reveals knowledge of his word to us.
Just as at that time Noah made an ark, so also our Noah, who is Christ Jesus, is told by the Father to make
himself an ark of squared planks and give it dimensions filled with heavenly mysteries. The people,
therefore, who are saved in the Church, are compared to all those, whether men or animals, who are
saved in the ark. But since all are not equal in merit or progress in faith, therefore, this ark does not offer
one abode for all. There are two lower decks and three upper decks to show that in the Church, although
all are contained within the one faith and are washed in the one baptism, progress is not one and the
same for all, but each one in his own order.
Since God orders that the ark be constructed not only with two decks but also with three, let as also make
sure we join to our twofold exposition of the Scriptures also a third meaning. For the literal meaning
which comes first is a kind of foundation at the lower level. The mystical interpretation comes second,
being higher and loftier. Let us attempt, if we can, to add a moral exposition as the third level.
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If there is anyone who, while evils are increasing, can turn from the things which are in flux, and can hear
the word of God, this man is building an ark of salvation within his own heart and is dedicating a library,
so to speak, of the divine word within himself. He does not construct this library from planks which are
unhewn and rough, but from planks which have been squared and arranged in a uniform line, that is, not
from the volumes of secular authors, but from the prophetic and apostolic volumes and from the works
of those who have followed them in the right lines of faith. You shall make it with two decks and with
three decks. From this library learn the historical narratives; from it recognise the great mystery which is
fulfilled in Christ and in the Church. From it also learn how to correct habits and to curtail vices. You ought
also to bring in animals of every kind, the unclean as well as the clean. I think that concupiscence and
wrath, which are in every soul, are necessarily said to be unclean in the sense that they serve to make
man sin. But because the human race is not renewed without concupiscence nor can any correction or
discipline exist without anger, they are said to be necessary and must be preserved.
Let us pray, however, the mercy of the omnipotent God to make us not only hearers of his word, but also
doers and to bring upon our souls also a flood of his water and destroy in us what he knows should be
destroyed and quicken what he knows should be quickened, through Christ our Lord and through his Holy
Spirit. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE END OF THE FLOOD: GENESIS 8:1-22
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And God
made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of
the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the
earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh
month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat. And
the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month,
the tops of the mountains were seen.
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, and sent forth a raven;
and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him,
to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set her
foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he
put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and
again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her
mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he
waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried
from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the
ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Then God said to Noah, “Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives
with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh –birds and animals and every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth--that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and
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multiply upon the earth.” So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. And
every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by
families out of the ark.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odour, the LORD said in his heart, “I
will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

SERMON 361, 20-22 (PL 39:1610-1611); WORD IN SEASON VII
Watch yourselves: this world is passing away. Remember how the Lord foretells in the Gospel that it will
be the same on the last day as it was in the days of Noah: People ate and drank, bought and sold and
married right up to the day when Noah entered the ark; then the flood came and destroyed them all.
The reason the ark took so long to build was to make unbelievers wake up. Noah worked on it for a
hundred years, yet people were not awake enough to say: ‘The man of God must have good reason for
building this ark: it must mean that the human race will soon be destroyed.’
Once again the ark is being built, and those hundred years represent the days in which we live: this whole
period of time was prefigured by that number of years. If those, then, who paid no heed when Noah was
building the ark deserved to die, what do they deserve who are careless about their salvation while Christ
is building his Church? There is as much difference between Noah and Christ as between servant and
lord, or rather as between men and God, for the servant and his master are both men. And yet the people
of those days have become a fearful example for their descendants because they did not believe the man
who was building the ark.
Christ, who is God become man for us, is building his Church, the ark of which he has made himself the
foundation. Every day incorruptible timber, that is, believers renouncing this world, is added to the
structure of this ark, and still people say: Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Answer them back,
then, and say: ‘Let us fast and pray for tomorrow we shall die.’ Those who say Let us eat and drink for
tomorrow we die have no hope of rising again, but we who, thanks to the words of the Prophets and the
preaching of Christ and the Apostles, believe in and proclaim the resurrection, we who hope for a life
after death, must not lose courage or let our minds be dulled by dissipation and drunkenness. Let us
rather be dressed for action with our lamps alight as we await the Lord’s coming with all sobriety; let us
fast and pray, not because tomorrow we shall die, but so that we may die without fear.
SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD’S COVENANT WITH NOAH AND HIS OFFSPRING: GENESIS 9:1-17
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear
of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon
everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every
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moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely require a
reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.”
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your
descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every
beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never
again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy
the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the
clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh;
and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will
look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh
that is upon the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established
between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
A READING FROM HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT BY JEAN CARDINAL

DANIÉLOU
HOLY PAGANS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, 78-80.83; WORD IN SEASON VII
It is in connection with Noah that the momentous notion of a covenant appears for the first time in holy
Scripture. The covenant is one of the essential characteristics, the most characteristic quality perhaps, of
the God of the Bible. It signifies that God communicates certain good things to mankind and that this is in
the nature of an irrevocable settlement. Thus it allows us to depend upon these benefits, not in virtue of
any right we have to them but by reason of God’s fidelity to his word.
The covenant made with Noah is connected with the cosmic religion and bears essentially upon God's
fidelity in the order of the world. It is first of all a question of a covenant not with a particular people but
with humanity as a whole and even with the whole cosmos. By this covenant God pledges himself not to
destroy life upon the earth, whatever may be the sins of the human race. God’s fidelity will be expressed
particularly in the regularity of the laws of the cosmos, in the recurrent seasons: All the days of the earth
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease. This text is of
prime importance. It establishes the right to see in the recurrent seasons the revelation of the fidelity of
the living God. And this revelation, says Saint Paul, is given to all people among whom God has not left
himself without testimony, giving them rain and fruitful seasons. This revelation constitutes the authentic
basis of the pagan religions for which the recurrent seasons are the foundations of their worship.
By this covenant, God gives, as it were, an official document which bears witness to his pledge for all the
generations to come. This document is the rainbow: as the paschal lamb is to be the memorial of the
Mosaic covenant, as the holy Eucharist is the sacrament of the new eternal covenant replacing the
ancient, so the rainbow is the memorial and sacred sign of the cosmic covenant which persists
throughout the establishment of new and more perfect covenants.
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The order of the world is no longer at the mercy of human sin. In the economy now beginning God will
give temporal goods to sinners as well as to saints. The God of the covenant is not a God who will rain
upon the just and will refuse rain to the unjust, but, in line with the very words of Christ, he makes the
sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rains upon the just and unjust.
By the covenant with Noah a break is made in the connection between sin and punishment whereby
salvation can be brought in. Thus the covenant is a manifestation of love. It reveals something new about
God, for it is the first manifestation of redemptive love, while the former divine economy showed only
creative love. What now appears is that long-suffering mercy with which God endures in order to save the
sinner.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SCATTERING OF THE HUMAN RACE: GENESIS 11:1-26
Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a
plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and
burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let
us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” And the LORD came down to see the city
and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and
they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they
propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language,
that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them abroad from there
over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel,
because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them
abroad over the face of all the earth.
These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was a hundred years old, he became the father of
Arpachshad two years after the flood; and Shem lived after the birth of Arpachshad five hundred years,
and had other sons and daughters.
When Arpachshad had lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah; and Arpachshad lived after
the birth of Shelah four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.
When Shelah had lived thirty years, he became the father of Eber; and Shelah lived after the birth of Eber
four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.
When Eber had lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg; and Eber lived after the birth of
Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.
When Peleg had lived thirty years, he became the father of Reu; and Peleg lived after the birth of Reu two
hundred and nine years, and had other sons and daughters.
When Reu had lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug; and Reu lived after the birth of
Serug two hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters.
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When Serug had lived thirty years, he became the father of Nahor; and Serug lived after the birth of
Nahor two hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he became the father of Terah; and Nahor lived after the birth
of Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and had other sons and daughters.
When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

DEUXIÈME HOMILIE SUR PENTECÔTE 2 (BEREILLE 5.123-124); WORD IN SEASON VII
When the Apostles had heard the Lord’s words, Go and make disciples of all nations, and were perplexed,
not knowing where each of them should go or in what part of the world they should preach the word, the
Holy Spirit came upon them in the form of tongues and assigned to each of them the place where he was
to teach. By means of the language given to each, he made known, as though by a letter of credence, the
boundaries of the region in which he was to have authority and give instruction.
That was one reason for the Spirit’s coming in the form of tongues, but not the only one. It was also to
remind us of something that happened in ancient times. When long ago men fell into such madness that
they decided to build a tower reaching the sky, God thwarted their evil design by confusing their
language. By alighting on them now in the form of tongues of fire the Holy Spirit united the divided world.
Something happened that was new and contrary to all expectation: for as in the past languages had
divided the world and frustrated an evil plan, so now languages unite the world and bring discord into
harmony.
This then is why the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of tongues; but the reason they were tongues of fire
was to destroy the thorns of sin running riot within us. For just as rich and fertile land that is not
cultivated produces an abundant crop of thistles, so was it also with human nature. Created good by God,
it was capable of producing the fruits of virtue, but because it had not been ploughed by faith or sown
with the knowledge of God it brought forth thistles and the other weeds of wickedness. And as the
ground is often completely overgrown by thistles and other weeds, so also the nobility and purity of our
souls was quite invisible until the cultivator of human nature came and poured out on it the fire of the
Spirit to cleanse it and make it capable of receiving the heavenly seed.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL AND BLESSING OF ABRAHAM: GENESIS 12:1-9; 13:2-18
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the
land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name
great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse;
and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old
when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their
possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth
to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land
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to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the
LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar
to the LORD, who had appeared to him. Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and
pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and
called on the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Now Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as
Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where
he had made an altar at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the LORD. And Lot, who went
with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling
together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife
between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. At that time the Canaanites
and the Perizzites dwelt in the land.
Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and
my herdsmen; for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you
take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” And
Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the
LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar; this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and Lot journeyed east; thus they separated
from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the valley and
moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD.
The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place
where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I
will give to you and to your descendants for ever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth;
so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted. Arise, walk through
the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent, and came and
dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the LORD.
A READING FROM AGAINST EUNOMIUS BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

CONTRA EUNOMIUM 3.2 (JAEGER 2.67-70); WORD IN SEASON VII
Let us, if we may, interpret the meaning of the sacred history, according to the profound insight of the
Apostle, by transposing the story of Abraham to an allegorical level, even though we allow the validity of
the literal meaning. Abraham at the divine command went forth from his own country and from his own
kin, but his migration was such as befitted a Prophet in quest of the knowledge of God. Indeed, there is
no physical migration, I think, that can prepare us for the knowledge of those things which are discovered
by the spirit. But by going out of his native land, that is, out of himself, out of the realm of base and
earthly thoughts, Abraham raised his mind as far as possible above the common limits of our human
nature and abandoned the association which the soul has with the senses. Thus, unhindered by sense
data, his mind was clear for the apprehension of the invisible, and neither the operation of his sight nor
hearing could cause his mind to err because of appearances. And so, as the Apostle says, walking by faith
and not by sight, Abraham was so raised in the grandeur of his knowledge that he understood the
limitation of human perfection; he knew God insofar as it was possible for his weak and mortal faculties
to attain him when strained to their capacity.
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Hence the Lord of all creation is called the God of Abraham, almost as though he had been discovered by
the Patriarch himself. And yet, what does the text say of him? That he went out, not knowing whither he
went. He was not even allowed to know the name of him whom he loved; yet he was not ashamed or
disturbed by this ignorance. Here, at any rate, was the sure path to his goal, in that he was not guided in
his knowledge of God by anything merely on the surface; nor was his mind ever overwhelmed by what he
had already learned so as to stop in its progress towards that which transcends all knowledge.
Abraham surpassed in understanding his native wisdom, that is, the philosophy of Chaldea, which rested
merely in appearances; he went far beyond that which can be perceived by the senses, and from the
beauty that he saw around him and from the harmony of the heavenly phenomena he gained a yearning
to gaze upon the archetypal Beauty. So too, all the other qualities which are attributed to the divine
nature, such as goodness, omnipresence, necessity, infinity and the like, Abraham understood them all as
he advanced in thought; and he took all these as his provisions on his journey to heaven, using them as
steps; and relying on what he had already found he stretched himself forth to the things that were ahead.
Abraham passed through all the reasoning that is possible to human nature about the divine attributes,
and after he had purified his mind of all such concepts, he took hold of a faith that was unmixed and pure
of any concept. Thus in his life we are taught that, for those who are advancing in the divine paths, it is
only through faith that the questing soul can unite itself with the incomprehensible Godhead.
WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ABRAHAM FIGHTS AGAINST THE KINGS AND IS BLESSED BY MELCHISEDECH: GENESIS 14:1-24
In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Ched-or-laomer king of Elam, and Tidal king
of Goiim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah,
Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). And all these joined forces in the Valley of
Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). Twelve years they had served Ched-or-laomer, but in the thirteenth year
they rebelled. In the fourteenth year Ched-or-laomer and the kings who were with him came and
subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the
Horites in their Mount Seir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness; then they turned back and
came to Enmishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the
Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar. Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of
Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the
Valley of Siddim with Ched-or-laomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and
Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the
kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the mountain. So the enemy
took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way; they also took
Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
Then one who had escaped came, and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the
Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his kinsman
had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of
them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his
servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the
goods, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.
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After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-laomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom
went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem
brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be
Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered
your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. And the king of Sodom said to
Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I
have sworn to the LORD God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a
sandal-thong or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing
but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me; let Aner, Eshcol, and
Mamre take their share.”

DE SACRAMENTIS 4.3-4 FOC 44 (1963), TR. DEFERRARI
You have come to the altar; you have seen the sacraments placed on the altar. Perhaps someone may
say: ‘God gave the Jews so much grace; manna rained upon them from heaven; what more has he given
his faithful; what more has he allotted to those he promised more?’
Accept what I say: that the mysteries of the Christians are earlier than those of the Jews and the
sacraments of the Christians are more divine than those of the Jews. How? Accept this. When did the
Jews begin? Surely from Judah, the great-grandson of Abraham, or, if you prefer, when they merited to
receive the Law of God. Therefore, from the name of the great-grandson of Abraham they were called
Jews in the time of holy Moses. Then God rained manna from heaven on the Jews when they murmured.
But for you a figure of these sacraments came first: when Abraham gathered three hundred and eighteen
servants born in his house and went to deliver his great-grandson from captivity. Then, when he returned
as a victor, Melchisedech the priest met him and offered bread and wine. Who had the bread and wine?
Abraham did not have it. But who had it? Melchisedech. He himself then is the author of the sacraments.
Who is ‘Melchisedech’? Who is this ‘king of justice, king of peace’? Who, then, can be the king of justice
other than the justice of God? Who is the peace of God, the wisdom of God? Only him who was able to
say: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you.
Thus Melchisedech offered bread and wine. Who is Melchisedech? Without father, it says, without
mother, it says, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. The Epistle to the
Hebrews has this. The Son of God was born by heavenly generation without mother, because he was born
of the only God the Father; and again he was born without father, since he was born of a virgin.
Melchisedech, also, was a priest in all respects likened unto the Son of God, to whom it is said: You are a
priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.
Therefore, who is the author of the sacraments but the Lord Jesus? You perhaps say: ‘My bread looks
ordinary.’ But that bread is only bread before the words of the sacraments; when consecration has been
added, from bread it becomes the flesh of Christ. So let us confirm this, how it is possible that what is
bread is the body of Christ. By whose words, then, does the consecration come about? By those of the
Lord Jesus. For all the rest that come before are said by the priest: praise to God, prayer is offered, that is
a petition for the people, for kings, and for all the others. When it comes to performing the venerable
sacrament, though, the priest uses not his own words, but the words of Christ. Thus the words of Christ
performs this sacrament.
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Therefore, to reply to you, there was no body of Christ before the consecration, but after the
consecration I say to you that now there is the body of Christ. He himself spoke and it was made; he
himself commanded and it was created.
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM WHO BELIEVED: GENESIS 15:1-21
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield;
your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, for I continue
childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given me
no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to
him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and
said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him,
“So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to
possess.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a
heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young
pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he
did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them
away.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him.
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is
not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring
judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As
for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall
come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed
between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants
I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the
Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the
Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS OF DIDYMUS THE BLIND

IN GEN. 230, 233-4 (SC 244:188-90, 196-200); ACC 2 (2002) TR. SHERIDAN
As he contemplated the wonderful things of God, Abraham was struck with fear, the fear that belongs to
the perfect. It will be noted that the ecstasy came upon him towards sunset. The text suggests by this a
progression, because the present day has passed by for Abraham so that further progress might follow.
Thus Abraham was given a blessing in the words, I will fill you with the length of days, a blessing that
promised him not longevity but, as is quite clear, further advances in illumination.
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An ecstasy then fell upon him, not the ecstasy that resembles a loss of reason but that of wonder, the
thrill of passing from visible to invisible things. When Abraham then had been transported out of himself,
a dark fear fell upon him, dark not by participation in darkness but in the sense of obscurity, of something
whose meaning is not immediately evident. Being a great fear, it is not the kind that happens to average
men. It is indeed true that the contemplation and grasp of supernatural truths produce, even among
great people, a divine vertigo and fear, and it is with some trepidation that they apply themselves to such
things.
What is clearly stated in the text can be expounded as follows. When the sun was already near setting, a
flame emerged, and there appeared a smoking oven and fiery torches that passed between the two parts
of the divided animals, burning and lighting up the place, to allow the Patriarch to see what was
happening and to reveal in a more divine manner the mysteries to be searched out. It should be noted
that fire did not appear only after the covenant had been made. The gift of the Law through Moses also
took place itself in the midst of a fire. What is suggested here is perhaps something like that. As the Law
contains rewards and punishments, it was given in the midst of fire to indicate that it brings burning to
some and illumination to others. So too here, torches and smoke appeared; now smoke is the
consequence of a fire that has been lit. Moreover, the flame had appeared first. We conclude, then, that
one who is defining what is to be done and what is not to be done in a matter this difficult requires the
light of God and also fear, symbolised by the furnace, so as to accomplish everything in accordance with
right reason.
When the torches had passed over the divided animals, the covenant was made. God said to Abraham, To
your descendants I will give this land, and he described in detail how far the land extended in each
direction. But, through an anagogical transposition, we must understand that this land is given to the holy
man’s spiritual posterity. The Saviour too promises it to those who practise gentleness. This is a promise
that applies to the true children and not to all who descend from Abraham, for it is not the children of the
flesh who are the children of God, for the children of the promise of reckoned as descendants. It is the
one who does the works of Abraham who is in fact his child.
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ISHMAEL IS BORN: GENESIS 16:1-16
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar; and
Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it
may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram
had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and
gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw
that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the
wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had
conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!” But Abram said
to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her,
and she fled from her.
The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
And he said, “Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am
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fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit
to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they
cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are with child,
and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him; and he
shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “Thou art
a God of seeing”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?” Therefore
the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram
was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

GLAPHYRORUM IN GENESIM, 3.79.9 (PG 69: 132-33); ACC 2 (2002) TR. SHERIDAN
As in a concrete image, we see here foreshadowed the fact that once the Emmanuel has appeared and
his mystery has been shown to the world, the types of the Mosaic cult necessarily disappear. They give
way to the evangelical teachings, to the better and more perfect commandments.
What is the image of which I am speaking? It is this: Sarah had not had children, and because of this
Hagar, after having given birth to Ishmael, began to show arrogant contempt for her owner, the free
woman. Sarah was unable to bear that arrogance and began to mistreat the Egyptian woman. The latter
fled from the house and lost her way in the desert. An angel from heaven asked her where she was going
and where she had come from. She replied, I am fleeing from a mistress, Sarah. And the holy angel
replied, Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands. She was ordered then, by the
voice of the angel, not to depart from the free woman – from instruction, that is, which summons us to
the dignity of free persons. She was ordered to humble herself instead under the free woman’s hands.
Worship according to the Law, which takes place through images and types, is as it were the servant of
the teachings of the Gospel. In it, in an obscure manner, the beauty of the truth is revealed. At this point
in time, the Law, which was once established by Moses through the ministry of angels, receives an order
from the voice of an angel to bend the neck to the evangelical oracles and to bow and yield, even if
unwillingly, to the free woman. This, I maintain, is the spiritual interpretation of Hagar’s imposed
submission to the rule of Sarah. We should remember, moreover, that even the venerable Paul sees
Hagar and Sarah as prefiguring the two Testaments: The one, who bears children for slavery, corresponds
to the present Jerusalem, and the other – Sarah – bears children who are destined for the dignity of the
free.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE COVENANT BETWEEN GOD AND ABRAHAM WITH THE SIGN OF CIRCUMCISION: GENESIS
17:1-17
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God
Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will
multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with
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you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your
name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you
exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will
establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their
generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will
give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you
throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your
descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh
of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He that is eight days old
among you shall be circumcised; every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house,
or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he that is born in your
house and he that is bought with your money, shall be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh
an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall
be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her
name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother
of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to
himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old,
bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in thy sight!” God said, “No, but Sarah
your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as
an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will
bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes,
and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to
you at this season next year.”
When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael his son
and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s
house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was
ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was
thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his
son Ishmael were circumcised; and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought
with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

HOMILIES ON GENESIS, 3.3-4, 6; FOC 71 (1981) TR. HEINE
Many responses are given to Abraham by God, but they are not all delivered to one and the same man.
For some are given to Abram and some to Abraham, that is, some are expressed after the change of
name and others while he was still known by his name given at birth. First of all, before the change of
name, that oracle is delivered to Abram by God which says: Go out from your country and your kindred
and from your father’s house, and the rest. But no order is given in this about the covenant of God, no
order about circumcision. For it was not possible while he was still Abram and was bearing the name of
his physical birth to receive the covenant of God and the mark of circumcision. But when he went out
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from his country and his kindred then responses of a more sacred kind are delivered to him. First God
says to him: You shall no longer be called Abram, but Abraham shall be your name. Then at once he both
received the covenant of God and accepted circumcision as a sign of faith, something he could not accept
while he was still in his father’s house, still in the relationship of flesh and while he was still called Abram.
Since, therefore, we have reached these passages I wish to enquire if the omnipotent God, who holds
dominion of heaven and earth, when he wished to make a covenant with a holy man put the main point
of such an important matter in this, that the foreskin of his flesh and of his future progeny should be
circumcised. For my covenant, the text says, shall be upon your flesh. Was this what the Lord of heaven
and earth was conferring in the gift of the eternal covenant to him whom alone he had chosen from all
men?
We, therefore, instructed by the Apostle Paul, say that just as many other things were made in the figure
and image of future truth, so also that circumcision of flesh was bearing the form of spiritual circumcision.
Hear, therefore, how Paul, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth teaches the Church of Christ about
the mystery of circumcision. Behold, he says, the mutilation – speaking about the Jews who are mutilated
in the flesh – for we, he says, are the circumcision, who serve God in spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh. This is one opinion of Paul about circumcision. Hear also another: For he is not a Jew who is so
outwardly; nor is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly
with circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter. Does it not seem more appropriate to you to
speak of a circumcision like this among the saints and friends of God than to speak of a pruning of the
flesh?
But also each of our members must be said to be circumcised if they are devoted to the service of God’s
commands. This is truly the mark of faith which contains the agreement of the eternal covenant between
God and man.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PROMISE OF ISAAC’S BIRTH AND ABRAHAM’S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM: GENESIS 18:1-33
And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the
day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them,
he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if I have
found favour in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet,
and rest yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and
after that you may pass on – since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”
And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal,
knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to
the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he had
prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The LORD said, “I will
surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the
tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah
after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband
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is old, shall I have pleasure?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed
bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to
you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was
afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set
them on their way. The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that
Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves
by him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep
the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he
has promised him.” Then the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and
their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry
which has come to me; and if not, I will know.”
So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the LORD. Then
Abraham drew near, and said, “Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there
are fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous
who are in it? Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the
righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And the
LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham answered, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.
Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he
said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him, and said, “Suppose forty are
found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty
there.” He said, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found
there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of
ten I will not destroy it.” And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and
Abraham returned to his place.

SERMON 83.2, 4-5; FOC (1963) TR. MUELLER
God appeared to Abraham, it said, as he sat at the entrance of his tent near the oak of Mamre. Behold
three men stood at a distance from him, and he went to meet them, and so forth. Notice, brethren, how
God appeared to Abraham, and how he appeared to Lot. The three men came to Abraham and stood
over him; two came to Lot and stayed in the street. Consider, brethren, whether these things did not
happen through the dispensation of the Holy Spirit according to their merits. Indeed, Lot was far inferior
to Abraham; if he had not been, he would not have merited to be separated from Abraham, nor would
the dwelling of Sodom have pleased him. Now the three men came to Abraham at noon, while the other
two came to Lot in the evening for this reason: Lot was unable to endure the power to of the noonday
sun, but Abraham could stand its full brightness.
Three men came to Abraham, and stood over him. Observe how it is that they come upon him, but not
against him. He had subjected himself to God’s will, and for this reason God is said to stand over him.
They stood over him; not against him to repulse him, but over him for protection. He received the three
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men and served them loaves out of three measures. Why is this, brethren, unless it means the mystery of
the Trinity? He also served a bullock; not a tough one, but a good, tender one. Now what is so good and
tender as he who humbled himself even unto death? He himself is that fatted calf which the father killed
upon receiving his repentant son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only–begotten Son. For this
reason Abraham went to meet the three men and adored them as one. In the fact that he saw three, as
was already said, he understood the mystery of the Trinity; but since he adored them as one, he
recognized that there is one God in the three persons.
Now where did this happen? Near the oak of Mamre, which in Latin is interpreted as ‘vision’ or
‘discernment’. The vision and discernment of Abraham delighted the Lord; Abraham was clean of heart,
so he could see God. Therefore, in such a place and in such a heart the Lord can have his feast. Of this
vision our Lord spoke to the Jews in the Gospel when he said: Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my
day, he saw it and was glad. He saw my day, he says, because he recognised the mystery of the Trinity. He
saw the Father as day, the Son as day, the Holy Spirit as day, and in these three, one day. Thus, the Father
is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and these three are one God. For individually each person is
complete God. Moreover, because of the unity of substance, in those three measures of flour the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit is not unfittingly understood. However, this can also be taken in another way by
understanding Sarah as the Church; the three measures of flour then are faith, hope, and charity. In these
three virtues all the fruits of the Church are contained, so that if a man merits to possess the three within
himself, he can with security receive the entire Trinity at the banquet of his heart.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM: GENESIS 19:1-17, 23-29
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw
them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth, and said, “My lords, turn
aside, I pray you, to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up
early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the street.” But he urged them
strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked
unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both
young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, “Where are
the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out of the
door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as
you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” But they
said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he would play the judge! Now we will
deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to
break the door. But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the
door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great,
so that they wearied themselves groping for the door.
Then the men said to Lot, “Have you any one else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any one you
have in the city, bring them out of the place; for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry
against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot
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went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up, get out of this place; for the
LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who
are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered; so the men seized him
and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him
forth and set him outside the city. And when they had brought them forth, they said, “Flee for your life;
do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed.” The sun had
risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; and he
overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the
ground. But Lot’s wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham
went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD; and he looked down toward
Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land
went up like the smoke of a furnace.
So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out
of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

CORINTHIANS, 9.1-4; 10.1-7; 11.1-2 (SC 167:114-118); WORD IN SEASON VII
Dear friends, let us obey the sovereign, glorious will of God. Let us cast ourselves in entreaty upon his
mercy and kindness, and turn back once more to his compassion. Let us have done with our vain
struggles, our discords and the jealousy which leads to death, and direct our gaze instead towards the
men who perfectly served his glorious majesty.
Look at Enoch, for example: he was found righteous in his obedience and was taken away by God, so that
no trace was ever found of his death. Noah too was found faithful. His ministry was to be the herald of
rebirth, for through him the Lord saved all the living creatures which agreed to enter the ark together.
Abraham, whom God called his ‘friend’, proved his loyalty by his obedience to God’s orders. He forsook
his country, his kindred and his father’s house out of obedience, so that leaving behind a restricted
homeland, an obscure family and a little house he might inherit the promises of God. For God had said to
him, Come away from your land, your kindred and your father's house into a land which I am going to
show you. I will make you into a mighty nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you
shall be blessed. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and all the races of the
earth will be blessed in you. And again at the time of his separation from Lot God said to him: Lift up your
eyes and look from the place where you are standing toward the north and the south, to the sunrise and
to the sea, for I am going to give all the land you can see to you and to your descendants forever. I will
make your descendants as many as the earth's grains of sand; if anyone is able to number the grains of
sand on the ground, then he will be able to count your descendants too. Elsewhere Scripture tells us,
God took Abraham outside and said to him, ‘Look up to heaven and count the stars, if it is in your power
to reckon them. That is what your posterity will be like.’ Abraham believed God, and this was accounted
to him as righteousness. In view of his faith and his hospitality a son was granted to him in his old age, and
in obedience he offered the boy as a sacrifice to God on one of the mountains that he had shown him.
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Lot was rescued from Sodom because of his hospitality and his piety, when the whole surrounding
countryside was punished by fire and brimstone. In this way the Lord made it dear that he does not
abandon those who hope in him. But he does consign the rebellious to chastisement and torment; a sign
of this was given when Lot’s wife, who had indeed left Sodom with her husband but was inconstant in
mind and out of harmony with him, was turned into a pillar of salt. So she remains to this day, as a
reminder to all of us that wavers who doubt God’s power are condemned to stand as a warning sign for
all generations.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ISAAC IS BORN: GENESIS 21:1-21
The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah
conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham
called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised
his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old
when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; every one who
hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle
children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son
Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman
shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.
But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the lad and because of your slave woman;
whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named. And I
will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose
early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder,
along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-
sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went,
and sat down over against him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Let me not
look upon the death of the child.” And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and wept.
And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her,
“What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the
lad, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and
she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. And God
was with the lad, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He
lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
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HOMILIES ON GENESIS, 7.2 (SC 7BIS:196-202); WORD IN SEASON VII
Abraham rejoiced and gave a great banquet on the day that Isaac was weaned. Sometime later Isaac was
playing, playing with Ishmael. Sarah was indignant at the son of a slave playing with the son of a free
woman. Thinking that these games would be her ruin, she gave Abraham this advice: Throw out the slave
and her son, she said. The son of a slave shall not share the inheritance with my son Isaac.
There is no need for me to explain how this is to be understood, for this was done by the Apostle when
he said: You who read the Law, do you not hear the Law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons,
one by a slave and the other by a free woman. The son of the slave was born in the ordinary course of
nature; the son of the free woman was born as the result of a promise. What do I mean? Was Isaac not
born in the ordinary course of nature? Did Sarah not give birth to him? Was he not circumcised? When he
played with Ishmael, did he not play like any other boy? Indeed, this is what is marvellous in the Apostle’s
interpretation. Events which undoubtedly took place in the ordinary way he called allegories, in order to
teach us how to understand other passages, especially those in which the historical narrative seems to
reveal nothing worthy of the divine Law.
Ishmael, then, was born the son of a slave, in the ordinary course of nature, but Isaac’s birth of the free
woman was not an ordinary birth, but the result of a promise. The Apostle says of the two women that
Hagar bore children into slavery, a carnal people, but Sarah, who was free, brought forth a people which
is not carnal but which has been called in freedom, the freedom whereby Christ has made it free.
But let us see what the Apostle adds to this by way of explanation. But as the son who was born according
to nature persecuted the son born through the Spirit, so it is now. For you also, if you live a worldly life,
are a child of Hagar and therefore an enemy of those who live by the promptings of the Spirit. If you have
within you the fruits of the Spirit, which are joy, love, peace, and patience, you can be Isaac, the child of
the free woman, born not in the course of nature but in fulfilment of the promise. If the words of the
Apostle, but you are not carnal but spiritual, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, can fittingly be applied to
you, then you also have been born not in the ordinary way but in a spiritual way in fulfilment of the
promise, and you will be heir to the promises according to the text: heirs indeed of God and co-heirs of
Christ. You will not be the co-heir of the son born in the course of nature, but the co-heir of Christ, for
even if we once knew Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC; GENESIS 22:1-19
After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said,
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as
a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the
morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; and he cut the wood
for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day
Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here
with the ass; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.”
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And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the
fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My
father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb
for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So
they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood
in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 Then Abraham put forth
his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and
said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do
anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son,
from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a
thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of
his son. So Abraham called the name of that place The LORD will provide; as it is said to this day, “On the
mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have
sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will
indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on
the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants
shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham
returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at
Beer-sheba.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON GENESIS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

HOM. IN GEN., 47.3-4 (PG 54:432-434); WORD IN SEASON VII
Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. What love for God he had! What
strength of mind! What intense devotion that enabled him to overcome his natural human feelings! He
took the knife to kill his son. Which should amaze me, astonish me more – the steadfastness of the father
or the obedience of the son? For the boy made no resistance or objection, but submitting to whatever his
father did, he lay like a lamb on the altar, silently waiting for his father to strike.
However, once the interior sacrifice had been made, without any omission, the good Lord showed that
his command was given not from any desire for the boy’s death, but only to reveal the holy Patriarch’s
virtue. Therefore, accepting the Patriarch’s intention of making the complete sacrifice, he rewarded the
holy man for his resolve by showing his own goodness.
The angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said: ‘Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay your hand on
the boy or do him any harm.’ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by his horns in a thicket. He
went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of Isaac his son.
All this was a foreshadowing of the cross, which is why Christ said to the Jews: Your father Abraham
rejoiced to think that he would see my day, he saw it and was glad. How did he see it when he lived
so long before? Through a symbol and foreshadowing. As the sheep was then offered for Isaac, so the
spiritual lamb was offered for the whole world. It was only fitting for the reality to be portrayed
beforehand by a symbol – see how faithfully everything was prefigured. Then there was an only son; now
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there is an only Son. Then there was a beloved and legitimate son; now too there is a beloved and
legitimate Son, for God says in the Gospel: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Isaac
was delivered up by his father as a burnt offering; Jesus too was delivered up by his Father, as Paul
declares when he says: He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How then can he
fail to give us every other gift as well?
So much for the foreshadowing: the reality far surpasses it. For this spiritual lamb that was offered for the
whole world has cleansed the whole world. He has freed us from error and brought us back to the truth.
He has made earth heaven, not by changing its physical composition, but simply by showing us how to
lead a heavenly life here on earth. Thanks to him the worship of demons has come to an end. Men no
longer adore sticks and stones; creatures endowed with reason do not bow down before senseless
objects. On the contrary, all error has taken flight, and the light of truth has illumined the whole world.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ABRAHAM SENDS A SERVANT TO FIND A WIFE FOR ISAAC: GENESIS 24:1-27
Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. And
Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand
under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and of the earth, that you will
not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my
country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Perhaps the
woman may not be willing to follow me to this land; must I then take your son back to the land from
which you came?” Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. The LORD, the
God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me
and swore to me, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you
shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free
from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the
thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his
master; and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made the camels kneel
down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw
water. And he said, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, grant me success today, I pray thee, and show
steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of
the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the maiden to whom I shall say, 'Pray let down
your jar that I may drink’, and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels – let her be the one
whom thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. By this I shall know that thou hast shown steadfast love
to my master.”
Before he had done speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of
Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar upon her shoulder. The maiden was very fair to
look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known. She went down to the spring, and filled her jar, and came
up. Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “Pray give me a little water to drink from your jar.” She
said, “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly let down her jar upon her hand, and gave him a drink. When she
had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw for your camels also, until they have done drinking.”
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So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw, and she drew for all his
camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the LORD had prospered his journey or not.
When the camels had done drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets
for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, and said, “Tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your
father's house for us to lodge in?” She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah,
whom she bore to Nahor.” She added, “We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge
in.” The man bowed his head and worshiped the LORD, and said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my
master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for
me, the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY BISHOP JACOB OF SARUGH

HOM. SUR LES FIANCAILLES DE REBECCA (L’ORIENT SYRIEN 3.324-326); WORD IN SEASON VII)
There are symbols hidden in the Scriptures for those who know how to interpret them, and great wealth
to be found by those who immerse themselves in these texts. The inspired Prophets were artists who
drew portraits of the Son of God, and they used symbolism to veil his beauty in their writings. Let those
who would see the Son spiritually open the Bible: there, in his splendour, they will find him.
Thus the fiancée, whom the old servant Eliezer presented to Isaac as his bride, represents the church of
the nations. Isaac himself is a symbol of the Son of God, our Lord, the incorruptible Victim. For anyone
who seeks to understand, Eliezer symbolises John the Baptist, who also brought about the wedding of his
Master through water. Rebecca’s wells represent and foretell the baptism that prepares the bride for her
marriage with the Son of God. Abraham is the symbol of the true Father who gave his Son a mysterious
bride, chosen from far off among the nations, to make her heir of his wealth.
You who have understanding, take the book, study it, and recognise the image of the Son hidden in these
texts. When one goes over the broad outlines of this history, it is the path of our Lord that stands out.
When you listen to the Bible being read, open your ears to the two ways of understanding it; develop the
art of distinguishing the two levels of meaning. When the history of Isaac is related literally, learn how to
see in it another figurative meaning.
Thus the Son of God used water to celebrate his marriage. By water he wedded the Church and made her
his own. By baptism the Bridegroom and the bride were united; they were two and they became only one
in the one Spirit, as it is written. It is toward these symbols that Eliezer speeds when he unites the
daughter of pagans to the son of promise. The way he travels is a foreshadowing of the true and
definitive way opened by John the Baptist. The wedding of Rebecca, a virgin of dazzling beauty, prefigures
the spiritual wedding of the Church.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ABRAHAM’S SERVANT FINDS A WIFE AND LEADS HER BACK TO ISAAC: GENESIS 24:32-41, 49-67
So the man came into the house; and Laban ungirded the camels, and gave him straw and provender for
the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
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Then food was set before him to eat; but he said, “I will not eat until I have told my errand.” He said,
“Speak on.”
So he said, "”I am Abraham's servant. he LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great;
he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and asses. And
Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he
has. My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the
Canaanites, in whose land I dwell; but you shall go to my father's house and to my kindred, and take a
wife for my son.’ I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ But he said to me, ‘The
LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you and prosper your way; and you shall take a wife
for my son from my kindred and from my father's house; then you will be free from my oath, when you
come to my kindred; and if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’
“Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me; that I may turn to
the right hand or to the left.”
Then Laban and Bethuel answered, “The thing comes from the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or
good. Behold, Rebekah is before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, as the
LORD has spoken.”
When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the LORD. And the
servant brought forth jewellery of silver and of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah; he also
gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. And he and the men who were with him ate and
drank, and they spent the night there. When they arose in the morning, he said, “Send me back to my
master.” Her brother and her mother said, “Let the maiden remain with us a while, at least ten days; after
that she may go.” But he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the LORD has prospered my way; let me
go that I may go to my master.” They said, “We will call the maiden, and ask her.” And they called
Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” So they sent away Rebekah
their sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said to
her, “Our sister, be the mother of thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the
gate of those who hate them!” Then Rebekah and her maids arose, and rode upon the camels and
followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was dwelling in the Negeb. And Isaac went out to meditate
in the field in the evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there were camels coming.
And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel, and said to the
servant, “Who is the man yonder, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “"It is my master.” So
she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then
Isaac brought her into the tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac
was comforted after his mother’s death.

SERMON 85.3-5; FOC 47 (1963) TR. MUELLER.
Now, dearly beloved, let us briefly see, as far as we can, what this story means. When blessed Abraham
directed his servant to take a wife for his son, he was an image of God the Father, just as he had been
when he offered the boy as a holocaust. His servant signified the words of prophecy and so Abraham sent
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him into a distant land to take a wife for his son, because God the Father intended to send his prophetic
word throughout the world to search for the Catholic Church as a spouse for his only-begotten Son. Just
as through Abraham’s servant a bride is brought for blessed Isaac, so by his prophetic word the Church of
the Gentiles is invited to Christ the true bridegroom from distant lands. But where is found that spouse
who was to be joined to Christ? Where, unless near the water? It is true, dearly beloved: If the Church
had not come to the waters of Baptism, she would not have been joined to Christ. For this reason
Rebecca found Abraham’s servant at the well, and the Church finds Christ at the sacrament of Baptism.
As the Scriptures say: Toward evening blessed Isaac went out in the field to meditate. That field contained
a figure of the world. Isaac went out into the field because Christ was to come into the world; Isaac
toward the evening of the day, Christ at the end of the world. He went out, it says, to meditate. Isaac
went to meditate in the field because Christ came into the world to fight against the devil, that he might
justly conquer him while being unjustly killed by him, so that by dying he might destroy death, and by
rising again bring life to all who believe. Moreover, just as Rebecca was bodily joined to Isaac, so the
Church was spiritually joined to Christ, receiving at present the Blood of her Spouse as a precious dowry,
and later to receive the dowry of his kingdom.
Therefore, Isaac took Rebecca and led her into the tent of his mother. Christ also took the Church and
established it in place of the synagogue. As by infidelity the synagogue became separated from God and
died, so by faith the Church was joined to Christ and received life. As the Apostle says, by pride the
branches of the olive tree have been broken off, in order that the lowly wild olive may be engrafted. For
this reason Isaac took Rebecca, and because he loved her he was consoled for the loss of his mother.
Christ took the Church and loved her so much that by this very love he tempered the grief which was
occasioned by the death of his mother, the synagogue. Moreover, dearly beloved, because from us Christ
the Lord prepared for himself a spiritual spouse which, as I said, he redeemed with his precious Blood,
therefore, with his help, each one of us should not only guard the benefits conferred upon him by divine
gift, but should strive to increase them. Truly, it is right that our spouse, fairer in beauty than the sons of
men, should find in us no sins to offend the eyes of his majesty. To him, together with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, is honour and might forever. Amen.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM. ESAU AND JACOB ARE BORN: GENESIS 25:7-11, 19-34
These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, a hundred and seventy-five years. Abraham breathed
his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and
Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Mach-pelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite,
east of Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with
Sarah his wife. After the death of Abraham God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac dwelt at Beer-lahai-roi.
These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty
years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister
of Laban the Aramean. And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD
granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she
said, “ It is thus, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, “Two
nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than
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the other, the elder shall serve the younger.” When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there
were twins in her womb. The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they called his name
Esau. Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was
called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man,
dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when
Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let
me eat some of that red pottage, for I am famished!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said,
“First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”
Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau
bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his
birthright.

SERMON 4.11-12, 14; WSA (1990) TR. HILL.
All who have ever been saints belong to the same Church. You can’t say that our father Abraham doesn’t
belong to us, just because he lived before Christ was born of the virgin; after all, the Apostle says that we
are the children of Abraham by imitating Abraham’s faith. If then we are admitted to the Church by
imitating him, are we going to exclude the man himself from the Church? It is this Church that was
represented by Rebecca the wife of Isaac. It is this Church that was also to be found in the holy Prophets
who understood the Old Testament, realising that its material promises signified something spiritual. If it
was spiritual, then all spiritual people belong to Isaac’s younger son, because first comes the material one
and afterward the spiritual.
The reason why the elder son is called Esau is that no one becomes spiritual without first having been ‘of
the flesh’ or materialistic. But if they persist in the wisdom of the flesh, they will always be Esau. If,
however, they become spiritual, they will then be the younger son. Well before Isaac blessed his sons,
Esau had longed to have the lentils Jacob had cooked. And Jacob said to him, Give me your birthright, and
I will give you the lentils I have cooked. He sold his right as firstborn to his younger brother. He went off
with a temporary satisfaction, the other went off with a permanent honour. So those in the Church who
are slaves to temporary pleasures and satisfactions eat lentils; lentils which Jacob certainly cooked, but
which Jacob did not eat. Idols, you see, flourished more than anywhere else in Egypt; lentils are the
food of Egypt; so lentils represent all the errors of the Gentiles.
Now apply this. You have a Christian people. But among this Christian people it is the ones who belong to
Jacob that have the birthright or right of the firstborn. Those, however, who are materialistic in life,
materialistic in faith, materialistic in hope, materialistic in love, still belong to the Old Testament, not yet
to the new. They still share the lot of Esau, not yet in the blessing of Jacob. The mother, you see, gave
birth to both sons; she bore one hairy, the other smooth. Hairiness stands for sins, smoothness for
mildness, that is, for cleanness from sins. Just as Rebecca bore two sons, so two are begotten in the
Church’s womb, one hairy, the other smooth. There are people, after all, who even after baptism are
unwilling to give up their sins, and want to do the same things as they used to do before. For instance, if
they used to swear to lies, they want to perjure themselves still; if they used to cheat the simple, they
want to go on cheating still; if they used to fornicate, to get drunk, they are doing the same things as
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much as ever. There is Esau for you, born hairy. But what does Jacob do? He is told by his mother: Go and
let your father bless you. And he says, I’m afraid, I won’t go. There are people in the Church today who
are afraid to mix with sinners, in case they are contaminated by consorting with sinners within the
communion of the Church - and so they perish through heresies and schisms.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JACOB IS BLESSED BY ISAAC: GENESIS 27:1-29
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son, and said
to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my
death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game
for me, and prepare for me savoury food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat; that I may bless
you before I die.”
Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. “I heard your father speak to your brother
Esau, ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savoury food, that I may eat it, and bless you before the LORD
before I die.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. Go to the flock, and fetch me two
good kids, that I may prepare from them savoury food for your father, such as he loves; and you shall
bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” But Jacob said to Rebekah his
mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me,
and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” His mother said to
him, “Upon me be your curse, my son; only obey my word, and go, fetch them to me.” So he went and
took them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savoury food, such as his father
loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house,
and put them on Jacob her younger son; and the skins of the kids she put upon his hands and upon the
smooth part of his neck; and she gave the savoury food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the
hand of her son Jacob.
So he went in to his father, and said, “My father”; and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” Jacob
said to his father, “I am Esau your first-born. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game,
that you may bless me.” But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near,
that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” So Jacob went near to
Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed
him.
He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat
of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he
drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” So he came near and kissed
him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, “See, the smell of my son is as
the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed! May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the
fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be every one who
curses you, and blessed be every one who blesses you!”
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GLAPHYRORUM IN GENESIM, 3.5 (PG 69.172-173); ACC 2 (2002) TR. SHERIDAN
Isaac’s words were not completely fulfilled in Jacob, they are fulfilled in Christ and in those who are
justified through faith, who are also made sons according to the promise in Isaac. The words of the
blessing, I believe, signify the sweetness of the spiritual perfume in Christ, like that of a garden or a
plentiful field spreading a sweet and beautiful perfume from its spring flowers. And so Christ described
himself to us in the Song of Songs: I am a flower of the field, the lily of the valleys. He was actually a lily
and a rose born of the earth for the sake of humanity. Since he did not know sin, he was the most divine
of all those who inhabited the whole world and produced a perfume through his works. For this reason
Scripture compares Christ with a field blessed by God, and with very good reason, because he is the
perfume of the knowledge of God the Father. As the divine Paul says, But thanks be to God, who in Christ
always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes
from knowing him.
These things therefore fit with Christ and also fit quite reasonably with the new people: May God give you
of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. The dew of heaven and
the fatness of the earth is the Word, was given to us by the Father, together with the participation
through the Spirit, and therefore we were made sharers in the divine nature through him. And we also
received plenty of grain and wine, that is, strength and happiness. In fact, it is said truly, Bread
strengthens the heart of man, and wine makes glad his heart. Bread is the symbol of spiritual strength,
wine of the physical. They are given to those who are in Christ through him. How else are we made stable
and firm in piety and immovable and aware to think the right things?
Afterward the power of blessing is transferred again to the Emmanuel himself. And let nations serve you,
and princes bow down to you, and be lord of your brother. The Emmanuel was called the firstborn when
he became so with reference to us, among many brothers. But for this reason we must not forget that he
is God and Lord of the universe. We worship him as God, and he has reigned as God over those who were
called from the brothers through grace. Who in the heavens shall be compared to the Lord among the
sons of God? Therefore the Emmanuel has reigned as God over those who were received into the
brotherhood, and to him every knee should bow in heaven and an earth, and under the earth, and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is the blessing of
Jacob, whose strength refers to the Emmanuel himself and to those who are justified in the faith.
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ESAU IS SUPPLANTED: GENESIS 27:30-45
As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of
Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also prepared savoury food, and brought it
to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless
me.” His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your first-born, Esau.”
Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I
ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? – yes, and he shall be blessed.” When Esau heard the
words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless
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me, even me also, O my father!” But he said, “Your brother came with guile, and he has taken away your
blessing.” Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took
away my birthright; and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not
reserved a blessing for me?” Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his
brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I
do for you, my son?” Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me
also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Then Isaac his father answered him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be,
and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother;
but when you break loose you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to
himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” But the
words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said
to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey
my voice; arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury
turns away; until your brother’s anger turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will
send, and fetch you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
A READING FROM ON JACOB AND THE BLESSED LIFE BY ST AMBROSE

ON JACOB AND THE BLESSED LIFE, 3.10-12; FOC 65 (1971) TR. MCHUGH
After Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, the elder brother arrived. By this it is revealed that the Kingdom
was predestined to be bestowed on the Church rather than on the synagogue, but had secretly entered
the synagogue so that sin might abound and, when sin had abounded, that grace might also abound. At
the same time, it makes it clear that the candidate for the kingdom of heaven must be quick to carry
off the blessing for which he has been recommended. On this account the younger son was not
blamed by his father but praised, for Isaac says, Your brother came deceitfully and received your
blessing. For deceit is good when the plunder is without reproach. Now the plunder of piety is
without reproach, because from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the
violent bear it away. Our fathers celebrated the Pasch in haste and ate the Lamb in haste with no
delay, and the holy Joseph summoned his brother Benjamin by a holy fabrication and deceit.
Nevertheless, Esau brought it about by his demands and entreaties that he did receive a blessing, but
such a blessing as was in agreement with the earlier one, namely that he should serve his brother.
Indeed, the one who could not command the other ought to have served him, in order to be ruled by the
one who was more wise. It was not the role of the holy Patriarch to deliver his own son to the ignoble
state of slavery. But since he had two sons, one without moderation and the other moderate and wise, in
order to take care for both like a good father, he placed the moderate son over the son without
moderation, and he ordered the foolish one to obey the one who was wise. For the foolish man cannot of
his own accord be a disciple of virtue or persevere in his intent, because the fool changes like the moon.
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Isaac was right to deny Esau freedom to make his own choices; else he might drift like a ship in the waves
without a helmsman. But Isaac made him subject to his brother according to that which is written, The
unwise man is the slave of the wise man. Therefore the Patriarch was right to make him subject, so that
he might amend his dispositions under rule and guidance. And so Isaac says, By your sword shall you live;
you shall serve your brother, for holiness has mastery over cruelty and kindness excels over emotions that
are harsh.
Every man who does not possess the authority conferred by a clear conscience is a slave; whoever is
ensnared by pleasure or seduced by desires or provoked by wrath or felled by grief is a slave. In fact,
every passion is servile, because everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, and, what is worse, he is the
slave of many sins. The man who is subject to vices has sold himself to many masters, so that he is
scarcely permitted to go out of servitude. But the man who is the master over his own will, judge over his
counsels, and who restrains the longing of his bodily passions, is assuredly a free man. For the man who
does all things wisely and in complete accord with his will is the only truly free man.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JACOB’S FLIGHT AND HIS DREAM: GENESIS 28:10 – 29:14
Jacob left Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place, and stayed there that
night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay
down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the
LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the
land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the
dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the
south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am
with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you
until I have done that of which I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely
the LORD is in this place; and I did not know it.” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place!
This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up
for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of the
city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s
house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be
God’s house; and of all that thou givest me I will give the tenth to thee.”
Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a
well in the field, and lo, three flocks of sheep lying beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered.
The stone on the well's mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds
would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place
upon the mouth of the well.
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Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” He said to
them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” He said to them, “Is it well with
him?” They said, “"It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” He said, “Behold, it
is still high day, it is not time for the animals to be gathered together; water the sheep, and go, pasture
them.” But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from
the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she kept them. Now
when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's
brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his
mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her
father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.
When Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed
him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, “Surely you
are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.

ENARR. IN PS. 44.20 (CCL 38:508-509); WORD IN SEASON VII
Jacob the Patriarch set a stone under his head and while he slept he saw the heavens open and a ladder
stretching from heaven to earth, and angels ascending and descending. After seeing this, he woke up,
anointed the stone, and departed. In this stone he understood Christ, that is why he anointed it. And this
was done symbolically, and then he left. For he did not anoint the stone, and keep going back there to
worship, and to offer sacrifices there. What happened was this: expression was given to a mystery. Take a
look at the stone: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. And it is
because Christ is the head of man that the stone is placed at the head. Take note of this great symbol: the
stone is Christ. A living stone, says Peter, rejected by mankind, but chosen by God. And the stone is at the
head, because Christ is the head of the man. And the stone is anointed because the name Christ derives
from anointing.
And as Christ unfolds this picture, a ladder is seen, from earth to heaven, or from heaven to earth, and
angels ascending and descending. What this is all about we shall see better when we have look at the
Lord’s words in the Gospel. You know that Jacob himself is Israel. When the Lord saw Nathaniel in the
Gospel, he said: Behold, here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. This is the sort of language that
was used about Jacob himself: And Jacob was free from guile and he lived at home. The Lord called
Nathaniel an Israelite in whom there was no guile because of Jacob. And Nathaniel said: How do you
know me? And the Lord said: When you were beneath the fig tree I saw you. This means, when you were
within the Jewish people and under the Law, which covered over that people with a bodily shadow, that is
where I saw you. And Nathaniel made his confession and said: You are the Son of God, you are the king of
Israel. And the Lord said: It is because I saw you under the fig tree that you have believed. You shall see
things greater than these. He is speaking with Israel, with Jacob, with the one who placed a stone under
his head. What greater things? The fact that already that stone is by the head: Truly 1 tell you, you shall
see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Let God’s
angels ascend and descend on that ladder. Let this happen in the Church. God’s angels are heralds of the
truth, let them ascend and see: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was
the Word. Let the angels descend and see that, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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This is happening in the Church: God’s angels ascend and descend on the Son of Man. This is because the
Son of Man is above. They ascend to him in their heart, that is, his head. And the Son of Man is below,
that is, his body. His limbs are here, his head is up above. One rises up to the head, comes down to the
limbs. It is the same Christ here and there. For were he there only, and not here, what would be the point
of saying: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JACOB FLEES FROM MESOPOTAMIA; GENESIS 31:1-18
Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our fathers; and from
what was our father's he has gained all this wealth.” And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with
favour as before. Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred,
and I will be with you.” So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, and
said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favour as he did before. But the God of my
father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength; yet your father
has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me. If he said,
‘The spotted shall be your wages’,' then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be
your wages’, then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given
them to me. In the mating season of the flock I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream that the he-goats
which leaped upon the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the
dream, ‘Jacob’, and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that leap upon
the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of
Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go forth from this land, and return
to the land of your birth.’” Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left
to us in our father’s house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has
been using up the money given for us. All the property which God has taken away from our father
belongs to us and to our children; now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
So Jacob arose, and set his sons and his wives on camels; and he drove away all his cattle, all his livestock
which he had gained, the cattle in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land
of Canaan to his father Isaac.

THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT, 85-87; WORD IN SEASON VII
There is such a thing as exile, an irrevocable renunciation of everything in one’s familiar surroundings that
hinders one from attaining the ideal of holiness. Exile is a disciplined heart, unheralded wisdom, an
unpublicised understanding, a hidden life, masked ideals. It is unseen meditation, the striving to be
humble, a wish for poverty, the longing for what is divine. It is an outpouring of love, a denial of vainglory,
a depth of silence.
For followers of the Lord, this manner of thinking operates abundantly at the beginning and they are
greatly disturbed by it, as though by some holy fire. I mean separation from their relations for the sake of
hardship and simplicity which drives on the lovers of this good. Yet for all that it is praiseworthy, it
requires discretion, since not every kind of exile is good if taken to extremes. Detachment is good and its
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mother is exile. Someone withdrawing from the world for the sake of the Lord is no longer attached to
possessions, that he should not appear to be deceived by the passions. If you have left the world, then do
not begin to reach out for it. Otherwise your passions will come back to you. Eve had no wish to be driven
from paradise, whereas a monk will abandon his homeland willingly.
Let us say we manage for some time to live away from our relatives. We practise a little piety,
compunction, self-control. And then the empty thoughts come tramping toward us, seeking to turn its
back to the places we knew. They tell us what an example we are, what a help to those who witnessed
our former wicked deeds. If we happen to be articulate and well informed, they assure us that we could
be rescuers of souls and teachers to the world. They tell us all this so that we might scatter at sea the
treasures we have assembled while in port. So we had better imitate Lot, and certainly not his wife. The
soul turning back to the regions from which it came will be like the salt that has lost savour, indeed like
that famous pillar. Run from Egypt, run and do not turn back. The heart yearning for the land there will
never see Jerusalem, the land of dispassion.
There is no greater example of renunciation than that great man who heard the command, Leave your
country and your family and the house of your father. Obediently he went to a foreign country where the
language was different. And so it is that anyone following this model of renunciation is glorified all the
more by the Lord.
But even though this glory is given by God, it is still good to deflect it with the protective shield of
humility. When demons or men lavish praise on us for our exile as if it were a great achievement, let us
remind ourselves at once of him who came down from heaven for our benefit and exiled himself to earth.
Nothing we could ever do would match that.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JACOB MEET ESAU AND WRESTLES WITH GOD: GENESIS 32:3-30
And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,
instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned
with Laban, and stayed until now; and I have oxen, asses, flocks, menservants, and maidservants; and I
have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favour in your sight.’”
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet
you, and four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the
people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, thinking, “If Esau
comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company which is left will escape.”
And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who didst say to me,
‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good’, I am not worthy of the least of all the
steadfast love and all the faithfulness which thou hast shown to thy servant, for with only my staff I
crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my
brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children.
But thou didst say, ‘I will do you good, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot
be numbered for multitude.’”
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So he lodged there that night, and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau, two
hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and
their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten he-asses. These he delivered into the hand
of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on before me, and put a space
between drove and drove.” He instructed the foremost, “When Esau my brother meets you, and asks
you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you?’ then you shall
say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is
behind us.’” He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall
say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover your servant Jacob is behind
us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see
his face; perhaps he will accept me.” So the present passed on before him; and he himself lodged that
night in the camp.
The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the
ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw
that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of
joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not
let you go, unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he
said, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men,
and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Tell me, I pray, your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you
ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I
have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”

HOM. IN EZ., 1.12 (PL 76:955); WORD IN SEASON VII
The pursuit of the contemplative life is something for which a great and sustained effort on the part of
the powers of the soul is required, an effort to rise from earthly to heavenly things, an effort to keep
one's attention fixed on spiritual things, an effort to pass beyond and above the sphere of things visible to
the eyes of flesh, an effort finally to hem oneself in, so to speak, in order to gain access to spaces that are
broad and open.
There are times indeed when one succeeds, overcoming the opposing obscurity of one's blindness and
catching at least a glimpse, be it ever so fleeting and superficial, of boundless light. But the experience is
momentary only, so that all too quickly the soul must again return to itself. From that light which is ap-
proached with bated breath, it must now, sighing and mournful, go back once more to the obscurity of its
blindness.
We have a beautiful illustration of all this in the sacred history of the Scriptures where the story is told of
Jacob's encounter with the angel, while on his return journey to the home of his parents. On the way he
met an angel with whom he engaged in a great struggle and, like anyone involved in such a contest, Jacob
found his opponent, now stronger, now weaker than himself.
Let us understand the angel of this story as representing the Lord, and Jacob who contended with the
angel as representing the soul of the perfect individual who in contemplation has come face to face with
God. This soul, as it exerts every effort to behold God as he is in himself, is like one engaged with another
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in a contest of strength. At one moment it prevails so to speak, as it gains access to that boundless light
and briefly experiences in mind and heart the sweet savour of the divine presence. The next moment,
however, it succumbs, overcome and drained of its strength by the very sweetness of the taste it has
experienced. The angel, therefore, is, as it were, overcome when in the innermost recesses of the
intellect the divine presence is directly experienced and seen.
Here, however, it is to be noted that the angel, when he could not prevail over Jacob, touched the sciatic
muscle of Jacob’s hip, so that it forthwith withered and shrank. From that time on Jacob became lame in
one leg and walked with a limp. Thus also does the all-powerful God cause all carnal affections to dry up
and wither away in us, once we have come to experience in our mind and hear the knowledge of him as
he is in himself.
Previously we walked about on two feet, as it were, when we thought, so it seemed, that we could seek
after God while remaining at the same time attached to the world. But having once come to the
knowledge and experience of the sweetness of God, only one of these two feet retains its life and vigour,
the other becoming lame and useless. For it necessarily follows that the stronger we grow in our love for
God alone, the weaker becomes our love for the world.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JACOB COMES TO BETHEL AND MAMRE: GENESIS 35:1-29
God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to the God who
appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who
were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your
garments; then let us arise and go up to Bethel, that I may make there an altar to the God who answered
me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave to Jacob all the
foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which
was near Shechem.
And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were round about them, so that they
did not pursue the sons of Jacob. And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan,
he and all the people who were with him, and there he built an altar, and called the place El-bethel,
because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. And Deborah, Rebekah’s
nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel; so the name of it was called Allon-bacuth.
God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. And God said to him,
“Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So his
name was called Israel. And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a
company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you. The land which I gave to
Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.” Then God
went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place
where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil
on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel.
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Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel travailed,
and she had hard labour. And when she was in her hard labour, the midwife said to her, “Fear not; for
now you will have another son.” And as her soul was departing (for she died), she called his name Ben-
oni; but his father called his name Benjamin. So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath
(that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is
there to this day. Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
While Israel dwelt in that land Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard of
it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan
and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were
born to him in Paddan-aram.
And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac
had sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years. And Isaac breathed his last; and
he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

GLAPHYRORUM IN GENESIM, 5.4-5 (PG 69.284); ACC 2 (2002) TR. SHERIDAN
After he was called by God, Jacob ascends to Bethel, that is, to the house of God which is what Bethel
means, there he offers sacrifices to God and is declared chief and master of the sacred rites. He teaches
his successors and descendants how they must enter the house of God. He orders the foreign gods to be
rejected like dung and filth and he commands a change of garments. It is fitting for us to do likewise when
we are called before God, or to enter the divine Temple, especially in the time of the holy baptism. We, as
if we drive away the foreign gods and part from such error, must assert, ‘I refuse you, Satan, and all your
pomp and all your worship.’ We also must change completely our garment by stripping off the old man
that is corrupt through deceitful lusts and by clothing ourselves with the new man, which is being
renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator. The women who were with Jacob took off
their earrings. And in fact women by entering the house of God without wearing any carnal ornament and
with loose hair remove from their head any accusation of pride. That is why, I believe, those women took
off the precious stones they wore in their ears.
When we ascend to Bethel, that is, to the house of God, we will know the stone, I mean, the chosen
stone, which was made into a cornerstone. By this I mean Christ. We will see the one who is anointed by
the Father in joy and exultation for all the creatures that live under the sky. As I said, the Son is anointed
by God the Father: he is the Joy of us all, the universal exultation, according to the words of the psalmist.
And you see how this is prefigured in the words that were just said to us: And Jacob set up a stone and
poured oil upon it. That action as a symbol of the mystery of Christ, through whom and with whom the
glory to God the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.
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SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOSEPH IS HANDED OVER BY HIS BROTHERS: GENESIS 37:2-4, 12-36
This is the history of the family of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a lad with the
sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought an ill report of them to their father. Now
Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he
made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all
his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.
Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not
your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I
am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers, and with the flock; and bring me
word again.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him
wandering in the fields; and the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he
said, “tell me, I pray you, where they are pasturing the flock.” And the man said, “They have gone away,
for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at
Dothan. They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.
They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of
the pits; then we shall say that a wild beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his
dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”
And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; cast him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand
upon him – that he might rescue him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came
to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him
and cast him into a pit. The pit was empty, there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with
their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his
brothers, “What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the
Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers
heeded him. Then Midianite traders passed by; and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and
sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver; and they took Joseph to Egypt.
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he rent his clothes and returned
to his brothers, and said, “The lad is gone; and I, where shall I go?” Then they took Joseph's robe, and
killed a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood; and they sent the long robe with sleeves and brought it to
their father, and said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.” And he
recognized it, and said, “It is my son’ robe; a wild beast has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to
pieces.” Then Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many
days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said,
“No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile the
Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
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A READING FROM GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

GLAPHYRORUM IN GENESIM, 6 (PG 69:3-4-5); WORD IN SEASON VII
The devout Joseph obeyed his father’s command to go to Shechem to see if his brothers were well, and
where and how they were feeding their flocks. But when they saw him coming they smiled a cruel and
fateful smile, saying: Here comes that dreamer! And they cast him into a pit. But a little later they drew
the boy out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites who were going to Egypt. And so Joseph was led
away into Egypt.
In the same way our Lord Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father to see if the Israelites continued to be
well, obviously in a spiritual sense, and if the sheep in their care were still in a good state, and the
shepherds not lacking in gentleness towards them. But people were aware that the beloved Son, the
spiritual Joseph, was among them in person. For the blessed evangelist John said: Yet many even of the
people in authority believed in him, but they kept it to themselves because of the Pharisees. So the fact
that they recognised him did not prevent them from insulting him. Indeed they killed him and the
cowards threw him into a kind of pit, the deep and dark pit of death, that is, Hades. For that is just how
the inspired David showed him to us, speaking as if addressing his words to God the Father in heaven, as
if in the person of Christ: Lord, you brought my soul out of Hades, you saved me from the fate of those
who go down to the pit.
We are told: The pit was empty, there was no water in it, to show us distinctly and clearly that this was
meant to represent Hades. And I shall tell you why: water is a symbol of life, as something life-giving. It is
said there was no water in the pit, naturally, for Hades was thought of as the home and dwelling-place of
those deprived of life. However, the boy was raised from the pit. Christ too came back to life from the
dead. For just as Joseph was not kept down in the pit, so neither did Christ remain in Hades, and what is
more he left it empty. For he said to the prisoners: Come out!
It was not long after he had been raised from the pit that the devout Joseph went away to Egypt, when
the Ishmaelites bought him. Christ too came back to life and rose from the pit. Then leaving Judea he
went to the land of the Gentiles, taken there by the spiritual Ishmaelites, those in obedience to God, for
that is the literal meaning of their name. Who would such people be? Again they were the blessed
disciples, who had listened to Christ's teaching and were the first-fruits of those distinguished in their
obedience, their faith and glorious achievements above the Law. It was these who in a way bought Jesus,
giving up all the treasure they possessed in the Law to buy that single pearl of great value, in the words of
our Saviour’s own parable. It was they who conveyed Christ to the gentiles as ministers of the Gospel.
Throughout every land under the sun they proclaimed him as God and Lord, and as the chosen stone,
rejected by those who clung to the Law, the spiritual builders, but chosen and precious in God’s sight, and
laid as the cornerstone of the building.
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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOSEPH IN EGYPT; GENESIS: 39:1-23
Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an
Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The LORD was with Joseph,
and he became a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian, and his master saw
that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph
found favour in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge
of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had the
LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had,
in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and having him he had no concern for
anything but the food which he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon
Joseph, and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Lo, having me my master
has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand; he is not
greater in this house than I am; nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are
his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” And although she spoke to
Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie with her or to be with her. But one day, when he
went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught
him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and got out of the
house. And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had fled out of the house, she
called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to insult
us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; and when he heard that I lifted up
my voice and cried, he left his garment with me, and fled and got out of the house.” Then she laid up his
garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew
servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; but as soon as I lifted up my
voice and cried, he left his garment with me, and fled out of the house.”
When his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me”,
his anger was kindled. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the
king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the LORD was with Joseph and showed
him steadfast love, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's care all the prisoners who were in the prison; and
whatever was done there, he was the doer of it; the keeper of the prison paid no heed to anything that
was in Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

SERMON 24.2 (SC 64:70-72); WORD IN SEASON VII
As you have just heard in the reading, the saintly Joseph was of good appearance but even better in mind,
because he was both physically and mentally chaste. He shone in outward appearance but even more so
in the excellence of his mind. And though for many people good looks are usually a hindrance to a good
life, they could not harm this saintly man because his handsome appearance was governed by the
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excellence of his mind. So the soul must rule the body, not the body the soul, because the soul is mistress
of the body; the body is really a servant to the soul. Hence the unhappiness of the soul which is ruled by
the body, and after being mistress becomes servant, because it breaks faith with the Lord and submits to
the slavery of sin.
But the soul of the Patriarch Joseph was faithful to its dominion, and there was no question of the body
usurping its power. In fact when his master’s wife, an unchaste woman, asked him to lie with her he
refused to do so, because even in his state of slavery he had not lost command of his soul. As a result he
was falsely accused and put into prison. But the saintly man regarded that prison as a palace, or rather
was himself a palace in the prison, because where there is faith, chastity and modesty, there is the palace
of Christ, the Temple of God, the abode of the Holy Spirit. So if any man prides himself on his good looks,
or any woman boasts of the beauty of her body, let the man follow Joseph’s example and the woman
Susanna’s: let them be chaste in body and mind; then they will also be beautiful not only to their fellow
human beings but to God. For there are three examples of chastity in the Church, so that all have
someone to copy: Joseph, Susanna, and Mary; Joseph for men to copy, Susanna for women, and Mary for
virgins.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PHARAOH’S DREAM: GENESIS 41:1-17, 25-43
After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up
out of the Nile seven cows sleek and fat, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows,
gaunt and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile.
And the gaunt and thin cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. And Pharaoh awoke. And he fell asleep
and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were
growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind.
And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a
dream. So in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and
all its wise men; and Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none who could interpret it to Pharaoh.
Then the chief butler said to Pharaoh, “I remember my faults today. When Pharaoh was angry with his
servants, and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, we dreamed
on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own meaning. A young Hebrew was there with
us, a servant of the captain of the guard; and when we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving
an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us, so it came to pass; I
was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.”
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon; and when he had
shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have
had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it; and I have heard it said of you that when you hear
a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a
favourable answer.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of
the Nile.”
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Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is
about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dream is
one. The seven lean and gaunt cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears
blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is as I told Pharaoh, God has shown to
Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of
Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land
of Egypt; the famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of that
famine which will follow, for it will be very grievous. And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the
thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now therefore let Pharaoh select a man
discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the
land, and take the fifth part of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years. And let
them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of
Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the
seven years of famine which are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the
famine.”
This proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we
find such a man as this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown
you all this, there is none so discreet and wise as you are; you shall be over my house, and all my people
shall order themselves as you command; only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” And
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet
ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold
chain about his neck; and he made him to ride in his second chariot; and they cried before him, “Bow the
knee!” Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ST PROCOPIUS OF GAZA

IN GEN. (PG 87/1:468-469, 475-478); WORD IN SEASON VII
Not only does God pour out his gifts upon us, he also draws good out of evil. Had Joseph remained in his
father’s house, Egypt would have had no one to act in advance to prevent the full effects of the
impending famine. In the same way, had the only Son of God remained hidden from us in the glory of the
Father, the whole world would still be unredeemed.
Joseph was born in his father’s old age, and for this reason Jacob loved him all the more. There is a
foreshadowing here of the events of these last days. With immeasurable love God looked upon his Son as
he came into the world in the fullness of time, at the end of a long line of Prophets and saintly men and
women. This Son of his encountered the hate of the Pharisees because the Father had clothed him with a
garment of many glorious attributes – rather as Jacob had clothed Joseph with a tunic of many colours.
Christ was the light, and he was the life. He cleansed those dead in sin, commanded the sea and walked
on the water. The fire of envy, however, smouldered in the hearts of the Pharisees when they considered
that the time would come when the whole world, and not merely the Jews, would worship this man. Here
is the heir. Let us kill him and take his inheritance.
Joseph was handed over to the Ishmaelites and went down into Egypt. Christ, too, was delivered to the
Gentiles: Behold we go to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the Gentiles. When
Joseph first arrived in Egypt, he was deeply afflicted. Christ, too, suffered persecution at the hands of
both Jews and Gentiles. Both men were falsely accused. Joseph was thrown into prison, Christ was
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consigned to the grave. Joseph rose to a position of eminence and ruled over his captors. Christ’s rule
extends to the living and the dead.
Think, however, with what constancy of mind Joseph was endowed. Though oppressed by servitude and
imprisonment, he possessed true freedom of mind. He languished in prison, but one day he would be
clothed with royal dignity. Doubts never violated his faith. What was the source of his watchfulness and
self-control? If he had no faith in the divinely inspired gift of interpretation, why did he interpret the
dreams of Pharaoh’s servants in prison with him? Why did he not rather persuade them that nothing was
to be gained by self-discipline?
When the time came, not one of his brothers was able to recognise Joseph. Envy obscures the truth, and
too much cunning can lead to a form of slavery. It was Joseph’s father who paid him the highest tribute of
all when he wept for the son whom he loved. The envy of the Jews obscured the truth concerning the
Christ, and so does the hate of the Greeks. Christ is not truly recognized either by those bogged down in
heresy. But if you desire to attain true knowledge of Christ, you must hear God saying to you: This is my
beloved Son; listen to him.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOSEPH’S BROTHERS GO INTO EGYPT: GENESIS 41:56- 42:26
So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the
Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to
Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.
When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that
we may live, and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not
send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might befall him. Thus the
sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Now Joseph was governor over the land; he it was who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s
brothers came, and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his
brothers, and knew them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you
come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” Thus Joseph knew his brothers,
but they did not know him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them; and he
said to them, “You are spies, you have come to see the weakness of the land.” They said to him, “"No, my
lord, but to buy food have your servants come. We are all sons of one man, we are honest men, your
servants are not spies.” He said to them, “No, it is the weakness of the land that you have come to see.”
And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and
behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.” But Joseph said to them, “It is as I
said to you, you are spies. By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this
place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while
you remain in prison, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you; or else, by the life of
Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” And he put them all together in prison for three days.
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On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: if you are honest men, let
one of your brothers remain confined in your prison, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of
your households, and bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not
die.” And they did so. Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in
that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us and we would not listen; therefore is this
distress come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the lad? But
you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” They did not know that Joseph
understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and
wept; and he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him
before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money
in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
Then they loaded their asses with their grain, and departed.
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF PROMISES BY QUODVULTDEUS OF CARTHAGE

LIBER PROMISSIONUM, 1.30, 42 (SC 101:242-246); WORD IN SEASON VII
Impelled by the famine, Joseph’s brethren came to Egypt to buy corn from their brother, whom they had
sold. Those who had crucified our Joseph, that is Christ our Lord, came to him to be revived by his bread,
and so take away the hunger which was distressing their souls. The former, Joseph’s brethren, do him
reverence; the latter, Christ’s brethren, likewise do him reverence. On seeing his brothers, Joseph
recognised them; but they did not know who he was. This applies to us also: for his brethren knew him
not. For if they had known who he was, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Joseph was
estranged from his brethren and said to them, through an interpreter, you are spies, you have come to
spy out the roads and the tracks of this country. So also our Joseph, Christ our Lord, said to his
persecutors through his interpreter Peter, you have denied what is holy and just and you have killed the
prince of eternal life.
Joseph’s brethren are sorry for what they did. To those others also, Christ’s persecutors, the word is:
Repent. They, of the olden times, say, we are at fault over our brother. So also the Jews who had told
Pilate, his blood be upon us and our children, now say to the Apostles, what are we to do, brethren?
Show us. So as not to be thought spies, Joseph’s brethren state that they are the sons, twelve in all, of
one father; and they say that one of them is no more (since it was he to whom they telling this), while the
youngest is at home with their father.
On hearing mention of his younger brother, Joseph, ardently longing for him, says, I will test your claim
not to be spies by seeing whether your younger brother will come with you. And he took Simeon apart
from them, had him fettered in their presence, and put him under guard. Surely our latter day Benjamin
and youngest brother, sought after by the Joseph who is Christ our Lord, is none other than Paul,
formerly Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, as he himself says, calling himself the least of the Apostles.
Simeon, bound by the three bonds of his denial, he whom fear held bound and love released, this Simeon
we may take as Peter. That said, we had better acknowledge that it is by him that sins are bound and
loosed; him indeed to whom it was said that What you hold bound on earth will be bound in heaven; and
what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
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WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOSEPH’S BROTHERS GO DOWN TO EGYPT AGAIN: GENESIS 43:1-11, 13-17, 26-34
Now the famine was severe in the land. And when they had eaten the grain which they had brought from
Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.” But Judah said to him, “The man
solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send
our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food; but if you will not send him, we will not go down,
for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” Israel said, “Why did
you treat me so ill as to tell the man that you had another brother?” They replied, “The man questioned
us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’
What we told him was in answer to these questions; could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring
your brother down’?” And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go,
that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand
you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the
blame for ever; for if we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.”
Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the
land in your bags, and carry down to the man a present, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh,
pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man; may God Almighty
grant you mercy before the man, that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin. If I am
bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” So the men took the present, and they took double the money
with them, and Benjamin; and they arose and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the
house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” The man did
as Joseph bade him, and brought the men to Joseph’s house.
When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present which they had with them, and
bowed down to him to the ground. And he inquired about their welfare, and said, “Is your father well, the
old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” They said, “Your servant our father is well, he is still alive.”
And they bowed their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother
Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be
gracious to you, my son!” Then Joseph made haste, for his heart yearned for his brother, and he sought a
place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out; and
controlling himself he said, “Let food be served.” They served him by himself, and them by themselves,
and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the
Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the first-born according to
his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men looked at one another in amazement.
Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of
theirs. So they drank and were merry with him.
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GLAPHYRORUM IN GENESIM 4 (PG 69:324-5); WORD IN SEASON VII
When the sons of Jacob arrived with Benjamin, Joseph called them to the feast, and after they had
washed with water he fed them to the full with food and wine. For at the right moment the Jews,
distressed and as if overwhelmed by unbearable hunger, obviously in a spiritual sense, will abandon their
haughty and arrogant pride and come to Christ. They will long to be fed by him, I mean with holy, spiritual
and life-giving food. But he will not receive them without the new people, of whom Benjamin is the
symbol. And when they come as it were in concord and unanimity he will receive them cheerfully, and
welcome them as if to his own house, that is, the Church. Then after he has washed them with pure
water, the baptismal water of spiritual rebirth, he will feed them with bread and wine.
This is the spiritual interpretation. But we may take it further. For Joseph made himself known to his
brothers when they arrived with Benjamin, and even thought them worthy to eat at his table, as I said
just now. But he gave them no inheritance, and actually ordered them to return home and fetch their
father, Jacob. But when Jacob went down and Joseph now saw him there with his children, then and only
then he assigned them the best of all his land. This too is a clear indication that Christ will receive the
Israelites converted in the last days of this age, since the new people are obviously united with them in
unity of soul. The new people, as I said, are foreshadowed in Benjamin. But the inheritance we hope for
will not be given to us without the holy Fathers. For just as they, although they died in faith, in the words
of the wise Paul, did not obtain what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for
ourselves, that they should not attain perfection without us, so we too shall wait for the Fathers, so as not
to attain perfection without them. Therefore with the holy Fathers, the first, middle, and last people, we
shall receive the best and inalienable inheritance of the kingdom of heaven in Christ, through whom and
with whom be glory to God the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOSEPH AND BENJAMIN; GENESIS 44:1-20, 30-34
Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry,
and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the
sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the
morning was light, the men were sent away with their asses. When they had gone but a short distance
from the city, Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to
them, ‘Why have you returned evil for good? Why have you stolen my silver cup? Is it not from this that
my lord drinks, and by this that he divines? You have done wrong in so doing.’”
When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such
words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing! Behold, the money which
we found in the mouth of our sacks, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan; how then should
we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? With whomever of your servants it be found, let him die,
and we also will be my lord’s slaves.” He said, “Let it be as you say: he with whom it is found shall be my
slave, and the rest of you shall be blameless.” Then every man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and
every man opened his sack. And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest;
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and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Then they rent their clothes, and every man loaded his ass,
and they returned to the city.
When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there; and they fell before him to the
ground. said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can
indeed divine?” And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we
clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord's slaves, both we
and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so!
Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your
father.”
Then Judah went up to him and said, “O my lord, let your servant, I pray you, speak a word in my lord's
ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant; for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his
servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man,
and a young brother, the child of his old age; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's
children; and his father loves him.’
“Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, then, as his life is
bound up in the lad’s life, when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring
down the grey hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became surety for
the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame in the sight of
my father all my life.’ Now therefore, let your servant, I pray you, remain instead of the lad as a slave to
my lord; and let the lad go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the lad is not with
me? I fear to see the evil that would come upon my father.”
A READING FROM ON JOSEPH BY ST AMBROSE

ON JOSEPH, 10.56, 58, 60-66; FOC 65 (1972) TR. MCHUGH
Now by raising his eyes he saw Benjamin, the son of his mother. The moral sense is, that we see those we
love before others and the gaze of our eyes lights first on those whom we consider first in our mind’s eye.
In the mystical sense, however, the Lord Jesus saw Paul – for the eyes of the Lord are upon the just – and
said, is this your youngest brother?
The greater prerogative is given to Paul for the beginning of his faith; of him it is said to Ananias, Go,
because he is to me a vessel of election to carry my name amongst the Gentiles. And the silver cup is put
in his sack alone. Benjamin did not know this; Paul was in error, but he was called. The sacks of the
brothers are first examined according to the order of age of each brother. Joseph indeed practiced
deception, and sent the cup so that he might by a holy trick recall the brother whom he loved; yet
the light of God’s mysterious plans is clearly reflected.
Christ finds this money in us, which he has himself given us. We possess the money of nature, we also
possess the money of grace. Nature is the work of the Creator, grace the gift of the Redeemer. Even
though we are unable to see Christ’s gifts, nevertheless he is giving them; he is working in a hidden way
and is giving them to all men, but there are few who are able to keep them and not lose them. Yet he
does not give all things to all men. Wheat is given to many, but the cup to one, who is presented with the
prophetic and priestly function. For it is not everyone but only the Prophet who says, The cup of salvation
I will take up and I will call upon the name of the Lord. Therefore the word of heavenly teaching already
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shone in Paul’s body, since he was instructed in the Law. But because he was still not subject to the
justice of God, the cup was within the sack, the teaching within the Law, the lamp within the bushel.
Nevertheless, Ananias was sent to give a blessing and to lay on his hand and open the sack. When the
sack was opened, the money shone forth, and when the scales fell, in a way like fastenings on the sack,
Paul saw straightway. Free of the bond, he obtained the grace of liberty and said, But we all, beholding
the glory of God with faces unveiled, are transformed into the same image.
Those who lose Christ do return back. Indeed, in the Gospel too, when they were seizing the Lord Jesus
for death, they drew back and fell upon the ground. It was appropriate that they went back, for they fell
from heavenly grace to earthly defilement. And so, by an interpretation in the moral sense, they did not
wish to return without their brother; in the mystical sense, they were unwilling to return without Paul.
With the loss of him, they claimed that the old age of the father of the people would be brought down
into sorrow. And so Judah desired to remain with Joseph so as not to see the evils which came upon his
father; that is, he foresaw and desired to guard against the evils which were going to come to the people
of the Jews.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE RECONCILIATION OF JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS: GENESIS 45:1-15, 21 – 46:7
Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him; and he cried, “Make every one
go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he
wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his
brothers, “I am Joseph; is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were
dismayed at his presence.
So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, I pray you.” And they came near. And he said, “I am
your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves,
because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the
land these two years; and there are yet five years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many
survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and
lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Make haste and go up to my father and say to
him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not tarry; you
shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s
children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have; and there I will provide for you, for there are
yet five years of famine to come; lest you and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty.’
And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.
You must tell my father of all my splendour in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Make haste and bring
my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept; and Benjamin wept upon
his neck. ‘And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
The sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave
them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them he gave festal garments; but to Benjamin he
gave three hundred shekels of silver and five festal garments. To his father he sent as follows: ten asses
loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his
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father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not
quarrel on the way.” So they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.
And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart fainted,
for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them,
and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived;
and Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive; I will go and see him before I die.”
So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God
of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said,
“Here am I.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt; for I
will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again;
and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.” Then Jacob set out from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel
carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry
him. They also took their cattle and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came
into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and
his sons’ daughters; all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

HOM. IN GEN. 15.5-6; FOC 71 (1982) TR. HEINE
It appears fitting indeed to contemplate what God says to Israel through the vision and how he sends him
to Egypt strengthening and encouraging him as if he were setting out to engage in some struggles. For he
says, Fear not to descend into Egypt, this is to say: You shall contend against principalities and powers and
against the rulers of this world of darkness, – which is figuratively called Egypt – fear not, be not afraid.
But if you wish to know the reason why you ought not to fear, hear my promise: For I will make a great
nation of you there, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will recall you from there in the end. He,
therefore, with whom God shall go down into the struggles, is not afraid to go down into Egypt; he is not
afraid to approach the struggles of this world and the battles with those demons who resist.
But I think a still greater mystery lies hidden in this passage. For this statement disturbs me: I will make a
great nation of you, and I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will recall you from there in the end.
Who is it who is made into a great nation in Egypt and is recalled in the end? If it is that Jacob to whom it
seems to refer, it does not appear true. For he was not recalled from Egypt in the end, since he died in
Egypt. But it will be absurd if someone says Jacob was recalled by God because his body was carried back.
If you believe this, it will be false to say that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. These words
apply not to a dead body but to a living and vigorous man.
Are these words, then, a figure of the Lord who descends into this world and is made into a great nation,
that is, the Church of the Gentiles, and who, after all was completed, returned to the Father. Or is it a
figure of the first-formed man who descends to the struggles of this world after he was cast out of the
delights of paradise? God does not desert those placed in this struggle, but is always with them. He is
pleased with Abel; he reproaches Cain; he is present with Enoch, when he is invoked; he commands Noah
to construct an ark of salvation in the flood; he leads Abraham from the house of his father and from his
kinsmen; he blesses Isaac and Jacob; he leads the sons of Israel out of Egypt; he writes the Law of the
letter through Moses; he completes what was lacking through the Prophets. This is what it means to be
with them in Egypt.
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But as regards the statement, I will recall you from there in the end, I think this means, as we said above,
that at the end of the ages his only begotten Son descended even into the underworld for the salvation of
the world and recalled the first-formed man from there. For what he said to the thief, This day you shall
be with me in paradise, you should understand not to have been said to him alone, but also to all the
saints for whom he had descended into the underworld. In this man, therefore, more truly than in Jacob,
the words I will recall you from there in the end, will be fulfilled.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS AND DIES; GENESIS 49:1-33
Then Jacob called his sons, and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you
in days to come. Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, and hearken to Israel your father. Reuben, you are
my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, pre-eminent in pride and pre-eminent in
power. Unstable as water, you shall not have pre-eminence because you went up to your father's bed;
then you defiled it – you went up to my couch! Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are
their swords. O my soul, come not into their council; O my spirit, be not joined to their company; for in
their anger they slay men, and in their wantonness they hamstring oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is
fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your
brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow
down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he
couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who dares rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor
the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the
obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine and his ass’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his
garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes; his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth
white with milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his
border shall be at Sidon. Issachar is a strong ass, crouching between the sheepfolds; e saw that a resting
place was good, and that the land was pleasant; so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a slave at
forced labour. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a
viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward. I wait for thy salvation, O
LORD. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Asher’s food shall be rich, and he shall yield
royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose, that bears comely fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful
bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. The archers fiercely attacked him, shot at him, and
harassed him sorely; yet his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the
Mighty One of Jacob (by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel), by the God of your father who will
help you, by God Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that
couches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty
beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills; may they be on the
head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was separate from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous
wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, and at even dividing the spoil.”
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them,
blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. Then he charged them, and said to them, “I am to be
gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in
the cave that is in the field at Mach-pelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham
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bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham
and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah – the field and
the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.” When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew
up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
A READING FROM ON THE PATRIARCHS BY ST AMBROSE

ON THE PATRIARCHS, 4.17-24; FOC 65 (1972) TR. MCHUGH
This blessing appears to be directed to the Patriarch Judah, but in reality that later Judah is meant, Jesus
Christ, the true Confessor who was born of that tribe and who alone is praised by his brothers; of them it
is said, I will declare your name to my brothers. He is the Lord by nature, but a brother by grace; his
hands, which he stretched out to an unbelieving people, are on the back of his enemies. For with those
same hands and by that same passion he protected his own, subjugated hostile powers, and made
subject to himself all men who were without faith.
A lion’s whelp is Judah. Isn’t it clear that he both represented the Father and manifested the Son? Is there
any clearer way to teach that God the Son is of one nature with the Father? The one is the lion, the other
the lion’s whelp. By this paltry comparison, their unity in the same nature and power is perceived. King
proceeds from king, a strong one from one who is strong. Because Jacob foresaw that there would be
those to claim that the Son was younger in age, he replied to them by adding, From my seed you have
come up to me. Resting you have slept like a lion and like a whelp. And in a different passage you find that
the whelp is himself the lion of the tribe of Judah. Therefore, seeing that he had said whelp, it was good
that Jacob at once put lion; this is to say: ‘Do not to let your ears be deceived, because they heard
‘whelp’; I described that Son, I did not say he was younger. He also is a lion just as the Father is. Jacob,
who confesses the Son, also esteems him equal.
Moreover, he represented the Son’s incarnation in a wonderful fashion when he said, From my seed you
have come up to me. For Christ sprouted in the womb of the virgin like a shrub upon the earth; like a
flower of good fragrance. He was sent forth in the splendour of new light and came up from his mother’s
womb for the redemption of the entire world. Just as Isaiah says, There shall come forth a rod out of the
root of Jesse and a flower shall come up out of the root. The root is the household of the Jews, the rod is
Mary, the flower of Mary is Christ. She is rightly called a rod, for she is of royal lineage, of the house and
family of David. Her flower is Christ, who destroyed the stench of worldly pollution and poured out the
fragrance of eternal life.
Therefore you have become acquainted with the incarnation; learn of the passion. Resting, you have slept
like a lion. When Christ lay at rest in the tomb as if in a kind of bodily sleep, as he himself says, I have slept
and have taken my rest and have risen up, because the Lord will sustain me. On this account also Jacob
says, Who will arouse him? Who else is there to rouse him again, unless he rouses himself by his own
power and the power of the Father? Therefore he is the Author of his own resurrection, he is the Judge of
his death, he is expected by the nations. And he is the expectation of the nations. Jacob spoke more
meaningfully than if he had said, ‘The nations are expecting him’, for in Christ lies the entire hope of the
Church.
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SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S OBLIGATION TO THE CHURCH IN THESSALONICA: 1 THESSALONIANS 1:1 – 2:12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. remembering before
our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ. For we know, brethren beloved by God, that he has chosen you; for our gospel came to you not
only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men
we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you
received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example
to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from
you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say
anything. For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you
turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
For you yourselves know, brethren, that our visit to you was not in vain; but though we had already
suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to
you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from error or
uncleanness, nor is it made with guile; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with
the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never used
either words of flattery, as you know, or a cloak for greed, as God is witness; nor did we seek glory from
men, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But
we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children. So, being affectionately desirous of
you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you
had become very dear to us.
For you remember our labour and toil, brethren; we worked night and day, that we might not burden any
of you, while we preached to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and
righteous and blameless was our behaviour to you believers; for you know how, like a father with his
children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to lead a life worthy of God,
who calls you into his own kingdom and glory
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON 1 THESSALONIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

PREMIÈRE EPÎTRE AUX THESSALONIENS (BAREILLE 19.184-6); WORD IN SEASON VII
You have become imitators of the Lord, says the Apostle, by receiving the word amidst much oppression,
with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Oppression in what pertains to the body, but joy in the spirit. You wonder,
perhaps, how that can be. Well, what happened was distressing for you, but not so what came of it: the
Holy Spirit does not allow it to be. On the one hand, you cannot be joyful while suffering for your sins; but
on the other, you can find joy even in being scourged, when you suffer for Christ.
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For that is how the joy of the Spirit shows itself: it brings gladness in place of what seemed like affliction.
They have oppressed you, he says, and persecuted you, but the Spirit has not forsaken you all the while.
Just as the three young men were refreshed in the fiery furnace, so it has been with you in your
oppression. Whereas it is not in the nature of fire to refresh, but of the revivifying Spirit, it is likewise not
in the nature of oppression to beget joy and gladness: that comes of suffering for Christ, and of the
revivifying Spirit bringing relief even through the furnace of trials and temptations.
With joy, St Paul says, but, more than that, with great joy: for it comes from the Holy Spirit. This has made
you an example to all the faithful in Macedonia and Achaia. Indeed, he tells them that they have shone so
brightly that they have become teachers of those who preceded them. That is what it means to be
apostolic. He did not say, ‘So as to set an example in believing’, but ‘to set an example to those who
already believe’. That is to say, ‘You have taught them how to have faith in God, by enduring hardships
from the very first days.’ And when he says Achaia, he means the whole of Greece.
Do you see what zeal can do? No need for time, no procrastination or delay; it only has to show itself and
everything is accomplished. For thus it was that people who had only later heard the teaching of the
Gospel became teachers of the first to do so. Let no one despair, then. Even those who have spent a good
deal of time unprofitably may nevertheless do as much in a short time as they previously failed to do. For
if people who did not believe could become such shining lights once they did believe, how much more
could those do so who already believed?
On the other hand, let no one pondering all this slacken off, on learning that everything can be put right
in a short while; for the future is always unclear, and the day of the Lord is like a thief that comes upon us
suddenly as we sleep. But if we are not asleep, it will not come upon us like a thief, or take us all unaware.
For if we stay awake and keep watch, it will arrive not like a thief, but like a royal messenger calling us to
the good things prepared for us.
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN PAUL AND THE THESSALONIANS: 1 THESSALONIANS 2:13 – 3:13
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from
us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in
you believers. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in
Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed
both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men by
hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved – so as always to fill up the measure of
their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!
But since we were bereft of you, brethren, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavoured the
more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face; because we wanted to come to you – I, Paul,
again and again – but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our
Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we
sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the gospel of Christ, to establish you in your faith and to
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exhort you, that no one be moved by these afflictions. You yourselves know that this is to be our lot. For
when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to
pass, and as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent that I might know your faith,
for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labour would be in vain.
But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love
and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you – for this
reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith;
for now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you, for all
the joy which we feel for your sake before our God, praying earnestly night and day that we may see you
face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you; and may the Lord make
you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you, so that he may establish
your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his
saints.
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

ON PSALM 132; THE DIVINE OFFICE I.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is good and pleasant for brothers to
dwell in unity because when they dwell in unity they are gathered in the community of the Church; when
they are called brothers it is because they are of one heart in the charity of a single will.
At the first preaching of the Apostles we read that this was the great precept, summed up in the words,
The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul. It is fitting then, for the people of God to
be brothers under one Father, to be one under one Spirit, to enter with one mind under the same roof,
under one head to be members of one body.
It is good and pleasant when brothers dwell in unity. And the Prophet uses a simile to illustrate that
goodness and pleasantness, It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard of
Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. By that oil, made up of perfumes, Aaron was anointed to
the priesthood. It was God’s pleasure that this be the anointing of his first priest. And we know that our
Lord, too, was invisibly anointed when it is said, Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness. That
anointing is not a material thing, he was anointed not with a horn of oil as kings are, but with the
oil of gladness. Furthermore, after this anointing Aaron was called according to Law, the Christ,
which means the anointed one.
And since wherever it is poured out, this oil quenches the unclean spirits of the heart, so through the
anointing of charity we breathe forth to God a sweet odour, as the Apostle says, we are the aroma of
Christ. Just as this oil was pleasing to God in his first priest, so it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell
in unity.
The oil ran down from the head into the beard. Now, a beard is an ornament of adult manhood. For we
must not be little children in Christ except, as it is written, we should be babes in evil not in thinking. The
Apostle calls all who have not faith ‘babes’ since they are not strong enough for solid food and still need
milk, as he says, I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not
ready.
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TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A HOLY LIFE AND THE HOPE OF RESURRECTION: 1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-18
Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you
ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what
instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you
abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honour,
not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his
brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you.
For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards
not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
But concerning love of the brethren you have no need to have any one write to you, for you yourselves
have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brethren throughout
Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your
own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you; so that you may command the respect of
outsiders, and be dependent on nobody.
But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve
as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through
Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the
Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have
fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangels
call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are
alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so
we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

ADVERSUS HAERESES, 3.19.1, 3 - 3.20.1; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
For this reason the Word of God became man and the Son of God became the son of man in order that
man, being mingled with the Word of God, and being granted adoption should become the son of God.
In no other way could we have received incorruptibility and immortality, without ourselves first being
united to them. How could we be made one with incorruptibility and immortality unless these two had
first become what we are? Only in this way could corruptibility be absorbed by incorruptibility and
mortality by immortality and so enable us to receive adoption as sons.
This same Son of God, therefore, who is our Lord and the existing Word of the Father is also son of man.
He was born, like other men, born of Mary, who was herself of human stock and a member of the human
race, and so he became the Son of Man.
It was for this reason that the Lord gave a sign here below and in heaven above that man had not asked
for. Man had neither hoped that a virgin could be with child and bear a son, although she was a virgin;
nor that this child would be God with us, coming down to the earth below in search of the sheep that was
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lost (which he himself had made) and once again ascending on high and offering in trust to the Father the
man he had found. This same Lord himself became the first-fruits of the resurrection of man, so that the
resurrection of the head should mean the resurrection of the rest of the body, and that every man alive
should rise again on completion of the time of the punishment, which his disobedience had earned. For
the body in its varied joints and ligaments grows up and is strengthened by God’s aid, and each of the
members has its appropriate place in the body. The Father has many mansions in the same way as there
are many members in the body.
When, therefore, man fell, God was generous in mercy, since he foresaw the victory which would be his
through the agency of the Word. For because his power was made perfect in weakness, he displayed the
kindness of God and the greatness of his power.
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE SONS OF LIGHT: 1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-28
But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you
yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, “There
is peace and security”, then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman
with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you
like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So
then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at
night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and
put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined
us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we
wake or sleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as
you are doing.
But we beseech you, brethren, to respect those who labour among you and are over you in the Lord and
admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among
yourselves. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the
weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to
one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything;
hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound
and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Brethren, pray for us.
Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brethren.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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ENARR. IN PS. 37.14 (CCL 38.391-2); WORD IN SEASON VII
There is another, inner prayer which is without ceasing. It is the desire which consists in longing.
Whatever else you do, if you long for that Sabbath, you never cease praying. If you do not want to cease
praying, do not cease longing. Your unending stream of longing is your unending stream of speech. If you
cease loving, you will cease speaking. Who are those who have ceased speaking? Those of whom it is
said: Because there is an abundance of iniquity, the love of many shall grow cold. The cooling-off of love is
the silence of the heart. The leaping flames of love are the shouting of the heart. If love lasts for ever,
then you are always shouting. If you are always shouting, you are always longing. If you are longing, then
you are recollecting the future rest. And you ought to understand before whom the roaring of your heart
takes place.
Consider now what sort of longing it ought to be which is before the eyes of God. Should it really be a
longing for the death of our enemy? This is the sort of thing people think they are right to ask for. Indeed
sometimes we do pray for the thing we ought not to. Let us have a look at what people think they are
entitled to pray for. For they pray for the death of someone, and for an inheritance to come their way.
But let even those who pray for their enemies to die listen to the Lord when he says: Pray for your
enemies. Let them not, therefore, pray for the death of their enemies, but let them pray for their
improvement. Indeed their enemies will in a very real sense be dead, for once they have been corrected,
they will no longer be enemies.
And before you is all my longing. What if their longing is before God, and their groaning is not before
God? How can this possibly be, when the voice of that longing is groaning? That is why the psalm says:
And my groaning is not hidden from you. For you it is not hidden, but it is hidden from many people.
Sometimes God’s humble servant is seen to be saying: And my groaning is not hidden from you.
Sometimes God’s servant is seen also to laugh. You could hardly say that the longing for God was dead
and buried in his heart, could you? And if there is longing within it, there is also groaning. It does not
always filter through to the ears of people like you and me, but it never escapes the attention of God’s
ears.
THURSDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GREETING AND THANKSGIVING: 2 THESSALONIANS 1:1-12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our father and the Lord Jesus
Christ:
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing
abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore we ourselves
boast of you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the
afflictions which you are enduring.
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This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God,
for which you are suffering – since indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his
mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who
do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and
exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to
be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all who have believed, because our testimony to you
was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may
fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be
glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE LETTER TO DIOGNETUS, 4.4 – 5.5; LOEB (1913) TR. LAKE
The distinction between Christians and other men, is neither in country nor language nor customs. For
they do not dwell in cities in some separate place of their own, nor do they use any strange variety of
dialect, nor practise an extraordinary kind of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the
intellect or thought of busy men, nor are they the advocates of any human doctrine as some men are. Yet
while living in Greek and barbarian cities and following the local customs, both in clothing and food and in
the rest of life, they show forth the wonderful and paradoxical character of their own citizenship.
They dwell in their own fatherlands, but as if strangers in them; they share all things as citizens, and suffer
all things as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country.
They marry as all men, they bear children, but they do not expose their offspring. The offer free
hospitality, but guard their purity. Their lot is cast in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh.
They pass their time upon the earth, but they have their citizenship in heaven. They obey the appointed
laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all men. They
are unknown and they are condemned. They are put to death and they gain life. They are poor and make
many rich; they lack all things and have all things in abundance. They are dishonoured, and are glorified in
their dishonour, they are spoken evil of and are justified. They are abused and give blessing, they are
insulted and render honour. When they do good they are reviled as evil-doers, when they are reviled they
rejoice as men who receive life. Those who hate them cannot state the cause of their enmity.
To put it shortly what the soul is in the body, that is what the Christians are in the world. The soul is
spread through all the members of the body, and Christians are spread throughout the cities of the world.
The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body, and Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the
world. The soul is invisible, and is guarded in a visible body, and Christians are recognised when they are
in the world, but their religion remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wages war upon it, though
it has suffered no evil, because it is prevented from gratifying its pleasures, and the world hates the
Christians though it has suffered no evil, because they are opposed to its pleasures. The soul loves the
flesh which hates it, and Christians love those that hate them. The soul has been shut up in the body, but
itself sustains the body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, but themselves sustain the
world. The soul dwells immortal in a mortal tabernacle, and Christians sojourn among corruptible things,
waiting for the incorruptibility which is in heaven. The soul when treated badly in food and drink becomes
better, and Christians when buffeted day by day increase more. God has appointed them to so great a
post in the battle line and it is not right for them to decline it.
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FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DAY OF THE LORD: 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-17
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you,
brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting
to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that
day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of
perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he
takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was
still with you I told you this? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his
time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is
out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath
of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. The coming of the lawless one by the
activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked
deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore
God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be
condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose
you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he
called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then,
brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or
by letter.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort
and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

DE CIVITATE DEI, 20.19; TR. BETTENSON
No one can doubt that Paul is here speaking of Antichrist, telling us that the day of judgement (which he
calls the Day of the Lord) will not come without the prior coming of a figure whom he calls the Apostate,
meaning, of course, an apostate from the Lord God. There is, however, some uncertainty about the
‘temple’ in which he is to take his seat. Is it in the ruins of the Temple built by King Solomon, or actually in
a Church? For the Apostle would not say the temple of God if he meant the temple of some idol or
demon. For that reason some people would have it that Antichrist means here not the leader himself but
what we may call his whole body, those who belong to him, together with himself, their leader. And they
suppose that then it would be more correct to say, following the original Greek, that he takes his seat as
the temple of God, instead of in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God’s temple, that is, the
Church.
As for the statement, and you know what now restrains him so that he will be revealed only at the right
time, Paul did not choose to speak explicitly, because, as he says, they knew it. And that is why we who
have not their knowledge, are anxious to arrive at the Apostle’s meaning; but we find ourselves unable to
do so, for all our efforts. Some people suppose those words to refer to the Roman imperial power, and
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they think that the reason for Paul’s reluctance to write more explicitly was the fear of slandering the
Roman Empire when many hoped that it would last forever. On this assumption the secret power of
wickedness already at work would be intended as a reference to Nero, whose actions already seemed like
those of Antichrist. Hence there are people who suggest that Nero is to rise again and become Antichrist.
However, there are others who think that you know what restrains and the secret power of wickedness
refer only to the evil people and the pretended Christians who are in the Church, until they reach such a
number as to constitute a great people for Antichrist. Thus there are different interpretations of the
obscure words of the Apostle, put forward by different commentators. But the general meaning of what
he said is not doubtful. Christ will not come to judge the living and the dead without the prior coming of
his adversary, Antichrist, to seduce those who are dead in soul. It is, in fact, at that time that Satan will be
unloosed, and by the agency of the Antichrist he will carry on his work with every kind of lying miracle.
Those led astray by these signs and wonders will be those who deserve to be led astray, because, in the
Apostle’s words, they did not welcome the love of truth so that they might be saved. And the Apostle had
no hesitation in adding, for this reason God will subject them to the influence of delusion, so that they
may believe a lie. Thus they will be led astray after being judged, and after being led astray they will be
judged by that last and open judgement administered by Jesus Christ, who is to judge with perfect justice,
though it was with utter injustice that he himself was judged.
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EXHORTATIONS AND COUNSELS: 2 THESSALONIANS 3:1-18
Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as it did among you,
and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he
will strengthen you and guard you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are
doing and will do the things which we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and
to the steadfastness of Christ.
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any
brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you
yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, we did not eat
any ones bread without paying, but with toil and labour we worked night and day, that we might not
burden any of you. It was not because we have not that right, but to give you in our conduct an example
to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him
not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now
such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn
their own living. Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing.
If any one refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing to do with him, that
he may be ashamed. Do not look on him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
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Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the mark in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

THE CONFERENCES, 18.10-11; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
Although some people are in the habit of speaking of monasteries instead of cenobia, without drawing a
distinction, nonetheless the difference is that monastery is the name of a dwelling and means nothing
more than a place for monks, whereas cenobium indicates the character and discipline of the monastic
profession itself. The dwelling of even one monk can be called a monastery, but something cannot be
called a cenobium unless a united community with several inhabitants lives there. Indeed, even where
groups of sarabaites live are said to be monasteries.
Therefore, since I see that you have learned the principles of this profession from the best kind of monks
– that is, from the praiseworthy school of the cenobia – and that you are heading toward the highest
reaches of anchorite discipline, toward the virtue of humility and patience which I do not doubt that you
learned there, you should pursue this with a sincerely disposed heart, not feigning it, as some do, by false
humility in speech and certain bodily practices.
Abba Serapion once cleverly mocked this feigned humility. When someone came to him displaying the
greatest abjection in dress and speech and the old man encouraged him, as was the custom, to say the
prayer, the man would not agree. He demeaned himself and said that he had been involved in such
wicked behaviour that he did not deserve to breathe the same air as everyone else; he even refused to sit
on a mat but sat on the ground instead. But when he refused to have his feet washed, Abba Serapion,
having finished the meal and having been given the opportunity by the customary conference, began to
warn him kindly and gently not to wander about everywhere like a lazy vagrant, especially since he was
young and strong; he encouraged him to sit in his cell in keeping with the rule of the elders and, following
the example of the Apostle Paul, to prefer being supported by his own toil rather than by others’
generosity.
At this the man was filled with such annoyance that he was unable to conceal on his face the bitterness
that he had conceived in his heart. The old man said to him: ‘Up until now, my son, you have burdened
yourself with the full weight of your misdeeds, not fearing to incur a notorious reputation by confessing
such atrocious crimes. Why, I ask you now in reference to our simple little admonition, which contained
no reproach at all but rather edification and love, do I see you moved with such indignation that you are
unable to hide it on your face? Were you perhaps, in humiliating yourself, hoping for praise from our
mouth?’
Hence, a humility of heart must be maintained which is genuine and which does not come from an
affected humbleness of body and speech. It will glow with the clearest indications of patience precisely
when a person does not boast to others about crimes of his that are not to be believed but, rather
disregards what is insolently said against him by someone else and endures insults inflicted upon him
with a gentle and placid spirit.
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SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THANKSGIVING AMID TRIBULATIONS: 2 CORINTHIANS 1:1-14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.
To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with
the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s
sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort
and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently
endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share
in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so
utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the
sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he
delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will
deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the
blessing granted us in answer to many prayers.
For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, and still more
toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God. For we
write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I hope you will understand fully, as you have
understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you, on the day of the Lord Jesus.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE PAULINE EPISTLES BY AMBROSIASTER

ON THE PAULINE EPISTLES (CSEL 81:3.3.195-201); ACC 7 (1999) TR. BRAY
Freed from all anxiety about the Corinthians, Paul now confidently declares that he is an Apostle of the
Lord. In the first letter, when he heard some had been lured away from his teaching, he simply said that
he was called an Apostle. In order to affirm that his Apostleship has been ratified, he adds here that he
has been made an Apostle by the will of God. He writes in association with Timothy, from whom he has
heard the good news of the changes which have taken place at Corinth, and he associates the people
there with believers in other Churches, in order to confirm to them that they have made progress.
Since the gift of God and of Christ is one and the same, Paul wants them to be partakers in the grace of
God, that is, in the grace of Jesus Christ. Paul always speaks in this way, indicating the personhood of the
Father and of the Son, even though they are of one substance. By these words he is giving
much relief to those who had been saddened by his rebuke, for when they hear that God is not just the
Father of creation but the Father of mercies as well, they will have hope and be assured that they have
been rebuked so that they may find the mercy of God, once they have mended their ways. Through
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repentance they are born again and made anew, and this is not just a pardon but a restoration of their
previous state of existence.
Paul mentions two kinds of consolation. One is the sort by which people who are suffering distress
unjustly on account of the name of Christ find consolation in being set free. The other is the consolation
of those who, when they are grieved because of sins, receive consolation from the fact that hope of
forgiveness is promised to them when they mend their ways. This happens in a community of those who
have received consolation from God and have been rescued from distress. It is thus clear that Christ
himself, for whose sake we are suffering, is present with us, consoling us and rescuing us from trouble by
his divine intervention.
Paul also wanted the Corinthians to know what evils he was enduring for the sake of their salvation. That
way, they would not take it too badly if their own errors were admonished by people who were enduring
such harsh treatment for their sake. The boast of Paul’s conscience was simplicity and sincerity, qualities
which belong to God’s teaching. In his first letter Paul had criticised teaching based on earthly wisdom,
and he alludes to that again here. He accused preachers of that kind both because they preached
according to the wisdom of the world and because they were doing it in order to make money. For that
reason, Paul was unwilling to receive any payment from the Corinthians. What Paul says is backed up by
his actions, and it is through their actions that we learn what a person really thinks.
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WHY THE APOSTLE ALTERED HIS JOURNEY: 2 CORINTHIANS 1:15 – 2:11
Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double pleasure; I
wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you
send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a
worldly man, ready to say Yes and No at once? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been
Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I,
was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is
why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in
Christ, and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a
guarantee.
But I call God to witness against me – it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth. Not that
we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make
me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer
pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the
joy of you all. For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to
cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
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But if any one has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure--not to put it too
severely – to you all. For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough; so you should rather turn
to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your
love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in
everything. Any one whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything,
has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us; for
we are not ignorant of his designs.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON 2 CORINTHIANS BY ST CYRIL OF

ALEXANDRIA
IN EP II AD CORINTHIOS, (PG 74:921-3); WORD IN SEASON VII
God the Father makes us firm in Christ and establishes in all souls a faith that is correct and unshakable in
holding that Christ is God by nature and in truth. That is so even if he was visibly in a form like ours, being
born from a woman according to human nature and yet being above every created thing. At any rate,
when Peter confessed his faith, saying clearly that, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus
Christ our Lord replied himself, saying, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood did not reveal
this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. For since the mystery is a great one, it is reasonable that it
has need of the revelation which is from above, from the Father.
It is God, therefore, who makes us firm in Christ, God who seals and anoints us and gives the Spirit as the
guarantee, so that we might know that the Son is not ‘yes’ and ‘no’ but, rather, is truly God and that the
‘yes’ to all good things is in him. God is said to seal and to anoint us, giving the guarantee of the Spirit, so
that Christ might be the one who fulfils these things in us, not in a servile way nor as one anointing and
sealing us with an alien spirit, but with the Spirit which is his own and the Father’s. For the Holy Spirit is in
both Father and Son by means of the identity of nature, not as something shared between them but
rather as coming forth from the Father through the Son to the created universe. Christ breathed on the
holy Apostles and said Receive the Holy Spirit, and it is through him and in him that we have received the
impress of the divine and intelligible image. For the divine Apostle himself said in his letter to the
Galatians, My children, with whom I am again suffering labour pains until such time as Christ is formed in
you. Now if we are conformed to Christ, and if we are enriched by the divine image within us, then
Christ himself is the image of God the Father, and his exact resemblance, and we are called to his
likeness, not by means of a participation in holiness but rather in nature and essence.
For it is not unreasonable that the one who, by nature, is related to him who is true God by nature and
who is generated from his substance should himself be God. He has been sealed by God the Father, as
John the wise says, He who receives his witness has put his seal to the fact that God is true. But he has
not been sealed in the same way as we have, for the Father reveals that he himself is wholly in the nature
of the Son, which is not true for us. Thus Christ says, He who has seen me has seen the Father.
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TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL, THE MINISTER OF A NEW COVENANT: 2 CORINTHIANS 2:12 – 3:6
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord; but my mind
could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to
Macedonia.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of
the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being
saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a
fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of
God’s word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation
to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be
known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not
with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves
to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be
ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the
Spirit gives life.

HOM. IN LEV. 1.1-4; FOC 83 (1990) TR. BARKLEY
The Word of God, who was clothed with the flesh of Mary, proceeded into this world as in the Last Days.
What was seen in him was one thing; what was understood was something else. For the sight of his flesh
was open for all to see, but the knowledge of his divinity was given to the few who were chosen. So also
when the Word of God was brought to men through the Prophets and the Lawgiver, it was not brought
without proper clothing. For just as in the incarnation the Word was covered with a veil of flesh, so here it
was covered with the veil of the letter, and this letter is seen as flesh but the spiritual sense hiding within
is perceived as divinity.
Such, therefore, is what we now find as we go through the book of Leviticus, in which the sacrificial rites,
the diversity of offerings, and even the ministries of the priests are described. Both the worthy and the
unworthy see and hear these things according to the letter, which is, as it were, the flesh of the Word of
God and the clothing of its divinity. But blessed are those eyes which inwardly see the divine spirit that is
concealed in the veil of the letter; and blessed are they who bring the ears of the inner man to hear these
things. Otherwise, they will only perceive the letter which kills, in these words.
If I also should follow the literal understanding, as some among us do, without using what they ridicule
as a confusing cloud of allegory, I would only arrive at the voice of the Lawgiver. From this I, a man
of the Church, living under the faith of Christ and placed in the midst of the Church, would then be
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compelled by the authority of the divine precept to sacrifice calves and lambs and to offer fine
wheat flour with incense and oil. This is what happens when we are forced to be subservient to the
historical sense and to keep to the letter of the Law.
We are happy to be attacked for the way we read the Holy Scriptures so long as the Church, which has
already turned to Christ the Lord, may know the truth of the Word which is completely covered under the
veil of the letter. For thus the Apostle said, if anyone turns to the Lord, the veil will be removed; for where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Thus, the Lord himself, the Holy Spirit himself must be
entreated by us to remove every cloud and all darkness which obscures the vision of our hearts hardened
with the stains of sin, in order that we may be able to behold the spiritual and wonderful knowledge of
his Law, according to him who said: Take the veil from my eyes and I shall observe the wonders of your
Law.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE GLORY OF THE MINISTERS OF THE NEW COVENANT: 2 CORINTHIANS 3:7 – 4:4
Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendour that the Israelites
could not look at Moses face because of its brightness, fading as this was, will not the dispensation of the
Spirit be attended with greater splendour? For if there was splendour in the dispensation of
condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendour. Indeed, in this case,
what once had splendour has come to have no splendour at all, because of the splendour that surpasses
it. For if what faded away came with splendour, what is permanent must have much more splendour.
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the
Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendour. But their minds were hardened; for to this day,
when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken
away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds; but when a man turns to the
Lord the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from
one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced
disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with Gods word, but by the
open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this
world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

NYSSA
IN CANT. 5.158-160; (1987) TR. MCCAMBLEY
In changeable human nature, good and evil exist by turns because we have the capacity to choose either
one of two contraries. As a result, the good in us alternates with the evil, and the evil becomes a limit on
the good. All the activities of our souls, insofar as they are opposed, define and limit one another. On the
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other hand, the divine nature is simple, pure, of one kind, unmoved, unchangeable, always the same, and
always self-contained. Because it is incapable of fellowship with evil, it remains unlimited in the good. It
recognises no limits because it contains no opposites in itself. So then, when God draws a human soul to
participate in himself, he always remains in equal measure superior to the participating soul because of
his superabundant goodness. On the one hand, the soul continually grows through participation in what
is beyond it and never stops growing. On the other hand, the good in which the soul shares remains un-
limited so that the more the soul participates in it, the more she recognises that it transcends her as
much as before.
We now see the bride being led by the Word up a rising staircase by the steps of virtue to the heights of
perfection. First the Word sends her a ray of light through the windows of the Prophets and the
lattices of the Law. He exhorts her to draw near to the light and to become beautiful by being
transformed into a dove’s image in the light. The bride at this point partakes in the good as much as
she can. Then he starts again to draw her to participate in a higher beauty, as if she had never tasted
it. Thus, as she progresses, her desire grows with each step. And, because there is always an
unlimited good beyond what the bride has attained, she always seems to be just beginning her
ascent.
Therefore the Word says once again to the bride whom he has awakened: Arise. And when she has come
to him, he says, Come. For one who has been called to rise in this way can always rise further, and one
who runs to the Lord will always have wide open spaces before him. And so we must constantly rise and
never cease drawing closer. As often as the bridegroom says Arise and Come, he gives the power to
ascend to what is better. Thus you must understand what follows in the Song of Songs. When the
bridegroom exhorts the bride who is already beautiful to become beautiful, he clearly recalls the words of
the Apostle who bids the same image to be transformed from glory to
glory. By glory he means what we have grasped and found at any given moment. No matter how great
and exalted that glory may be, we believe that it is less than that for which we still hope. Although she is a
dove by what she had achieved, nevertheless, the bride is bidden to become a dove once again by being
transformed into something better.
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FRAILTY AND CONFIDENCE OF THE APOSTLE: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:5-18
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus
sake. For it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and
not to us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life
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of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for
Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but
life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, I believed, and so I spoke, we too believe, and
so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you
into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may
increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed
every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the
things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES ON THE PSALMS BY ST AMBROSE

IN PS. 43.89-90; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Why do you turn away your face? We think that God turns his face away from us when we are suffering,
so that darkness is poured out on our heart and we are so hindered by the darkness that we are unable to
look upon the radiance of the truth. But if God touches our intellect and deigns to visit our mind we are
sure that nothing is able to bring darkness upon us. The countenance of a man shines out more than the
other parts of his body, and whenever we see someone either we come to know him if he is a stranger, or
recognise him as one we know. How much more then does the countenance of God illuminate him on
whom he looks!
As in his other teaching so here the Apostle has something notable to say about this. He is truly an
interpreter of Christ, bringing him to our understanding with apt ideas and words. He says: The God who
said, ‘Out of darkness the light shall shine’, is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to
bring us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory, shining in the face of Christ. We have heard then
where Christ shines in us: he is the eternal brightness of soul whom the Father sent into the world that
we might be illuminated by his face and so be able to look upon eternal and heavenly truths – we who
before were imprisoned in earthly darkness.
Why am I speaking about Christ when even Peter the Apostle said to the cripple, lame from birth: Look on
us? He then looked at Peter, and found light by the grace of faith; nor would he have been restored to
health unless he had believed in faith.
Now, when there was so much glory to be seen among the Apostles, Zacchaeus, hearing that the Lord
Jesus was passing by, climbed up into a tree, because he was himself a small slight man and could not see
Jesus in the crowd. He saw Christ and he found light, he saw him and he who had been robbing others of
their goods now was happy to give away his own!
Why do you turn away your face? Even if you do turn your face from us, O Lord, yet the light of your
countenances is imprinted upon us. We keep this in our hearts and it glows in our inmost will, nor can
anyone survive if you turn away your face.
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FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HOPE FOR THE HEAVENLY HOME. THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-21
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly
dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we sigh
with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is
mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us
the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the
Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the
body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil,
according to what he has done in the body.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men; but what we are is known to God, and I hope
it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause
to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who pride themselves on a man’s position
and not on his heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have
died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their
sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded
Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through
Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We
beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

CONFESSIONS 10.43, 68-70; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
The true mediator, whom in the secret of your mercy you have shown to men and sent to men, that by
his example they may learn humility – the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
appeared between sinful mortals and the immortal Just One: for like men he was mortal, like God he was
just. The wages of justice being life and peace, through the union of his own justice with God he was able
to make void the death of those sinners whom he justified by choosing to undergo death as they do.
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How much you have loved us, O good Father, who spared not even your own Son, but delivered him up
for us wicked men! How you have loved us, for whom he thought it not robbery to be equal with you
became obedient even unto the death of the cross, he who alone was free among the dead, having
power to lay down his life and power to take it up again: for us he was to you both victor and victim, and
victor because victim; for us he was to you both priest and sacrifice, and priest because sacrifice: turning
us from slaves into your sons, by being your Son and becoming a slave. Rightly is my hope strong in him,
who sits at your right hand and intercedes for us; otherwise I should despair. For many and great are my
infirmities, many and great; but your medicine is of more power. We might well have thought your Word
remote from union with man and so have despaired of ourselves, if he had not been made flesh and
dwelt among us.
Terrified by my sins and the mass of my misery, I had pondered in my heart and thought of flight to the
desert, but you forbade me and strengthened me, saying: Christ died for all: that they also who live, may
now not live to themselves but with him who died for them. See, Lord, I cast my care upon you, that I may
live; and I will consider the wondrous things of your Law. You know my unskillfulness and my infirmity:
teach me and heal me. He your only One, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, has redeemed me with his blood. Let not the proud speak evil of me, for I think upon the
price of my redemption, I eat it and drink it and give it to others to eat and drink; and being poor I desire
to be filled with it amongst those that eat and are filled: those who seek the Lord shall praise him.
SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S TRIBULATIONS AND HIS EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS; 2 CORINTHIANS 6:1 – 7:1
Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At
the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, now is the
acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in any one’s way, so that no
fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:
through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labours,
watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful
speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in
honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as
unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide. You are not restricted by us, but you are
restricted in your own affections. In return – I speak as to children – widen your hearts also.
Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what
fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common
with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the
living God; as God said, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch
nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and
daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
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Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit,
and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS BY ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
HOM IN EP. AD COR. 13.1-2; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Just as what brings heat makes things expand, so it is the gift of love to stretch hearts wide open; it is a
warm and glowing virtue. Love caused Paul to open his mouth and expand his heart. ‘I do not love only by
words,’ he says, ‘my heart itself joins in the song of love and so I speak with confidence with my whole
mouth and with my whole heart.’ Nothing was wider than the heart of Paul which embraced all the saints,
just like the individual lover, in close bonds of love. And yet his love did not stretch to breaking point, not
become weak, but remained whole in every case. What wonder that he had such feeling for the saints
when even in the case of unbelievers his heart embraced the whole world?
And so he did not say, ‘I love you’, but – and this is more emphatic – We have spoken frankly to you, we
have opened wide our hearts. We have all men in our heart; and not merely that alone, but with ample
room. For he who is loved wanders in the inmost heart of the lover without any fear: accordingly Paul
says: On our part there is no constraint; any constraint there may be is in yourselves. Notice that the
reproach is uttered with restraint, which is the mark of lovers. He did not say, ‘You people do not love
me’, but, ‘Not in an equal measure’, nor does he wish them to be too bitterly reproached.
It is evident in all his writings how he burns with love for the faithful. Choose quotations out of every
epistle. Writing to the Romans, the Apostle says: I long to see you, and, I have often made it my object to
come to you, and If in any way at all I may have a prosperous journey to you. To the Galatians he speaks
as follows: My little children, with whom I am again in travail; to the Ephesians again: For this reason I
kneel in prayer on your behalf; to the Thessalonians: What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Is it
not you? For he said that he carried them round both in his heart and in his chains.
Furthermore, he writes to the Colossians: I wish you to see how great a conflict I have on your behalf and
on behalf of those who have not seen my face in the flesh so that your hearts can have comfort and to
the Thessalonians: Like a nurse who cherishes her charges, thus we yearn for you, and we wanted to give
you not only the Gospel but even our lives. On our part there is no constraint, he says. He does not say
only that he loves them, but that he is loved by them, that in this way too he may draw them to him. And
about them he bears this witness: Titus has come bringing us your longing, your tears, and your
eagerness.
SUNDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE APOSTLE RECEIVES COMFORT FROM THE CORINTHIANS’ PENITENCE:
2 CORINTHIANS 7:2-16
Open your hearts to us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage
of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together
and to live together. I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort.
With all our affliction, I am overjoyed.
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For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn--
fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of
Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he told
us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you
sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it), for I see that that letter grieved you, though
only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into
repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a
repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. For see what
earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,
what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves
guiltless in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong,
nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to
you in the sight of God. Therefore we are comforted.
And besides our own comfort we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his mind has been set at
rest by you all. For if I have expressed to him some pride in you, I was not put to shame; but just as
everything we said to you was true, so our boasting before Titus has proved true. And his heart goes out
all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, and the fear and trembling with which
you received him. I rejoice, because I have perfect confidence in you.
A READING FROM THE LADDER OF ST JOHN CLIMACUS

THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT, 7; CWS (1982) TR. LUIBHEID & RUSSELL
Mourning which is according to God is a melancholy of the soul, a disposition of an anguished heart that
passionately seeks what it thirsts for, and when it fails to attain it, pursues it diligently and follows behind
it lamenting bitterly. Those making some progress in blessed mourning are usually temperate and
untalkative. Those who have succeeded in making real progress do not become angry and do not bear
grudges. As for the perfect – these are humble, they long for dishonour, they look out for involuntary
sufferings, they do not condemn sinners and they are inordinately compassionate. The first kind are
acceptable, the second praiseworthy, but blessed surely are those who hunger for suffering and thirst for
dishonour, for they will be filled to abundance with the food that cannot satiate them.
If you are endowed with mourning, hold fast to it with all your strength, for it can easily be lost if it is not
well secured. Like wax melting near fire, it can easily be dissolved by noise, worldly cares, and luxury, but,
in particular, by talkativeness and frivolity.
A man misses the true beauty of mourning if he can mourn at will, rather than because he genuinely
wants to, or, more accurately, because God wishes him to. The ugly tears of vainglory mingle frequently
with mourning which is pleasing to God, as we shall discover by experience whenever we find ourselves
mourning and yet doing wrong.
True compunction is pain of soul without any distraction. It offers itself no rest and thinks hourly of death.
It stands in wait for the God who brings comfort, like cool waters, to humble monks. God does not
demand or desire that someone should mourn out of sorrow of heart, but rather that out of love for him
he should rejoice with the laughter of the soul. Take away sin and then the sorrowful tears that flow from
bodily eyes will be superfluous. Why look for a bandage when you are not cut? Adam did not weep before
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the fall, and there will be no tears after the resurrection when sin will be abolished, when pain, sorrow,
and lamentation will have taken flight.
As I ponder the true nature of compunction, I find myself amazed by the way in which inward joy and
gladness mingle with what we call mourning and grief, like honey in a comb. There must be a lesson here,
and it surely is that compunction is properly a gift from God, so that that there is a real pleasure in the
soul, since God secretly brings consolation to those who in their heart of hearts are repentant. When we
die, we will not be criticised for having failed to work miracles. We will not be accused of having failed to
be theologians or contemplatives. But we will certainly have some explanation to offer to God for not
having mourned unceasingly.
MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL ASKS FOR A CONTRIBUTION FOR JERUSALEM: 2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-24
We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God which has been shown in the churches of
Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have
overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify,
and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the
relief of the saints – and this, not as we expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by
the will of God. Accordingly we have urged Titus that as he had already made a beginning, he should also
complete among you this gracious work. Now as you excel in everything--in faith, in utterance, in
knowledge, in all earnestness, and in your love for us – see that you excel in this gracious work also.
I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I give my advice: it is best for you now to
complete what a year ago you began not only to do but to desire, so that your readiness in desiring it may
be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable
according to what a man has, not according to what he has not. I do not mean that others should be
eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should
supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is
written, “He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. For he not only
accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. With him we
are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel; and not
only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us in this gracious work which we are
carrying on, for the glory of the Lord and to show our good will. We intend that no one should blame us
about this liberal gift which we are administering, for we aim at what is honourable not only in the Lord’s
sight but also in the sight of men. And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested
and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great
confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker in your service; and as for our
brethren, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. So give proof, before the churches, of
your love and of our boasting about you to these men.
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SERMON 25.1; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Sweet is the name of mercy, dearest brethren, and if
the name is sweet, how much sweeter is the quality itself? Yet though all men would wish to receive it,
alas, their own conduct is not such as to deserve it. All wish to receive mercy, few are ready to show
mercy to others. What effrontery to want to receive what you neglect to give! You must show mercy in
this life if you hope to receive it in the next. And so, dearest brethren, since we all wish for mercy, let us
make her our patroness in this age that she may free us in the future. For there is mercy in heaven, and
we attain it through the acts of mercy that we perform on earth. This is what Scripture says: O Lord, your
mercy is in heaven.
There are two kinds of mercy then, mercy on earth and mercy in heaven, human mercy and divine mercy.
What is human mercy like? It makes you concerned for the hardship of the poor. What is divine mercy
like? It forgives sinners. Whatever generosity human mercy shows during our life on earth divine mercy
repays when we reach our fatherland. In this world God is cold and hungry in all the poor, as he himself
said: As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. God then is pleased to give
from heaven, but he desires to receive on earth.
What sort of people are we – when God gives, we want to receive, when he asks, we refuse to give?
When a poor man is hungry, Christ is in need, as he said himself: I was hungry and you gave me no food.
Take care not to despise the hardship of the poor, if you would hope, without fear, to have your sins
forgiven. My dear brethren, Christ is now hungry, he is hungry and thirsty in all the poor; and what he
receives on earth he returns in heaven.
I put to you this question, dearly beloved: what is it you want, what is it you are looking for, when you
come to Church? What indeed if not mercy? Show mercy on earth, and you will receive mercy in heaven.
A poor man is begging from you, and you are begging from God; he asks for a scrap, you ask for eternal
life. Give to the beggar, so that you may deserve to receive from Christ. Listen to his words: Give and it
shall be given you. What effrontery it is for you to want to receive what you refuse to give! And so when
you come to Church give whatever alms you can to the poor in accordance with your means.
TUESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SPIRITUAL FRUITS OF GIVING: 2 CORINTHIANS 9:1-15
Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the offering for the saints, for I know your readiness, of
which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year;
and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brethren so that our boasting about you
may not prove vain in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; lest if some
Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we be humiliated – to say nothing of you –
for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me, and
arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction but as a
willing gift.
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The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also
reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for
God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you
may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is
written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.”
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and
increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which
through us will produce thanksgiving to God; for the rendering of this service not only supplies the wants
of the saints but also overflows in many thanksgivings to God. Under the test of this service, you will
glorify God by your obedience in acknowledging the gospel of Christ, and by the generosity of your
contribution for them and for all others; while they long for you and pray for you, because of the
surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

SERMONS, 16.1-2 (CCL 138:61-62); WORD IN SEASON VII
The sublime nature of God’s grace lies in this, my dear friends, that daily in our Christian hearts all our
desires are transferred from what is earthbound to what is heavenly. Yet it is still true that our present life
is lived with the Creator’s aid and is supported by his providence. It is the one and same Lord who
bestows temporal blessings and who promises the eternal blessings. There is a correspondence between
two duties which we have of giving thanks to God. First of all for the fact that we are carried along by the
hope of future happiness to the fulfilment of this great preparation. It is faith which gives us speed. And
secondly, we are to honour and praise God for the goods which we receive annually. It is he who from the
creation has granted the earth’s fruitfulness and who has established the cycles of fruit production in the
various plants and seeds. He never abandons his decrees so that his kindly providence as Creator remains
throughout the creation.
Whatever benefit the harvests, the vines and olives have brought to man’s use, all of it flows from the
generosity of God’s goodness. In his delicate way he helps on the hesitant labours of the farmers by the
varied nature of the elements. Thus it is that wind and rain, cold and heat, day and night, serve our needs.
If the Lord did not grant increase with his habitual planting and watering, human reason by itself would
not be able to carry through its tasks to the end. Consequently it is perfectly right and just that we should
help others from the things which our heavenly Father has mercifully bestowed on us.
There are many who have no share in fields, vines, or olives. It is worthwhile remembering the poverty of
these people so that, out of the plentifulness which God has given, they too may bless God with us for the
fruitfulness of the earth. With the landowners they can also rejoice at having been given what is the
common part of the poor and of the pilgrims; that barn is a truly happy one and worthy to have all its
products multiplied from which the hunger of the poor and weak is satisfied, from which the pilgrim's
need is satisfied and from which the sick man's desire is cared for. God's justice allows these people to
labour under various disabilities so that he may reward the lowly for their patience and the merciful for
their kindness.
The most effective form of intercession for sin is in almsdeeds and fasting; and prayer which is offered
with such good works is quickly heard by God. As it is written, The merciful man does good to his own
soul, and nothing is more personal than what we bestow on our neighbour. For the share of earthly
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commodities which is given to those in need becomes eternal wealth. The riches which are born of this
kindness will not be diminished by use, nor subjected to any corruption. Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall have mercy shown to them by God. God is the highest reward and the form of the commandment.
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE APOSTLE’S APOLOGIA: 2 CORINTHIANS 10:1 – 11:6
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ – I who am humble when face to
face with you, but bold to you when I am away! – I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to
show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of acting in
worldly fashion. For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of
our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and
every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being
ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Look at what is before your eyes. If any one is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that as
he is Christ’s, so are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for
building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame. I would not seem to be
frightening you with letters. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is
weak, and his speech of no account.” Let such people understand that what we say by letter when
absent, we do when present. Not that we venture to class or compare ourselves with some of those who
commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves
with one another, they are without understanding.
But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us, to reach even to
you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you; we were the first to come
all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit, in other men’s labours; but our
hope is that as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach
the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s field. Let him who
boasts, boast of the Lord. For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man
whom the Lord commends.
I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I
betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. But I am afraid that as the
serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to
Christ. For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a
different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted,
you submit to it readily enough. I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles.
Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in
all things.
A READING FROM ON JUDGEMENT BY ST BASIL OF CAESAREA

DE IUDICIO 84-86; TR. CLARKE
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When I turn to the New Testament I find our Lord Jesus Christ, while not absolving from punishment sins
committed in ignorance, yet extending his warning more sternly against those who possess knowledge,
when he says: that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will,
shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a
light beating.
When I find such declarations on the part of the only-begotten Son of God, and also the indignation of
the holy Apostles against sinners, then I learn the severity of Christ’s judgement. For everyone to whom
much is given, of him will much be required. Note also what the blessed Paul says, showing at once the
dignity of our calling and God’s anger against every sin, For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly
but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the
knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. In this passage, if one examines
carefully each word of what is said, he may perceive accurately the intention of the divine Scripture: that
we may not go astray with erroneous notions, thinking that some sins are punished and others left
unpunished. But what does it say? We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of
God, so that every sin because it despises the divine commandment is called a high thing that is exalted
against the knowledge of God.
Then it says: take every thought captive to obey Christ. – every thought, not this or that one – and being
ready to punish every disobedience – here again not this or that one, but every disobedience. Truly bad
custom has led us astray; great evils have been wrought upon us by the perverted tradition of men, which
indeed avoids some sins, but chooses others freely. It feigns violent indignation against some, such as
murder and adultery and so forth; but judges others not deserving even bare rebuke – I mean anger or
slander or drunkenness, and many similar sins, against all of which in other passages Paul, speaking in
Christ, pronounced the same sentence: those who do such things deserve to die. But where every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is brought down, and every thought is taken captive
to obey Christ, and every disobedience in similar fashion is punished, then nothing remains not brought
down, nothing is left unpunished nothing remains outside the obedience of Christ.
THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AGAINST FALSE APOSTLES: 2 CORINTHIANS 11:7-29
Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached Gods gospel
without cost to you? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And
when I was with you and was in want, I did not burden any one, for my needs were supplied by the
brethren who came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As
the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why?
Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that
in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as
an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
Their end will correspond to their deeds.
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I repeat, let no one think me foolish; but even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a
little. (What I am saying I say not with the Lords authority but as a fool, in this boastful confidence; since
many boast of worldly things, I too will boast.) For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves! For
you bear it if a man makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or
strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!
But whatever any one dares to boast of--I am speaking as a fool – I also dare to boast of that. Are they
Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they
servants of Christ? I am a better one – I am talking like a madman – with far greater labours, far more
imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I have received at the hands of
the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three
times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in
danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in
the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through
many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from
other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I
am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

SERMON 299C.1-4; WSA (1994) TR. HILL.
When the Lord sent Ananias to baptise Paul, Ananias said, Lord, I have heard of this man, that he is
everywhere persecuting your servants. As though to say, ‘Why are you sending a sheep to a wolf?’
Ananias, you see, is a Hebrew word, which in English means ‘sheep’. About Saul, on the other hand, the
future Paul, about the persecutor who was the future preacher, the Prophet had given advance notice:
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. What’s Benjamin got to do with it? Listen to Paul himself: For I too am an
Israelite, of the race of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. A ravenous wolf; in the morning he will ravage, in
the evening he will divide the food.
You see, he was dividing the food now that he was a preacher; he knew what to give to whom; what
nourishment to administer to the sick and the weak, or what food to feed the strong. But when the sheep
Ananias heard the name of this wolf, he started trembling. What answer did the Lord give Ananias as he
trembled at the notoriety of Paul? Let it be so now; this man is a chosen vessel for me, to carry my name
before nations and kings. I myself will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake. I’ll show
him; it sounds like a threat, but it’s the preparation for a crown. Anyway, once turned preacher from
persecutor, what did he have to endure? Dangers at sea, dangers from rivers, dangers in the town,
dangers in the countryside, dangers among false brethren; in toil and hardship, in many vigils, in hunger
and thirst, in cold and nakedness, often at the point of death; besides these outward things, the daily
assault on me of my anxiety for all the Churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is tripped up, and
I am not hot with indignation?
Here is this persecutor for you. Suffer, endure; you’ll suffer more than you inflicted on others; but don’t
resent it, you have received a good rate of interest. But what was he expecting, when he was enduring
such things? Listen to him in another place: Indeed, he says, this light affliction of ours. Does he seriously
mean all these things are just light? Why? Is working to an incredible degree an eternal weight of glory for
us, as we keep our gaze fixed, not on the things that can be seen but on those that cannot be seen? For
the things that can be seen are temporary, while the things that cannot be seen are eternal. So he was
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aflame with love for eternal things, while he was bravely enduring evils which, even if harsh and extreme,
were still only temporary. All punishment that comes to an end is light, when it is promised a reward that
has no end.
And yet wasn’t it rather the one who couldn’t fall away that was enduring it all in him and with him? I’ve
not the slightest hesitation in saying that it wasn’t Paul who was enduring it. Yes, he was the one enduring
it, because he was faithfully willing to do so; and he wasn't the one enduring it, because the strength of
Christ was dwelling in him. Christ was controlling him, Christ was providing him with power, Christ was
not abandoning him, Christ was running in the runner, Christ was guiding him through to the winning
post.
FRIDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE APOSTLE GLORIES IN HIS INFIRMITIES: 2 CORINTHIANS 11:30 – 12:13
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he
who is blessed for ever, knows that I do not lie. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the
city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and
escaped his hands.
I must boast; there is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I
know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or
out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise –
whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – and he heard things that cannot be
told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own
behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall
be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or
hears from me. And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given
me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I
besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all
inferior to these superlative apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were
performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you
less favoured than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this
wrong!
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A READING FROM ISAAC, OR THE SOUL BY ST AMBROSE
ISAAC, OR THE SOUL 4.11-12, 16; FOC 65 (1972) TR. MCHUGH
The king brought me to his inner apartment. Blessed the soul that enters the inner chambers. For, rising
up from the body, she becomes more distant from all, and she searches and seeks within herself, if in any
way she can pursue the divine. And when she can obtain it, having passed beyond intelligible things, she
is strengthened in it and fed by it. Such was Paul, who knew that he had been caught up into paradise but
did not know whether he had been caught up in the body or out of the body. For his soul had risen up
from the body, had withdrawn from the bonds of the flesh, and had lifted herself up. And he was made
alien to himself and held within his very self the secret words which he heard and could not reveal,
because, as he remarked, it was not permitted a man to speak such thoughts.
And so the good soul scorns visible and material things and does not linger over them or delay or tarry or
despising them. Rather, she rises to things eternal and immaterial and filled with wonders, for she rises
with pure thought from a pious mind. Intent on perfection, she strives only for the good that is God’s and
considers none other necessary, because she possesses that which is supreme. And so a man of this kind,
in whom there is beauty of soul, has more than enough for himself, though he is alone, for he is himself
sufficient for himself. And yet the man is never alone who has the Lord with him as his protector. Indeed,
when she was brought into the secret place of divinity, the soul said, Let us rejoice and be gladdened in
you. Let us love your breasts more than wine. For the just man rejoices, not in riches and in treasures of
gold and silver, not in the proceeds of his property, not in power or in feasts, but in God alone.
Therefore know yourself and the beauty of your nature, and go forth as if your foot had been freed of
bonds and were visible in its bare step, so that you may not feel the fleshly coverings, that the bonds of
the body may not entangle the footstep of your mind, that your foot may appear beautiful. For such are
they who are chosen by the Lord to announce the kingdom of heaven, and of them it was said, How
beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace! Such was Moses, to whom it is said,
Remove the sandals from your feet, so that when he was about to call the people to the kingdom of God
he might first put aside the garments of the flesh and might walk with his spirit and the footstep of the
mind naked.
SATURDAY, EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE APOSTLE’S NEXT VISIT FOR THE CORRECTION OF THE CORINTHIANS: 2 CORINTHIANS 12:14 –
13:13
Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours
but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly
spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less? But granting that I
myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by guile. Did I take advantage
of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did
Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? It is in the sight of
God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps I
may come and find you not what I wish, and that you may find me not what you wish; that perhaps there
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may be quarrelling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I
come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who
sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness which they have
practised.
This is the third time I am coming to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three
witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I
did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them – since you desire proof
that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. For he was
crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we
shall live with him by the power of God.
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that
Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not
failed. But we pray God that you may not do wrong – not that we may appear to have met the test, but
that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the
truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. What we pray for is
your improvement. I write this while I am away from you, in order that when I come I may not have to be
severe in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
Finally, brethren, farewell. Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and
the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS, I-III; LOEB (1912) TR. LAKE
The Church of God dwelling in Rome to the Church of God dwelling in Corinth, to those who are called
and sanctified by the will of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace from God Almighty be
multiplied to you through Jesus Christ.
Owing to the sudden and repeated misfortunes and calamities which have befallen us, we consider that
our attention has been somewhat delayed in turning to the questions disputed among you, beloved, and
especially the abominable and unholy sedition, alien and foreign to the elect of God, which a few rash and
self-willed persons have made blaze up to such a frenzy that your name, venerable and famous, and
worthy as it is of all men's love, has been much slandered. For who has stayed with you without making
proof of the virtue and steadfastness of your faith? For you did all things without respect of persons, and
walked in the Laws of God, obedient to your rulers, and paying all fitting honour to the older among you.
And you were all humble-minded and not at all arrogant, yielding subjection rather than demanding it,
giving more glory than receiving, satisfied with the provision of Christ. You paid attention to his words and
stored them up carefully in your hearts, and kept his sufferings before your eyes. Thus a profound and
rich peace was given to all, you had an insatiable desire to do good, and the Holy Spirit was poured out in
abundance on you all. You were full of holy plans, and with pious confidence you stretched out your
hands to Almighty God in a passion of goodness, beseeching him to be merciful towards any unwilling sin.
Day and night you strove on behalf of the whole brotherhood that the number of his elect should be
saved with mercy and compassion. You were sincere and innocent, and bore no malice to one another.
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All sedition and all schism was abominable to you. You were adorned by your virtuous and honourable
citizenship and did all things in the fear of God. The commandments and ordinances of the Lord were
written on the tables of your heart.
All glory and enlargement was given to you, but then that which was written was fulfilled: My Beloved ate
and drank, and he was enlarged and waxed fat and kicked. From this arose jealousy and envy, strife and
sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. Thus the worthless rose up against those who were
in honour, those of no reputation against the renowned, the foolish against the prudent, the young
against the old. For this cause righteousness and peace are far removed from you, while each deserts the
fear of God. The eye of faith has grown dim, and men walk neither in the ordinances of God’s
commandments nor use their citizenship worthily of Christ, but each goes according to the lusts of his
wicked heart, and has revived the unrighteousness and impious envy, by which death came into the
world.
SUNDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S GOSPEL: GALATIANS 1:1-12
Paul an apostle – not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead – and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to
deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father; to whom be the glory for
ever and ever. Amen.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to
a different gospel – not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to
pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel
contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say
again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
Am I now seeking the favour of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men,
I should not be a servant of Christ.
For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For
I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS BY ST AUGUSTINE

IN GAL., PREFACE; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
The purpose of the Apostle’s letter to the Galatians was to make them realise that God’s grace, once
implanted in them had effectively freed them from subjection to the Law. Now, at the time when the
grace of the Gospel was first announced to them, there remained some Jews among them who, though
now professing Christianity, did not yet fully appreciate the value of the grace they had received, and
wished to be under the burden of the Law. This Law had been imposed by God on men who had given
themselves over not to righteousness but to sin; it was a Law, in itself just, that had been given to wicked
men to show up rather than to take away their sins. For it is only by the grace of faith, working through
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love, that sin can be removed. They wished to bring back under the burden of the Law the Galatians who
were already under the grace of faith. They asserted that the Gospel was of no profit to them unless they
had first been circumcised and obeyed the other fleshly ceremonies of the Jewish rite.
This caused them to start suspecting Paul, by whom the Gospel had been preached to them, of not
holding the same teaching as the rest of the Apostles, who at that time were compelling their Gentile
converts to conform to Jewish customs. It would even seem that that the Apostle Peter had yielded to the
scandal of such agitators and had been led to the hypocrisy of agreeing that Gentiles would not benefit
from the Gospel unless they shouldered the burdens of the Law. Paul in this same letter tells us how he
recalled Peter from that hypocrisy. A similar question is raised in his letter to the Romans; but with this
difference that he seems to have been able to resolve their problem and amicably to settle the dispute
that had arisen in Rome between the Gentile converts and those who had come to the faith from
Judaism.
By contrast, in this present letter he is writing to who had already been unsettled by the authority of
those who had come over from Judaism and were forcing on them the observance of the Law. Many had
already started to believe them and to suspect Paul, who had not wished to allow them to be
circumcised, of not having preached the truth. That is why his first words are: I am astonished that you
are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different Gospel. In
that brief opening sentence he sums up the whole matter. Also, in his introductory greeting, by declaring
that his apostolic commission came to him not from men nor through man – a statement quite
unparalleled in any of his other letters – he makes two things clear beyond all doubt. First, that those who
were promoting such ideas were certainly not authorised by God but spoke on human authority alone;
and secondly, that he must be regarded and accepted as of equal standing with the rest of the Apostles
so far as concerned the authority of his Gospel witness, since he was conscious that his commission as an
Apostle had come to him, not from any man nor through the medium of any human agency, but straight
from Jesus Christ and God.
MONDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VOCATION AND APOSTOLATE OF PAUL: GALATIANS 1:13 – 2:10
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried
to destroy it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely
zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and
had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him
among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were
apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I
saw none of the other apostles except James the Lords brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God,
I do not lie!) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still not known by sight to the
churches of Christ in Judea; they only heard it said, He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith
he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me.
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Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went
up by revelation; and I laid before them (but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which
I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain. But even Titus, who
was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false brethren
secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might
bring us into bondage – to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the
gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who were reputed to be something (what they were
makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) – those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to
me; but on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised,
just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for
the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles), and when they perceived the
grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and
Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised; only
they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.
A READING FROM ON THE PRESCRIPTION OF HERETICS BY TERTULLIAN

DE PRAES. HAERET. 20.7-22.9 (CCL 1:202-4); WORD IN SEASON VII
When classifying things, we must of necessity consider their origins. Now, if we examine the many great
Churches that there are, we see that they all stem from the original Church, which was founded by the
Apostles, and that they therefore constitute but one Church. Moreover, the reality of their writing is
affected by three characteristics: by the peaceful relations which exist between the Churches, by the
mutual hospitality which Christians offer one another, and by the fraternal charity they all display. These
are duties which no other society enjoins, but which are characteristic of the one faith all Christians have.
This being the case, we put forward the following argument. If our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the mission
of preaching to the Apostles, then no one should be received as a preacher, unless Christ has ordained
him. After all, no one knows the Father but the Son and those to whom the Son has revealed him.
However, the Son does not seem to have revealed the Father to anyone except his Apostles, whom he
sent out with the command that they should preach what he had made known to them. The Apostles,
then, preached exactly what Christ had revealed to them and so the only way in which we can determine
the content of that revelation – and this is the crux of the matter – is by consulting the Churches which
the Apostles themselves established by their preaching, whether it was by word of mouth, as we say, or
by letter as happened later on.
So then, it is perfectly obvious that any doctrine which accords with the teaching of the apostolic
Churches, which are the original wellsprings of the faith, must be held to be true, since it must contain
the teaching which the Churches received from the Apostles, and which the Apostles received from Christ
and which Christ received from God. But, on the other hand, any doctrine which is at variance with the
truth as taught by the Churches and therefore by the Apostles and by Christ and by God must be
condemned out of hand as being false. All we have to do is to show whether our doctrine derives from
the apostolic tradition; then anything different must ipso facto proceed from falsehood. Well, we have
already outlined the text: because none of our teachings is at variance with the teaching of the Churches
founded by the Apostles. We are in communion with them, and that is proof that we teach the truth.
This test is so simple that, if we applied it straightaway, there would be nothing further to discuss. So let
us suppose that we cannot prove our position and so give our opponents the chance of invalidating our
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argument, if they can. They are crazy enough to say that the Apostles did not know everything, they did
not hand on all they knew to everyone. Either way they put the blame on Christ, for choosing to send out
Apostles who were ignorant or else over-sophisticated.
TUESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE JUST MAN LIVES BY FAITH: GALATIANS 2:11 – 3:14
But when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before
certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated
himself, fearing the circumcision party. And with him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even
Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about
the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not
like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and
not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in
Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by
works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavour to be
justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But
if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law
died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then
Christ died to no purpose.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as
crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with
faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you
experience so many things in vain? – if it really is in vain. Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works
miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?
Thus Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So you see that it is men of
faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by
faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So
then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be every one who does
not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no man is
justified before God by the law; for He who through faith is righteous shall live; but the law does not rest
on faith, for He who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having
become a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree” – that in Christ Jesus
the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.
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A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS BY ST JEROME
COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS, 1.2.15-16, 1.3.1; ACC8 (1999) TR. EDWARDS
A Jew by nature is one of Abraham’s stock, who has been circumcised by his parents on the eighth day.
One who is a Jew not by nature is one of Gentile origin who has been subsequently made so. That I may
embrace the whole argument in a brief discourse, the sense of the text is as follows: We are Jews by
nature, doing those things that were precepts of the Law. We are not sinners who come from the
Gentiles – even in the sense of those who are sinners generically because they worship idols or those
whom Jews now regard as unclean. Yet we know that we cannot be saved by the works of the Law but
rather by faith in Christ. We have believed in Christ so that what the Law had not given us, our faith would
guarantee to us. Seceding from the Law in which we could not be saved, we have gone over to faith, in
which not the circumcision of the flesh but the devotion of a pure heart is demanded. But what if we now
belatedly declare by seceding from the Gentiles that whoever is uncircumcised is unclean? In that case
faith in Christ – and which we previously thought we were saved – would rather become a minister of sin
than of righteousness. For by this argument faith would take away the circumcision without which one is
unclean.
Some say that if Paul is right in asserting that no one is justified by the works of the Law but only by faith
in Christ, the Patriarchs and Prophets and Saints who lived before Christ were imperfect. We should tell
such people that those who were said not to have obtained righteousness are those who believe that
they can be justified by works alone. The Saints who lived long ago, however, were justified from faith in
Christ, seeing that Abraham saw in advance Christ’s day.
We must expand what follows – Who has bewitched you? – in a way worthy of Paul, who even if rough in
his speech is not so in his understanding. It must not be interpreted in such a way as to make Paul
legitimise the witchcraft that is popularly supposed to do harm. Rather he has used a colloquial
expression, and as elsewhere so here he has adopted a word from everyday speech. In the same way as
tender infants are said to be harmed by witchcraft, so too the Galatians, recently born in the faith of
Christ and nourished with milk, not solid food, have been injured as though someone has cast a spell on
them.
Christ is rightly said to be portrayed before us, since the whole chorus of Old Testament Prophets spoke
of his gallows and passion, his blows and whippings. Nor was it a small number of Galatians who believed
in the crucifixion as it has previously been portrayed for them. It was of course by this means that,
reading the Prophets continually and knowing all the ordinances of the Law, they were led in due course
to belief.
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WEDNESDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW: GALATIANS 3:15 – 4:7
To give a human example, brethren: no one annuls even a man’s will, or adds to it, once it has been
ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to
offsprings”, referring to many; but, referring to one, “And to your offspring”, which is Christ. This is what I
mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant
previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no
longer by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the
promise had been made; and it was ordained by angels through an intermediary. Now an intermediary
implies more than one; but God is one.
Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make
alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture consigned all things to sin, that
what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be
revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now
that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God,
through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the
estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were
children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God
sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that
we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an
heir.
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST AMBROSE

LETTER 35, 4-6, 13; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
The Apostle says that he who by the spirit puts to death the deeds of the body will live. Small wonder that
he should live, since he who has the Spirit of God becomes a son of God. Being a son of God means that
he is not received the spirit of slavery but the spirit of adopted sonship, so much so that the Holy Spirit
bears witness to our spirit that we are sons of God. And this is the witness of the HolySpirit, he himself
cries out in our hearts, Abba! Father!, as Paul writes to the Galatians. Then there is that great witness to
our being sons of God, the fact that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ. To be a fellow heir of
Christ means to be glorified with him; but he will be glorified with him who by suffering for him suffers
with him.
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In order to encourage us to suffer, Paul adds that everything we suffer is of no account and not worth
comparing to the future good things, the immense reward for our labours, that is to be revealed in us. For
then we shall be reformed in the image of God and be graced to see his glory face to face.
In praise of the greatness of this future revelation he goes on to say that creation waits for this revealing
of the sons of God – creation which is now subjected to futility not of its own will but in hope, because it
takes hope in Christ through the ministry of Paul. Or else because creation itself will be liberated from the
slavery of corruption to be taken up into the liberty of the sons of God, so that when their future glory is
revealed there will be but one liberty for both creation and the sons of God. But now, in truth, whilst that
revelation is in daily expectation, the whole creation groans as it awaits the glory of our adoption and
redemption, giving birth to that spirit of salvation, yearning to be freed from slavery to what is devoid of
meaning.
But the meaning is plain enough – they who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan in expectation of their
adoption as sons. Now, that adoption is the redemption of the whole body. That will come about when
he sees face to face, as an adopted son of God, the divine and eternal goodness. Even so is the adoption
of sons in the Church of the Lord, when the Spirit cries out, Abba! Father! as you have it in Galatians. But
that redemption will be perfected when all, who are graced to see the face of God, rise again in
incorruptibility, honour and glory. Then indeed our human nature will judge that it is redeemed. That is
why the Apostle makes his boast when he says, In this hope we are saved. Hope saves as does faith, of
which it is said, Your faith has saved you.
THURSDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DIVINE INHERITANCE AND THE FREEDOM OF THE NEW COVENANT: GALATIANS 4:8-31
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but
now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the
weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days, and
months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have laboured over you in vain.
Brethren, I beseech you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong; you
know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first; and though my
condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as
Christ Jesus. What has become of the satisfaction you felt? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you
would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you
the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to shut you out, that you may
make much of them. For a good purpose it is always good to be made much of, and not only when I am
present with you. My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you! I could
wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Tell me, you who desire to be under law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two
sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh,
the son of the free woman through promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants.
One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;
she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above
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is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one that dost not bear; break forth and
shout, thou who art not in travail; for the desolate hath more children than she who hath a husband.”
Now we, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to
the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the scripture
say? Cast out the slave and her son; for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free
woman. So, brethren, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

NYSSA
COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE 3-7; (1987) TR. MCCAMBLEY
We must give a response to those members of the Church who think it always right only to follow the
letter of holy Scripture and do not take into account the symbolic and allegorical meanings. It is indeed
necessary to search the divinely inspired Scriptures with every means at our disposal, and so if the literal
sense is of any use, we will readily have the object of our search. But if anything in the hidden, symbolic
sense cannot be understood literally, we will, as the Word teaches and as Proverbs says, understand the
passage either as a parable, a dark saying, or an utterance of wise men such as a riddle.
The great Apostle Paul says that the Law is spiritual. He includes under the name of Law the historical
narratives, since all the inspired Scriptures is Law for those who read them. They teach not only through
precepts but through the historical narratives: both lead to knowledge of the mysteries and to a pure way
of life for those who have diligent minds. Paul uses exegesis with an eye to what is useful and best for
him, and he calls his consideration of the two children of Abraham – one born of a slave woman and the
other from a free woman – an allegory. In another place, after having related certain details of a story, he
says, These things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction. And
again, after using the expression You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain, he added,
God does not care about oxen, but clearly it has been written for our benefit. Yet Paul somewhere calls
the shift from the corporeal to the spiritual a turning to the Lord and the removal of a veil.
In all these different expressions and names of contemplation Paul is teaching us an important lesson: we
must pass to a spiritual and intelligent investigation of Scripture so that considerations of the merely
human element might be changed into something perceived by the mind once the more fleshly sense of
the words has been shaken off like dust. For this reason Paul says, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. If
we stay only with the mere facts of the text, the historical narratives of Scripture do not offer us examples
of a good life. For what benefit to virtuous living can we obtain from the Prophet Hosea, or from Isaiah
having intercourse with a prophetess, unless something else lies beyond the mere letter? Or how did the
stories regarding David, his terrible act of adultery and murder, pertain to virtuous living? If anyone
argues that these stories are reprehensible, then the saying of the Apostle will certainly be true – the
letter kills, for its examples of evil conduct, but the spirit gives life. For the apparent, reprehensible sense
is changed into something having a divine meaning.
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FRIDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FREEDOM IN THE LIFE OF FAITH: GALATIANS 5:1-25
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify
again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed
from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the
Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you
from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine; and he who is troubling
you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision, why am I still
persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle
you would mutilate themselves!
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love
your neighbour as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed
by one another.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are
against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other,
to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn
you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

SERMON 163.2-3, 6, 12; WSA (1992) TR. HILL
Just now, when the Apostle’s letter was read, we heard, Walk by the Spirit, and do not carry through the
lusts of the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you would. He was
talking to people who had been baptized; but he was still building the temple of God, not yet dedicating
it. Notice, my dear brethren, how when these material buildings are being converted to better use, some
things are destroyed and broken up, others are just changed and put to better use; it’s the same with us.
The works of the flesh used to be in us. You heard the list of them: But the works of the flesh, he said, are
manifest; such as fornication, impurities, worship of idols, sorceries, quarrels, enmities, heresies,
jealousies, drunkenness, and things like them; he says, I am warning you, as I warned you before, that
those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God. These things in us, like idols, are to be
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smashed. But the actual members of our bodies are to be turned to better use, so that what used to
serve the impurity of greed may henceforth serve the grace of love.
But observe what he has been saying, and take careful note of it. God’s Temple is still being built. In its
Head it has already been dedicated, since the Lord has risen from the dead, conquering death, and
swallowing mortality has ascended into heaven. But you are still being built, you see, you are not yet
being dedicated. What would you like? That there should be absolutely no lusts at all for evil and unlawful
delights? Which of the saints wouldn’t like that? But none achieve it; as long as you are living here, this is
not fulfilled. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to
each other, so that what you would like to do - that there should be absolutely no lusts whatever in you
for unlawful things - you cannot. So what’s left for you to do? Walk by the Spirit, and, because you cannot
manage to annihilate the lusts of the flesh, do not carry through the lusts of the flesh. You ought indeed
to want to annihilate them and finish them off and totally eradicate them in every possible way; but as
long as they are in you, and there is another law in your members fighting back against the law of your
mind, do not carry through the lusts of the flesh.
What is it, after all, that you want? That there should simply not be any lusts of the flesh. They don’t allow
you to achieve what you want; don’t allow them to achieve what they want. First you must square up to
the battle, in order eventually to gain the victory. So when you begin to find the goinghard in your fight
against the lusts of the flesh, walk by the Spirit, call upon the Spirit, start seeking the gift of God. And if
the law of your members is fighting back against the law of your mind from the lower part, that is from
the flesh, even that will be corrected, even that will be changed into the rights of victory. All you have to
do is cry out, all you have to do is call upon him. It is necessary to pray always and not lose heart.
SATURDAY, NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ADVICE ABOUT CHARITY AND ZEAL: GALATIANS 5:25 – 6:18
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one
another, no envy of one another.
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of
gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of
Christ. For if any one thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one
test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbour. For each
man will have to bear his own load.
Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows
to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap
eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose
heart. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the
household of faith.
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See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good
showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be
persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the
law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But far be it
from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to
me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God. Henceforth let no
man trouble me; for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

SERMON 160.4-5 (PL 38:875-6); WORD IN SEASON VII
Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He could have said, in the wisdom
of our Lord Jesus Christ: and he would have spoken the truth. Or he could have said, in the majesty - and
again spoken the truth. But in fact he said: in the cross. Where the worldly-wise philosopher is abashed,
there the Apostle finds his treasure: by not despising the unprepossessing outer husk he gets through to
the precious centre. Not for me, he says, to boast, save in the cross of Christ. You have borne a fine
burden; and there is everything you sought: what there was of significance hidden there, that you have
now revealed. What help did he get? Through whom, he says, the world is crucified to me and I to the
world. When could the world have been crucified to you, except when he through whom the world was
made was crucified for you? He who boasts, then, let him make his boast in the Lord. What Lord? Christ
crucified. Where there is humility, there also is majesty; where there is weakness, there also is strength;
where there is death, there is life. If you wish to arrive at the latter, do not despise the former.
You have heard about the sons of Zebedee, in the Gospel. They sought the high places of preferment,
asking that one of them might sit at the right hand of the great leader, and the other on his left. They
were asking for great rank indeed: but because they relented, Christ called them from where they wished
to go to that place whither they must go. What does he say, to those who sought such eminence? Can
you drink of the chalice that I am to drink?
What chalice is that, unless it be that of humility and suffering? As he is about to drink it and change our
infirmity in his own person, he says to the Father: Father, if it might be so, grant that this cup might pass
from me. Changing those people into his own likeness who refused to drink his cup and instead sought
the high places, ignoring the path of humility, he says this: Can you indeed drink the cup which I am to
drink? You who seek Christ exalted and glorified, go back to Christ crucified. You wish to reign and to be
glorified in Christ’s resting place. But first learn to say: It is not for me to glory, except in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the Christian teaching, the precept of humility, the commendation of humility: that we should not
glory, save in the cross of Christ. For it is not saying much if you glory in Christ’s wisdom: but it is if you
glory in Christ's cross. Where the impious revile you, there the pious soul makes his boast; where the
proud man reviles him, there the Christian makes his boast. Do not be ashamed of Christ’s cross: you
have taken the mark of it on your brow, in an embarrassing place. Remember what you have on your
brow, for all to see, and be not in fear of idle tongues.
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SUNDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GREETING & THANKSGIVING: PHILIPPIANS 1-11
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my
prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure
that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for
me to feel thus about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace,
both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I
yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more
and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be
pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus
Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

PHIL. 1.3 (BAREILLE XVIII:459-460); WORD IN SEASON VII
I am sure of this, Paul says, that he who began a good work in you will continue it till the day of Jesus
Christ. Notice how he also teaches them to be humble. For after bearing witness to their great achieve-
ment, to prevent them from feeling humanly proud of themselves, he immediately tells them to attribute
both past and future achievements to Christ. How did he do this? By not saying: ‘I am sure that you will
finish what you have begun’, but: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. He did not
deny them their success, for he said: I am glad of your partnership, that is, because they were good
workers. But he denied that such success was theirs alone, saying it belonged principally to God. For he is
speaking of God when he says: I am confident that he who has begun a good work in you will continue it
till the day of Jesus Christ. He says: I am convinced of this not only with regard to you but to your
descendants. And this indeed is no small praise, to tell people that God works in them.
For if God is no respecter of persons, which is certainly true, but looks at our aims before taking part in
our achievements, it is clear that we ourselves are responsible for drawing him to us. So in that way too
Paul has not denied them praise, since if God worked in us indiscriminately nothing would have
prevented him working in the Gentiles and the whole of humanity as well, if he moved us like lumps of
wood or stone and desired no cooperation from ourselves. So when Paul says: God will bring it to
completion, this too is to their praise, since they had attracted the grace of God to work with them in
their efforts to transcend human nature. And this is also praise in another way, due to the very fact that
their achievements were beyond human capacity but needed the help of God. Then if God is going to
complete the work, their labour will still be great, but we must be confident as we shall easily accomplish
everything with God to help us.
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MONDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL CALLED FOR THE DEFENCE: PHILIPPIANS 1:12-26
I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so
that it has become known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to all the rest that my
imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of
my imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love,
knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of partisanship,
not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether
in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.
Yes, and I shall rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this
will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not be at all ashamed,
but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means
fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My
desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary
on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress
and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my
coming to you again.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST COLUMBANUS

INSTRUCTIO VIII.1-2 (PL 80:244-246); WORD IN SEASON VII
It is natural for travellers to hasten toward their native land, and natural too that they should have
trouble on the way and safety at home. So let us who are on the way to it hasten toward our native land;
for our whole life is like a single day’s journey.
And therefore let us devote ourselves to divine rather than human affairs, and like exiles be always
sighing for our native land and longing for it. For the journey’s end must always be wished and longed for
by travellers, and so because we ourselves are travellers and exiles in the world we should always be
thinking of the journey’s end, that is, the end of our life, for our journey brings us to our native land. But,
there, all who have been travelling the world get different lots according to their merits. The good travell-
ers come home because they love the journey. Let us not love the journey to our native land, so that we
do not lose our eternal home, for that is the kind of home we have, and which we must love. Let this,
then, be our constant aim: to live our way like travellers, exiles, visitors to the world, without clinging to
any worldly ambitions or longing to fulfil any worldly desires, but to fill our minds entirely with heavenly
and spiritual images, singing in thought and deed: When shall I come and appear before the face of my
God? For, my soul thirsts for the strong and living God. And saying with Paul: I long to die and be with
Christ.
811

Let us realise that although We are exiles from the Lord as long as we are in the body, we are present in
the sight of God. Therefore spurning all laziness, putting away all lukewarmness, let us do our best to
please him who is present everywhere. Then, with a good conscience, we may pass happily from our
journey in this world to the holy and eternal home of our eternal Father, from the present to the absent,
from sorrow to joy, from transitory to eternal, from earth to heaven, from the region of the dead to that
of the living. And then we shall see, face to face, the world of heaven and the king of kings, our Lord Jesus
Christ, ruling his kingdom with right government, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
TUESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EXHORTATION TO IMITATE CHRIST: PHILIPPIANS 1:27 – 2:11
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am
absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith
of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear omen to them of their
destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of
Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict which
you saw and now hear to be mine.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any
affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full
accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than
yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this
mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

SERMON 264.1, 3, 6-7; WSA (1993) TR. HILL
The Apostle said to his brethren, Have this mind among yourselves which is also in Christ Jesus. Be
willing, he is saying, to imitate the Son of God by being compassionate to the little ones. The Son of God
who, though he was in the form of God, that is, equal to God, did not think it robbery to be equal to
God.
What, my dearest brethren, what is it that the Apostle is saying, did not think it robbery? Because he
was equal by nature. So for whom was equality with God a kind of robbery? For the first man, to whom it
was said, Taste, and you will be like gods. He wished by an act of robbery to stretch himself up to
equality, and as a punishment he lost his immortality. The one, you see, for whom it was not robbery, did
not think it robbery to be equal to God. But what did he do? He emptied himself, he says, taking the
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form of a servant; being made into the likeness of men, and found in condition as a man, he humbled
himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross.
It wasn’t enough to say death, he even indicated the kind of death, he chose the worst kind, one that was
abominable to all Jews. He wasn’t afraid to die, you see, through false witnesses and the sentence of a
judge, though he is going to come to judge the living and the dead. He wasn't afraid to die disgracefully
on the cross, in order to deliver all believers from all kinds of disgrace. So he became obedient to the
death, even death on the cross; yet by nature he is equal to God; strong in the power of his greatness,
weak in the compassion of his humanity; strong, in order to make all things; weak, in order to remake all
things.
The next thing that happened was that the flesh, that is the head, went before us into heaven. The other
members will follow. Why? Because it’s right that these members should get some sleep for a while, and
that they should all rise again in their time. If the Lord had also wanted to rise then, at the end, there
would be no one for us to believe in. The reason he wished to deliver the first fruits of them that sleep to
God in his own person, was so that you could see in him what has been restored, and hope in yourself for
what is to be granted. The whole people of God will be equated and associated with the angels.
And so, my brethren, hold on to the true, genuine, Catholic faith. The Son is equal to the Father; the gift
of God the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father; and that’s why Father and Son and Holy Spirit are one God,
not three gods; they are not attached to each other in grades, but united in majesty, and one God. But all
the same, for our sakes the Son, the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us. He emptied himself, taking
the form of a servant, and humbled himself, becoming obedient to the death, even death on the cross.
WEDNESDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

“WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION”: PHILIPPIANS 2:12-30
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in
my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will
and to work for his good pleasure.
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God
without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in
the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in
vain or labour in vain. Even if I am to be poured as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I
am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. I have no
one like him, who will be genuinely anxious for your welfare. They all look after their own interests, not
those of Jesus Christ. But Timothy’s worth you know, how as a son with a father he has served with me in
the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me; and I trust in the Lord
that shortly I myself shall come also.
I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier,
and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all, and has been distressed
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because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not
only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him,
therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the
Lord with all joy; and honour such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to
complete your service to me.

SERMON 13.2-3 (CCL 41:177-179); WORD IN SEASON VII
Serve the Lord in fear, and exalt him with trembling. Exalt him, it says, not yourself, him from whom you
are what you are, both because you are a man and because you are made just, if indeed you already are.
If you think that your being man comes from him but your being just comes from yourself, you are not
serving the Lord in fear, nor exalting him with trembling: you are exalting yourself in presumption. And
what else should then befall you than the logical consequence? Lest the Lord's anger be kindled and you
stray, he says, from the way of righteousness.
These are the Apostle’s words: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Why, then, with fear and
trembling, if it is within my power to work out my salvation at all? The reason is this: For it is God working
within you even so. So with fear and trembling let it be: for what the humble man secures with his
petition, the proud man loses with his. If, then, it really is God working within us, why those words Work
out your salvation – your own salvation? Because he so works in us that we also work: Be my helper, the
psalmist says. The man who summons up a helper is calling himself a worker. But the good will, he says, is
mine. That is true: but what of the will that grants all that and stirs it up? Do not take my word for it, but
refer to St Paul. For it is God, he says, whose effect on you is that you resolve on and perform the acts of
a good will. What, then, were you claiming as your own? Why should you want to walk proudly and go
astray? Return to your first resolve, and realise your lack of virtue; and that you may become good
yourself, call upon him who is that already. For what pleases God in you is that alone which you have
received from God – and not anything you have from yourself, for that is displeasing to him. If you
consider your assets, what are they but what you have received? And if you have received all that, why
brag about it as though you had not? He stands alone, only able to give. For him who has no superior,
there can be no donor, no benefactor. Granted that you are his inferior, for that very reason you should
give thanks for having been made in his image even so, that you may yet be found in him, you who have
gone astray inside yourself. For there you could only lose yourself and you do not know how to find
yourself, unless he who made you seeks you out.
THURSDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S EXAMPLE: PHILIPPIANS 3:1-16
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not irksome to me, and is safe
for you.
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evil-workers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are
the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the
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flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason
for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the
church, as to righteousness under the law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the
sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may
gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I
may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because
Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I
do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if
in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we
have attained.

CONFERENCES 1.4-5, 7.1; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
In every art and discipline a certain scopos or goal takes precedence. This is the soul’s goal and the mind’s
constant intention, which cannot be maintained, nor the final end of the longed for fruit arrived at,
except by diligence and perseverance. For, as I have said, the farmer who has as his end a secure and
comfortable life, thanks to his fruitful lands, pursues his scopos or goal by clearing his field of all the briers
and emptying it of every unfruitful weed, and he does not believe that he will achieve his end of peaceful
affluence in any other way than as it were by first possessing by toil and hope what he desires to have the
actual use of. Hence, too, the end of our journey is the kingdom of God. But we should inquire carefully
into the nature of our goal. If we have not in similar fashion grasped this we shall be wearied fruitlessly by
our toil, because if the road is uncharted, then those who undertake the hardships of the journey will
have nothing to show for it.
The end of our profession, as we have said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven; but the goal
or scopos is purity of heart, without which it is impossible for anyone to reach that end. Fixing our gaze on
this goal, then, as on a definite mark, we shall take the most direct route. Thus, indeed, the end of our
vocation is eternal life, according to the very words of the Apostle: Having your reward, indeed, in
holiness, but your end in the eternal life. But the scopos is purity of heart, which is called holiness.
Without this the aforesaid end will not be able to be seized. It is as if he had said in other words: Having
your scopos, indeed, in purity of heart, but your end in eternal life. When he was teaching us about our
immediate goal the same blessed Apostle significantly used the very term ‘scopos’ when he said:
Forgetting what is behind, but reaching out to what is ahead, I press on to the goal (in Greek the scopos),
to the prize of the heavenly calling of the Lord. It is just as if he had said: By way of this goal I forget what
is behind – namely, the vices of my earlier life – and I strive to attain to the end, which is the heavenly
prize. Whatever therefore can direct us to this scopos, which is purity of heart, is to be pursued with all
our strength, but whatever deters us from this is to be avoided as dangerous and harmful. For it is for its
sake that we do and endure everything, for its sake that family, homeland, honours, wealth, the pleasures
of this world, and every enjoyment are disdained – so that perpetual purity of heart may be kept. With
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this goal always set before us, therefore, our actions and thoughts are ordered to attaining it in the most
direct way.
For the sake of this, then, everything is to be done and desired. For its sake solitude is to be pursued; for
its sake we know that we must undertake fasts, vigils, labours, bodily deprivation, readings, and other
virtuous things, so that by them we may be able to acquire and keep a heart untouched by any harmful
passion, and so that by taking these steps we may be able to ascend to the perfection of love.
FRIDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

“STAND FIRM IN THE LORD”: PHILIPPIANS 3:17 – 4:9
Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of
whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their
end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all
things to himself.
Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my
beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. And I ask you also, true yokefellow,
help these women, for they have laboured side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and
the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at
hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace
will be with you.

CONFERENCES 3.6.1-7.2; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
Something must be said about the renunciations which the tradition of the fathers and the authority of
Holy Scripture show to be three and which each one of us ought to pursue with all our zeal. The first is
that by which in bodily fashion we despise all the wealth and resources of the world. The second is that
by which we reject our former behaviour, vices, and affections of soul and body. The third is that by
which we call our mind away from everything that is present and visible and contemplate only what is to
come and desire those things that are invisible.
This third renunciation is the case when we have died with Christ to the elements of this world and, in the
words of the Apostle, we contemplate not those things that are seen but those that are unseen, for the
things that are seen are temporal, but those that are unseen are eternal, and, departing in heart from this
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temporal and visible house, we direct our eyes and our mind to the one in which we shall abide forever.
We shall accomplish this when, walking in the flesh but not according to the flesh, we have begun to
soldier for the Lord and are crying out in deed and virtue that phrase of the blessed Apostle: Our
citizenship is in the heavens.
The three books of Solomon refer to these three renunciations. For Proverbs is related to the first
renunciation; by it the desire for fleshly things and the earthly vices are cut off. Ecclesiastes, wherein all
that is accomplished under the sun is declared vain, is related to the second renunciation. The Canticle of
Canticles, in which the mind transcends everything that is visible and is already joined to the Word of God
by the contemplation of heavenly things, is related to the third.
Therefore it will not be of much value for us to have embraced the first renunciation with a very devout
faith if we do not seize upon the second with the same zeal and the same fervour. When we have
attained this, we shall also be able to reach the third. Here, having left the house of our former parent,
who we remember has been our father from the time of our birth according to the old man, when we
were by nature children of wrath like the rest, we shall turn our mind’s gaze completely to heavenly
things. Of this father it is said to Jerusalem, who had disdained God her true father: Your father was an
Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. And in the Gospel: You are of your father the devil, and you wish to
fulfil your father’s desires.
When you have left him and have gone from visible to invisible realities you will be able to say with the
Apostle: We know that if our earthly dwelling-place is destroyed we shall have a dwelling from God, an
eternal home in heaven, not made by hand. And what we mentioned a little bit before: Our citizenship is
in the heavens, whence we also await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who will change our lowly body in
conformity to his glorious body.
SATURDAY, TENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE GENEROSITY OF THE PHILIPPIANS TO PAUL: PHILIPPIANS 4:10-23
I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me; you were indeed
concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I complain of want; for I have learned, in
whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all
circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all
things in him who strengthens me.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of
the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving
except you only; for even in Thessalonica you sent me help once and again. Not that I seek the gift; but I
seek the fruit which increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more; I am filled, having
received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to
God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our
God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you,
especially those of Caesars household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST POLYCARP TO THE PHILIPPIANS

AD PHIL. 1, 3, 9-11; LOEB (1912) TR. LAKE
Polycarp and the Elders with him to the Church of God sojourning in Philippi; mercy and peace from God
Almighty and Jesus Christ our Saviour be multiplied in you.
I rejoice greatly with you in our Lord Jesus Christ that you have followed the pattern of true love, and
have helped on their way, as opportunity was given you, those who were bound in chains, which are the
diadems of those who have been truly chosen by God and our Lord. I rejoice also that your firmly rooted
faith, which was famous in past years, still flourishes and bears fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ, who
endured for our sins, even to the suffering of death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of
Hades, in whom, though you did not see him, you believed in unspeakable and glorified joy, - into which
joy many desire to come, knowing that by grace you are saved, not by works but by the will of God
through Jesus Christ.
These things, brothers, I write to you concerning righteousness, not at my own instance, but because you
first invited me. For neither am I, nor is any other like me, able to follow the wisdom of the blessed and
glorious Paul, whom when he was among you in the presence of the men of that time taught accurately
and steadfastly the word of truth, and also when he was absent wrote letters to you, from the study of
which you will be able to build yourselves up into the faith.
Now I beseech you all to obey the word of righteousness, and to endure with all the endurance which you
also saw before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others
among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and in the other Apostles; being persuaded that all of these did
not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are with the Lord in the place which is their
due, with whom they also suffered. For they did not love this present world but him who died on our
behalf, and was raised by God for our sakes. Stand fast therefore in these things and follow the example
of the Lord, firm and unchangeable in faith, loving the brotherhood, affectionate to one another, joined
together in the truth, forestalling one another in the gentleness of the Lord, despising no man.
I am deeply sorry for Valens, who was once made a presbyter among you, that he so little understands
the place which was given to him. Keep yourself from all evil. For how may he who cannot attain self
control in these matters enjoin it on another? If any man does not abstain from avarice he will be defiled
by idolatry, and to be judged as if he were among the Gentiles who know not the judgement of God. Or
do we not know that the saints shall judge the world, as Paul teaches? But I have neither perceived nor
heard any such thing among you, among whom the blessed Paul laboured, who are praised in the
beginning of his Epistle. For concerning you he boasts in all the Churches who then alone had known the
Lord, for we had not yet known him.
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SUNDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CYRUS, ISRAEL’S LIBERATOR: ISAIAH 44:21 – 45:3
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O
Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins
like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O
mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel.
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who made all
things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth – Who was with me? – who
frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns wise men back, and makes their
knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers;
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited’,' and of the cities of Judah, ,They shall be built, and I will
raise up their ruins’; who says to the deep, ‘Be dry, I will dry up your rivers,; who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my
shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built’, and of the temple,
‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before
him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before
you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, I
will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the
LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

IN PS. 125.1 (BAREILLE IX:491-493); WORD IN SEASON VII
When the Lord returned the captives to Zion, we were like people who are comforted. If it was a comfort
for them to be released from a barbaric nation, how much more should we not be glad and leap for joy at
being set free from sin, and preserve that joy always, never destroying or disturbing it by falling again into
the same faults?
Then our mouths were filled with joy and our tongues with gladness. Then they will say among the
nations: the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. To rejoice at
deliverance from captivity helps not a little to inspire people with nobler sentiments. But who, you may
ask, would not rejoice at this? The ancestors of these people did not. When they were released from
Egypt and set free from slavery, they were so ungrateful that in the midst of all their benefits they did
nothing but grumble, and were angry and embittered and perpetually distraught. But we are not like that,
says the psalmist; we leap for joy.
Let us learn the reason for their joy. We do not only rejoice, they say, because of our deliverance from
terrible suffering, but because it will make the whole world know God’s care for us. For as the psalmist
says: Then they will say among the nations: The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done
great things for us. There is no repetition here; the words are meant to describe their joy. The first saying
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is that of the nations, the second is their own. Notice this too: they did not say ‘He saved us’, or ‘He
delivered us’, but ‘He did great things for us’, for they wanted to show the incredible event in all its
wonder.
Can you not see that this people gave a lesson to the whole world when they were carried off into
captivity as well as when they returned? For their return preached its own message. News
of them went round everywhere and made God’s love for humankind known to everyone, because
the wonderful things he had done for them were truly great and incredible. Cyrus himself, who had
them in his power, set them free without anyone asking him because God made him relent.
MONDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION AND RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY. RESTORATION OF WORSHIP: EZRA
1:1-8; 2:68-3:8
In the first year of Cyrus King of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be
accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth,
and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all
his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the
house of the LORD, the God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let each survivor, in
whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with
beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.
Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites,
every one whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem;
and all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and
with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the
house of the LORD which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of
his gods. Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them
out to Shesh-bazzar the prince of Judah.
Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, made
freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site; according to their ability they gave to the
treasury of the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred
priests’ garments.
The priests, the Levites, and some of the people lived in Jerusalem and its vicinity; and the singers, the
gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, and all Israel in their towns.
When the seventh month came, and the sons of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one
man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son
of She-alti-el with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon
it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was upon
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them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the LORD, burnt
offerings morning and evening. And they kept the feast of booths, as it is written, and offered the daily
burnt offerings by number according to the ordinance, as each day required, and after that the continual
burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the LORD, and the
offerings of every one who made a freewill offering to the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month
they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not
yet laid. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians
and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant which they
had from Cyrus king of Persia.
Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month,
Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest
of their brethren, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They
appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of the house
of the LORD.

IN ESDRAM ET NEHEMIAM (PL 91:812-813); WORD IN SEASON VII
Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is
in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord.
A great faith shines out in these words of King Cyrus, and a great love. He understood that the people of
Israel, above all other nations, was the people of God, and he gave leave to all without exception who
wished to return to their native land to do so as free men. He acknowledged that the Lord God who dwelt
in heaven dwelt also in Jerusalem and could go up with each one of those returning from Babylon to
Jerusalem. Is it not clearer than daylight that he believed this God to be non-corporeal, unrestricted by
place, a spirit, present everywhere; whom he acknowledged dwelt in Jerusalem and its Temple yet
without doubting that he held sway simultaneously in the kingdom of heaven; whom he believed reigned
in heaven yet was with his faithful on earth, guiding their hands and hearts to accomplish what was good
and salutary? For the rest, all the words of this text are full of spiritual significance.
For who does not easily recognise that it is only those whom God is with who can pass from sinfulness to
sanctity – from captivity in Babylon to freedom in Jerusalem? Without me, Christ says, you can do
nothing. Can anyone fail to see here a reference to the spiritual ascent, the ‘going-up’ to Jerusalem?
Those who really desire to please God must necessarily lift up their hands to higher things, long for what
is divine and transcend the display of this world and its attractions through their love of eternal reality.
We are reminded that Jerusalem is in Judah, so that we who through disregard of God were once held
captive by the Chaldeans and thereafter freed from malign spirits, may return to the vision of peace and
light by our recognition of God’s love. And there let us build a house to the Lord God of Israel – in the
unity of Catholic peace, in the acknowledgment of our sinfulness and God’s loving-kindness and grace. Let
us prepare our hearts so that he himself may deign to dwell in them and enlighten them by his presence.
But let us also take care to set the hearts of our neighbours alight, so that they too may praise their
Creator and engage in the works of love. Indeed, either way we build a house to the Lord: whether we
commit ourselves to the pursuit of holiness or, by our words and example, inspire those whom we can to
walk in the way of holiness.
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TUESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ASSAULTS AGAINST THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE: EZRA 4:1-5, 24 – 5:5
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple
to the LORD, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to
them, “Let us build with you; for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him
ever since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria who brought us here. But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the
rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us in building a
house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia
has commanded us.”
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build, and hired
counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the
reign of Darius king of Persia.
Then the work on the house of God which is in Jerusalem stopped; and it ceased until the second year of
the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and
Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el
and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and
with them were the prophets of God, helping them.
At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their
associates came to them and spoke to them thus, “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to
finish this structure?” They also asked them this, “What are the names of the men who are building this
building?” But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them till a
report should reach Darius and then answer be returned by letter concerning it.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 126 BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

ST HILARY OF POITIERS, IN PS. 126.3-8 (CSEL 22:615-619); WORD IN SEASON VII
Unless the Lord build the house for himself, they labour in vain who build it. The hearing of the psalm,
then, is not restricted to the days of Solomon, but is to be understood also as appropriate to those of
Haggai. Either labour, whether Solomon’s building or Haggai’s, is in vain, it says. For of the city built by
Zerubbabel, today there remain only the ashes from the conflagration and the ugly sight of ruin and
devastation. These seats of kings, where the builders thought to restore the glory of the eternal kingdom,
have undergone further destruction as the seat of every other kingdom, one after another, has been
overthrown. For it to endure, then, a house ought to be built by God; for unless it be built by the Lord, it
will not last.
As to which house is God’s we are to understand that this can be ascertained from how long it is built to
last. So it is that houses, in the sense of buildings, do not bespeak an infinite God as their owner; neither
can his unlimited power be confined in some place, the omnipotence that made all things. As the Apostle
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bears witness: The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwells not in temples made by the hands of men.
Is there, then, no repose in God, no dwelling place for him? Some people might suppose that he who is
nowhere ought to be non-existent. So let us hear his own testimony about his rest and his dwelling place.
This is what he says: This is my resting place for ever; here will I live, for I have chosen it. Now it is Zion
that he chose: but is that the place about which the lament in this prophecy is being made? Unless the
Lord build the house (it says) they labour in vain who build it. Zion, where the Temple stood, has been
turned upside down. So where is the Lord’s seat and eternal dwelling place now? What precisely is that
temple which is fit for his habitation? It is the one of which it was said: You are a temple of God; and the
Spirit of God dwells in you. To this, the same Prophet bears testimony: your holy temple, wonderful in its
proportions. The holiness of men, their judiciousness and self-restraint – that is the temple of God.
The house, then, must be built by God. Any house made by the works of men will not endure; neither can
any based on the maxims of this world stand its ground; neither can our vain labours and useless worry
have any lasting effect. The construction and the maintenance must be otherwise. The beginnings must
not be made on water and shifting sands, but foundations laid on the Prophets and the Apostles. Then
living stones must serve to build it up; the cornerstone to keep it in place and hold it together; the
interlocking pieces making up the whole man, built on the scale of Christ’s body, to be adorned by the
beauty and elegance of spiritual graces. What is built by God, that is to say his teachings, will not fall
down. Israel, once made captive after the abundance and prosperity of the nations, will now secure the
building of this house. This house is itself growing, into more houses, so as to build up the faithful at every
turn and to beautify and extend that blessed city in each one of us.
WEDNESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EXHORTATION TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE. THE GLORY OF THE FUTURE TEMPLE; HAGGAI 1:1-2:9
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the
LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el, governor of Judah, and to Joshua
the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: This people say the time has not yet
come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, “Is it a
time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore
thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you
eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one
is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build
the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD. You have
looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the
LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house.
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I
have called for a drought upon the land and the hills, upon the grain, the new wine, the oil, upon what
the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labours.”
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Then Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the
remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as
the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared before the LORD. Then Haggai, the messenger of
the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, says the LORD.” And the LORD
stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the
son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and
worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth
month.
In the second year of Darius the king, In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the
word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of She-alti-el, governor
of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and
say, ‘Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in
your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son
of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with
you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My
Spirit abides among you; fear not. For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will
shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, so that the
treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the LORD of hosts. The
silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendour of this house shall be
greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give peace, says the LORD of
hosts.’”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON HAGGAI BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

IN HAG., 14; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
With the coming of the Saviour there appeared a far more glorious Temple, one that was divine. It was as
much more excellent and noble than that old one as worship in Christ in accordance with the Gospel
might be judged to differ from worship in accordance with the Law or truth to differ from shadows.
I think that I should add this: there was only one Temple and that was in Jerusalem, and only the Jewish
people were allowed to offer sacrifice there; but now that the only-begotten Son has become like us
(although he was Lord and God, he has appeared to us, as the Scriptures say), the world is full of sacred
places and countless worshippers, who adore God with spiritual sacrifices and acceptable offerings. This is
what I think Malachi meant when, acting as God’s mouthpiece, he prophesied: I am a great king, says the
Lord, and my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and
a pure sacrifice.
Therefore, it is true that the glory of this latest Temple, by which you must understand the Church, will be
even greater. And those who are involved in its construction will be given Christ, the source of peace for
all men, as a reward from God our Saviour and a gift from heaven, through whom we have access in one
Spirit to the Father. This is clearly what is meant when the Prophet says: In this place I will give peace …
and peace of soul, to save all those who laid the foundation for the rebuilding of this Temple. Christ also
says somewhere: My peace I give to you. And Paul will explain how this will benefit those who love God.
The peace of Christ, he says, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds. In the
same way the wise Prophet Isaiah prayed in these words: O Lord our God, give us peace, for you have
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given us everything. For, once men have received the peace of Christ, they will find it easy to save their
souls and to devote themselves completely to the pursuit of virtue.
That is why it is said that peace will be given to everyone helping with the building. Whether a man is
building the Church because he is set over God’s house as a spiritual teacher, that is to say an interpreter
of the sacred mysteries, or whether he is acting for the good of his own soul in proving himself a living
and spiritual stone, fit to be built into a holy temple, a spiritual house of God, such a man will certainly be
given the gift of saving his soul without any great difficulty.
THURSDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FUTURE BLESSINGS, AND THE PROMISES MADE BY ZERUBBABEL: HAGGAI 2:10-23
On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came
by Haggai the prophet, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests to decide this question, ‘If one
carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touches with his skirt bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil,
or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered, “No.” Then said Haggai, “If one who is
unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests
answered, “It does become unclean.” Then Haggai said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation
before me, says the LORD; and so with every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
Pray now, consider what will come to pass from this day onward. Before a stone was placed upon a stone
in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were
but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I smote you and
all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD.
Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the
foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree,
the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on I will bless you.”
The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, “Speak to
Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow
the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and
overthrow the chariots and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the
sword of his fellow. On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son
of She-alti-el, says the LORD, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the LORD of
hosts.”

DE CIVITATE DEI 18.48; (1972) TR. BETTENSON
This House of God which is the Church of Christ is of greater glory than was that former house built of
wood and precious scones and other costly materials and metals. Thus the prophecy of Haggai was not
fulfilled in the restoration of that earlier Temple, for at no time after the restoration can it be shown to
have had as great a glory as the Temple had in Solomon’s time. The truth is rather that the diminished
glory of that house is demonstrated first in the cessation of prophecy, and then by great disasters of the
nation itself down to the final destruction at the hands of the Romans. In contrast, this house of ours,
which belongs to the new covenant, has assuredly a greater glory in that its stones are of more worth; for
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they are living stones, and the building is constructed of those men who believe and who have themselves
been created anew. And yet this new house was symbolised in the restoration of that Temple, just
because the very renewing of the Temple symbolises in a prophetic message the second covenant, the
new covenant, as it is called. Thus, when God said, through the mouth of the Prophet just mentioned,
And in that place I shall give peace, the word ‘place’ is symbolic, and by it we are to understand the
person whom it symbolises. And so the rebuilding ‘in that place’ stands for the Church which was
destined to be built by Christ; and the only acceptable meaning of the saying, ‘in that place I shall give
peace’ is, ‘I shall grant peace in the place which this place symbolises.
The fact is that all things with symbolic meaning are seen as in some way acting the part of the things
they symbolise; for instance, the Apostle says, That rock was Christ, because the rock in question
undoubtedly symbolised Christ. And so the glory of this house, the new covenant, is greater than the
glory of the former house, the old covenant, and it will be seen to be even greater when it is dedicated.
For then will come the one who is longed for by all nations, as the Hebrew reads. Now his first coming
was not yet longed for by all nations, for they did not know of him whom they were destined to long for,
in whom they had not yet believed. Then too, in the version of the seventy translators (and their
rendering is also prophetic), will come the chosen of the Lord from all nations.
For then, in truth, none but the elect will come, and it is of them that the Apostle says, Just as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Then, we may be sure, the master builder himself,
who said, Many are called, but few are chosen, is going to show us a house, built not of those who were
called but came in such a way that they were thrown out of the feast, but of those who have been truly
chosen. And that house will thereafter dread no downfall, whereas at the present time the Churches are
made up of those who will later be separated out as by a winnowing from on the threshing floor. Thus the
glory of this house is not yet shown in the splendour which will be seen when only the righteous remain.
FRIDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A VISION OF JERUSALEM REBUILT: ZECHARIAH 1:1:21
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of
Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, “The LORD was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to
them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says
the LORD of hosts. Be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the LORD
of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or heed me, says the
LORD. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my
statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they
repented and said, As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt
with us.”
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of
Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet; and
Zechariah said, “I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse! He was standing among
the myrtle trees in the glen; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, ‘What are
these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.’ So the man
who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol
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the earth.’ And they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, ‘We
have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.’ Then the angel of the LORD said, ‘O
LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which
thou hast had indignation these seventy years?’ And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words
to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the
LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am very angry with the nations
that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the
LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts,
and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My
cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose
Jerusalem.’”
And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What
are these?” And he answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and
Jerusalem.” Then the LORD showed me four smiths. And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He
answered, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man raised his head; and these have
come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of
Judah to scatter it

HOM. IN EZ., 2.1.5 (CCL 142:210-212); WORD IN SEASON VII
It is precisely because the vision of inward peace is made up of a community of saints as its citizens that
the heavenly Jerusalem is built as a city. Even while, in this earthly life, its citizens are lashed by whips and
subjected to oppression, its stones are being quarried every day.
It is also the city, namely, the holy Church, which is to reign in heaven but is still toiling on earth. It is to its
citizens that Peter says: And you are being built up like living stones. Paul also says: You are God’s land,
God’s building. Clearly the city already has its great building here on earth in the lives of the saints. In a
building, of course, one stone supports another, since they are placed one on top of another, and one
supporting another is itself supported by another. So in the same way, in the holy Church, every member
both supports and is supported by the other. For neighbours give each other mutual support, so that the
building of love may rise through them. Hence too Paul’s instruction to us: Bear each other’s burdens,
and in that way you will fulfil the law of Christ; and he claims the virtue of this law, saying: It is love which
fulfils the law.
For if I neglect to support you in the way you live, and you pay little attention to supporting me in mine,
how will the building of love rise among us? He alone who supports the whole fabric of the holy Church
supports us in our good ways and our faults as well. But in a building, as we have said, the supporting
stone is itself supported. For just as I already support the ways of those whose behaviour in the matter of
good works is still unformed, so I too am supported by those who have surpassed me in the fear of the
Lord, and yet have supported me, so that I myself should learn to support through being supported. But
they have also been supported by their predecessors.
However the stones placed at the top of the building to finish it off, though supported of course by
others, have no one to support in turn. For those, too, who are born at the Church’s end, that is, at the
end of the world, will certainly be supported by their predecessors, to dispose them to behave in a way
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that leads to good works; but when they have none to follow them who could profit by them, they have
no more stones to support for the building of the faithful above them. So for the time being they are
supported by us, and we are supported by others. However it is the foundation that carries the entire
weight of the building, because our Redeemer alone supports the lives of all of us together. As Paul says
of him: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid, which is Christ Jesus.
The foundation supports the stones and is not supported by the stones, because our Redeemer supports
us in all our troubles, but in himself there was no evil demanding support.
SATURDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VISIONS; EXHORTATIONS TO THE EXILES: ZECHARIAH 2:5-17
And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where
are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its
length.” And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to
meet him, and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without
walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it.’” For I will be to her a wall of fire round about,
says the LORD, and I will be the glory within her.’”
Ho! ho! Flee from the land of the north, says the LORD; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of
the heavens, says the LORD. Ho! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. For thus
said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you
touches the apple of his eye: “Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for
those who served them. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, O
daughter of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the LORD. And many nations shall
join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and
you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion
in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

IN ZACHARIAM PROPHETAM (PG 72:40); WORD IN SEASON VII
Be delighted and rejoice, daughter of Zion, because I am coming and shall dwell among you, says the
Lord. And many nations will flee for refuge to the Lord in that day and become his people, and they will
dwell in your midst.
Even from this you may understand that the Saviour’s coming will be the occasion of the sublimest joy for
those on earth. For of necessity he commanded the spiritual Zion to be delighted and glad, since she is
the Church of the living God, or rather she is the holiest multitude of those saved through faith. And he
promised he would come, and would certainly live among her people.
For Saint John tells us: He was in the world, and the Word who was God did not hold aloof from his
created beings. But it was he who gave life to those partaking of life, and who also sustains all things for
their own well-being in life. But the world refused to recognise him, for it ‘worshiped created things’. Yet
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he came among us when, assuming our own likeness, he was born of the Holy Virgin. When too he
appeared on earth and lived among men. And holy David will also bear witness, saying: God, our God, will
come visibly, and will not keep silence. Then too he became visible to the Gentiles.
For it was no longer only the Israelites who were being taught by the old commandment. But rather the
whole world was made splendid by the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord’s name became great
among all the nations and in every land. For he was the expectation of the nations, as the Prophet says.
And every knee will bow to him in heaven, on earth and in hell, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. For the nations ran together in faith toward him, and dwelt
with him in the holy spiritual Zion, coming from the ends of the earth. And they understood clearly that
God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that all who believed in him should not perish
but have eternal life. For the Father sent his Son to us from heaven, as Saviour and Redeemer, so that we
should believe in him and see in him the Father. And so that looking at him, the exact image of the Father
from whom he was born according to nature, we should think of the original.
SUNDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROPHECIES SPOKEN TO ZERUBBABEL AND TO JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST: ZECHARIAH 3:1 – 4:14
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at
his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who
has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing
before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before
him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away
from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.”
So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments; and the angel of the LORD was
standing by.
And the angel of the LORD enjoined Joshua, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and
keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right
of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends
who sit before you, for they are men of good omen: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For
behold, upon the stone which I have set before Joshua, upon a single stone with seven facets, I will
engrave its inscription, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. In
that day, says the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbour under his vine and under his
fig tree.”
And the angel who talked with me came again, and waked me, like a man that is wakened out of his
sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a
bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps which are on the top of
it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to
the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then the angel who talked with me answered
me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the
LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. What are you,
O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring forward the top stone
amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “The hands of
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Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know
that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice,
and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.
“These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.” Then I said to him, “What
are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” And a second time I said to him,
“What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the
oil is poured out?” He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said,
“These are the two anointed who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

IN ZACHARIAM PROPHETAM (PG 72:64-65); WORD IN SEASON VII
This is the word of the Lord concerning Zerubbabel: Not by great power, nor by force, but by my Spirit,
says the Almighty Lord. This is the same as saying that all that Zechariah had just seen would come to
completion at the appointed time, not as the achievement of human power, nor by physical force, but by
the power of the Holy Spirit, and as at a sign from God.
For the Only Son was made a man like ourselves. However, he did not engage in physical combat to set
up the Church as a light to the world. Nor did he wield arms in a literal sense, drawing up the two nations
in warlike battle-lines around him. He did not even provide the lamp-stand with spiritual lamps, but by
the force of the Holy Spirit he first appointed Apostles in the Churches, next Prophets and Evangelists and
the rest of the holy assembly, filling them full of God’s gifts and enriching them with the Spirit in
abundant profusion.
So it was neither by great power nor by the physical strength of Christ but by the power of the Spirit that
Satan was despoiled, and the whole horde of hostile powers fell with him, and that the Israelites and
those who formerly worshiped created things rather than the Creator were called through faith to
knowledge of God. Lamps were revealed in the Churches too, the saints who shone out together with the
lantern, that is, Christ. For they became, as Paul writes in his great wisdom, stars in the universe,
holding fast to the word of life.
Again, the fact that it was not by human hand but by his own power as God that Emmanuel saved the
world he solemnly affirmed through the mouth of Hosea. These are his words: but I shall have mercy on
the children of Judah, and I shall save them – not by bow and arrow, sword, war, chariots, horses or
horsemen, but by the Lord their God. But he gave the clearest message to Zerubbabel, of the tribe of
Judah, who was at that time placed in the position of king of Jerusalem. For in case he thought that the
splendid and marvellous achievements foretold for him meant wars, and it was fighting that would begin
at the appointed time, the Lord had to drive such unsound human thoughts out of his mind, and instead
commanded him to understand that it was by activity worthy of God and not by human power that Christ
would bring such things to a conclusion. And then we remember saying that in himself Zerubbabel
signified Christ, since he was of the tribe of Judah and a king, but he was also this in conjunction with
Jesus the son of Jehozadak, so that Emmanuel might be understood as both king and high priest at once
in the same person.
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PROMISES OF SALVATION IN ZION: ZECHARIAH 8:1-17, 20-23
And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for
Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the LORD: I will return to
Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the
mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women
shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand for very age. And the streets of the city
shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvellous in the
sight of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in my sight, says the LORD
of hosts? Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the
west country; and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people and I
will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these
words from the mouth of the prophets, since the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of
hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. Before those days there was no wage for man or any wage
for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in; for I set every man
against his fellow. But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the
LORD of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, and the ground shall give
its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess
all these things. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and
house of Israel, so will I save you and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.”
For thus says the LORD of hosts: “As I purposed to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to
wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to do good to
Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to
one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your
hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the LORD.”
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants
of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the LORD, and to seek
the LORD of hosts; I am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in
Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men
from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we
have heard that God is with you.’”
A READING FROM THE LADDER OF PERFECTION BY WALTER HILTON

THE LADDER OF PERFECTION, II.3; WORD IN SEASON VII
There was a man that would go to Jerusalem, and because he did not know the way, he asked another
man, who he believed knew the way better than him. When he asked him whether he would come to
Jerusalem or not, the man answered that he could go no further without great pains and hardships,
saying the way is long and perilous, and full of great thieves and robbers, and many other hindrances that
come to pass to a man along the way. Nevertheless, there is one way, if one takes and sticks to it, that I
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am sure one will come to that city of Jerusalem, and never lose one’s life, nor be slain, nor die by default.
Though he would often be robbed and beaten, and suffer much pain along the way, his life will be safe.
Then said the pilgrim, ‘So I may have my life saved, and come to the place that I covet, I care not what
mischief I suffer in going.’
That other man answered and said, ‘Lo, I set you in the right way. This is the way, and see that you bear in
mind all that I tell you. Whatsoever you see, hear, or feel, that would hinder you in the way, stick not at it,
willingly consent not to it, abide not with it, behold it not, like it not, fear it not, but still go forward
holding on your way, and ever think and say with yourself that you would rather be at Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is, as much as to say, a sight of peace, and beholds contemplation in perfect love of God, for
contemplation is nothing else but a sight of God, which is very peace.
The beginning of the highway, in which you shall go, is reforming in faith, and grounded humbly on the
faith and on the laws of holy Church as I have said before. For trust assuredly, though you have sinned up
to now, if you are now reformed by the sacrament of penance, after the law of holy Church, you are on
the right way. Now then, since you are in the safe way, if you hurry along in your going and make a good
journey, it behoves you to hold these two things often in mind: Humility and Love; and often say to
yourself, I am nothing, I have nothing, I covet nothing, but one. Humility says, I am nothing, I have
nothing; Love says, I covet nothing, but one, and that is Jesus.
And if you do all this, then you shall resolve in your heart fully and wholly that you will be at Jerusalem,
and at no other place but there; that is, your heart shall have wholly and fully nothing but the love of
Jesus and the spiritual sight of him in such manner as he shall please to show himself; for to that end only
are you made and redeemed, and he it is that is your beginning and your end, your joy and your bliss.
TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE AND THE CELEBRATION OF THE PASSOVER: EZRA 6:1-5, 14-22
Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives
where the documents were stored. And in Ecbatana, the capital which is in the province of Media, a scroll
was found on which this was written: “A record. In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a
decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are
offered and burnt offerings are brought; its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with
three courses of great stones and one course of timber; let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. And
also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple
that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple which is in
Jerusalem, each to its place; you shall put them in the house of God.”
And the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and
Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of
Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; and this house was finished on the third day of the month
of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
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And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the
dedication of this house of God with joy. They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred
bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve he-goats,
according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites
in their courses, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the passover. For the priests and the
Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they killed the passover lamb for all
the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves; it was eaten by the people of Israel who
had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them and separated himself from the
pollutions of the peoples of the land to worship the LORD, the God of Israel. And they kept the feast of
unleavened bread seven days with joy; for the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of
the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

IN ESDRAM ET NEHEMIAM ALLEGORICA EXPOSITIO, II.7 (PL 91:858); WORD IN SEASON VII
And they celebrated the feast of unleavened bread. Now the Apostle teaches us how we must celebrate
the feast in spirit, when he says: Let us therefore keep the feast, not in the old leaven, nor in the leaven of
malice and iniquity, but in the fresh leaven of sincerity and truth. Seven days of celebrating go into that:
for throughout our time in this world, however many days it may run, we are to live our lives in sincerity
and truth, and indeed in every kind of sacrifice and offering. For our blessed Lord himself tasted death for
a time at Eastertide, only to vanquish it by the eternal power of his resurrection. And our celebration of
Easter here and now can be taken to represent symbolically our resurrection. Hence just as the building
of the Temple stands for the present condition of Holy Church, so the dedication of it symbolises the life
that is to come, consisting in the rejoicing of the holy souls who have left the life of the body behind.
The sacrifice of the passover hints at the glory of the resurrection, when no longer will all the elect need
to be refreshed by the flesh of the spotless Lamb - that is, our Lord and our God - in the sacrament, as
believers; for they will be refreshed indeed by seeing him as he is in very truth. Wherefore in this
passover all priests and Levites, all the congregations of the people, all those who had joined them from
among the Gentiles, are held to have been of the world, all brought into one, as it were; for truly then will
the Lamb of God have taken away the sins of the world. And as Saint John the Apostle said: The blood of
Jesus the Son of God cleanses us of all sin. Then there will be true unity, for God will be all in all. Then the
true feast of unleavened bread will be celebrated with rejoicing with no leaven of malice or wickedness
remaining among the elect, but all clinging in truth and in sincerity of heart, to the vision of God. And all
this will come to pass, not in seven days of this changing world, but in that one day of eternal life within
the courts of the Lord which is better than thousands, and in the light of the Holy Spirit whose sevenfold
grace the Prophet commends to us.
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WEDNESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MISSION OF EZRA THE PRIEST: EZRA 7:6-28
Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses which the LORD the God of Israel
had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of
Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. And he
came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king; for on the first day of the
first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to
Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was upon him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the
LORD, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel.
This is a copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in matters of
the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel: Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest,
the scribe of the law of the God of heaven. And now I make a decree that any one of the people of Israel
or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. For you
are sent by the king and his seven counsellors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to
the law of your God, which is in your hand, and also to convey the silver and gold which the king and his
counsellors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, with all the silver and
gold which you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people
and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem. With this money, then,
you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their cereal offerings and their drink offerings,
and you shall offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. Whatever seems
good to you and your brethren to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will
of your God. The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall
deliver before the God of Jerusalem. And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which you
have occasion to provide, you may provide it out of the king’s treasury.
And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever
Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, be it done with all diligence,
up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of
oil, and salt without prescribing how much. Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done
in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. We
also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll upon any one of the priests,
the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God which is in your hand, appoint magistrates and
judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your
God; and those who do not know them, you shall teach. Whoever will not obey the law of your God and
the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed upon him, whether for death or for banishment or
for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.
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Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to
beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before
the king and his counsellors, and before all the kings mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the
LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

IN ESDRAM ET NEHEMIAM ALLEGORICA EXPOSITIO, II.9 (PL 91:860-861); WORD IN SEASON VII
Just as Zerubbabel and Jesus stand for our Lord and Saviour, who releases our race from captivity by his
grace and himself makes his dwelling in us, building himself up there by sanctifying us and taking
possession of us; so also Ezra the priest and nimble scribe openly claims the same Lord, who has not
come to abolish the law but to bring it to perfection. For he, the Lord, could truly be called a scribe of
God’s Law or a nimble scribe in the Law of Moses, having given Moses the Law himself through an angel.
He it was who taught the holy Prophets all truth, by the grace of his Spirit, he who was soon to touch with
his love the minds of all his chosen ones, kindling in them the understanding of his Father’s will and the
urge to accomplish it.
Wherefore promising the grace of the New Covenant the Prophet says: And this is the covenant I have
made with the house of Israel since those days, says the Lord; I shall make my laws in their minds, and on
their hearts shall I write them. The psalmist touchingly recalls the man who wrote that, when he says: My
tongue is the pen for a scribe nimbly writing. The Prophet’s tongue indeed was the scribe’s busy pen; for
whatever the Lord taught by inwardly enlightening him without any delay in time, that he himself
revealed in time to men, outwardly, by means of the spoken ministry. Ezra, whose name means ‘helper’,
clearly shows this in his own person. For it is through him alone that the congregation of the faithful can
be released from their tribulations and is to be (as it were) conducted from the Babylonian captivity to
the liberty of Jerusalem, from the confusion of vice to the peace and serenity of virtue, step by step
according to their merits.
The resemblance to Ezra was kept up even in his deeds. For it was not the least part of the people that he
led back from captivity to Jerusalem, bringing at the same time both the money and the vessels
consecrated to God, for the glory of his Temple, while purging the same people of their alien wives by his
authority as mediator. All of which reveals to the thoughtful reader what deeds the Lord has wrought in
his holy Church and what is to be done. We too shall take pains to make clear the message, so that it may
be understood by those even less thoughtful than we. For Ezra’s going up from Babylon, the children of
Israel and the sons of the priests and Levites with him, represents the merciful dispensation of our
Redeemer, whereby he appeared in the flesh, and his entering into the confusion of this world, being free
himself from the confusion brought by vice, so that when returning he might bring us with him, freed
from all confusion, to the tranquillity of eternal peace. We have received a pledge of that eternal peace in
the Church as it now is: for as the Lord says, My peace I leave you; my peace I give unto you.
THURSDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON MARRIAGES WITH GENTILES: EZRA 9:1-9, 15 – 10:5
After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the
priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their
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abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for
themselves and for their sons; so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in
this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”
When I heard this, I rent my garments and my mantle, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat
appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the
returned exiles, gathered round me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening
sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle rent, and fell upon my knees and
spread out my hands to the LORD my God, saying:
“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher
than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we
have been in great guilt; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the
hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as at this day.
But now for a brief moment favour has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant, and to
give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little
reviving in our bondage. For we are bondmen; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has
extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house
of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.
“O LORD the God of Israel, thou art just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as at this day.
Behold, we are before thee in our guilt, for none can stand before thee because of this.”
While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a
very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel; for the people wept
bitterly. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with
our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for
Israel in spite of this. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their
children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God;
and let it be done according to the law. Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”
Then Ezra arose and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take oath that they would do as
had been said. So they took the oath.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST LEO THE GREAT

TRACT. 43.1-4 (CCL 138A:251-255); WORD IN SEASON VII
The Apostle exhorts us to put off the old man with its actions and to be renewed day by day through a
holy way of life, for he says, you are the temple of God. If we are the temple of God then, and the Holy
Spirit dwells in our hearts, we must be very watchful to see that our hearts are not an unworthy dwelling
for so great a guest.
When dealing with houses made by hands, people exercise a praiseworthy diligence and make sure to
repair quickly any damage done by the rain or wind or the simple passage of time. So we too must
constantly take care not to let anything disordered or unclean be found in our souls. For although our
edifice will not last without the help of its builder, and the structure cannot remain intact without the
watchful care of its maker, yet we are living matter and spiritual stones, and therefore the author of our
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being works in such a way that the person being renewed must collaborate with him. We must not, then,
be disobedient to the grace of nor separate ourselves from that Good without which we are unable to be
good. If we find anything impossible or extremely difficult in what we are commanded, we must not only
look to our own powers but have recourse to him who commands. God issues his commands with the
intention of rousing our desire and giving us the help we need. Therefore, as the Prophet says, Cast your
cares upon the Lord, and he will sustain you. Is there anyone so proud and arrogant, so sure of his own
purity and integrity, as to think he needs no renovation? Such an attitude is mistaken, and the person
who believes himself to be invulnerable amid the temptations of life has become excessively conceited.
The believer has no doubt that divine providence is at work always and everywhere. He knows that the
outcome of human affairs does not depend on the power of the stars for that power is non-existent, and
that everything is ordered by the utterly equitable and merciful judgement and will of the supreme King.
Nonetheless, things do not always work out as we desire, and the cause of the wicked often triumphs
over that of the just. It is only too likely, then, that even generous souls may be disturbed and driven to
wrongful complaints. Therefore, since few have such solid strength as not to be shaken by any shifts of
circumstance and since prosperity no less than adversity leads many believers astray, we must be diligent
in healing the wounds we receive because of our human weakness.
FRIDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

NEHEMIAH IS SENT TO THE KING IN JUDAH: NEHEMIAH 1:1 – 2:8
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the capital, that Hanani,
one of my brethren, came with certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that
survived, who had escaped exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The survivors there in
the province who escaped exile are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down,
and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days; and I continued fasting and
praying before the God of heaven. And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God who
keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; let thy ear be
attentive, and thy eyes open, to hear the prayer of thy servant which I now pray before thee day and
night for the people of Israel thy servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have
sinned against thee. Yea, I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against thee,
and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which thou didst command thy
servant Moses. Remember the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are
unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me and keep my commandments and
do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them thence and bring them to
the place which I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are thy servants and thy people,
whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand.
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O Lord, let thy ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants who delight
to fear thy name; and give success to thy servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the
wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, “Why is
your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very
much afraid. I said to the king, “Let the king live for ever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city,
the place of my father’s sepulchres, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king
said to me, “For what do you make request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If
it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favour in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the
city of my fathers sepulchres, that I may rebuild it.” And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside
him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set
him a time. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the
province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah; and a letter to
Asaph, the keeper of the kings forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the
fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house which I shall occupy.” And the king
granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

ENARR. IN PS. 146.4-5 (CCL 40:2124-2125); WORD IN SEASON VII
The Lord is rebuilding Jerusalem, and calling the exiles from Israel back. So the Lord is rebuilding
Jerusalem and recalling its exiled people; for the people of Jerusalem are the people of Israel. There is an
eternal Jerusalem in heaven, where the citizens are also angels. What, then, does Israel mean? Seeing
God. So all the citizens of that city rejoice at seeing God in that great and splendid heavenly city. God
himself is their theatre. But we are exiles from that city: banished for our sins, to prevent us remaining
there, and burdened with mortality, to prevent us returning there. God has noted our exile, and he who
rebuilds Jerusalem has reinstated the sinners. How did he reinstate them? By calling the exiles from Israel
back. For sin had made them exiles. God took pity on these and searched for them, since they were not
seeking for him. Where did he look? Whom did he send to set us free from our captivity? He sent the
Redeemer, as the Apostle tells us: God shows his love for us, by the fact that when we were still sinners
Christ died for us.
So he sent his Son, our Redeemer, to set us free from our captivity. ‘Take a purse with you,’ he said, ‘and
put the price of the prisoners in it.’ For he clothed himself in a mortal body, and there was the blood
which was shed for our redemption. With that blood he called the exiles from Israel back. Yet if he called
back exiles long ago, why should he want to call back exiles today? If the exiles were called back to be
shaped into a building by the craftsman’s hand, why should those be called back whose own turbulence
caused them to fall out of the craftsman’s hand? He heals those who have a contrite heart. That is why
the exiles from Israel are called back: to be healed through a contrite heart. Those who have failed to
mortify their heart are not healed. What does it mean: to mortify our heart? If you had wanted a sacrifice,
I should certainly have given you one; but you take no pleasure in burnt offerings. What then? Are we to
remain without the oblation of sacrifice? Listen to what he wants you to offer, as he goes on to say: The
sacrifice acceptable to God is a contrite spirit; God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. So he
heals those who have a contrite heart; for he comes near them to heal them; as it is said elsewhere: The
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Lord is near to those who have a contrite heart. Such are the people he heals; but their healing will only
be perfect at the end of their mortal life, when this corruptible body will put on incorruptibility, and this
mortal body will put on immortality.
SATURDAY, TWELFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

NEHEMIAH PREPARES FOR THE REBUILDING OF THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM: NEHEMIAH 2:9-20
Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the
king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah
the servant, the Ammonite, heard this, it displeased them greatly that some one had come to seek the
welfare of the children of Israel.
So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; and
I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no beast with me but
the beast on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Jackals Well and to the Dung
Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which had been
destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the Kings Pool; but there was no place for
the beast that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall; and
I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had
gone or what I was doing; and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the
rest that were to do the work.
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.
Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” And I told them of the
hand of my God which had been upon me for good, and also of the words which the king had spoken to
me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But
when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard of it,
they derided us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against
the king?” Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise
and build; but you have no portion or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MICAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

IN MICHAEAM PROPHETAM, 3.35-36 (PG 71:689-703); WORD IN SEASON VII
Behold I am laying a stone for the foundations in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone; and he
who has faith in it will not be put to shame. The builders of Zion rejected the tested and precious stone,
but now it is in place as the cornerstone. For Christ has become king of both the Gentiles and the Jews,
whom he has created into a single new man, making peace through the cross, and joining them in
spiritual union to form a cornerstone. For it is written: The whole multitude of believers were united in
heart and soul.
Through sanctification and faith they have become similar in form to that most precious cornerstone, and
so St Peter wrote well and wisely: You yourselves, like living stones, must be built up into a spiritual
house, to be a holy temple and a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.
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And in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be revealed. We can see in these prophetic
words a clear reference to the future Church of the Gentiles. For Israel in the flesh had, as it were, ceased
to exist, the sacrificial rites of the Law had come to an end, the priests of the house of Levi had
abandoned their office, and lastly the famous temple itself had been destroyed by fire and Jerusalem
demolished. This was the moment when Christ proclaimed the Church of the Gentiles, as if in the last
days, that is, at the consummation of our age; for it was then that he became man. The Prophet speaks of
the Church as a mountain, which is the house of the living God. It soars aloft, because there is nothing
whatsoever earthbound in the Church. It is raised on high by the knowledge of the precepts of God; and
the very mode of life of those justified by Christ and sanctified by the Spirit is made sublime.
Yet the Prophet shows that Israel could not entirely lose hope. The people were indeed crushed and
rejected, or rather cast off, because of their utter disregard for God. They fought against him, with
shameless and profane idolatry, and were liable in no small degree to charges of blood-guilt. For they had
killed the Prophets, and in the end they crucified the very Saviour and Redeemer of the world. But, for
the sake of their fathers, the remnant were pitied and saved, to become a great people.
For it is true and right to consider this holy multitude whom Christ has justified as a very great people.
The things that distinguish them, and should make them a cause of wonder, are goodness of mind and
nobility of heart, that is, sanctification, hope in Christ, faithful sonship, admirable virtues and marvellous
endurance, submission to Christ’s rule and devotion to his teaching. For we have one teacher, Christ.
And the Prophet’s Mount Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem, mother of the first-born, where we shall dwell
in unity with Christ.
SUNDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BUILDING OF THE WALL; TAUNTS AND PLOTS OF THE ENEMIES: NEHEMIAH 4:1-23
Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he
ridiculed the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brethren and of the army of Samaria, “What are
these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will
they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Tobiah the Ammonite was
by him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building – if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone
wall!” Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn back their taunt upon their own heads, and give them
up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be
blotted out from thy sight; for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.
So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height. For the people had a mind to
work.
But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the
repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed,
they were very angry; and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause
confusion in it. And we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
But Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearers is failing, and there is much rubbish; we are not able
to work on the wall.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come into the midst of
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them and kill them and stop the work.” When the Jews who lived by them came they said to us ten times,
“From all the places where they live they will come up against us.” So in the lowest parts of the space
behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their
spears, and their bows. And I looked, and arose, and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest
of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your
brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned
to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held
the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail; and the leaders stood behind all the house of Judah, who
were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were laden in such a way that each with one hand
laboured on the work and with the other held his weapon. And each of the builders had his sword girded
at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and
to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated
on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us
there. Our God will fight for us.”
So we laboured at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn till the stars came
out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem,
that they may be a guard for us by night and may labour by day.” So neither I nor my brethren nor my
servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his
weapon in his hand.

SERMO 3 DE RESURRECTIONE DOMINI, 3.5 (SC 202:250, 256-258); WORD IN SEASON VII
Keep awake, brethren, intent upon your prayers; keep awake, careful how you carry out your duties, all
the more so since the morning of that unending day has dawned, which saw the doubly welcome, serene,
eternal light, return to us from the dead, and the morning rising caused the sun to shine with a new
brightness. It is now time for you to wake out of sleep; it is far on in the night; day is near. Keep awake, I
say, that the morning light may rise upon you, no other than Christ, who will reveal himself, sure as the
dawn; prepared to enable those who are on the watch for him, to relive once more the mystery of his
resurrection in the morning. Then indeed you will sing with joyful heart: The Lord is God; he has given
light to us. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it; the day, that is, when
he will allow the light which he has hidden with his hands to shine upon you, telling you, his friend, it is his
to give, and that you may raise yourself up to receive it.
Sluggard, how much longer are you going to sleep? Yes, how much longer are you going to slumber on?
Scripture says, A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands in rest; otherwise, while you are
asleep, unaware of it, Christ will have risen from his tomb; and when, resplendent, he passes by, you will
not deserve to see even his back. Then, when it is too late, you will utter lamentations of repentance, and
say with the ungodly, Because we have wandered from the way of truth, neither the light of
righteousness has shone upon us, nor has the sun of understanding risen upon us.
But, for you who fear my name, says the Prophet, the sun of righteousness shall rise. And the man who
lives an upright life, his eyes shall see the king in his splendour.
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This undoubtedly refers to happiness in the life to come; but, as Christ’s resurrection clearly proves, it is
also granted to us in due measure for our consolation in this life.
So let us all rouse up and requicken our spirits, whether to watch in prayer or to work with a will, so that
our renewed and lively zest may show that, once again, we have received a share in Christ’s resurrection.
Indeed the chief sign of a man’s return to life is vigorous and energetic action. Moreover, he will make a
perfect return to life, if he dies to the body and opens his eyes to contemplation. However, his
understanding will be undeserving of this until he increases his love by frequent longings and ardent
desires, to render himself capable of something so sublime.
Life begins to return when prayer increases love; it reaches perfection when the understanding receives
the light of contemplation. Strive, then, brethren, to mount ever higher on the ladder of the virtues, the
means whereby we grow in holiness of life, so that, as the Apostle says, you may finally arrive at the
resurrection of Christ from the dead: he who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
MONDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

NEHEMIAH FREES THE POOR FROM THE OPPRESSION OF THE RICH: NEHEMIAH 5:1-19
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there
were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; let us get grain, that we may eat
and keep alive.” There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our
houses to get grain because of the famine.” And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money
for the kings tax upon our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our
children are as their children; yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our
daughters have already been enslaved; but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields
and our vineyards.”
I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. I took counsel with myself, and I brought
charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his
brother.” And I held a great assembly against them, and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have
bought back our Jewish brethren who have been sold to the nations; but you even sell your brethren that
they may be sold to us!” They were silent, and could not find a word to say. So I said, “The thing that you
are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations
our enemies? Moreover I and my brethren and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us
leave off this interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and
their houses, and the hundredth of money, grain, wine, and oil which you have been exacting of them.”
Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I
called the priests, and took an oath of them to do as they had promised. I also shook out my lap and said,
“So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labour who does not perform this
promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the
LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the
twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brethren
ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens
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upon the people, and took from them food and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants
lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. I also held to the work on this
wall, and acquired no land; and all my servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover there were
at my table a hundred and fifty men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations
which were about us. Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; fowls
likewise were prepared for me, and every ten days skins of wine in abundance; yet with all this I did not
demand the food allowance of the governor, because the servitude was heavy upon this people.
Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

SERMON (ATTRIB.), (PLS 1:51-52); WORD IN SEASON VII.
God’s will is what Christ did and taught: it means humility in behaviour, steadfastness in faith, modesty in
words, justice in deeds, mercy in good works, discipline in daily life; to be incapable of doing injury to
anyone, but able to bear the injury done to rejoice at the prosperity of our neighbour as if we ourselves
had deserved to prosper, to think of another’s loss as our own loss, and another’s gain as our own gain. It
is to love a friend not for the world’s sake but for God’s, to put up with and even love an enemy, to do to
nothing to anyone which you would not want to suffer yourself, to refuse no one what you rightly want
given to you; to help your neighbour in time of trouble not only according to your means, but willing to be
of use to him even beyond your means, and to keep the peace with your brothers. It is to love God with
all your heart, to love him as Father but fear him as Lord; and to put nothing before Christ, for he has
never put anything before us.
But all who love the name of the Lord will be glorified. Let us be unhappy here, so as to be happy
afterwards. Let us follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who say they believe in him must live in the same
way as he lived. Christ, the Son of God, came not to reign, but though king he shunned the kingdom; he
came not to rule, but to serve. He became poor to make us rich; he took blows for us, so that we
ourselves should feel no pain when scourged.
Let us imitate Christ. Christian is a name that stands for justice, kindness, and integrity. A Christian is one
who imitates and follows Christ in everything, who is holy, innocent, undefiled, and chaste. There is no
place in the heart of a Christian for malice, but only for devotion and goodness. A Christian is one who
follows the life of Christ, who is merciful to all and ignorant of injustice. A Christian is one who forbids the
poor to be disparaged in his presence, who helps the unfortunate, mourns with those who mourn, feels
another’s pain as if it was his own, and is moved to tears by the tears of others. A Christian’s house is
open to all, no one is ever shut out. The poor are always welcome at his table; everyone knows that
Christians are really good, and no one is left with any sense of injustice. A Christian is one who serves God
diligently day and night, whose soul is sincere and immaculate, whose conscience is faithful and pure,
whose mind is wholly on God, and who despises worldly possessions so that he may acquire heavenly
ones.
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TUESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A SOLEMN PROCLAMATION OF THE LAW IS MADE BY EZRA: NEHEMIAH 7:73B – 8:18
And when the seventh month had come, the children of Israel were in their towns. And all the people
gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the
book of the law of Moses which the LORD had given to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before
the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the
seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until
midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all
the people were attentive to the book of the law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit which
they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Ma-
aseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Misha-el, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and
Meshullam on his left hand. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above
all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God;
and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and
worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub,
Shabbethai, Hodiah, Ma-aseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to
understand the law, while the people remained in their places. And they read from the book, from the
law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the
people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the
people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and
drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord;
and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” So the Levites stilled all the people,
saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink
and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were
declared to them.
On the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came
together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the law. And they found it written in the law
that the LORD had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast
of the seventh month, and that they should publish and proclaim in all their towns and in Jerusalem, Go
out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths,
as it is written. So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his
roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in
the square at the Gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity
made booths and dwelt in the booths; for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people
of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the last
day, he read from the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day
there was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.
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IN ESDRAM ET NEHEMIAM, 3; (2006) TR. DEGREGORIO
As Nehemiah was seeking to make plans and decide who should reside in the city which they had built,
the seventh month arrived. The point to note here is the devotion and like-mindedness of the people who
as one man (that is, with one and the same faith and love) came together at the Lord’s Temple. They
themselves asked their pontifex to bring the book and recount for them the commandments of the Law
that they must observe, so that along with the rebuilt city, a structure of good works pleasing to God
might spring up in case, just as before, neglect of religion should lead to the ruination of the city.
Even today too, according to the spiritual meaning, the construction of the holy city should be followed
by divine reading and the frequent sounding of trumpets, no doubt because it is necessary that when a
people has been initiated into the heavenly sacraments they should also, as occasion requires, be
carefully instructed by divine discourses how they should live.
Solomon, being a king, made a bronze platform, whereas Ezra, as a man of lesser power, built a wooden
step to speak upon, just as Solomon or Moses also made the altar of holocaust out of bronze and the
descendants of the exiles replaced it with a stone one. But it should not be supposed that the wooden
step walls are less perfect mystery than the bronze scaffold. For, as has often been said, just as bronze,
for the length of time that it endures or for the sweetness of its sound, corresponds to the divine
sacraments which fail with no passing of the ages and their sound has gone out into all the earth, in the
same way wood too fits most aptly with these same sacraments on account of the trophy of the Lord’s
passion. The pontifex, therefore, stands out above all the people when he who receives the rank of
teacher rises above the activity of the crowd by the merit of a more perfect life; but he stands on a
wooden step that he made to speak upon when he makes himself higher than the rest through
exceptional imitation of the Lord’s passion.
So the people went out and brought back and made tabernacles for themselves, each man on his
dwelling, and in his courtyards. ‘on the dwelling’ means ‘on the roof of the houses’, for in Palestine they
do not have sloping roofs on the houses but the tops of all houses are flat and covered with beams and
boards. This is why in the Law it is commanded that whoever builds a new home should make breast-
works round the roof so that no one will fall from it and die. And so each one of us goes out and makes
tabernacles on his dwelling when, rising by means of the mind above the abode of his body, he tramples
down his harmful emotions with constant meditation on heavenly light and liberty. We do the same thing
in our courtyards too when, with a mind burning for heavenly things, we stand as it were outside the
world and desire to leave its dwelling-place as quickly as possible.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PENITENTIAL LITURGY AND PRAYER OF THE LEVITES: NEHEMIAH 9:1-2, 5-21
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in
sackcloth, and with earth upon their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners,
and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmi-el,
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Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD
your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing
and praise.”
And Ezra said: “Thou art the LORD, thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all
their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and thou preservest all of them;
and the host of heaven worships thee. Thou art the LORD, the God who didst choose Abram and bring
him forth out of Ur of the Chaldeans and give him the name Abraham; and thou didst find his heart
faithful before thee, and didst make with him the covenant to give to his descendants the land of the
Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite; and thou hast fulfilled
thy promise, for thou art righteous.
“And thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and hear their cry at the Red Sea, and didst
perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for thou
knewest that they acted insolently against our fathers; and thou didst get thee a name, as it is to this day.
And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land;
and thou didst cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud thou
didst lead them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they
should go. Thou didst come down upon Mount Sinai, and speak with them from heaven and give them
right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and thou didst make known to them
thy holy sabbath and command them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses thy servant. Thou
didst give them bread from heaven for their hunger and bring forth water for them from the rock for their
thirst, and thou didst tell them to go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey thy
commandments; they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders which thou didst perform
among them; but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt.
But thou art a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,
and didst not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a molten calf and said, ‘This is your
God who brought you up out of Egypt’, and had committed great blasphemies, thou in thy great mercies
didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud which led them in the way did not depart
from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night which lighted for them the way by which they should go.
Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them, and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth, and
gavest them water for their thirst. Forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked
nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.”

CONFERENCES, 9.9, 11-15; ACW (1997) TR. RAMSEY
We must explain one by one the different kinds of prayer that the Apostle divided in fourfold fashion
when he said: I urge first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made.
There is not the least doubt that the Apostle established these distinctions in this way for a good reason.
I urge first of all that supplications be made. A supplication is an imploring or a petition concerning sins,
by which a person who has been struck by compunction begs for pardon for his present or past misdeeds.
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Prayers are those acts by which we offer or vow something to God, which is called euché in Greek – that
is, a vow. For where the Greek says tas euchas, the Latin has ‘vows’: I will pay my vows to the Lord. This
will be fulfilled by each one of us in this way. We pray when we renounce this world and pledge that,
dead to every earthly deed and to an earthly way of life, we will serve the Lord with utter earnestness of
heart. We pray when we promise that, disdaining worldly honour and spurning earthly riches, we will
cling to the Lord in complete contrition of heart and poverty of spirit. We pray when we promise that we
will always keep the most pure chastity of body and unwavering patience, and when we vow that we will
utterly eliminate from our heart the roots of death-dealing anger and sadness.
In the third place there are intercessions, which we are also accustomed to make for others when our
spirits are fervent, beseeching on behalf of our dear ones and for the peace of the whole world, praying
with the Apostle, for kings and for all who are in authority.
Finally, in the fourth place there are thanksgivings, which the mind, whether recalling God’s past benefits,
contemplating his present ones, or foreseeing what great things God has prepared for those who love
him, offers to the Lord in unspeakable ecstasies. And with this intensity, too, more copious prayers are
sometimes made, when our spirit gazes with most pure eyes upon the rewards of the holy ones that are
stored up for the future and is moved to pour out wordless thanks to God with a boundless joy.
These four kinds sometimes offer opportunities for richer prayers, for from the class of supplication
which is born of compunction for sin, and from the state of prayer which flows from faithfulness in our
offerings and the keeping of our vows because of a pure conscience, and from intercession which pro-
ceeds from fervent charity, and from thanksgiving which is begotten from considering God’s benefits and
his greatness and loving-kindness, we know that frequently very fervent and fiery prayers arise. Thus it is
clear that all these kinds which we have spoken about appear helpful and necessary to everyone, so that
in one and the same man a changing disposition will send forth pure and fervent prayers of supplication
at one time, prayer at another, and intercession at another.
THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CONTINUATION OF THE LEVITES’ PRAYER; NEHEMIAH 9:22-37
“And thou didst give them kingdoms and peoples, and didst allot to them every corner; so they took
possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. Thou didst multiply
their descendants as the stars of heaven, and thou didst bring them into the land which thou hadst told
their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and thou didst
subdue before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and didst give them into their hands,
with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they
captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns
hewn out, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became
fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.
“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their back and
killed thy prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to thee, and they committed great
blasphemies. Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer; and
in the time of their suffering they cried to thee and thou didst hear them from heaven; and according to
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thy great mercies thou didst give them saviours who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But
after they had rest they did evil again before thee, and thou didst abandon them to the hand of their
enemies, so that they had dominion over them; yet when they turned and cried to thee thou didst hear
from heaven, and many times thou didst deliver them according to thy mercies. And thou didst warn
them in order to turn them back to thy law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey thy
commandments, but sinned against thy ordinances, by the observance of which a man shall live, and
turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years thou didst bear with
them, and didst warn them by thy Spirit through thy prophets; yet they would not give ear. Therefore
thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless in thy great mercies thou
didst not make an end of them or forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
“Now therefore, our God, the great and mighty and terrible God, who keepest covenant and steadfast
love, let not all the hardship seem little to thee that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our
priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.
Yet thou hast been just in all that has come upon us, for thou hast dealt faithfully and we have acted
wickedly; our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept thy law or heeded thy
commandments and thy warnings which thou didst give them. They did not serve thee in their kingdom,
and in thy great goodness which thou gavest them, and in the large and rich land which thou didst set
before them; and they did not turn from their wicked works. Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land
that thou gavest to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. And its rich yield
goes to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies
and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”
A READING FROM THE STROMATEIS OF ST CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

STROMATEIS, 7.7 (PG 9:450-1, 458-9); WORD IN SEASON VII
We are commanded to worship and honour him whom we believe to be the Word, our Saviour and ruler,
and through him the Father. Nor must we confine our worship to special days, but offer it perpetually
throughout our lives and in every way. The chosen race, justified by the commandment, declared: Seven
times a day I praise you. So he who possesses true knowledge honours God, that is, thanks him for his
gifts of spiritual knowledge and right conduct, in no specific place or appropriate sanctuary, still less at
certain feasts or on definite days, but everywhere and all his life, whether in solitude or with others of his
own faith.
Now the presence of some good man, because it inspires respect and reverence, is always an influence
for the better on those who chance to meet him. Then surely one who is always in the presence of God,
through spiritual knowledge and a life of ceaseless thanksgiving, cannot help but become a better person
in every way, in deed, word, and thought. Such is the man who is convinced of God’s presence
everywhere, refusing to believe that he is enclosed in any specific place. Then because of this conviction
of ours that God is present everywhere, our whole life becomes a celebration. We praise God as we till
the fields or sail the seas, and in all the other ways of life in which we employ our skills. Thus he who
possesses true knowledge draws closer to God, and is always serious and always happy. He is serious
because his attention is concentrated on the divine being, and happy because of his continuous
awareness of the blessings which God has given to mankind.
Yet petitionary prayer is not superfluous, even though we receive blessings without asking for them. Both
thanksgiving and prayer for the conversion of his fellowmen are required of the true Christian. That is the
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very way in which our Lord prayed. First he gave thanks because he had fulfilled his earthly ministry. Then
he prayed that as many as possible might receive true knowledge so that thanks to that knowledge they
might set out on the road to salvation, and by their salvation glorify God, and so that he who alone is
good, and alone is the Saviour, might be recognized through his Son for all eternity. And yet, the faith of
one who believes that he will receive what he has need of is in itself a kind of prayer, stored up within the
spirit.
But if prayer is an opportunity for communion with God, like any other opportunity of approach to God
we must not neglect it. God is not compelled to do good, but chooses to reward those who of their own
free will turn to him. So the true worshipers and servants of the divine being are those who offer him the
most free and the most royal service, arising both from a devout mind and from spiritual knowledge.
FRIDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DEDICATION OF THE WALL OF JERUSALEM: NEHEMIAH 12:27-47
And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to
Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals,
harps, and lyres. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the circuit round Jerusalem and
from the villages of the Netophathites; also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth;
for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem. And the priests and the Levites purified
themselves; and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.
Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies which gave
thanks and went in procession. One went to the right upon the wall to the Dung Gate; and after them
went Hoshaiah and half of the princes of Judah, and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, Judah, Benjamin,
Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, and certain of the priests sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan,
son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; and his kinsmen,
Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of
David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe went before them. At the Fountain Gate they went up straight
before them by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, to the
Water Gate on the east.
The other company of those who gave thanks went to the left, and I followed them with half of the
people, upon the wall, above the Tower of the Ovens, to the Broad Wall, and above the Gate of Ephraim,
and by the Old Gate, and by the Fish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, to
the Sheep Gate; and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard. So both companies of those who gave
thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me; and the priests Eliakim, Ma-
aseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Eli-o-enai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; and Ma-aseiah, Shemaiah,
Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader.
And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the
women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.
On that day men were appointed over the chambers for the stores, the contributions, the first fruits, and
the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the law for the priests and for the Levites
according to the fields of the towns; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered.
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And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the
gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. For in the days of David and
Asaph of old there was a chief of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the
singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart
that which was for the sons of Aaron.

IN MATTH., XXV.3 (BAREILLE XII:40-42); WORD IN SEASON VII.
Let us give thanks to God throughout our lives. For how wrong it would be, if every day we enjoyed his
blessings in deed, and yet in word gave him no return, and that too when an offering of gratitude would
but increase our advantage. For God needs nothing from us, but we need everything from him. So our
thanks are of no profit to him, but they make us more worthy of him. For if the memory of their kindness
towards us deepens our love for our fellow men, how much more will the perpetual memory of the Lord’s
goodness to us make us more eager to keep his commands.
For the best safeguard of a kindness is to remember it with everlasting gratitude. That is why that awe-
inspiring and life-giving sacrament which we celebrate at every gathering is called the Eucharist. It is the
commemoration of many blessings and the culmination of divine providence, and teaches us to give
thanks always.
For if to be born of a Virgin was a great miracle, and the amazed evangelist wrote of it: All this
happened, what can we say of the Lord's sacrifice? For if the Lord’s birth was called all this, what should
we call his crucifixion, the shedding of his blood, and his giving himself to us as a spiritual feast? Therefore
we must give thanks to him continuously, and let thanksgiving be the motive of all we do and say. And let
us give thanks not only for our own blessings, but for those of our neighbours too. Thus we shall be able
to rid ourselves of envy, and increase our love and make it more sincere. For to continue to envy those on
whose behalf we give thanks to the Lord will be impossible.
Therefore the priest too, when that sacrifice is set before him, bids us give thanks for the whole world, for
the old dispensation and the new, for all that was done for us before and all that awaits us hereafter. For
this sets us free from earth and turns us towards heaven, and makes angels out of men. Even the very
angels, in heavenly choirs, give thanks to God for his goodness to us, as they sing: Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace to men in whom he is well pleased.
But what is this to us who are not on earth and are not men? It means a great deal, for it teaches us so to
love our fellow-servants that we rejoice in their good fortune as if it were our own. It is for that reason
that St Paul in all his letters gives thanks for the blessings of the whole world. So let us too give everlasting
thanks for all the gifts, large or small, that are given both to ourselves and to others.
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SATURDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

REPENTANCE AND SALVATION: ISAIAH 59:1-14
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your
iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so
that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have
spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly, no one goes to law honestly; they
rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adders’
eggs, they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one which is crushed a viper is
hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their
works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make
haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in
their highways. The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made
their roads crooked, no one who goes in them knows peace.
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we look for light, and behold,
darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope like
those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigour we are like
dead men. We all growl like bears, we moan and moan like doves; we look for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify
against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the
LORD, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering
from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in
the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.

REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE, 78; WORD IN SEASON VII
In his merciful way our Lord shows us our sin and weakness by that light, lovely and gracious, which
shines from himself. Our sin is so vile and horrible that in his courtesy he will not show it to us except
under the light of his mercy and grace. It is his will that we should know four things: first, that he is the
ground of our life and existence; second, that he protects us by his might and mercy all the time we are in
sin among the enemies out to wreck us – we are in so much the greater danger since we give them the
opportunity they want, being ignorant of our own need; third, how courteously he protects us, making us
know when we are going astray; fourth, how loyally he waits for us, with unvarying affection; he wants us
to turn to him, uniting with him in love, as he is with us.
So it is that with this gracious information we are able to view our sin positively and not despairingly. For,
indeed, we must face it and by such sight be made ashamed of ourselves, and humbled for our pride and
presumption. We have got to see that of ourselves we are nothing but sin and wretchedness. We can
estimate from the little our Lord shows us how great is the total we do not see. For in his courtesy he
limits the amount we actually see: we could not stand the sight of what in fact it is, so vile and horrible it
is. And by this humiliating knowledge, through our contrition and his grace we shall break with everything
that is not our Lord. Then will our blessed Saviour heal us completely, and unite us to himself. This break
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and healing our Lord intends for mankind generally. The man who is highest and nearest to God sees
himself as sinful and as needy as I am; and I who am the least and most lowly of all who are to be saved
can be comforted along with the highest. So has our Lord made us one in his charity.
When he showed me that I would sin, I was so enjoying looking at him that I did not pay much attention
to this revelation, so our Lord in his courtesy refrained from further teaching until he gave me the grace
and will to attend. By this I was taught that though we may be raised to contemplation by our Lord’s
especial favour we still need to recognise our sin and weakness. Without such knowledge we cannot be
truly humble, nor indeed can we be saved.
I saw afterwards, too, that we may not always have this knowledge of ourselves, or of our spiritual
enemies – they do not wish us so much good! If they had their way we should not know it till our dying
day. We are greatly indebted to God then that he himself, for love’s sake, wills to show it to us in this time
of mercy and grace.
SUNDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

EXHORTATION TO CHOOSE WISDOM: PROVERBS 1:1-7, 20-33
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction in wise
dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; that prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and
discretion to the youth – the wise man also may hear and increase in learning, and the man of
understanding acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice; on the top of the walls she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How
long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Give heed to my reproof; behold, I
will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you
refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, and you have ignored all my
counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic
strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress
and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me
diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their
way and be sated with their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the
complacence of fools destroys them; but he who listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease,
without dread of evil.”
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COMMENTARY ON THE DIATESSARON, 1.18-19; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
Lord, who can grasp all the wealth of just one of your words? What we understand is much less than what
we leave behind, like thirsty people who drink from a fountain. For your word, Lord, has many shades of
meaning just as those who study it have many different points of view. The Lord has coloured his words
with many hues so that each person who studies it can see in it what he loves. He has hidden many
treasures in his word so that each of us is enriched as we meditate on it.
The word of God is a tree of life that from all its parts offers you fruits that are blessed. It is like that rock
opened in the desert that from all its parts gave forth a spiritual drink. As the Apostle says, All ate the
same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink.
He who comes into contact with some share of its treasure should not think that the only thing contained
in the word is what he himself has found. He should realise that he has only been able to find that one
thing from among many others. Nor, because only that one part has become his, should he say that the
word is void and empty and look down on it; but because he could not exhaust it he should give thanks
for its riches. Be glad that you were overcome and do not be sad that it overcame you. The thirsty man
rejoices when he drinks and he is not downcast because he cannot empty the fountain. Rather let the
fountain quench your thirst than have your thirst quench the fountain. Because if your thirst is quenched
and the fountain is not exhausted you can drink from it again whenever you are thirsty. But if when your
thirst is quenched the fountain also is dried up your victory will bode evil for you.
Be grateful for what you have received and do not grumble about the abundance left behind. What you
have received and what you have reached is your share, what remains is your heritage. What, at one
time, you are not able to receive because of your weakness, you will be able to receive at other times if
you persevere. Do not have the presumption to try and take in one draught what cannot be taken in one
draught, and do not abandon out of laziness what you may only consume little by little.
MONDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HOW WISDOM MAY BE FOUND: PROVERBS 3:1-20
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and
years of life and abundant welfare will they give you. Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind
them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favour and good repute in
the sight of God and man.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge
him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away
from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
Honour the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be
filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he
delights.
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Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding, for the gain from it is better
than gain from silver and its profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you
desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour. Her
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of
her; those who hold her fast are called happy.
The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge
the deeps broke forth, and the clouds drop down the dew.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON EXODUS BY ORIGEN

IN EX., 7.1, 3; FOC 71 (1982) TR. HEINE
After the crossing of the Red Sea and the secrets of the magnificent mystery, after dances and
tambourines, after triumphant hymns, they come to Mara. The water of Mara, however, was bitter and
the people could not drink it.
I think that the Law, if it be undertaken according to the letter, is sufficiently bitter and is itself Mara. For
what is so bitter as for a child to receive the wound of circumcision on the eighth day and tender infancy
suffer the hardness of the iron? A cup of this kind of Law is extremely bitter, so bitter in fact that the
people of God – not that people who were baptized in Moses in the sea and in the cloud, but that people
who were baptized in spirit and in water – cannot drink from that water. But indeed they cannot taste the
bitterness of circumcision nor are they able to endure the bitterness of victims for the observance of the
Sabbath.
But if God shows a tree which is thrown into this bitterness so that the water of the Law becomes sweet,
they can drink from it. Solomon teaches us in his proverbs that that tree is the one which the Lord
showed, when he says that wisdom is a tree of life for all who embrace it. If, therefore, the tree of the
wisdom of Christ has been thrown into the Law and has shown us how circumcision ought to be
understood, how the Sabbath and the law of leprosy are to be observed, what sort of distinction should
be held between clean and unclean, then the water of Mara is made sweet and the bitterness of the
letter of the Law is changed into the sweetness of spiritual understanding and then the people of God can
drink. Whence it is established that if anyone without the tree of life, that is without the mystery of the
cross, without faith in Christ, without spiritual understanding should wish to drink from the letter of the
Law, he will die from too much bitterness. Because the Apostle Paul knew this he said, The letter kills. This
openly states that the water of Mara kills if it is drunk unchanged and not made sweet.
After this the text says that they came to Elim and there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm
trees there. Do you suppose there is no reason why the people were not previously led to Elim where
there were twelve springs of water in which there was no bitterness but rather exceptional pleasantness
from the density of the palms, but first were led to the salty and bitter waters and come to the springs
only after the bitter waters have been made sweet by the tree which was shown by the Lord? If we follow
only the simple record of facts, it does not edify us much to know to what place they came first and to
what place second. But if we pry into the mystery lying hidden in these matters we discover the order of
faith. For first people are led to the letter of the Law. They cannot withdraw from this while they remain
in its bitterness. But when the Law has been made sweet by the tree of life and has begun to be
understood spiritually, then they pass over from the Old Testament to the New and come to the twelve
apostolic springs.
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TUESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PRAISE OF ETERNAL WISDOM: PROVERBS 8:1-5, 12-36
Does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, in the
paths she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries
aloud: “To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the sons of men. O simple ones, learn prudence; O foolish
men, pay attention. I, wisdom, dwell in prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the
LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have
counsel and sound wisdom, I have insight, I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is
just; by me princes rule, and nobles govern the earth.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honour are with me,
enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice
silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, endowing with wealth those who love
me, and filling their treasuries.
The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the
first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there
were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was
brought forth; before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he
established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm
the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so
that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men.
And now, my sons, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do
not neglect it. Happy is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
For he who finds me finds life and obtains favour from the LORD; but he who misses me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”
A READING FROM THE DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS OF ST ATHANASIUS

AGAINST THE ARIANS, 2.78, 81-2; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
The Only-begotten, the absolute Wisdom of God is the creator and maker of all things. In wisdom you
made all things Scripture says, and again: the earth is full of your creation. In order that what was made
might not only be, but might be good, God willed that his own Wisdom should come down to the level of
created things and impress a sort of stamp and likeness of its image on all in common and on each
individually, so that what was made would be seen to be wise, a worker worthy of God.
As our word is the image of the Son of God considered as Word, so too the wisdom which is impressed on
us is an image of the same Son considered as Wisdom. In this wisdom we have the power of knowledge
and thought, and we become capable of receiving the creative Wisdom; and through this we are enabled
to know its Father. As Scripture says: He who has the Son has the Father also; and again: He who receives
me receives him who sent me. Because such an impress of Wisdom has been created in us and is found in
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all the works of creation, it is natural that the true, creative Wisdom would apply to itself what belongs to
its impress, and say: The Lord created to me for his works.
But since, in the wisdom of God, as we have explained, the world did not know God through wisdom, it
pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. God no longer wanted, as in
former times, to be known through the image and shadow of wisdom that exists in created things. He
made the true Wisdom itself take flesh, and become man, and suffer the death of the cross, so that for
the future all who believe might be saved by faith in him.
The Wisdom of God formerly revealed itself through its own image impressed on created things (by
reason of which it is said to be created) and through itself revealed its own Father. It is the same Wisdom
of God which later, being the Word, became flesh, as John says, and after destroying death and saving
our race revealed himself still more fully and through himself his Father. As so he said: Grant that they
may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Hence the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of him. The knowledge of Father through Son and of
Son from Father is one and the same; the Father rejoices in him, and with the same joy the Son delights in
the Father. It was I in whom he rejoiced, he says, every day I took delight in his presence.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM AND FOOLISHNESS: PROVERBS 9:1-18
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts, she has
mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her maids to call from the highest places in
the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who is without sense she says, “Come, eat of
my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave simpleness, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
He who corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not
reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise
man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. The fear of the
LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will
be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff,
you alone will bear it.
A foolish woman is noisy; she is wanton and knows no shame. She sits at the door of her house, she takes
a seat on the high places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who is without sense she says, “Stolen water is
sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her
guests are in the depths of Sheol.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON PROVERBS BY ST PROCOPIUS

ST PROCOPIUS OF GAZA, ON PROVERBS 9; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
Wisdom has built herself a house. The personal, subsistent power of God the Father has built as his
dwelling place not only the whole universe in which he lives by his activity, but also man whom he has
made in his own image and likeness, with a nature partly seen, partly unseen.
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She has set up her seven pillars. To man thus created in Christ’s image after his birth, Wisdom gives the
seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, in so far as he believes in Christ and keeps his commandments. If he lives by
the Spirit, these gifts will bring him to perfection, if by their means his virtue is motivated by his
knowledge, and this knowledge itself is embodied in virtue. He will be made perfect by participating in
the divine nature of faith, and by his sharing in supernatural things. The gifts of the Spirit direct aright the
enlightenment in the spirit according to nature: fortitude which prepares him eagerly to rush forward and
be moved to the reasons for things that are, namely the will of God according to which all things have
come into being; counsel which discriminates between the all holy will of God, as being uncreated and
indestructible and allowing thought and speech and action, and what is opposite to that will;
understanding which makes a man turn towards these and not to their opposites and to agree with them.
She has mixed her wine in her chalice; she has laid her table. Such a man is like a chalice in which a nature
both spiritual and physical is mixed. In him God has united a recognition of himself as the cause of the
universe, and a knowledge of his creatures. On the mind possessed of this knowledge it is natural for the
things of God to have the inebriating effect of wine. So does he himself, the bread from heaven, become
the nourishment of souls whereby they grow in virtue. He makes them drink in knowledge to their
delight, and all this he has prepared as a heavenly banquet for the spiritual entertainment of those who
wish to share it.
She has sent out her servants with the sublime invitation to receive the chalice. Christ sent out the
Apostles as the ministers of his divine will. They were to proclaim that spiritual Gospel which ranks above
natural law and written codes, and to call men to himself. In him, as in a chalice, the mystery of the
Incarnation effected without confusion that astounding hypostatic union of the divine and human
natures. Through the Apostles he says: He who is foolish let him turn aside to me. It is the man who thinks
in his heart There is no God who is foolish. Let him give up his disbelief and draw near to me through
faith; then he will know that I am the Creator of all things and their Lord.
And to those who lack wisdom she says: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed for you. To
those who are still deficient in the works of faith and in the more perfect knowledge of God that inspires
them, he says ‘Come, eat my body, the bread that makes you grow according to virtue, and drink my
blood, the wine that delights you according to knowledge and intoxicates you to become divine – the
blood which I miraculously mingled with my divine nature for your salvation.’
THURSDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VARIOUS COUNSELS: PROVERBS 10:6-32
Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. The memory
of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. The wise of heart will heed
commandments, but a prating fool will come to ruin. He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who
perverts his ways will be found out. He who winks the eye causes trouble, but he who boldly reproves
makes peace. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals
violence. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offences. On the lips of him who has understanding
wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. Wise men lay up knowledge, but the
babbling of a fool brings ruin near. A rich man’s wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their
ruin. The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin. He who heeds instruction is on
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the path to life, but he who rejects reproof goes astray. He who conceals hatred has lying lips, and he
who utters slander is a fool. When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but he who restrains his
lips is prudent. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the mind of the wicked is of little worth. The
lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense. The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and
he adds no sorrow with it. It is like sport to a fool to do wrong, but wise conduct is pleasure to a man of
understanding. What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be
granted. When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established for ever. Like
vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. The fear of the
LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. The hope of the righteous ends in gladness,
but the expectation of the wicked comes to nought. The LORD is a stronghold to him whose way is
upright, but destruction to evildoers. The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell
in the land. The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. The
lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.

IN PS. 36, 65-66; THE DIVINE OFFICE I.
Let us be for ever pondering on wisdom in our hearts and discussing it with our lips; let your tongue speak
only what is right, and let God’s Law be constantly in your hearts. For that is what Scripture enjoins on us:
let your concern be only with such things as these when you sit in your house and walk by the way, and
when you lie down, and when you rise. Let the Lord Jesus then be the sole object of your discourse, for
he is Wisdom, even the Word, God’s own word. For Scripture also commands, Open your mouth to
receive God’s word. That man manifests him who constantly repeats his sayings and meditates on his
words. Let us always be speaking of him. Whenever we speak of wisdom it is of him we speak; when we
speak of virtue it is of him; and when we speak of truth and life and redemption it is of him.
It is written, Open your mouth to the word of God. It is for you to open, but he speaks. Therefore David
said, I will hear what the Lord says within me, and the Son of God himself says, Open your mouth wide,
and I will fill it. But not all of us can receive, like Solomon and Daniel, the perfection of wisdom, but upon
all will be poured out the Spirit of wisdom to each according to his capacity, provided that he is a man of
faith. If you believe, you have the spirit of wisdom.
Therefore when you sit in your house meditate and speak always of the things of God. House we can take
to mean the Church or our own interior house where we may speak within ourselves. Choose your words
when you speak so that you avoid sin and do not fall through empty chatter. When you are seated speak
to yourself as one who is a judge. When you are by the way speak lest you be idle. You speak by the way if
you speak in Christ, for Christ is the way. Speak to yourself by the way and you speak to Christ. Hear then
how you are to talk to him, I desire, he said, that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands
without anger or quarrelling: Speak, O man, when you are falling asleep lest the sleep of death overtake
you. Hear how you should speak as you go to sleep, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my
eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob.
In your rising or resurrection speak of him that you may carry out what you are commanded to do. Hear
how Christ wakens you. Your soul says, The voice of my brother sounds at the gate, and Christ says, Open
to me, my sister, my spouse. And hear how you are to awaken Christ. The soul says, I have adjured you, O
daughters of Jerusalem, to waken and to re-awaken love. Love is Christ.
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FRIDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

MAN PLACED IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD: PROVERBS: 15:8-9, 16-17, 25-26, 29, 33; 16:1-9;
17:5
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The
way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but he loves him who pursues righteousness. Better is a
little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where
love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it. The LORD tears down the house of the proud, but maintains
the widow’s boundaries. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, the words of the
pure are pleasing to him. The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. The
fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honour.
The plans of the mind belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a
man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the LORD, and your
plans will be established. The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of
trouble. Every one who is arrogant is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
By loyalty and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil. When a
man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with
righteousness than great revenues with injustice. A man’s mind plans his way, but the LORD directs his
steps.
He who mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER OF ST JOHN BY ST

AUGUSTINE
ON 1 JOHN, 4; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
What have we been promised? We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The tongue has said all
it can, the rest must come from the thoughtful heart. In comparison with HIM WHO IS, what are the
words even of St John? And what can we men say who are so far from equalling John’s merits?
Let us go back to that anointing of his, let is go back to that anointing that reaches from within what we
cannot express in words, and since for the present you cannot see, let your efforts consist in desire.
The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire. What you desire you cannot see yet. But the desire
gives you the capacity, so that when it does see, you may be fulfilled.
Suppose you want to fill some sort of bag, and you know the bulk of what you will be given, you stretch
the bag or the sack or the skin or whatever it is. You know how big the object that you want to put in and
you see that the bag is narrow so you increase its capacity by stretching it. In the same way by delaying
the fulfilment of desire God stretches it, by making us desire he expands the soul, and by this expansion
he increases its capacity.
Then, brothers, let us desire because we are to be filled. Look at St Paul stretching wide his heart to make
it big enough to receive what was to come. He says in effect, Not that I have already obtained this or am
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already perfect; brethren I do not consider that I have made it my own. What, then, Paul are you doing in
life if you have not yet made it your own? But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call. He describes
himself as straining forward and pressing on. He felt too small to encompass what the eye has not seen
nor the ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man.
This is our life, to be exercised by desire. But we are exercised by holy desire only in so far as we have cut
off our longings from the love of the world. I have already pointed out – empty that which is to be filled.
You are to be filled with good, pour out the bad.
Consider that God wants to fill you up with honey, but if you are already full of vinegar where will you put
the honey? What was in the vessel must be emptied out; the vessel itself must be washed out and made
clean and scoured, hard work though it may be, so that it be made fit for something else, whatever it may
be.
Let us say honey, or gold, or wine, whatever we say it cannot be named and whatever we want to say is in
fact called ‘God’. And when we say ‘God’ what have we said? That one syllable contains all that we hope
for. Whatever is in our power to say is less than he, let us stretch ourselves out towards him so that when
he comes he may fill us. ‘We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PRAISE OF THE WORTHY WOMAN: PROVERBS 31:10-31
A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool
and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from
afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and tasks for her maidens. She
considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She girds her loins with
strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not
go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to
the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her
household are clothed in scarlet. She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her
husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and
sells them; she delivers girdles to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at
the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She
looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and
call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you
surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be
praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

SERMON 37.1-2, 4, 25-26; WSA (1990) TR. HILL
The book of Scripture which I am holding in my hands commends a certain woman to us to be praised.
She’s a great woman and has a great husband, the husband who found her when she was lost and
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adorned her once she was found. About her I shall say a few things in the time available, as the Lord
suggests to me, it’s the feast day of the martyrs, after all, and that’s all the more reason for praising the
mother of martyrs.
You have already grasped who this woman is from these opening remarks of mine, you are saying to
yourselves, ‘She must be the Church.’ Yes. Who else, after all, could be the mother of martyrs? The
woman I want to say something about is the Church. Pay attention to whose members you are; observe
carefully whose children you are. A valiant woman who shall find? The woman’s valour fits the martyrs’
feast day very well. If she hadn’t been valiant, those members of hers would have broken down under
their sufferings.
A valiant woman who shall find? She’s difficult to find – or rather she’s difficult to be ignorant of. Isn’t she
the city on the hill, which cannot be hidden? She is the city, but she is also that one sheep which
the shepherd went looking for when it was lost, and when he found it brought it home on his shoulder
rejoicing. So now, having heard the words A valiant woman who shall find, you mustn’t think they are said
about a Church that is hidden away, but about that Church which was found by one man, so that nobody
now can possibly miss her. So let her be described, then, let her be praised, let her be commended, to be
loved by all of us as our mother, because she is the wife of one man.
The heart of her husband is confident about her. He certainly is confident, and he has taught us to be
confident too. He commissioned the Church, you see, to the ends of the earth, among all nations, from
sea to sea. If she wasn’t going to persevere to the end, her husband’s heart would not be confident about
her. The heart of her husband is confident about her. With foreknowledge he is confident, he cannot be
mistaken in his confidence.
If you are a child of this woman, notice what riches are promised you: Her children have risen up and
been enriched. Get yourself ready to receive the riches of the resurrection. And her husband has praised
her. We too praise her, but not from our own resources. When her children have risen up and been
enriched, he has turned to her, and gazed at her, and praised her. Could anyone not want to hear how he
has praised her? If you have listened so happily while she was being praised by me, how do you imagine
we would listen if we could hear just how her husband has praised her? He has praised her in the
resurrection. When we have risen, we shall hear. Or perhaps even now he hasn’t kept this praise a secret,
even now we can hear how her husband has praised her when he sees her finally with that stupendous
blessing of children, rich in the resurrection of the dead.
SUNDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB IS DEPRIVED OF HIS GOODS: JOB 1:1-22
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one
who feared God, and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He
had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-
asses, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons
used to go and hold a feast in the house of each on his day; and they would send and invite their three
sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send
and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the
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number of them all; for Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.”
Thus Job did continually.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also
came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “Whence have you come?” Satan answered the LORD, “From
going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have
you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man,
who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for
nought? Hast thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast
blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand
now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold,
all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand.” So Satan went forth from
the presence of the LORD.
Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s
house; and there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding
beside them; and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the
sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said,
“The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I
alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, “The
Chaldeans formed three companies, and made a raid upon the camels and took them, and slew the
servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking,
there came another, and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
brother’s house; and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the
house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped. And he
said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has
taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
A READING FROM THE MORALIA IN JOB OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT

MORALIA IN JOB, 2.17.30-18.31 (SC 32BIS:203-205); WORD IN SEASON VII
When Job lost everything, at Almighty’s God decree, to preserve his peace of mind he remembered the
time when he did not yet possess the things he had now lost; in that way, by realising more and more
clearly that once he had not had them, he would the more easily moderate his grief over their loss. For
indeed whenever we lose something it can be a great consolation to call to mind the days when we did
not have it.
So, then, the blessed Job, wishing to cultivate patience as he bewails his losses, carefully considers to
what state he is now reduced. To enhance his peace of mind he ponders yet more closely his origins,
saying as he does so: Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return whence I came. In other
words, the earth produced me naked, and naked will receive me back when I leave it. Since therefore the
things I have lost were only what I had received and must leave behind, what have I lost that really
belonged to me? But then, because consolation derives not only from thinking about one’s condition but
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also about the Creator’s uprightness, he is right to add: The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; as it
has pleased the Lord, so has he wrought.
He well says, as it has pleased the Lord. For since in this world we have to put up with things we do not
like, it is necessary that we should accommodate our best endeavours to him who cannot will anything
that is unjust. If therefore we know that what is just and equitable pleases the Lord, and that we can
suffer nothing but what is pleasing to him, then all our sufferings must for that reason be justly and fairly
imposed: and it would therefore be very unjust of us to grumble at them.
We should note that, having got all that right, Job ends by praising God. This was so that his adversary
might realise, overcome by shame at seeing Job’s plight, that his own attitude in his prosperity is one of
contempt for God, the same God to whom even this man, now fallen on evil times, can nevertheless sing
a hymn of praise. We should realise that the enemy of our race can smite us with as many of his darts as
there are temptations for him to afflict us with. For we do battle daily; and daily his onslaught of
temptations rains down on us. But we in turn can fire our darts against him if, while buried in our
tribulations, we will but react in humility. Thus Job, although suffering in material things, is still a blessed
and happy man.
We should not think that our champion merely receives wounds without inflicting any in return. Indeed,
every prayer of patience offered by the sufferer in God’s praise is a dart turned against the enemy’s
breast: and a much sharper blow is thereby struck than the one sustained. For the man in his afflictions
loses only earthly goods, whereas in bearing humbly with his afflictions he has increased many times over
his stock in heaven.
MONDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB, AFFLICTED WITH SORES, IS VISITED BY HIS FRIENDS: JOB 2:1-13
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan
also came among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, “Whence have
you come?” Satan answered the LORD, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and
down on it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like
him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds
fast his integrity, although you moved me against him, to destroy him without cause.” Then Satan
answered the LORD, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But put forth thy hand now,
and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold,
he is in your power; only spare his life.”
So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD, and afflicted Job with loathsome sores from the sole
of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among
the ashes.
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But he said to her,
“You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall
we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
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Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own
place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment
together to come to condole with him and comfort him. And when they saw him from afar, they did not
recognize him; and they raised their voices and wept; and they rent their robes and sprinkled dust upon
their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no
one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

HOM. IN PARALYTICUM DEMISSUM PER TECTA (PG 51:62-63); WORD IN SEASON VII
We can find ample consolation not only in the New Testament but in the Old Testament as well. Consider
the story of Job, and how, after the loss of his wealth and the destruction of his herds, not one, two or
even three of his children were taken from him, but all of them together in the very flower of their youth.
When you hear of his great spiritual courage, even if you are the weakest of men, it is not so difficult to
recover yourself and return to life.
For you, my friend, at least watched over your sick child as he lay on his bed, you heard his last words and
attended him as his life came to an end, you shut his eyes and closed his mouth. But Job was not present
at his children’s death, nor saw them dying in the house where all were buried as in a single tomb. Yet
after such overwhelming disasters he neither grieved nor despaired, but said: The Lord gave, and the Lord
has taken away; it has been done as the Lord willed. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
Let us too utter these words in every misfortune that life brings us, be it loss of wealth, bodily sickness,
abuse, slander, or any other human ill. Let us say: The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; it has been
done as the Lord willed. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
If we make this our philosophy, no misfortune will ever cause us suffering, however many we endure. The
gain will always be greater than the loss, and the good will outweigh the bad, since with these words you
attract the favour of God and shake off the tyranny of the devil. For as soon as you utter them, the devil
at once takes to flight, and when he has gone the cloud of dejection lifts too and oppressive thoughts
disappear in the company of their master; and besides all this you will have as your reward all the
blessings both of earth and of heaven. You have a steadfast example in Job and also in the Apostles, who
scorned the terrors of this world for God’s sake, and so gained the blessings of eternity. Let us then follow
them, and in all that happens to us rejoice and give thanks to the benevolent God. So shall we pass this
present life in contentment and gain the blessings to come, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to whom be glory, honour and power at all times, now and forever and to endless ages. Amen.
TUESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LAMENT OF JOB: JOB 3:1-26
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said: “Let the day perish wherein
I was born, and the night which said, ‘A man-child is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness! May God above
not seek it, nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the
blackness of the day terrify it. That night – let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of
the year, let it not come into the number of the months. Yea, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be
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heard in it. Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of its
dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning; because it did not
shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
“Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? Or
why the breasts, that I should suck? For then I should have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept;
then I should have been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not as a hidden untimely
birth, as infants that never see the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are
at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and
the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
“Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes
not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures; who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they find the
grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes as
my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and
what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOB OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

IN JOB, 3.11-16, 20-23; ACC 6 (2006) TR. SIMONETTI & CONTI.
Do not be amazed when I tell you that Job did not say, Why did I not die at birth? These are words I lend
him, words that seem contrary to his profound goodness. We know Job suffered righteously what he was
suffering, and so he must have reasonably and wisely said that It would have been better if I had not been
born; but this is exactly what Christ said about Judas: It would have been better for that man if he had not
been born. And yet Job says much the same thing of himself: Why was I born? It would have been better
if I had not been born.
It seems to me that Job is attempting to humble his friends and to persuade them not to attach a great
importance to human affairs. Job has not introduced the dead kings into this passage without purpose
when he speaks of those who gloried in their swords. Notice how even amidst his afflictions Job possesses
words full of wisdom. Their wealth, in fact, has granted the kings no protection; their power has been of
no use; death has come at the end for everyone. After this Job goes on to say of himself, why was I not as
a stillborn child that never sees the light? Notice how, in order that he may not appear to be arrogant, he
even compares himself with a stillborn child, so absolutely wretched and pitiful is he.
Why is light given, Job asks, to those whose soul dwells in bitterness, and life to those souls who are in
pain? Again this is not the language – God forbid – of someone who makes rebukes, but of someone who
searches and suffers. From this we learn that not only life but also death is useful, when it is more desired
than evil. In this way Job speaks of those who long for death, but, he says, it does not come. That is why
the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says, For everything there is a season and, in another passage, O death, how
your memory is sweet.
When you hear Job’s wife suggesting to him, Curse God, and die, you should not suppose that he did not
answer her because of his love of life but rather because of his piety. Indeed he who considered death to
be very desirable and saw it as a real goodness when he was allowed to obtain it did not dare speak
against God. Job declares, Death is rest for man. Now if death brings rest, why don’t the majority of
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people rush to it? Because God has made life desirable in order to prevent us from running to death. Job
goes on to say of death, It’s way is hidden, and he adds, they dig for it more than for hidden treasures. By
this Job is saying that our future is unknown. We ourselves do not uncover it, neither should we attempt
to do so. Please do not speak to me about those who attempt to take their life in their own hands and
who hang themselves; Job is here speaking about what conforms to nature and the commandments of
God, not about an unnatural sin. He says of death, God has surrounded it with a wall, and the Gospel
likewise states that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. Thus to respond to the question,
Why do you not choose death? Job answers, The Lord has surrounded it with a wall: Its doors are closed.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ: JOB 4:1-21
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: “If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? Yet who
can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it
has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God
your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen,
those who plough iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the
blast of his anger they are consumed.
The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The strong lion
perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
“Now a word was brought to me stealthily, my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions
of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my
bones shake. A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not
discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mortal
man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in his servants he puts no
trust, and his angels he charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose
foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth. Between morning and evening they are
destroyed; they perish for ever without any regarding it. If their tent-cord is plucked up within them, do
they not die, and that without wisdom?’”

CONFESSIONS, 10.26.37-29.40; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
In what place then did I find you to learn of you? For you were not in my memory, before I learned of you.
Where did I find you to learn of you, save in yourself, above myself? Place there is none, we go this way
and that, and place there is none. You, who are Truth, reside everywhere to answer all who ask counsel of
you, and in one act reply to all though all seek counsel upon different matters.
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And you answer clearly, but all do not hear clearly. All ask what they wish, but do not always hear the
answer that they wish. That man is your best servant who is not so much concerned to hear from you
what he wills as to will what he hears from you.
Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved you! For behold you were within
and I outside; and I sought you outside and in my ugliness fell upon those lovely things that you have
made. You were with me and I was not with you. I was kept from you by those things, yet had they not
been in you, they would not have been at all. You called and cried to me and broke open my deafness:
and you sent forth your beams and shone upon me and chased away my blindness: you breathed
fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for you: I tasted you, and now hunger and
thirst for you: you touched me, and I have burned for your peace.
When once I shall be united to you with all my being, there shall be no more grief and toil, and my life will
be alive, filled wholly with you. You raise up him whom you fill; whereas being not yet filled with you I am
a burden to myself. The pleasures of this life for which I should weep are in conflict with the sorrows of
this life in which I should rejoice, and I know not on which side stands the victory.
Woe is me, Lord, have pity on me! For I have likewise sorrows which are evil and these are in conflict with
joys that are good, and I know not on which side stands the victory. Woe is me, Lord have mercy upon
me! Woe is me! See, I do not hide my wounds: you are the physician, I the sick man; you are merciful, I
need mercy. Is not the life of man on earth a trial? Who would choose trouble and difficulty? You
command us to endure them, not to love them. No one loves what he endures, though he may love to
endure. For though he rejoices at his endurance, yet he would rather that there were nothing to endure.
In adversity I desire prosperity, in prosperity I fear adversity. Yet what middle place is there between the
two, where man’s life may be other than trial? There is woe and woe again in the prosperity of this world,
woe from the fear of adversity, woe from the corruption of joy. There is woe in the adversity of the world,
and a second woe, and a third, from the longing for prosperity, and because adversity itself is hard, and
for fear that endurance may break! Is not man’s life upon earth trial without intermission? All my hope is
naught save in your great mercy
THURSDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

“DESPISE NOT THE CHASTENING OF THE ALMIGHTY”: JOB 5:1-27
“Call now; is there any one who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Surely vexation
kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple. I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his
dwelling. His sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
His harvest the hungry eat, and he takes it even out of thorns; and the thirsty pant after his wealth. For
affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground; but man is born to
trouble as the sparks fly upward.
“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause; who does great things and
unsearchable, marvellous things without number: he gives rain upon the earth and sends waters upon
the fields; he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He frustrates
the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and
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grope at noonday as in the night. But he saves the fatherless from their mouth, the needy from the hand
of the mighty. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
“Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty. For
he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal. He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven
there shall no evil touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the
sword. You shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At
destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with
you. You shall know that your tent is safe, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. You shall
know also that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth. You shall
come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season. Lo,
this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOB BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND

IN JOB, 5.9-10, 21; ACC 6 (2006) TR. SIMONETTI & CONTI
Eliphaz acknowledges that God is the Ruler and Creator of all things. He is a man who possesses wisdom
in human things. Eliphaz also has an understanding of the invisible and visible, since he speaks of the
inexplorable, the great, the honourable, and also of water and rain. If he distinguishes that water from
rain, he must have in mind water from wells, from creeks and from cracks in stone. One can find very wise
thoughts of this kind in many places in Scripture, not least of all in Paul, who writes, In him all things in
heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible. But it seems clear that Eliphaz became
afraid in a very human way because of the things that it happened to holy Job, and so he turned from this
to admire the works of providence. Regarding the things without number, one has to admit that Eliphaz
speaks from a human perspective. For God himself knows everything, there is no miracle in that. Doesn’t
Solomon say, For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the
world and the activity of the elements; the beginning and end and middle of times; the alternations of the
solstices and so on? This knowledge is also given to those who, like Solomon, are worthy of this benefit.
Again Eliphaz vigorously criticises the one who has been rebuked by the Lord, but too often it is righteous
people who have been vilified. Among them are Joseph, whom the Egyptian woman charged with excess
in spite of his modesty, and Susanna, who suffered as a hostage the humiliations from the lawless elders.
Consequently, if he understands his words that the just man rebuked by the Lord will be hidden from the
scourge of the tongue to mean that he is neither humiliated nor vilified, he is wrong. It is more accurate
to say that the one who lives by the will of God cannot be harmed by humiliation or vilification, by the
scourge of the tongue. Virtue protects him from being found guilty of the false allegations. Nor does such
a person fear the coming destruction, since he says with St Paul, Who will separate us from the love of
Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Over all this
he prevails through virtue’s abundance. Likewise, he is protected from the intrigues of false wisdom, since
God takes the wise in their own craftiness.
The words of the Prophet, The calamity will come from far away, must be understood like this: the good
comes from us. For it is said, The kingdom of God is within you, and so we have an inclination toward
virtue that Christ called ‘kingdom’. But the punishment and damage and disorder of sin come from the
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outside. For the man, who is created after God’s image, carries the seed of the good within, but if he
deviates from the right path, he encounters evil, without having received such an inclination from God.
FRIDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE RESPONSE OF THE AFFLICTED AND ABANDONED JOB: JOB 6:1-30
Then Job answered: “O that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! For then
it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the
Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the
wild ass bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten
without salt, or is there any taste in the slime of the purslane? My appetite refuses to touch them; they
are as food that is loathsome to me.
“O that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire; that it would please God to crush
me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! This would be my consolation; I would even exult in
pain unsparing; for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?
In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me.
“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brethren are treacherous
as a torrent-bed, as freshets that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. In
time of heat they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place. The caravans turn aside from
their course; they go up into the waste, and perish. The caravans of Tema look, the travellers of Sheba
hope. They are disappointed because they were confident; they come thither and are confounded. Such
you have now become to me; you see my calamity, and are afraid. Have I said, ‘Make me a gift?’ Or,
‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me?’ Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?’ Or, ‘Ransom me
from the hand of oppressors?’
“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have erred. How forceful are honest words!
But what does reproof from you reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a
despairing man is wind? You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.
“But now, be pleased to look at me; for I will not lie to your face. Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done. Turn
now, my vindication is at stake. Is there any wrong on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern calamity?”

MORALIA IN JOB, 23.2 (PL 76:251); WORD IN SEASON VII
It is because the ancient Fathers resemble trees bearing abundant fruit, being not merely attractive
figures in themselves but productive also of positive results, that their lives are so well worth considering.
For in so doing, we realise, as we wonder at the freshness and originality of people in history, how much
fecundity there is in allegory, and how the sweetness of fruit to the taste can be anticipated from the
allurement of fragrant leaves. No one has ever had the grace of supernatural adoption except through his
acknowledgment of the Only-begotten. And so it is fitting that he who enlightens men that they may
merit to shine forth should himself be manifest in their lives and their words. For when a lantern is lit in
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the darkness it is the lantern itself which is seen before all the rest, everything else that it lights up. Hence
if we really wish to discern what has been made visible, we must try to open the eyes of our minds to the
light itself. This lesson shines through the speeches of the blessed Job, like a fleeting twinkle, even when
those involved allegories are edited out and forgotten, and the shadows of the darkest hours of night are
as it were removed. For he says: I know that my Redeemer lives, and in my flesh I shall see God.
Indeed Saint Paul had found this same light in the night of history, when he said: All were baptized in the
power of Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same
spiritual drink. But they drank of the spiritual rock which lay in their path: and the rock was Christ. If, then,
the rock was a type or figure of the Redeemer, why should not the blessed Job apply and use a figure of
him whom he foretold and marked, indeed identified, with suffering? Wherefore Job is not without
reason said to be grieving precisely because he bears in himself the likeness of him whom Isaiah had
long ago announced as taking our sorrows on himself. Moreover our Redeemer showed himself to be one
and the same person identified with his Holy Church which he took up and manifested. For of him it is
said: He is the head, Christ himself. And again, of his Church it is written: And the body of Christ, which is
the Church. Hence the blessed Job, who presented the type and bore the mark of the Mediator all the
more faithfully for having prefigured his passion not merely in speech but even in suffering, since in his
words and deeds he finds support in the idea of a redeemer, has lighted in a flash on the very significance
of the body itself. Believing Christ and his Church to be one person, let us view it in the light of one
person and everything he does, the body and its every act.
SATURDAY, FIFTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB CRIES OUT IN PROTEST TO THE LORD FOR THE WEARINESS OF HIS LIFE: JOB 7:1-21
“Has not man a hard service upon earth, and are not his days like the days of a hireling? Like a slave who
longs for the shadow, and like a hireling who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me. When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night is
long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then
breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope.
“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will
behold me no more; while thy eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he
who goes down to Sheol does not come up; he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know
him any more.
“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the
bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that thou settest a guard over me? When I say, ‘My
bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint’, then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify
me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life; I
would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. What is man, that thou dost make so
much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him, dost visit him every morning, and test him every
moment? How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle? If I sin,
what do I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have I become a
burden to thee? Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall
lie in the earth; thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be.”
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MORALIA IN JOB, 8.23, 26, 30, 34; ACC 6 (2006) TR. SIMONETTI & CONTI
My flesh is clothed with corruption and foulness of dust. If we take Job’s words as the voice of the holy
Church universal, doubtless we find it at one time sunk to the earth by the corruption of the flesh, at
another time by the defilement of dust. For the Church has many within it who, while devoted to the love
of the flesh, become corrupted by the putrefaction of excess. In addition, there are some people who
certainly keep from the gratification of the flesh, yet grovel with all their heart in earthly practices. So let
holy Church speak through the words of one of its members, let it express what it endures from either
sort of person. My flesh is clothed with corruption and the defilement of dust. It is as if the Church said in
plain words, ‘There are many who are members of me in faith, yet these are not sound or pure members
in practice. For they either are mastered by foul desires and run to and fro in corruption’s rottenness, or,
being devoted to earthly practices, they are soiled with dust. For in those whom I have to endure, people
filled with wantonness, I do plainly lament for the flesh turned corrupt. And in those from whom I suffer,
those who are seeking the earth, what else is this but the defilement of dust that I bear?’
My days pass more swiftly than the weaving of cloth by the weaver. In a very suitable image, the time of
the flesh is compared with a cloth web. As the web advances thread by thread, so this mortal life passes
day by day; in proportion as the web increases, so it advances to its completion. Just as we said before,
while the time in our hands passes, the time before us is shortened. Moreover, of the whole length of our
lives, the days to come are proportionally fewer to those days that have gone by.
Job says that, The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall
be gone. For the human eye is the pity of the Redeemer that softens the hardness of our insensibility
when it looks upon us. Hence, as the Gospel witnesses, it is said, And the Lord turned, looked upon Peter,
and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. And he went out, and wept bitterly. However, when the
soul is divested of the flesh, the human eye henceforth does not see anything. The Redeemer’s pity never
delivers anyone after death whom it has not gracefully restored to pardon before death.
SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE COMMON ATTITUDE IS OUTLINED BY ZOPHAR: JOB 11:1-20
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: “Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of
talk be vindicated? Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you? For
you say, ‘My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God’s eyes.’ But oh, that God would speak, and open his
lips to you, and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know
then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than
heaven – what can you do? Deeper than Sheol – what can you know? Its measure is longer than the
earth, and broader than the sea. If he passes through, and imprisons, and calls to judgment, who can
hinder him? For he knows worthless men; when he sees iniquity, will he not consider it? But a stupid man
will get understanding, when a wild ass’s colt is born a man.
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“If you set your heart aright, you will stretch out your hands toward him. If iniquity is in your hand, put it
far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents. Surely then you will lift up your face without
blemish; you will be secure, and will not fear. You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters
that have passed away. And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the
morning. And you will have confidence, because there is hope; you will be protected and take your rest in
safety. You will lie down, and none will make you afraid; many will entreat your favour. But the eyes of
the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.”

MORALIA IN JOB, 10.1-4, 32; TR C.M. (1844) AMENDED
As often as a mighty wrestler goes down into the arena, those who are no match for him present
themselves in turn to be overthrown. When one is beaten another takes his place to try to overcome by a
succession of adversaries him who cannot be beaten by their individual powers. Thus, in this theatre of
men and angels, the blessed Job showed himself a mighty wrestler to whom first Eliphaz came forth,
then Bildad, and now finally Zophar the Naamathite who begins with an insult: Should a multitude of
words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be vindicated?
It is always the practice of the impertinent to answer the opposite of the truth that has been said to them
lest, if they assent to the things asserted, they should seem inferior. To them the words of the righteous,
however few, are always a multitude. The wicked cannot hear good words with patience and they answer
back so that they do not have to amend their life, as Zophar plainly shows us when he adds: Should your
babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you? The uninstructed mind is offended by
the truth and reckons silence to be a punishment. When scorners cannot defend the evils that are
reproved in them, they feel worse through shame and defend themselves vigorously digging up bad
things to say about the life of their reprover, thinking themselves not guilty if they can fasten guilty deeds
upon the heads of others. When they can’t find true ones, they make them up, so that they too can
appear to rebuke with equal justice. Thus Zophar adds with lying lips, For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure,
and I am clean in God's eyes.’ Whoever remembers the words of blessed Job knows how false this charge
is; how could he call himself pure who said, If I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me. Here is
the wickedness of the unrighteous, it refuses to bewail the real evil in itself while inventing evil in others,
for it gains comfort for its evil deeds if the life of the reprover can be stained with false accusation.
Zophar is not afraid to dare to instruct one better than himself, and so he exhorts Job and shows how
unimportant punishment appears to the righteous man, by saying: You will forget your misery; you will
remember it as waters that have passed away. The mind feels the ills of the present life all the more
severely in proportion as it neglects the good of the next life. Now Zophar does well in likening the
miseries of the present life to waters that have passed away; if a man raises himself up to things eternal
and fixes the eye of his soul on those things which remain without change, he sees that everything here
below that has an end is to be counted as almost nothing. Even when evil spirits also tempt the mind of a
righteous man so that he is both saddened by affliction and chilled within by temptation, grace never
leaves him and the more he is struck by the dispensation of providence, the more God watches over him
in pity, for when it grows dark through temptation, the inner light is kindled again.
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MONDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB EXPLAINS GOD’S DOMINION OVER ALL HUMAN WISDOM: JOB 12:1-25
Then Job answered: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. But I have
understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? I am a
laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a
laughingstock. In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those
whose feet slip. The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring
their god in their hand.
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or the plants of the
earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not
know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath
of all mankind. Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes food? Wisdom is with the aged, and
understanding in length of days.
“With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild;
if he shuts a man in, none can open. If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they
overwhelm the land. With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leads
counsellors away stripped, and judges he makes fools. He looses the bonds of kings, and binds a
waistcloth on their loins. He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. He deprives of
speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on
princes, and looses the belt of the strong. He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep
darkness to light. He makes nations great, and he destroys them: he enlarges nations, and leads them
away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander
in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark without light; and he makes them stagger like a drunken
man.”

MORALIA IN JOB, 10.47-8; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
He who is mocked by his neighbour, as I am, will call upon God and he will answer him. Often, the frail
mind, acclaimed for its good actions by the breath of human regard, dissipates itself in outward delights,
so that it lays aside what it inwardly desires and is willing to lie loosely in the external things to which it
directs its attention. It delights not so much in becoming, as in being called, blessed; and because it longs
for the words of applause, it ceases to strive after what it had begun to be; and so, the very means
through which it appeared to be commendable in God, sever it from God.
But sometimes it perseveres in good works with a constant heart, and yet is pushed hard by the scoffing
of men; it does admirable deeds, and gets only abuse; and he who might have been encouraged to come
out of himself by commendation, is repulsed by insults and returns back again into himself. He establishes
himself the more firmly in God, as he finds no place else where he may rest in peace: for all his hope is
fixed in his Creator. Amidst ridicule and abuse, he implores only the interior witness. His soul in distress
becomes God’s neighbour, in proportion as he is a stranger to the favour of man’s esteem. So he pours
himself out in prayer and, hard-pressed from without, is refined with a more perfect purity to enter more
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deeply into all that is interior. Therefore, it is well said at this time, He who is mocked by his neighbour as
I am, will call upon God and he will answer him. For though the wicked reproach the soul of the good, yet
the good are showing them whom to seek as witness of their actions. And while the soul of the good
strengthens itself, with compunction, in prayer, it is united within itself in the hearing of the Most High, in
the very act that severs it from the approval of men outside itself.
But we should note how thoughtfully are inserted the words as I am. For there are some men who are
downcast at the ridicule of their fellowmen; and yet they are not the kind of men to be heard by the ears
of God. For when they are ridiculed because of their sin, surely they gain no virtuous merit from that
mocking.
For the upright man’s simplicity is laughed to scorn. It is the wisdom of this world to conceal one’s
feelings with pretence, to veil the sense with words, to show things that are false as true, and to make
out as fallacious what is true. But on the other hand it is the wisdom of the righteous to pretend nothing
in show, to discover the meaning by words, to love the truth as it is, to avoid falsehood, to set forth good
deeds freely, to bear evil more gladly than to do it, to seek no revenge of a wrong, to count ill repute as a
gain for the truth’s sake. But this simplicity of the righteous is laughed to scorn, because the goodness of
purity is taken for folly by the wise men of this world. For doubtless everything that is done from
innocence is counted foolish by them, and whatever truth sanctions in practice sounds weak to carnal
wisdom.
TUESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB APPEALS TO THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD: JOB 13:13 – 14:6
“Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. I will take my flesh in my teeth, and
put my life in my hand. Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope; yet I will defend my ways to his face. This
will be my salvation, that a godless man shall not come before him. Listen carefully to my words, and let
my declaration be in your ears. Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be vindicated. Who is
there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. Only grant two things to me, then I
will not hide myself from thy face: withdraw thy hand far from me, and let not dread of thee terrify me.
Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and do thou reply to me. How many are my iniquities and my
sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. Why dost thou hide thy face, and count me as thy
enemy? Wilt thou frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff? For thou writest bitter things against me,
and makest me inherit the iniquities of my youth. Thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and watchest all my
paths; thou settest a bound to the soles of my feet. Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment
that is moth-eaten.
“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and
withers; he flees like a shadow, and continues not. And dost thou open thy eyes upon such a one and
bring him into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with thee, and thou hast appointed his
bounds that he cannot pass, look away from him, and desist, that he may enjoy, like a hireling, his day.”
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A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST ZENO OF VERONA
SERMON 15.2; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
As far as can be understood, dear brothers, Job was a type of Christ, and a comparison between them
shows the truth of this. God himself called Job a righteous man. And God is righteousness itself, the
source whence all who are blessed drink, for of him it is said, for you the sun of righteousness shall rise.
Job is called truthful. And the Lord is the very truth as he said in the Gospel, I am the way and the truth.
Job was a rich man. But who is richer than the Lord? All the rich are his slaves and to him belongs the
whole world and every creature, as holy David says, The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the
world and those who dwell therein. The devil tempted Job three times. In the same way, as the evangelist
tells us, he tried to tempt the Lord. Job lost everything that he owned. And the Lord left behind his
heavenly goods for love of us and made himself poor that he might make us rich. The raging devil brought
Job’s sons to destruction. So, in their madness, the people of the Pharisees slew the Prophets, the sons of
the Lord. Job was infected with ulcers. And the Lord, taking on our flesh, was befouled with the filth of
the sins of the whole human race.
Job’s wife urged him to sin. And the synagogue did its best to make the Lord follow the corrupt
observances of their elders. It is told that Job’s friends insulted him. So too, did his priests and
worshippers insult the Lord. Job sat upon a dunghill full of worms. The Lord also moved about on the real
dunghill of the filth of this world amidst men seething with all manner of vices and lusts, which are the
real worms.
Job recovered both his health and his possessions. But the Lord at his resurrection held out to those who
believe in him not merely health but immortality, and took back to himself dominion over all nature as he
himself bears witness when he says, All things have been delivered to me by my Father. Job begat new
sons to replace those he had lost. The Lord too begat holy sons, the Apostles, in place of the Prophets.
Job, blessed, rested in peace. But the Lord remains blessed forever before all ages, from all ages and
throughout all ages.
WEDNESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

BALDAD’S SPEECH: THE LIGHT OF THE WICKED IS PUT OUT: JOB 18:1-21
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak.
Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?
“Yea, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his
tent, and his lamp above him is put out. His strong steps are shortened and his own schemes throw him
down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on a pitfall. A trap seizes him by the heel, a
snare lays hold of him. A rope is hid for him in the ground, a trap for him in the path. Terrors frighten him
on every side, and chase him at his heels. His strength is hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready for his
stumbling. By disease his skin is consumed, the first-born of death consumes his limbs.
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He is torn from the tent in which he trusted, and is brought to the king of terrors. In his tent dwells that
which is none of his; brimstone is scattered upon his habitation. His roots dry up beneath, and his
branches wither above. His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the street. He is
thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world. He has no offspring or descendant among his
people, and no survivor where he used to live. They of the west are appalled at his day, and horror seizes
them of the east. Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place of him who knows not
God.”
A READING FROM A LETTER OF ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

EPISTOLAE, 2.9, 15-18 (CCL 91:2-3); WORD IN SEASON VII
There are blessings in the temporal order which God may grant here, but withhold or withdraw there: for
instance, the blessings of the married state, the procreation of children, abundance in worldly goods,
bodily health, and so forth. Such things can make people happy – or make them miserable. The Lord
bestows them on the good and the wicked alike: and sometimes they are removed by the same divine
hand, whether from the good or the wicked.
Job was blessed, a happy man indeed, when living uprightly amidst all his wealth; and yet he was more
blessed in his even more upright and irreproachable condition of poverty. He was blessed when
surrounded by his ten children, but more blessed when, smitten with the loss of all of them at once, he
nevertheless remained unshakable in his love for God. He was blessed in his bodily health, but rendered
more so by the wounds and injuries, the ulcers and sores that he received: more blessed on his dung
heap than in a palace adorned with marble.
We observe the difference, the contrast: one man is well endowed with riches and good health, yet
miserable; another, destitute and plagued by ill-health, is a genuinely happy man even so. The rich man
who dressed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day lived such a pointless life, for all his
feasting. How impoverished he really was, despite the vast wealth! How naked despite the fine apparel,
how sick for all his bodily fitness, how famished for all the unstinted fare, how wretched in his merry-
making, how lonely amidst the conversation of friends, how downcast for all the pampering by the
menials! How different from Lazarus, made rich in his poverty, blessed in his wretchedness, happy in his
misfortune, made sound again despite his sores, homeless indeed, yet making himself at home; without
clothing but not without faith; without the strength of bodily health, yet strong in charity; without food
yet not without Christ; exposed to dogs, but the companion of angels; not offered even the very crumbs
from the rich man’s table, yet regaled with the bread of heaven.
The good things of this life can be ours for good or evil; they are to be rated accordingly. Temporal
blessings, then, it is sometimes good to enjoy, but sometimes not; sometimes it is good to despise them,
but sometimes it is not. It is good indeed to have them when they conduce to the fear of God; but equally
it can be good to despise them, when that is done for the sake of the glory that comes from Almighty God
himself, and not from men.
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THURSDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DESPAIRING JOB IS ROUSED TO HOPE: JOB 19:1-29
Then Job answered: “How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times
you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me? And even if it be true that I have
erred, my error remains with myself. If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my
humiliation an argument against me, know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net
about me. Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice. He has
walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. He has stripped from
me my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and
my hope has he pulled up like a tree. He has kindled his wrath against me, and counts me as his
adversary. His troops come on together; they have cast up siege-works against me, and encamp round
about my tent.
“He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. My kinsfolk
and my close friends have failed me; the guests in my house have forgotten me; my maidservants count
me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I
must beseech him with my mouth. I am repulsive to my wife, loathsome to the sons of my own mother.
Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and
those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I have
escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God
has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and
lead they were graven in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand
upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I
shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you say,
‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’; be afraid of the sword, for wrath
brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.”

LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS, 24.1-27.1; PENGUIN (1968) TR. STANIFORTH
Think, my dear friends, how the Lord offers us proof after proof that there is going to be a resurrection, of
which he has made Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising him from the dead. My friends, look how
regularly there are processes of resurrection going on at this very moment. The day and the night show
us an example of it; for night sinks to rest, and day arises; day passes away, and night comes again. Or
take the fruits of the earth; how, and in what way, does a crop come into being? When the sower goes
out and drops each seed into the ground, it falls to the earth shrivelled and bare, and decays; but
presently the power of the Lord's providence raises it from decay, and from that single grain a host of
others spring up and yield their fruit.
Look at that strange portent that occurs in the East (in the neighbourhood of Arabia, to be precise). There
is a bird known as a Phoenix, which is the only specimen of its kind and has a life of five hundred years.
When the hour of its dissolution and death approaches, it makes a nest for itself out of frankincense and
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myrrh and other fragrant spices, and in the fullness of time it enters into this and expires. Its decaying
flesh breeds a small grub, which is nourished by the moisture of the dead bird and presently grows wings.
This, on reaching full growth, takes up the nest containing the bones of its predecessor and carries them
all the way from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. There, in the full light of day
and before the eyes of all beholders, it flies to the Altar of the Sun, deposits them there, and speeds back
to its homeland; and when the priests consult their time records, they find that its arrival has marked the
completion of the five-hundredth year.
Now, when the Creator of all things has even made use of a bird to disclose the magnitude of his
promises to us, need we find it such a great wonder that he has a resurrection in store for those who
have served him in holiness and in the confidence of a sound faith? For in Scripture we read, You will raise
me up, and I will praise you; and also, After I had lain down and fallen asleep, I rose up again; for you are
with me. Job too, says, You will raise up this flesh of mine which has had all these trials to endure. Seeing
then that we have this hope, let us knit fast our souls to him who is ever true to his word and righteous in
his judgements.
FRIDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELIPHAZ URGES JOB TO SEEK PEACE WITH GOD: JOB 22:1-30
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is
profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make
your ways blameless? Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you, and enters into judgment with you?
Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges of your
brothers for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to
drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The man with power possessed the land, and the
favoured man dwelt in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were
crushed. Therefore snares are round about you, and sudden terror overwhelms you; your light is
darkened, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! Therefore you say, ‘What does
God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see,
and he walks on the vault of heaven.’ Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod? They
were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away. They said to God, ‘Depart
from us’, and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ Yet he filled their houses with good things – but the
counsel of the wicked is far from me. The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent laugh them to scorn,
saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’
“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty and humble yourself, if you remove
unrighteousness far from your tents, if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the
torrent bed, and if the Almighty is your gold, and your precious silver; then you will delight yourself in the
Almighty, and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you; and you
will pay your vows. You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on
your ways. For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly. He delivers the innocent man; you will be
delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”
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MORALIA ON JOB, 16.24-30; ACC 6 (2006) TR. SIMONETTI & CONTI
You will abound with delicacies in the Almighty means that one is to be entirely filled with the banquet of
holy Scripture in the love of God. In those words surely we find as many delicacies for our profiting as we
obtained diversities of meaning. The bare history should now be our food veiled under the text of the
letter, the moral allegory should refresh us from our inmost soul, and, regarding the deeper things,
contemplation should hold us, even in the darkness of the present life, suspended in the light of eternity.
You will pray to him, and he will hear you, for those who reject the precepts of the Lord make their prayer
to God but never obtain a hearing. Hence it is written, He that turns away his ear from hearing the Law,
even his prayer shall be an abomination. So long then as Eliphaz believed the blessed Job was not heard,
he decided that he had lived badly. He goes on, You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for
you. Weak people esteem a person righteous as they see him obtain all that he desires; whereas, in truth,
we know that earthly goods are sometimes withheld from the righteous whilst they are bestowed with
liberal bounty on the unrighteous. Now if Eliphaz had been talking about spiritual gifts, it is true that a
thing is decreed and is established in a person when the virtue that is longed for in the desire, is, by God’s
granting it, happily put into practice.
The innocent will be saved, but he will be saved by the cleanness of his hands. This opinion of Eliphaz, if it
is said concerning the reward of the kingdom of heaven, is supported by truth, in that it is written
concerning God, He renders to every man according to his deeds. The justice of the eternal Judge saves
that person in the last judgement, his mercy sets him free from impure deeds. But if the person we are
talking about is supposed to be saved by the cleanness of his own hands, so that by his own powers he
should be made innocent, then assuredly it is an error. For if grace from above does not come before the
sinner, assuredly it will never find anyone faultless to reward for being without fault. It is said by the
truthful voice of Moses, And no man of himself is innocent in your sight. So, heavenly pity first works
something in us without our help, so that our own free will might follow as well, and it is by this means
that the good which we now desire may be accomplished. Yet the good that is given us by grace is, in the
last judgement, rewarded by God as if it had come only from ourselves.
SATURDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB ANSWERS THAT THE WICKED GO UNPUNISHED: JOB 23:1 – 24:12
Then Job answered: “Today also my complaint is bitter, his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. Oh, that
I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my case before him and fill
my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say
to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would give heed to me. There an
upright man could reason with him, and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.
“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand I
seek him, but I cannot behold him; I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. But he knows the way
that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept
his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have
treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth. But he is unchangeable and who can turn him? What he
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desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me; and many such things are in his
mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my
heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; for I am hemmed in by darkness, and thick darkness covers my
face.
“Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his
days? Men remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. They drive away the ass of the
fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth
all hide themselves. Behold, like wild asses in the desert they go forth to their toil, seeking prey in the
wilderness as food for their children. They gather their fodder in the field and they glean the vineyard of
the wicked man. They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. They are wet
with the rain of the mountains, and cling to the rock for want of shelter. (There are those who snatch the
fatherless child from the breast, and take in pledge the infant of the poor.) They go about naked, without
clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves; among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread
the wine presses, but suffer thirst. From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded
cries for help; yet God pays no attention to their prayer.”

MORALIA IN JOB, 16.36-37, 39-44; ACC 6 (2006) TR. SIMONETTI & CONTI
Who else except the Mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, is denoted by the title of
‘just judgement’? Concerning whom it is written, Who became for us wisdom and righteousness from
God. This same righteousness came into this world against the ways of sinners, so that we might get the
better of our old enemy by whom we were held captive. So let Job say, I do not want him to contend with
me with great power or oppress me with the weight of his mightiness. Let him judge me justly, and my
judgement will come to victory. In other words, for the correction of my ways let him send his incarnate
Son. Then by the sentence of my absolution, I will become a victor over the devious foe.
If the only-begotten Son of God had remained invisible in the strength of his divine nature and admitted
nothing derived from our weakness, when could weak people ever have found the access of grace to
him? For the weight of his greatness would have oppressed them. Yet he assumed our weakness, that he
might elevate us to his own abiding strength.
It goes on, And he will try me like gold that passes through fire. Gold in the furnace is advanced to the
brightness of its nature while it loses the dross. And so like gold that passes through fire the souls of the
righteous are tried. Their defects are removed and their good points are increased by the fire of
tribulation. The holy man Job compared himself with one who is being tested in fire as gold. This was not
said out of pride. He who by the voice of God was pronounced righteous before his suffering was not out
of pride being permitted to be tried in order that bad qualities might be cleared off and that excellences
might be heightened. Gold is purified by fire. As he was being delivered over to suffer tribulation, he
believed that he was being purified, although he had nothing in him to be purified.
The text continues, I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth. For we treasure the words of
his mouth in the bosom of our heart when we hear his commandments not in a passing way but to fulfil
them in practice. Thus, of the Virgin Mother herself it is written, But Mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart. Even when the same words come forth to be practised, they are still said to
lie hidden in the recesses of the heart if by what is done outwardly the mind of the doer is not lifted up
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within. When the word conceived is carried on to the deed, human praise is aimed within, for the word of
God is assuredly not hidden in the bosom of the mind. Why then, blessed man, do you examine yourself
with so much earnestness, and why do you take yourself to task with so much anxiety?
SUNDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM IS FOUND WITH GOD ALONE: JOB 28:1-28
“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth, and
copper is smelted from the ore. Men put an end to darkness, and search out to the farthest bound the
ore in gloom and deep darkness. They open shafts in a valley away from where men live; they are
forgotten by travellers, they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro. As for the earth, out of it comes
bread; but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of
gold.
“That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden
it; the lion has not passed over it.
“Man puts his hand to the flinty rock, and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the
rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the
thing that is hid he brings forth to light.
“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know the
way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me’, and the sea says, ‘It is
not with me.’ It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in
the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged
for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above
pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.
“Whence then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding? It is hid from the eyes of all
living, and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumour of it
with our ears.’
“God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees
everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight, and meted out the waters by
measure; when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder; then he saw it
and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’”

CONFESSIONS, 1.1-2.2, 5.5; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is immeasurable. Man,
a little piece of your creation, desires to praise you, a human being bearing his mortality with him,
carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that you resist the proud. Nevertheless, to praise
you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you,
because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
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Grant me Lord to know and understand which comes first, to call upon you or to praise you, and whether
knowing you precedes calling upon you. But who calls upon you when he does not know you? For an
ignorant person might call upon someone else instead of the right one. But surely you may be called upon
in prayer that you may be known. Yet how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and
how shall they believe without a preacher? They will praise the Lord who seek for him.
In seeking him they find him, and in finding they will praise him. Lord, I would seek you, calling upon
you—and calling upon you is an act of believing in you. You have been preached to us. My faith, Lord,
calls upon you. It is your gift to me. You breathed it into me by the humanity of your Son, by the ministry
of your preacher.
How shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord? Surely when I call on him, I am calling on him to come
into me. But what place is there in me where my God can enter into me? God made heaven and earth.
Where may he come to me? Lord my God, is there any room in me which can contain you? Can heaven
and earth, which you have made and in which you have made me, contain you? Without you, whatever
exists would not exist. Then can what exists contain you? I also have being. So why do I request you to
come to me when, unless you were within me, I would have no being at all? I am not now possessed by
Hades; yet even there are you: for even if I were to go down to Hades, you would be present. Accordingly,
my God, I would have no being, I would not have any existence, unless you were in me. Or rather, I would
have no being if I were not in you of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all
things. Even so, Lord, even so. How can I call on you to come if I am already in you? Or where can you
come from so as to be in me? Can I move outside heaven and earth so that my God may come to me
from there? For God has said, I fill heaven and earth.
Who will enable me to find rest in you? Who will grant me that you come to my heart and intoxicate it, so
that I forget my evils and embrace my one and only good, yourself? What are you to me? Have mercy so
that I may find words. Speak to me so that I may hear. See the ears of my heart are before you, Lord.
Open them and say to my soul, I am your salvation.
MONDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB LAMENTS HIS AFFLICTION: JOB 29:1-10; 30:1,9-23
And Job again took up his discourse, and said: “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days
when God watched over me; when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through
darkness; as I was in my autumn days, when the friendship of God was upon my tent; when the Almighty
was yet with me, when my children were about me; when my steps were washed with milk, and the rock
poured out for me streams of oil! When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the
square, the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood; the princes refrained from
talking, and laid their hand on their mouth; the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved
to the roof of their mouth.
“But now they make sport of me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to
set with the dogs of my flock.
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“And now I have become their song, I am a byword to them. They abhor me, they keep aloof from me;
they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they
have cast off restraint in my presence. On my right hand the rabble rise, they drive me forth, they cast up
against me their ways of destruction. They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains
them. As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. Terrors are turned upon me; my
honour is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my
bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. With violence it seizes my garment; it binds me about
like the collar of my tunic. God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to
thee and thou dost not answer me; I stand, and thou dost not heed me. Thou hast turned cruel to me;
with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me. Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride
on it, and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm. Yea, I know that thou wilt bring me to death,
and to the house appointed for all living.”
A READING FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS OF ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA

INSTRUCTIONS, 7.1-2; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
Let us see, my brothers, why it is that sometimes when a person hears words that hurt him he can let
them pass by without any bother as if he had not heard them, whilst at other times, as soon as he hears
them he is troubled and upset. My question is – what is the cause of this difference? Is there one reason
for this or are there many? I think there are several, but there is one in particular which is the source of
all the others, as the saying goes: it results from the state of mind the person is in at that particular time.
For example, when someone is caught as he comes from prayer or contemplation, he is then in the best
of dispositions and is able to put up with his brother and remain undisturbed. It may be that he has great
affection for the other and so, out of love, puts up patiently with everything. But it can also happen that
he despises the one who wants to upset him, regarding him as the lowest of men and not worth even a
reply. Nor would he even consider mentioning his slights and insults to someone else.
Hence, as I said, it can be that a man is not disturbed or upset because he has only contempt for the
things that are said to him and ignores them. The brother who insults us may upset us either because we
are not at that moment in the right mood or because we dislike him intensely. There are many other
reasons as well which are described in different ways. But, if we examine the matter closely, we can say
that the reason for all disturbance is that no one blames himself.
This is the reason for every taking of offence and upset. This is why at times it is impossible to find peace
of soul. Nor should we be surprised at this, since it is the teaching of spiritual men that there is no other
way of peace for us. This we can see to be true in so many people. And yet we hope for peace but do not
follow their teaching. Or, we believe that we are on the right path while we are irritated by everything
and cannot bear to take any blame upon ourselves.
That is the way things are. A man may indeed accomplish innumerable good deeds, but if he does not
master this he will never attain peace. Instead, he will always oppress himself and oppress others and his
labours will go for nothing.
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TUESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB’S FORMER INTEGRITY: JOB 31:1-8, 13-23, 35-37
“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin? What would be my portion
from God above, and my heritage from the Almighty on high? Does not calamity befall the unrighteous,
and disaster the workers of iniquity? Does not he see my ways, and number all my steps?
“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hastened to deceit; (Let me be weighed in a just
balance, and let God know my integrity!) if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has
gone after my eyes, and if any spot has cleaved to my hands; then let me sow, and another eat; and let
what grows for me be rooted out.
“If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint
against me; what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? Did
not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
“If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have
eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it (for from his youth I reared him as a father,
and from his mother’s womb I guided him); if I have seen any one perish for lack of clothing, or a poor
man without covering; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my
sheep; if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, because I saw help in the gate; then let my
shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket. For I was in terror of
calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.
“Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the
indictment written by my adversary! Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me as a
crown; I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him.”

MORALIA IN JOB, 22.17 (PL 76:237-238); WORD IN SEASON VII
After revealing his sublime feats of heroism the saintly Job seeks a helper, knowing as he does that his
own merits are not enough for him to reach the highest peak. And on whom indeed does he rest his gaze
but the only-begotten Son of God, who took a human nature, labouring in mortality, and in so doing
brought nature his saving help? For he it was who, once he was made man, brought his help to us men so
that, since the way back to God did not lie open to man left to himself, it might be opened through God-
made-man. We are a long way from being just and immortal, unjust and mortal as we are. But between
him who is immortal and just, and us who are neither the one nor the other, the Mediator of God and
man has appeared: and he is both mortal and just, having death in common with men and justice with
God. And because through our baseness we are far from the heights he occupies, he joins in his own
person the lowest with the highest, to make a way for us back to God.
The blessed Job, then, seeks this Mediator, speaking as it were for the whole Church, when having said:
Who will grant me a helper? he aptly goes on, that the Almighty one may hear my petition. For he knew
that men’s prayers for the repose of eternal freedom can only be heard through their advocate. Of him,
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we are told through John the Apostle that: If anyone has sinned we have Christ the just man as advocate
with the Father; and he is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours alone but also for those of the whole
world. And Paul the Apostle speaks of him as: The Christ who died for us, and indeed who rose again, who
is at the right hand of God, and who intercedes for us. It is for the only-begotten Son of God to intercede
with his co-eternal Father, presenting himself as man; and then his having made intercession on behalf of
human nature amounts to taking up that nature to the level of his own divine nature.
The Lord intercedes for us not in words, but in mercy; for what he did not wish to see condemned or lost
in his chosen ones, that he set free by taking it on himself. A helper is therefore sought, that our petition
might be heard: for unless some mediator intercedes for us our prayers would undoubtedly remain as if
unspoken, in the ears of Almighty God.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ELIHU SPEAKS OF THE MYSTERY OF GOD: JOB 32:1-6; 33:1-22
So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu the son
of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified
himself rather than God; he was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer,
although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they
were older than he. And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he
became angry.
And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I
was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.
“But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words. Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my
mouth speaks. My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak
sincerely. The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Answer me, if you
can; set your words in order before me; take your stand. Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was
formed from a piece of clay. Behold, no fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy upon
you.
“Surely, you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words. You say, ‘I am clean,
without transgression; I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me. Behold, he finds occasions against me, he
counts me as his enemy; he puts my feet in the stocks, and watches all my paths.’
“Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you. God is greater than man. Why do you contend against
him, saying, He will answer none of my words? For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does
not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while they slumber
on their beds, then he opens the ears of men, and terrifies them with warnings, that he may turn man
aside from his deed, and cut off pride from man; he keeps back his soul from the Pit, his life from
perishing by the sword.
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“Man is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and with continual strife in his bones; so that his life
loathes bread, and his appetite dainty food. His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen; and his
bones which were not seen stick out. His soul draws near the Pit, and his life to those who bring death.”

MORALIA IN JOB, 23.23-24; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Job, I ask you for a hearing; now it is my turn to tell you what I know. It is a characteristic of arrogant
teachers that they are unable to present their teaching modestly, that they fail to serve as they should the
truths which they hold. They make it plain by their words that when they are teaching they fancy
themselves seated on some lofty place of eminence and they look down on their hearers standing far
below them, on the lowest level, as persons who scarcely merit their domination, not to say their
concern.
The words of the Lord through the Prophet are well directed at them: With force and harshness you have
ruled them. For men rule with force and harshness when they are concerned not to correct those under
them by calm reasoning but to bend them by harsh domination.
Sound teaching, on the other hand, measures its earnestness in avoiding this sin of pride in thought by its
eagerness to attack with its words the teacher of pride himself. It takes care not to proclaim him by an
arrogant manner while it attacks him with pious words in the hearts of the hearers. It strives to preach in
what it says and manifest in what it does, humility, the mistress and mother of all virtues, in order to
commend this more by conduct than by words to those who are seeking the truth.
This is why Paul speaks as if he had forgotten the dignity of his own apostleship in his words to the
Thessalonians: We were babes among you. Similarly the Apostle Peter says: Always be prepared to make
a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, and he adds, to emphasise that
our teaching must be presented in the proper way: Yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep
your conscience clear.
When Paul says to Titus: Command these things, teach them with all authority, he is not recommending
the domination of power but the force of his disciple’s life. A man teaches with authority what he first
practises himself before preaching to others, for when conscience is an obstacle to speech, what is taught
is more difficult to accept. So then Paul is not recommending the power of haughty words but the
trustworthiness which comes from good conduct. Our Lord too, we are told, taught as one who had
authority, and not as the scribes and the Pharisees. He alone spoke with a unique authority because he
had committed no sin from weakness. It was from the power of his divinity that he possessed that which
he bestowed on us through the sinlessness of his humanity.
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THURSDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD CONFOUNDS JOB: JOB 38:1-30; 39:31-35
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without
knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who
determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its
bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said,
‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?’
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that
it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay
under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted
arm is broken.
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of
death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the
expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its
territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? You know, for you were born then, and the
number of your days is great!
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I
have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the way to the place where
the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? "Who has cleft a channel for
the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert
in which there is no man; to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground put forth grass?
Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of
the deep is frozen.”
And the LORD said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let
him answer it.” Then Job answered the LORD: “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I
lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.
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MORALIA IN JOB, 27 PRAEFATIO (PL 76:445-6); WORD IN SEASON VII
After the loss of his goods, the death of his children, the wounds of his body, the words of his wife inciting
him to evil, the insulting language of his comforters and the spear thrusts of so many sorrows bravely
received, Job ought to have been praised by his judge for the strength of his constancy – but Job is not
now going to be called out of this world. He is about to receive back twofold, he is about to be restored to
his former health, to enjoy his restored possessions longer, so Almighty God is obliged to reprove him
whom he preserves with strict justice in case Job’s very victory should lay him low with the sword of
pride.
There is nothing, is there, that so commonly slays people than consciousness of their own virtue. It puffs
them up with self-satisfaction and at the same time empties them of the truth; it suggests that they are
sufficient unto themselves to achieve their rewards and at the same time diverts them from the will to
amend. Job, then, was just before his scourges, but he remained more so after them; before them he was
praised by the mouth of God; after them and because of them he grew in stature. As a pipe of ductile
metal is lengthened by hammering, so Job rose in God’s esteem the more he was chastised. But he who
stood so firm in virtue when struck down needed to be humbled. He needed to be humbled so that the
arrows of pride should not pierce that sturdy breast which the wounds already received had certainly
failed to pierce. It was necessary to search out someone who surpassed Job – but what about God’s
words: Have you seen my servant Job, that there is no one like him in all the earth? How then could Job
be humbled by comparison with another when God himself had attested that there was no one like
him? What, then, was left but for the Lord himself to describe his own accomplishments? So he asks:
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? And again: Have the gates of death
been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Or: Have you commanded the
morning ever since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?
Who can do these things but the Lord? Yet a human being is asked so that he may learn that he is unable
to do these things, so that a man who has grown limitless in virtue and is surpassed by no other man may
know he is surpassed by God and so avoid elation. But how highly is he exalted who is so sublimely
humbled! How great is the victory of the man who has been brought low by comparison with God! How
much greater than a man is he who is shown by the witness of creation to be less than God! He is very
mighty who is proved by such questioning to be not at all mighty.
FRIDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB SUBJECTS HIMSELF TO THE DIVINE MAJESTY: JOB 40:6-24; 42:1-6
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and
you declare to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?
Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
“Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendour. Pour forth the
overflowings of your anger, and look on every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is
proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust
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together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you, that your own right
hand can give you victory.
“Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are
knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.
“He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword! For the mountains yield
food for him where all the wild beasts play. Under the lotus plants he lies, in the covert of the reeds and
in the marsh. For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him. Behold, if
the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. Can
one take him with hooks, or pierce his nose with a snare?”
Then Job answered the LORD: “I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be
thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not
understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you,
and you declare to me.’ I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee;
therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

DE TRINITATE, 12 (PL 10:467-8); WORD IN SEASON VII
There are many instances from everyday life where the cause itself is unknown, but the effect decidedly
not so. And there is need for faith truly in the religious, supernatural sense wherever there is the
ignorance due to my nature itself. For when I raise to your heaven those weak eyes that are my light I
believe myself to see nothing other than your heaven. When surveying those circles and spheres carrying
the stars, the yearly returns and vigils, the north star, the morning star, all these being given their
differing tasks to perform, I perceive you to be at work in matters of which my perception is even so very
incomplete. When I see the wonderful rise and fall of the sea, it is not the origin of the waters alone nor
yet the motion of this vast swirling mass that I pursue and ponder, but rather, on apprehending the
ground for belief in the cause which I cannot even so observe, that I am mindful, in things my mind does
not grasp, of you also.
When I turn my mind’s eye to the earth, what is sown by hidden forces breaks free of what it had
received, springs to life, multiplies and flourishes. There is really nothing here that I could understand
properly by the light of nature; but then my ignorance itself contributes to my dim understanding of you,
as long as I understand clearly that, being unfamiliar and baffled by the nature that serves me, I
understand, as I say, that you alone can properly be of advantage or benefit to me. Not knowing or
understanding myself either, I feel that all the more for that I am in awe of the fact that I am even a
mystery to myself. For aware of, yet not comprehending, the movement of my mind in the act of passing
judgement, or its way of functioning, or its life, I am in your debt for the awareness, for your
communicating that awareness of nature delighting me, beyond the perception of natural origins.
And when I come to understand you, albeit in ignorance of myself, may I respect you with my
understanding and not lose hold of my faith in your omnipotence at the thought of my ignorance of your
ways: that my mind may be taken up with the origin of your only-begotten and so have something left
over of itself, that I may further strive after my Creator and my God.
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SATURDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JOB IS JUSTIFIED BY GOD OVER HIS ENEMIES: JOB 42:7-17
After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My wrath is
kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my
servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up
for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to
deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job
has..” So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the
LORD had told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.
And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job
twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him
before, and ate bread with him in his house; and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all
the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of
gold. And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand
sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. He had also seven sons
and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah; and the name of the second Keziah;
and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so fair as Job’s
daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived a
hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man,
and full of days.

MORALIA IN JOB, PRAEFATIO 13 (SC 32BIS:135-6); WORD IN SEASON VII
Among the wonderful works of divine dispensation it is pleasing to note how every star in turn appears on
the face of heaven to illuminate the night of this present life, until at the end of that night there rises like
a true morning star the Redeemer of the human race. For the interval of night, lit up by the rising and
setting of the stars in their courses, is shot through with the great beauty of heaven. Then so that the
light of the stars should shine out in turn, each in its own time, to pierce the darkness of our night, Abel
came to represent innocence; Enoch, to teach moral purity; Noah, the patience to work in hope;
Abraham, to show obedience; Isaac, chastity in marriage; Jacob, to teach us to endure toil; Joseph, to
repay evil with good; Moses, to represent gentleness; Joshua, to teach us confidence in adversity; Job, to
show us patience in the midst of misfortune. Those are the stars we see shining in the heavens, to light
our steps on our laborious way through the darkness of our night. for the divine dispensation presented
to the mind of man as many examples of righteousness as if sending so many stars into the dark sky
above sinners, until the true morning star rose, to announce the eternal dawn to us, and because of his
divine nature shining more brilliantly than the other stars.
All the elect who lived a holy life before the Lord foretold his coming in prophetic words and deeds. Not
one of the righteous failed to announce him symbolically. It was obviously right that all should represent
the good, by which all were good, and which they knew was useful to all. The Lord had to be foretold
without cease, since he was given to us to be received without measure and possessed without end: so
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that all the ages might say together what the end of the ages showed in the universal redemption. That is
why it was also inevitable that even blessed Job, who revealed so great a mystery as the Lord’s
incarnation, should symbolise in his own life the one whom he described in words, and through his own
suffering show what the Lord would suffer, foretelling the sacrament of his passion all the more truly
because he prophesied it not only in words but in actual suffering.
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
Year II
LENT

892
ASH WEDNESDAY

ON THE FAST THAT PLEASES GOD: ISAIAH 58:1-12
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the
house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation
that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous
judgments, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not? Why have we
humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your
own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with
wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I
choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread
sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to
let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and
bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself
from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up
speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you
shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
“If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if
you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the
darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your
desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring
of water, whose waters fail not. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations
of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

ORATIO 3 ADVERSUS IUDAEOS (PG 48, 867-868); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Why do we fast for forty days? Formerly many believers approached the sacraments without any
particular preparation, especially at the time when Christ first gave them to us. But when the fathers
realized the harm that could result from such neglect, they took counsel together and decreed that a
period of forty days of fasting be set aside, during which the people would meet to pray and listen to the
word of God. During this Lenten season each of the faithful would undergo a thorough purification by
means of prayer, almsgiving, fasting, watching, repentant tears, confession, and every other remedial
measure. Then when they had done all in their power to cleanse their consciences, they could approach
the sacraments.
It is certain that the fathers did well to use such lenience in their desire to establish us in the habit of
fasting. As we know, we could proclaim a fast throughout the whole year, and no one would pay any
attention. But now, with a set time for fasting of only forty days, even the most sluggish need no
exhortation to rouse themselves to undergo it; they accept it as a regular observance and recurring
encouragement.
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So, when someone asks you why you fast, you should not answer: because of the Passover, or because of
the Cross. Neither of these is the reason for our fasting. We fast because of our sins, since we are
preparing to approach the sacred mysteries. Moreover, the Christian Passover is a time for neither fasting
nor mourning, but for great joy, since the Cross destroyed sin and made expiation for the whole world. It
reconciled ancient enmities and opened the gates of heaven. It made friends of those who had been filled
with hatred, restoring them to the citizenship of heaven. Through the Cross our human nature has been
set at the right hand of the throne of God, and we have been granted countless good things besides.
Therefore we must not give way to mourning or sadness; we must rejoice greatly instead over all these
blessings.
Listen to the exultant words of Saint Paul: God forbid that I should boast of anything but the Cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And elsewhere he writes: God shows his own love for us because when we were still
sinners Christ died for our sake.
Saint John’s message is the same. God loved the world so much, he declares, and then, passing over
every other manifestation of God’s love, he comes at once to the crucifixion. God loved the world so
much that he gave his only Son, that is, he gave him up to be crucified, so that those who believed in
him might not perish but might have eternal life. If, then, the Cross has its foundation in love and is our
glory, we must not say we mourn because of the Cross. Far from it. What we have to mourn over is our
own sinfulness, and that is why we fast.
THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

THE OPPRESSION OF ISRAEL: EXODUS 1:1-22
THESE are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All
the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his
brothers, and all that generation. But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they
multiplied and grew exceedingly strong; so that the land was filled with them.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the
people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they
multiply, and, if war befall us, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens; and they built for Pharaoh
store-cities, Pithom and Rameses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the
more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they made the
people of Israel serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in
all kinds of work in the field; in all their work they made them serve with rigor.
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other
Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son,
you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the
king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called
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the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives
said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and
are delivered before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people
multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God he gave them families. Then
Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile,
but you shall let every daughter live.”

SERMON 48.1 (CCL 138A:279-280); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Among all the days which Christian devotion holds honourable in many ways, there is none more
excellent than the Paschal Feast, through which the dignity of all the solemnities in the Church of God is
consecrated. Even the very birth of our Lord from a human mother is credited to this mystery, for there
was no other reason for the Son of God to be born than that he could be fixed to a cross. Our mortal flesh
was taken up in the womb of a Virgin, and in this mortal flesh the unfolding of his Passion was
accomplished. Thus the mercy of God fulfilled a plan too deep for words: Christ’s humanity became for us
a sacrifice of redemption, the destruction of sin, and the firstfruits of resurrection to eternal life.
When we consider what the entire world owes to our Lord’s Cross, we realize our need to prepare for the
celebration of Easter by a fast of forty days if we are to take part worthily in these sacred mysteries. It is
not only the highest bishops or the priests of the second order, nor the ministers who administer the
sacraments alone, but the whole body of the Church and the entire company of the faithful who must be
purified, so that in the Temple of God, whose foundation is its Founder himself, every stone may be
beautiful and all parts radiant.
If it is reasonable to embellish a king’s palace or governor’s residence with every ornamental art, so that
the greater a person’s importance the more splendid his dwelling, what zeal ought to be expended in
building the House of God himself, and how distinguished should be its furnishing! No doubt such a task
can be neither undertaken nor completed without the architect; nevertheless the builder of the house
has given it the power to grow in stature through its own efforts. In the building of this Temple living and
intelligent materials are being used, which of their own free will assemble themselves into a single
structure at the prompting of the Spirit of grace. There was a time when they neither loved God nor
sought him; but he loved and sought them so that they might begin to love and seek him in return. This is
what the blessed apostle John speaks of when he says: Let us love God, for he first loved us.
Since therefore the entire company of the faithful and each believer in particular form one and the same
Temple of God, there must be the same perfection in each individual as there is in the whole; for even if
all are not alike in beauty nor is there equal merit in such a diversity of membership, yet the bond of love
ensures communion of beauty among them all. While those who are united in holy love may not all have
received the same gifts of grace, they rejoice nonetheless in their mutual blessings. Nothing that they
love can be wanting to them, for they become rich in their own increase when they rejoice in another’s
progress.
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FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

THE BIRTH AND FLIGHT OF MOSES: EXODUS 2:1-22
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and
bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could
hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch;
and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river’s brink. And his sister stood at a
distance, to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the
river, and her maidens walked beside the river; she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to
fetch it. When she opened it she saw the child; and lo, the babe was crying. She took pity on him and said,
“This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a
nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So
the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and
nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the
child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son; and she named him
Moses, for she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens; and he saw
an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed
the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were
struggling together; and he said to the man that did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?” He
answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the
Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it,
he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh, and stayed in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well. Now the priest
of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their
father’s flock. The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and
watered their flock. When they came to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon
today?” They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even drew water for
us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call
him, that he may eat bread.” And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his
daughter Zipporah. She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, “I have been a sojourner
in a foreign land.”
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL

ON THE HOLY SPIRIT, 14.31 (SC 17BIS:354-358); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The type manifests things to come by imitating them, foreshadowing future events in order to make them
understood. For example, Adam was a type of the One who was to come, the rock was a type of Christ,
and the water that flowed from the rock was a type of the life-giving power of the Word, for the Lord
said: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The manna typified the living bread that came
down from heaven and the serpent fixed to the pole typified the saving Passion consummated upon the
Cross, which is why all who looked at it were saved.
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Similarly, the reason the story is told of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt is that they prefigure those who
are saved by baptism. The firstborn of the Israelites were saved in the same way as are the bodies of the
baptized, since grace was given to those marked by the blood. For the blood of the lamb was a symbol of
the first man who was created and who of necessity still exists in us, transmitted through succeeding
generations until the end of the world.
The sea and the cloud had the immediate effect of producing faith because of the amazement they
aroused, but in relation to the future they were types foreshadowing the grace to come. Who is wise
enough to understand these things, to understand how the sea is a type of baptism because it
separated the Israelites from Pharaoh just as baptism separates us from the tyranny of the devil? In its
waters the sea destroyed the enemy and in baptism is slain our enmity with God. From those waters the
people emerged unharmed, and we emerge from the waters of baptism as though we had died and come
to life again, saved by the grace of him who called us. As for the cloud, that foreshadowed the gift of the
Spirit, who cools the heat of the passions by the mortification of our body.
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

THE CALL OF MOSES AND THE REVELATION OF THE NAME OF GOD: EXODUS 3:1-20
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to
the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD
appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning,
yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not
burnt.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses,
Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet,
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to
look at God.
Then the LORD said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry
because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing
with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the
oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring
forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you; and this shall be the
sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve
God upon this mountain.”
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has
sent me to you’, and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I
AM WHO AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to
Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be
remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them,
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‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me,
saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt; and I promise that I will bring you
up out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ And they will hearken to your voice;
and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the
Hebrews, has met with us; and now, we pray you, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that
we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled
by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all the wonders which I will do in it;
after that he will let you go.”

THE LIFE OF MOSES, 2.17-26 (SC 1:36-39); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Let us, like Moses, live a solitary life, no longer entangled with adversaries or mediating between them.
Let us live among those of like mind who are fed by us, while all the movements of our soul are led by
reason like sheep by their shepherd. Then, as we are living at peace, the truth will shine upon us and its
radiance will illuminate the eyes of our soul.
Now this truth is God. Once in an ineffable and mysterious vision it manifested itself to Moses, and it is
not without significance for us that the flame from which the soul of the Prophet was illuminated was
kindled from a thorn-bush.
If truth is God and if it is also light – two of the sublime and sacred epithets by which the Gospel describes
the God who manifested himself to us in the flesh – it follows that a virtuous life will lead us to a
knowledge of that light which descended to the level of our human nature. It is not from some luminary
set among the stars that it sheds its radiance, which might then be thought to have a material origin, but
from a bush on the earth, although it outshines the stars of heaven.
This also symbolizes the mystery of the Virgin, from whom came the divine light that shone upon the
world without damaging the bush from which it emanated or allowing the virgin shoot to wither.
This light teaches us what we must do to stand in the rays of the true light, and that it is impossible with
our feet in shackles to run toward the mountain where the light of truth appears. We have first to free
the feet of our soul from the covering of dead skins in which our nature was clad in the beginning when it
disobeyed God’s will and was left naked.
To know that which is, we must purify our minds of assumptions regarding things which are not. In my
opinion the definition of truth is an unerring comprehension of that which is. He who is immutable, who
does not increase or diminish, who is subject to no change for better or worse, but is perfectly self-
sufficient; he who alone is desirable, in whom all else participates without causing in him any diminution,
he indeed is that which truly is, and to comprehend him is to know the truth.
It is he whom Moses approached and whom today all approach who like Moses free themselves from
their earthly coverings and look toward the light coming from the bramble bush, at the ray shining on us
from the thorns, which stand for the flesh, for as the Gospel says, that ray is the real light and the truth.
Then such people will also be able to help others find salvation. They will be capable of destroying the
forces of evil and of restoring those enslaved by them to liberty.
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SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE OPPRESSION OF THE PEOPLE: EXODUS 5:1 – 6:1
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my
people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that
I should heed his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us; let us go, we pray, a three days’ journey into
the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work?
Get to your burdens.” And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many and you make
them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and
their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore; let them go and
gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they made heretofore you shall lay upon
them, you shall by no means lessen it; for they are idle; therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to
our God.’ Let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labour at it and pay no regard to lying
words.”
So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I
will not give you straw. Go yourselves, get your straw wherever you can find it; but your work will not be
lessened in the least.’” So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt, to gather
stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task, as when
there was straw.” And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over
them, were beaten, and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today, as
hitherto?”
Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you deal thus with your
servants? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants
are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; therefore you
say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ Go now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall
deliver the same number of bricks.” The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in evil plight,
when they said, “You shall by no means lessen your daily number of bricks.” They met Moses and Aaron,
who were waiting for them, as they came forth from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The LORD look
upon you and judge, because you have made us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and
have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Then Moses turned again to the LORD and said, “O LORD, why hast thou done evil to this people? Why
didst thou ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he has done evil to this
people, and thou hast not delivered thy people at all.”
But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will
send them out, yea, with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.
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SERMON 205.1 (PL 38:1039-1040); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
As we begin our annual Lenten observance with its solemn call to conversion, it is incumbent upon me to
make the customary solemn exhortation to all of you. Indeed, it is more than ever my pastoral duty to
nourish your minds with the word of God when you are about to mortify your bodies by fasting, for once
you have been inwardly refreshed by the food of the spirit you will be able to undertake physical
hardships more courageously and endure them with greater stamina.
We are soon to celebrate the Passion of our crucified Lord. It is therefore in keeping with our
commitment to him that we should crucify ourselves by restraining the desires of the flesh. As the
Apostle says: You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all your self-indulgent passions and
desires. Such is the Cross upon which we Christians must continually hang, since our whole lives are
beset by trials and temptations. Not for us, as long as we live, to be rid of those nails we read of in the
psalm: Pierce my flesh with the nails of your fear.
Flesh means the desires of our lower nature; nails, the demands of God’s justice and holiness. With these
the fear of the Lord pierces our flesh and fastens us to the Cross as an acceptable sacrifice to him. In a
similar passage the apostle Paul appeals to us by the mercy of God to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God.
To hang on such a Cross brings no shame to the servants of God; it is something in which they glory, as
Saint Paul does when he says: Far be it from me to glory in anything except in the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
This crucifixion, I repeat, is something that must continue throughout our life, not for forty days only. It is
true that Moses, Elijah, and our Lord himself fasted for forty days; but in Moses, Elijah, and Christ we are
meant to see the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, and to learn from them not to cling to this present
world or imitate its ways, but to nail our unregenerate selves to the Cross. Christians must always live in
this way, without any wish to come down from their Cross, otherwise they will sink beneath the world's
mire. But if we have to do so all our lives, we must make an even greater effort during these days of Lent.
It is not a simple matter of living through forty days; Lent is the epitome of our whole life.
MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

ANOTHER STORY OF THE CALL OF MOSES: EXODUS 6:2-13
And God said to Moses, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty,
but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with
them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they dwelt as sojourners. Moreover I have heard
the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold in bondage and I have remembered my
covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an
outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, and I will take you for my people, and I will be your
God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens
of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
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Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’” Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel; but
they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel bondage.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his
land.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me; how then shall
Pharaoh listen to me, who am a man of uncircumcised lips?” But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron,
and gave them a charge to the people of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the people of Israel
out of the land of Egypt.

SERMON 60.1-2 – PALM SUNDAY 445 (PL 54:342-343); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The mystery of the Lord’s Passion was ordained before the beginning of time for the salvation of the
human race and foretold by many signs in every era of the past. No longer do we look forward to
something yet to be made manifest; we bow in adoration before what has already been fulfilled. Both the
Old and New Testaments agree for our instruction, and the Gospel story unfolds for us what the
prophet’s trumpet had sounded. As Scripture says: Deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents, since
from the depths of each Testament voice answers voice, telling the same story of the glory of God’s
grace. What was formerly hidden behind a veil of symbols is now clear in the light of Revelation.
Despite the miracles of performed by our Saviour for all to see, few recognized the presence of Truth
himself. If his disciples themselves were troubled by the Passion he voluntarily undertook, and if they
yielded to the temptation of fear when faced with the scandal of the Cross, where can our faith find
understanding, our minds find strength, except in the fact that all those events we know to have been
accomplished were foretold in the Scriptures?
Now the Saviour’s triumph has been accomplished, dearly beloved, and those things which all the words
of the Old Testament announced have found their completion, let carnal Jews mourn while spiritual
Christians rejoice! This Feast, which has turned into night for unbelievers, shines forth upon us with its
light, because the same Cross of Christ brings glory to believers and punishment to unbelievers.
Now that his power and strength have been made manifest in the assumption of human weakness, there
must be no sadness among the faithful to cast a shadow upon the Paschal Solemnity. We should not
recollect the story of his sufferings with any sadness, since our Lord put the malice of the Jews to such
use that his will to show mercy has been fulfilled through their intention to do harm. If, during the exodus
of Israel from Egypt, freedom was restored through the blood of a lamb and the wrath of the destroying
angel averted through the sacrifice of a beast. And if this deliverance was marked by the institution of a
solemn festival, how great should be the joy of Christian people, for whose sake the almighty Father
spared not his only Son but delivered him up for us all! Consequently that Passover in the killing of Christ
became the true Passover and unique sacrifice, no longer saving a single people from subjection to
Pharaoh, but delivering the whole world from bondage to the devil.
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TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT
THE FIRST PLAGUE OF EGYPT: EXODUS 6:29 – 7:25
The LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” But Moses said
to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me?”
And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your
prophet. You shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to let the
people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and
wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you; then I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring
forth my hosts, my people the sons of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. And the
Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the
people of Israel from among them.” And Moses and Aaron did so; they did as the LORD commanded
them. Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty- three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a
miracle’, then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become
a serpent.’” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD commanded; Aaron cast down his
rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men
and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts. For every man
cast down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. Still Pharaoh’s
heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them; as the LORD had said.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuses to let the people go. Go to
Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water; wait for him by the river’s brink, and take in your
hand the rod which was turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the
Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; and
behold, you have not yet obeyed.” Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD:
behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and it shall be turned to
blood, and the fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile shall become foul, and the Egyptians will loathe to
drink water from the Nile.”’” And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out
your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of
water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in
vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”
Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he
lifted up the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile, and all the water that was in the Nile turned to
blood. And the fish in the Nile died; and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water
from the Nile; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the
same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them; as the
LORD had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not lay even this to heart. And all the
Egyptians dug round about the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.
Seven days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.
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THE LIFE OF MOSES, 2.31-36 (SC 1BIS:40-41); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Those who love Christ should not be troubled at our taking the transformation of the staff into a serpent
as a reference to the incarnation. The serpent may seem an incongruous symbol for this mystery and yet
it is an image Truth himself does not repudiate, since he says in the Gospel: As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And the meaning is clear. Holy Scripture
calls the father of sin a serpent, so what is born of him must be a serpent too; sin must have the same
name as its father. Now since the Apostle asserts that the Lord was made sin for our sake by clothing
himself in our sinful nature, it cannot be inappropriate to apply this symbol to him. If sin is a serpent and
the Lord became sin, it must be obvious to all that in becoming sin he became a serpent, which is simply
another name for sin.
He became a serpent for our sake, so that he could consume and destroy the serpents of Egypt brought
to life by the sorcerers. Once he had done this he was changed into a staff again, and by this staff sinners
are chastised and those who are climbing the difficult ascent of virtue are supported. With good hope
they lean upon the staff of faith, since faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
Those who attain an understanding of these mysteries become gods in comparison with people who
resist the truth, who are seduced by the deceitfulness of the material and contingent, and disdain as
useless listening to Him Who Is. They value nothing but material benefits satisfying to their irrational
instincts.
On the other hand, those who receive strength from the Light and great power and authority over their
enemies are like well-trained athletes, stripping to confront their opponents with courage and
confidence. They hold in their hands the staff which is the teaching of faith, and by that staff they will
conquer the serpents of Egypt.
WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE PLAGUE OF DARKNESS AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PLAGUE OF THE FIRSTBORN: EXODUS
10:21 – 11:20
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over
the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was
thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days; they did not see one another, nor did any rise from his
place for three days; but all the people of Israel had light where they dwelt. Then Pharaoh called Moses,
and said, “Go, serve the LORD; your children also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds
remain behind.” But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may
sacrifice to the LORD our God. Our cattle also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we
must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD
until we arrive there.” But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Then
Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take heed to yourself; never see my face again; for in the day
you see my face you shall die.” Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”
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The LORD said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he
will let you go hence; when he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of
the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbour and every woman of her neighbour, jewellery of
silver and of gold.” And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man
Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the
people.
And Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt; and all the
first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne, even to
the first-born of the maidservant who is behind the mill; and all the first-born of the cattle. And there
shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever shall be again.
But against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, not a dog shall growl; that you may know that
the LORD makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these your servants shall come
down to me, and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get you out, and all the people who follow you.’ And after
that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh
will not listen to you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he
did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
A READING FROM THE PHILOKALIA OF ORIGEN

THE PHILOKALIA (COMPILED BY SS BASIL AND GREGORY NAZIANZEN) 27.1.3-5; TR. G. LEWIS
(1911).
Nearly all readers of the Book of Exodus, both believers and unbelievers, are disturbed at the frequently
occurring words, The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and, I will harden the heart of Pharaoh. For
among many other causes of men’s disbelief we must include this: that things unworthy of God are
spoken about God; and it is unworthy of God to bring about the hardening of any man’s heart so that he
may disobey the will of him who hardens. For readers who are convinced that there is no other God
but the Creator think that God arbitrarily has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and hardens
whom he will, when there is no reason why this should be so. Others, better advised than these,
say they look upon Scripture as containing many secrets, and do not on that account turn aside
from the sound faith. One of the secrets they hold to be the true account of this portion of
Scripture. Others, alleging that there is a God other than the Creator, will have him to be just but
not good, very foolishly and impiously going the length of severing righteousness from goodness.
For ourselves, we are convinced, as we study the sacred Scriptures and contemplate creation with its
evidence of orderly design, that things visible and invisible, things temporal and things eternal, come from
God the Creator, who is the same with the Father of our Lord and Saviour, the good and just and wise
God. In handling the Scriptures we strive to keep that steadily in view, begging God our Saviour to show
us all things pertaining to a good and just and wise God, for we suppose that the things we speak of
cannot be regarded, at least by intelligent beings, as the result of chance, but that we must ask
ourselves whether they are consistent with his goodness and justice and wisdom.
Something like this, then, we suppose is the meaning of the words, The Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh. The Word of God is a physician of souls and uses the most diverse methods of healing the sick.
Some of these methods of healing give pain and torment to those who are under treatment, some act
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speedily and some slowly. The whole of inspired Scripture abounds in proofs of each of these statements.
The God who designed souls knows all their different constitutions, and, because he is an expert in
the art of healing, it is for him alone to say what is best to be done for each, and when.
So it is, I think, when God says, I will harden the heart of Pharaoh. The one who hears this as the oracle of
God accepts it, and whoever seeks, finds a way even here of showing the goodness of God. For through
the many miracles the people of Israel were assured of safety; and there was even goodness as regards
the Egyptians, because many, amazed at what took place, decided to follow the Hebrews. There was
perhaps also a deeper and more secret purpose of benefiting Pharaoh himself, to enable him not to
conceal the poison within but to bring it forth into the light, and then perhaps put a stop to it. Thus,
having gone through all the stages of the wickedness within him, he may find the tree which bore the evil
fruit less vigorous when he is overwhelmed by the sea; not, as one might suppose, to perish altogether,
but that he may be relieved of the burden of his sins, and, perhaps, descend to Hades in peace.
THURSDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE PASSOVER AND THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD: EXODUS 12:1-20
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of
months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth
day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a
household; and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbour next to his house
shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count
for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or
from the goats; and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of
the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. Then they shall take some of the blood, and
put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them. They shall eat the flesh
that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or
boiled with water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain
until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it:
your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is
the LORD’s passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the first-born
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the
LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will
pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your
generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for ever. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on
the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses, for if any one eats what is leavened, from the
first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a
holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly; no work shall be done on those days; but what
every one must eat, that only may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened
bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this
day, throughout your generations, as an ordinance for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of
the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, and so until the twenty-first day of the month at
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evening. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for if any one eats what is leavened, that
person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.
You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.”
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE PASSOVER BY ORIGEN

TREATISE ON THE PASSOVER 1, 3, 12-14, 26, 32; ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS 54 (1992) TR.
DALY.
Most of the brethren, perhaps all, think that the Passover takes its name from the Passion of the Saviour.
Among the Hebrews, however, the real name of this feast means ‘passage’, and should one of us in
conversation with Hebrews too rashly mention that the Passover takes its name from the suffering of the
Saviour, he would be ridiculed by them as one ignorant of the meaning of the word.
Now when the Apostle says, Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed, let us, therefore, celebrate
the feast, he teaches us that the Passover still takes place today, that the sheep is sacrificed and that the
people come up out of Egypt. If Jesus Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, those who sacrifice Christ
come up out of Egypt, cross the Red Sea, and will see Pharaoh engulfed; and if there are any among you
who would like to return to Egypt, they will not enter into the Holy Land.
But the lamb was sacrificed by the saints and Nazirites, while the Saviour was sacrificed by sinners. If the
Passover lamb was sacrificed by saints and if Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed, then Christ
has been sacrificed according to the type of the Passover but not by the saints; thus the Passover is
indeed a type of Christ but not of his Passion. It is necessary for us to sacrifice the true lamb and to cook
and eat its flesh, but if this did not take place in the Passion of the Saviour, then the antitype of the
Passover is not his suffering; rather the Passover becomes the type of Christ himself who was sacrificed
for us. To show that the true Passover is something spiritual and not this material Passover, he himself
says, Unless you eat my .flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Are we then to eat his
flesh and drink his blood in a physical manner? If these words are said spiritually, then the Passover is
spiritual not physical.
If the Lamb is Christ and Christ is the Word, what is his flesh that is to be roasted with fire if not the divine
Scriptures? Should some cling just to the words themselves, they would eat the flesh of the Saviour raw
and would merit death and not life, since the Apostle teaches us that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives
life; but the Spirit is given us from God and our God is a devouring fire, so we must roast the Scriptures
with this fire. The words are changed by such a fire and we will see that they are sweet and nourishing.
Finally, just as these mysteries of the Passover which are celebrated in the Old Testament are superseded
by the truth of the New Testament, so too will the mysteries of the New Testament, which we must now
celebrate in the same way, not be necessary in the resurrection, a time which is signified by the morning
in which nothing will he left, and what does remain of it will be burned by fire.
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FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE PLAGUE OF THE FIRSTBORN: EXODUS 12:21-36
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, “Select lambs for yourselves according to
your families, and kill the passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the
basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you
shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to slay the
Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over
the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you. You shall observe this rite as
an ordinance for you and for your sons for ever. And when you come to the land which the LORD will give
you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you
mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, for he passed over the
houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he slew the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the
people bowed their heads and worshiped.
Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
At midnight the LORD smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat
on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry
in Egypt, for there was not a house where one was not dead. And he summoned Moses and Aaron by
night, and said, “Rise up, go forth from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go,
serve the LORD, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and
bless me also!”
And the Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, “We
are all dead men.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being
bound up in their mantles on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for
they had asked of the Egyptians jewellery of silver and of gold, and clothing; and the LORD had given the
people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they
despoiled the Egyptians.

ON THE PASSION, CH.1, SERMON 1; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The Lord commanded Moses that on the tenth day of the month they should take for every household a
lamb without spot, and on the fourteenth day of the same month in the evening, offer it and eat it up
entirely, head, entrails, and all, so that nothing thereof should be left. But if anything were left they
should burn it up.
That innocent lamb without spot was a figure signifying our Saviour Christ, the true, innocent Lamb of
whom Saint John the Baptist witnessed: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
By whose immolation and sacrifice on the Cross, and by his holy body received into ours, as that lamb was
into theirs, his faithful folk should be delivered out of the thralldom of the devil’s dominion. And
therefore we may to the benefit of our souls consider in the aforesaid figure of these Egyptians, that in
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Egypt (which by interpretation signifies darkness) do labour to keep in captivity the children of Israel, the
people which God calls from their bondage into the liberty of his service – we may, I say, understand by
the proud king Pharaoh and his chief captains, that great high, proud prince, the Sultan of Babylon, the
devil. And the two special courtiers of that proud, base Sultan we may well consider to be the world and
the flesh. And the whole people of the Egyptians under them may well betoken the devilish people, and
the worldly people, and the fleshly people that follow them and are willingly governed by them. For truly,
all these labour to draw into their service and to make their vassal servants, bondsmen, and slaves all
those whom the goodness of God calls out of the dark devilish, worldly, and fleshly subjection into the
lightsome liberty of his celestial service.
By the first-begotten children of the Egyptians we may well understand the first motions of sin, such as
the subtle inward suggestions of the devil, and the inward incitement of the flesh, and the outward
occasions and provocations of the world and evil people, by all which kind of motions good, well-disposed
folk are in many ways drawn into sin. And surely these first-begotten children must be killed, not only of
the Egyptian people, that is to say the first motions unto such vices as have their origin in the soul, but
also the first-begotten of their animals too, that is to say the first motions unto such vices as specially
spring from the sensual animal body, or else it will be very hard for the children of Israel, the well-
disposed people, to escape safely out of the bondage of these Egyptians.
SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT

THE HEBREWS DEPART; LAWS ABOUT PASSOVER AND THE FIRSTBORN: EXODUS 12:37-49; 13:11-
16
And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot,
besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very many cattle, both
flocks and herds. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt,
for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry, neither had they
prepared for themselves any provisions.
The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of
four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of
Egypt. It was a night of watching by the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is
a night of watching kept to the LORD by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the passover: no foreigner shall eat of it;
but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No sojourner or
hired servant may eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth any of the flesh
outside the house; and you shall not break a bone of it. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And
when a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be
circumcised, then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised
person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.
“And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and
shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstlings of your
cattle that are males shall be the LORD’s. Every firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you
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will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem.
And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By strength of
hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage. For when Pharaoh stubbornly
refused to let us go, the LORD slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and
the first-born of cattle. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb; but all
the first-born of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes; for
by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”

PASCHAL HOMILIES 19.2 (PG 77:824-825); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
In Egypt the Israelites sacrificed a lamb at the bidding of Moses, who told them to eat it with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs. For seven days, says Scripture, you shall eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Must we then continue to observe customs that are only types and symbols? Remember the words of
Paul, for he was truly learned in the Law and very wise. He says: We know that the Law is spiritual. Can
anyone doubt that he who had Christ within him spoke the plain truth and did not deceive? Moreover,
Christ himself said clearly: Do not imagine that 1 have come to do away with the Law or the Prophets. I
have not come to do away with them, but to fulfil them. I assure you that the Law will not lose a single
dot or stroke until its purpose is achieved. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never
pass away. In what way then must we also fulfil the ancient law?
For us who have been called to live a life of holiness through faith the true lamb has been sacrificed, the
lamb that takes away the sin of the world. To this sacrifice we must add a food that is spiritual, wholly
good and truly sacred, a food typified in the Law by the unleavened bread, which we now understand in a
spiritual way.
In the divinely inspired Scriptures yeast always signifies wickedness and sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
warning his holy disciples to be on their guard, said: Beware of the yeast of the scribes and Pharisees.
And Paul in his great wisdom wrote that those who have once been sanctified should put far from them
the yeast of impurity that corrupts mind and heart. Purify yourselves of the old yeast, he urged, and
become a fresh batch of bread, since you really are unleavened.
This urgent plea prompted by concern for our well-being shows that spiritual communion with Christ the
Saviour of us all is not only a benefit to us but also a real need. It also shows how important it is for us to
keep our minds pure by refraining from sin and washing away every stain. In a word, we must avoid
everything that defiled us in the past, for it is then, when no fault of ours bars the way and we are wholly
free from reproach, that we shall open the way to this communion with Christ.
But we also have to eat bitter herbs. These stand for the bitter sufferings we must undergo, and we
should greatly value the endurance they demand. It would indeed be quite absurd if those desiring to
serve God imagined they could achieve great virtue, and glory in the supreme reward, without having first
contended for it and given proof of the most steadfast courage. The approach to this goal is rugged and
steep, and it is inaccessible to most people. It becomes easy only for those whose desire to arrive is so
strong that they are dismayed by nothing and are ready to face hardship and toil. Christ's own words urge
us to do this: Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road easy that leads to damnation,
and those who enter by it are many. The gate is narrow and the road hard that leads to life, and those
who find it are few.
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SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

THE JOURNEY AS FAR AS THE RED SEA: EXODUS 13:17 – 14:9
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although
that was near; for God said, “Lest the people repent when they see war, and return to Egypt.” But God
led the people round by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up
out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for Joseph
had solemnly sworn the people of Israel, saying, “God will visit you; then you must carry my bones with
you from here.” And they moved on from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the
wilderness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by
night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night; the pillar of cloud by
day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-ha-hiroth,
between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp over against it, by the sea. For
Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his
host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was
changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from
serving us?” So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred picked
chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the LORD hardened the
heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the people of Israel as they went forth defiantly. The
Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook
them encamped at the sea, by Pi-ha-hiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
A READING FROM A HOMILY ON EXODUS BY ORIGEN

HOMILIES ON EXODUS 5.3-4; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Let us consider the path God pointed out to Moses. From Etham, he said, turn back and make your way
between Pi-hahiroth and Migdol, which is opposite Baal-zephon.
We might suppose a path pointed out by God would be a smooth and pleasant one, free of obstacles and
requiring no effort from the traveller, but in fact God’s way is an ascent, a tortuous and rugged climb.
There can be no downhill road to virtue – it is uphill all the way, and the path is narrow and arduous.
Listen also to the Lord's warning in the Gospel: The way that leads to life, he says, is narrow and hard.
Notice how close the agreement is between the Gospel and the Law. In the Law the way of virtue is
shown to be a tortuous climb; the Gospels speak of the way that leads to life as narrow and hard. Is it not
obvious then, even to the blind, that the Law and the Gospels were both written by one and the same
Spirit?
And so the road they followed was a winding ascent, an ascent surmounted by a beacon. The ascent
refers to works and the beacon to faith, so that we can see the great difficulty and laborious effort
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involved in both faith and works. Many are the temptations we shall meet and many the obstacles to faith
that lie in store for us in our desire to pursue the things of God.
Pharaoh said: ‘The Israelites are wandering in the wilderness.’ In his eyes anyone who obeyed God was
wandering in the wilderness because the way of wisdom is a tortuous route, rugged and winding. Thus,
when we profess our belief in one God and in the same confession assert that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are one God, to unbelievers this seems difficult, incomprehensible, and involved. When we go on to say
that the Lord of majesty is also the Son of Man who descended from heaven and was crucified, they find
this baffling and cannot understand it Whoever hears this and cannot respond to it with faith will say of
believers: ‘They are wandering in the wilderness.’ But stand firm in your belief, cast aside all doubt, for we
know that the way of faith has been laid down for us by God. We cannot expect the road to life to be a
smooth one, free from trials. As Saint Paul warns: All who wish to live a godly life in Christ will suffer
persecution. Yet for anyone in search of the perfect life death on the road is preferable to failure even to
set out on the quest.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

THE CROSSING OF THE RED SEA: EXODUS 14:10-31
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were
marching after them; and they were in great fear. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD; and
they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the
wilderness? What have you done to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in
Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the
salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall
never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still.” The LORD said to Moses, “Why
do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over
the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go on dry ground through the sea. And I will harden
the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his
host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have
gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
Then the angel of God who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them; and the pillar of
cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host
of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness; and the night passed without one coming near the
other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind
all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the
midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The
Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots,
and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down upon
the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels so that
they drove heavily; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel; for the LORD fights for them
against the Egyptians.”
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Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon
the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched forth his hand over the
sea, and the sea returned to its wonted flow when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled into it,
and the LORD routed the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots
and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not so much as one of
them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to
them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead
upon the seashore. And Israel saw the great work which the LORD did against the Egyptians, and the
people feared the LORD; and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

CATECHESIS XIX, ON THE MYSTERIES 1:1-4.9; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
I long ago desired, true born and dearly beloved children of the Church, to speak to you concerning these
spiritual and heavenly mysteries in which you came to participate. Knowing well that seeing is far more
persuasive than hearing, I waited until now with the hope of finding you more open to the influence of
my words from the actions you experience. Thus I might take and lead you to the brighter and more
fragrant meadow of this present paradise, especially as you have been made fit to receive the more
sacred mysteries and have been counted worthy of divine and life-giving baptism.
On that evening of your baptism you entered into the outer hall of the Baptistry, and there facing toward
the west you heard the command to stretch forth your hand, and as in the presence of Satan, you
renounced him. This figure is found in ancient history. For when Pharaoh, that most cruel and ruthless
tyrant, oppressed the free and royal people of the Hebrews, God sent Moses to bring them out of the evil
grip of the Egyptians. Then the doorposts were anointed with the blood of the lamb that the destroyer
might flee from the houses which had the sign of the blood. And the Hebrew people were marvellously
delivered. The enemy, however, after their rescue, pursued them, and saw the sea wondrously parted for
them. Nevertheless he went on, following in their footsteps and was all at once overwhelmed and
engulfed in the Red Sea.
Now turn from the ancient to the recent, from the figure to the reality. There, we have Moses sent from
God to Egypt; here, Christ sent by his Father into the world. There, that Moses might lead forth an
oppressed people out of Egypt; here, that Christ might rescue mankind who is overwhelmed with sins.
There, the blood of a lamb was the spell against the destroyer; here, the blood of the unblemished Lamb
Jesus Christ is made the charm to scare evil spirits. There, the tyrant pursued even to the sea that ancient
people; and in like manner this daring and shameless spirit, the author of evil, followed you, even to the
very streams of salvation. The tyrant of old was drowned in the sea; and this present one disappears in
the saving water.
What then did each of you standing up say? ‘I renounce Satan’, meaning ‘I fear your power no longer, for
Christ has overthrown it, having partaken with me of flesh and blood, that through these he might by
death destroy death that I might not for ever be subject to bondage. I renounce you, you crafty and most
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subtle serpent. I renounce you, plotter as you are, who under the guise of friendship brought about
disobedience and the apostasy of our first parents. I renounce you, Satan, the source of all wickedness.’
When you renounced Satan, utterly breaking all covenants with him, that ancient connection with hell,
there is opened to you the paradise of God, which he planted toward the east, where for his
transgression our first father was exiled. Symbolic of this was your turning from the west to the east, the
place of light. Then you were told to say: I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and
in one baptism of repentance.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

THE RAIN OF MANNA IN THE DESERT: EXODUS 16:1-18, 35
They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from
the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and
Aaron in the wilderness, and said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land
of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out
and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On
the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So
Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he
has heard your murmurings against the LORD. For what are we, that you murmur against us?” And Moses
said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because
the LORD has heard your murmurings which you murmur against him – what are we? Your murmurings
are not against us but against the LORD.”
And Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the
LORD, for he has heard your murmurings.’” And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people
of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
And the LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel; say to them, ‘At
twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; then you shall know that I
am the LORD your God.’”
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning dew lay round about the camp.
And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as
hoarfrost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For
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they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to
eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, every man of you, as much as he can eat; you
shall take an omer apiece, according to the number of the persons whom each of you has in his tent.’”
And the people of Israel did so; they gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an
omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; each gathered
according to what he could eat.
And the people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land; they ate the manna,
till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON EXODUS BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

GLAPHYRA IN EXODUM 2:3 (PG 69:456-457); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
We shall think of the manna as a figure foreshadowing the teaching and the spiritual gifts of Christ. These
also are from heaven, and have nothing earthly about them. They produce no physical nausea, and are
real food not only of men but of angels as well.
In his own person the Son has revealed the Father to us, and through the Son we have come to believe
the teaching about the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and have been well and truly guided into all the
paths of virtue. The orthodox and unadulterated knowledge of these things is the food of the spirit
To the people of old the manna was given at dawn, as the light began to shine, because the wealth of
Christ’s teaching would be distributed so to speak by daylight The day has dawned upon us who believe,
as Scripture says; the morning star has risen in all our hearts, and the Sun of Righteousness, Christ, the
giver of spiritual manna, has appeared.
From his own words to the Jews we can be certain that Christ himself is the true manna, and the material
manna was but an image: Your ancestors ate manna in the desert and they died. This is the bread that
comes down from heaven so that anyone who eats it may never die. I am the living bread come down
from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh which I shall give
for the life of the world.
Our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes us for eternal life both by his commands, which teach us how to live holy
lives, and by the Eucharist. In himself, therefore, he is truly the divine, life-giving manna. Anyone who eats
it will be exempt from corruption and will escape death, unlike those who ate the material manna. The
type had no power to save, but was merely an imitation of the reality.
God sent down manna like rain from above, and ordered everyone to gather as much as necessary, those
who shared a tent gathering together if they wished. Gather it, each of you, he said, with those who
share your tent. Let none of it be left over till the morning. That is to say, we must fill ourselves with
the divine teaching of the Gospel.
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WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

WATER FROM THE ROCK; THE BATTLE AGAINST AMALEK: EXODUS 17:1-16
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to
the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to
drink. Therefore the people found fault with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to
them, “Why do you find fault with me? Why do you put the LORD to the proof?” But the people thirsted
there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why did you bring us up out of
Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do
with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the
people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you struck
the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock,
and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of
Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the faultfinding of the
children of Israel, and because they put the LORD to the proof by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Then came Amalek and fought with Israel at Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men,
and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my
hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to
the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his
hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he
sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his
hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with
the edge of the sword.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I
will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called
the name of it, The LORD is my banner, saying, “A hand upon the banner of the LORD! The LORD will have
war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

SERMON 13.27-29 (1ST CLAIRVAUX COLL.); CF 58 (2001) TR. BERKELEY & PENNINGTON.
We read in the Old Testament that, after the people of Israel left Egypt with Moses at their head, the
Amalekites, a savage race, came and did battle against them. Moses sent an army against them, while he
himself went up on to a mountain to pray for them and raised his hands to the Lord. And it came to pass
that while he kept his hands raised, the people of Israel were triumphant but whenever he lowered his
hands Amalek started to win. Why was it, do you think, that the raising of his hands possessed such
grace? Without doubt God usually takes more account of the attachments of the mind than of the
postures of the body.
Why was it then? Did his prayer have no effect before God unless he raised his hands? That lifting up of
his hands had such an effect that their enemies could not withstand the Israelites. The reason why this
lifting up of hands had such force was that it signified the raising of the hands of him who said in the
psalm, The lifting up of my hands is like an evening sacrifice. For, when evening had already come upon
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the world, his sweetest hands were stretched out on the Cross and there was offered up that evening
sacrifice that took away the sins of the whole world.
So that raising of Moses’ hands signified the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ who went up on to a
mountain to pray because he ascended into heaven to plead our cause with the Father. There he lifts up
his hands so that Amalek – that is, the devil – will not be able to vanquish us. For there he appears in
God’s sight on our behalf and represents to him the Passion that he underwent for us. As for us,
brothers, as long as we are in this wretched life which is a trial upon earth, as long as our fight is
against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of the dark things of the world, against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens, we need to have our Lord lifting up his hands within us –
that is to say, the remembrance of his Passion should be continually present in our minds. We can be
quite sure, my brothers, that as long as the memory of his Passion is in our heart, as long as our hope is
directed to where Christ is pleading our cause at the right hand of the Father, the spiritual Amalek –
that is, the devil – will not be able to vanquish us. And therefore, my brothers, let us see that this
attachment, this remembrance, does not through some negligence on our part grow lukewarm in us. For
then we shall immediately grow faint and our enemy will gain the upper hand and cause us distress.
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

JUDGES ARE APPOINTED UNDER MOSES: EXODUS 18:13-27
On the morrow Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from morning till
evening. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that
you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand about you from morning till
evening?” And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when
they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between a man and his neighbour, and I make them
know the statutes of God and his decisions.” Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not
good. You and the people with you will wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you; you are
not able to perform it alone. Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You
shall represent the people before God, and bring their cases to God; and you shall teach them the
statutes and the decisions, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must
do. Moreover choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who
hate a bribe; and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of
tens. And let them judge the people at all times; every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small
matter they shall decide themselves; so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If
you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to
their place in peace.”
So Moses gave heed to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men
out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of
tens. And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any small matter
they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own
country.
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INSTITUTES 4.3, 7-9; ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS 58 (2000) TR. RAMSEY.
Whoever seeks to be received into the discipline of the cenobium is never admitted until, by lying outside
for ten days or more, he has given an indication of his perseverance and desire, as well as of his humility
and patience.
When a person has been admitted, has been tested in the perseverance about which we have spoken,
and has put aside his own garments and been clothed in the monastic habit, he is not permitted to join
the community of the brothers immediately but is assigned to an elder who dwells not very far from the
entrance of the monastery and is responsible for being hospitable to travellers and strangers. And when
he has served for a full year there and has without any complaining waited upon travellers, having in this
way been exposed to his first training in humility and patience, and he is about to be admitted from this
to the community of the brothers, he is given over to another elder who is responsible for ten younger
men, who have been entrusted to him by the Abba. This elder both teaches and rules them in accordance
with what we read in Exodus was established by Moses.
The chief concern and instruction of this man, whereby the young man who was brought to him may be
able to ascend even to the loftiest heights of perfection, will be, first of all, to teach him to conquer his
desires. In order to exercise him assiduously and diligently in this respect, he will purposely see to it that
he always demands of him things that he would consider repulsive. For, taught by numerous experiences,
they declare that a monk, and especially the younger men, cannot restrain their yearning for pleasure
unless they have first learned to mortify their desires through obedience. And so they assert that
someone who has not first learned to overcome his desires can never extinguish anger or sadness or the
spirit of fornication, nor can he maintain true humility of heart or unbroken unity with his brothers or a
solid and enduring peace, nor can he even stay in the cenobium for any length of time.
With these institutes, then, as with the rudiments of the alphabet, they initiate those whom they strive to
direct toward perfection. In this way they discern clearly whether they are grounded in a humility that is
deceptive and imaginary or in one that is real. In order to be able to arrive easily at this, they are then
taught never, through a hurtful shame, to hide any of the wanton thoughts in their hearts but to reveal
them to their elder as soon as they surface, nor to judge them in accordance with their own discretion
but to credit them with badness or goodness as the elder's examination discloses and makes clear. Thus
the clever foe is never able to get the better of a young man when he sees that he is protected not by his
own but by his elder's discretion. Indeed, the devil in all his slyness will not be able to deceive or cast
down a young man unless he induces him, either by haughtiness or by embarrassment, to cover up his
thoughts. For they declare that it is an invariable and clear sign that a thought is from the devil if we are
ashamed to disclose it to an elder.
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FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

PROMISE OF THE COVENANT AND APPEARANCE OF THE LORD ON SINAI: EXODUS 19:1-19;
20:18-21
On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that day they
came into the wilderness of Sinai. And when they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of
Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain. And Moses
went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on
eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD
had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we
will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, “Lo, I
am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe
you for ever.”
Then Moses told the words of the people to the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people
and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third
day; for on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And
you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, ‘Take heed that you do not go up into the
mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death; no hand shall
touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet
sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the
people, and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, “Be
ready by the third day; do not go near a woman.”
On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the
mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then
Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the
mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and the
smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of
the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.
Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and
the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses,
“You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.” And Moses said to the
people, “Do not fear; for God has come to prove you, and that the fear of him may be before your eyes,
that you may not sin.”
And the people stood afar off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
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THE LIFE OF MOSES, 2.162-66 (SC 1, 80-82); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Moses entered into the darkness and there he saw God. What does this signify? This present account
seems in a way to contradict that of the first theophany. Then God appeared in light, but now he appears
in darkness. Yet we must not imagine this to be at variance with our normal experience of spiritual con-
templation. By this statement the text teaches us that religious knowledge is first experienced as light. All
that is seen to be opposed to religion is darkness, and darkness vanishes when we receive the light. But
the more the mind advances and by ever increasing and more perfect application attains an intellectual
comprehension of realities and approaches contemplation, the more clearly it sees that the divine nature
is invisible. Having left behind all appearances, not only those perceived by the senses but also those the
intellect seems to see, it plunges ever deeper within itself, until by spiritual effort it penetrates to the
invisible and the unknowable, and there it sees God.
This is the true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing that consists in not seeing, because that
which is sought transcends all knowledge, being separated on all sides by incomprehensibility as by a kind
of darkness. This is why John the contemplative, who had penetrated this luminous darkness, said that no
one had ever seen God, declaring by this negation that the divine essence is beyond the reach not only of
men but of every rational nature as well.
And so, when Moses had advanced in knowledge he declared that he saw God in the darkness, or in other
words that he recognized that the Divinity is essentially that which transcends all knowledge and which
no mind can apprehend. The text says: Moses entered into the darkness where God was. What God?
He who has made the darkness his covering, as David declared, who had himself been initiated into the
divine mysteries in that same sanctuary.
When Moses arrived there, he was taught by word what he had formerly learned from darkness, so that, I
think, the doctrine on this matter may be made more firm for us by the witness of the divine voice. The
divine word at the beginning forbade that the Divine be likened to any of the things known by men, since
every concept which comes from some comprehensible image constitutes an idol of God and does not
proclaim God.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF LENT

THE LAW IS GIVEN ON SINAI: EXODUS 1-17
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or
serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to
thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who
takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the
seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your
daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your
gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the
seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God
gives you.
“You shall not kill.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his
manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour’s.”

ST AUGUSTINE, SERMON 9:1-3, 6-7, 14, 16; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
Make it up with your adversary while he is with you on the road. This life is called a road, along which
everybody travels. And this adversary does not go away. But who is this adversary? This adversary is not
the devil, for Scripture would never urge you to come to an agreement with the devil. So who is this
adversary? It is the word of God. Why is it your adversary? Because it commands things against the grain
which you do not do. It tells you: Your God is one; worship one God. What you want is to put away the
one God who is like the lawful husband of your soul and go fornicating, and what is much more serious,
not openly deserting and repudiating him as apostates do, but remaining in your husband’s house and
letting in adulterers. That is, as if you were a Christian you do not leave the Church but you consult
astrologers or sorcerers.
You are told, Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain and you are told to observe the
Sabbath in a spiritual way, in hope of the future rest which the Lord has promised you. Whoever does
whatever he can for the sake of that future rest, even though what he is doing seems toilsome,
nonetheless he already has the Sabbath in hope, though he does not yet have it in fact. But as for you,
the reason you want to rest is in order to work, whereas you ought to be working in order to rest. You are
told, Honour your father and your mother. You heap insults on your parents, which you certainly do not
want to endure from your children. You are told, You shall not kill. But you want to kill your enemy; and
the only reason you do not do it is that you are afraid of the human judge. Do you not realize that God is
the witness of your thoughts? The man you want dead is alive, but God holds you to be a murderer in
your heart.
You were singing earlier on: O God, I will sing you a new song, on a harp of ten strings I will play to
you. Now I am strumming these ten strings. You see, the decalogue of the Law has ten commandments.
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These ten commandments are arranged in such a way that three refer to God and seven refer to men.
Commandments on three strings refer to God. But to the other commandment, that is, the love of
neighbour, seven strings refer to how people should live together. This series of seven, like seven strings,
begins with the honouring of parents: Honour your father and your mother. God gave his servant Moses
two tablets on the mountain, and on these two stone tablets were inscribed the ten commandments of
the Law – the harp of ten strings – three referring to God on one tablet, and seven referring to our
neighbour on the other tablet. Let us join these to those three that refer to love of God, if we wish to sing
the new song to the harp of the ten strings.
The ten commandments are reducible to those two commandments, that we should love God and our
neighbour, and these two to the one we are looking for: What you do not want done to you, do not do
to another. There the ten are contained, and there also are contained the two. Sing to the harp of ten
strings, sing a new song, and come to an agreement with the word of God, while it is with you on the
road.
SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

LAWS ABOUT THE STRANGER AND THE POOR; THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT: EXODUS 22:20 –
23:9
“Whoever sacrifices to any god, save to the LORD only, shall be utterly destroyed.
“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not
afflict any widow or orphan. If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry; and
my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your
children fatherless.
“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and
you shall not exact interest from him. If ever you take your neighbour’s garment in pledge, you shall
restore it to him before the sun goes down; for that is his only covering, it is his mantle for his body; in
what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
“You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
“You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses.
“The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your
sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.
“You shall be men consecrated to me; therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the
field; you shall cast it to the dogs.
“You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man, to be a malicious witness.
You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you bear witness in a suit, turning aside after a
multitude, so as to pervert justice; 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit.
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“If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the ass of
one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to
lift it up.
“You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his suit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not slay
the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds
the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
“You shall not oppress a stranger; you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of
Egypt.”
A READING FROM THE DEGREES OF HUMILITY AND PRIDE BY ST BERNARD

DEGREES OF HUMILITY AND PRIDE 3.6 (OPERA OMNIA, 1963, 3:20-21); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST
ED.
Knowledge of the truth comprises three degrees, which I will try to set out as briefly as possible. In the
first place we seek truth in ourselves; then we seek it in our neighbour, and last of all we search for truth
in its own essential nature. We discover truth in ourselves when we pass judgment on ourselves; we find
it in our neighbour when we suffer in sympathy with others; we search out its own nature by
contemplation in purity of heart.
Notice not only the number of these degrees, but also their order. Before we inquire into the nature of
truth, Truth itself must first teach us to seek it in our neighbour. Then we shall understand why, before
we find it in our neighbour, we must seek it in ourselves. The sequence of beatitudes given in the Sermon
on the Mount places the merciful before the pure in heart. The merciful are those who are quick to see
truth in their neighbour; they reach out to others in compassion and identify with them in love,
responding to the joys and sorrows in the lives of others as if they were their own. They make themselves
weak with the weak, and burn with indignation when others are led astray. They are always ready to
share the joys of those who rejoice and the sorrows of those who mourn.
Men whose inner vision has thus been cleansed by the exercise of charity toward their neighbour can
delight in the contemplation of truth in itself, for it is love of truth which makes them take upon
themselves the misfortunes of others. But can people find the truth in their neighbour if they refuse to
support their brothers in this way – if on the contrary they either scoff at their tears or disparage their
joys, being insensitive to all feelings but their own? There is a popular saying which well suits them: A
healthy person cannot feel the pains of sickness, nor can one who is well-fed feel the pangs of hunger.
The more familiar we are with sickness or hunger, the greater will be our compassion for others who are
sick or hungry.
Just as pure truth can only be seen by the pure in heart, so the sufferings of our fellow men and women
are more truly felt by hearts that know suffering themselves. However, we cannot sympathize with the
wretchedness of others until we first recognize our own. Then we shall understand the feelings of others
by what we personally feel, and know how to come to their help. Such was the example shown by our
Saviour, who desired to suffer himself in order that he might learn to feel compassion, and to be afflicted
in order that he might learn how to show mercy. Scripture says of him that he learned the meaning of
obedience through what he suffered. In the same way he learned the meaning of mercy. Not that the
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Lord whose mercy is from age to age was ignorant of mercy’s meaning until then; he knew its nature
from all eternity, but he learned it by personal experience during his days on earth.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE AGREEMENT OF THE COVENANT ON MOUNT SINAI: EXODUS 24:1-18
And he said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD; but the others shall not
come near, and the people shall not come up with him."
answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses
Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he
took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD
has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people,
and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all
these words.”
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the
God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven
for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and
ate and drank.
The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables
of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose
with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Tarry
here for us, until we come to you again; and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a cause,
let him go to them.”
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD
settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out
of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the
top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the
mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

A TREATISE UPON THE PASSION, 4.1; FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus it is related that Moses, in confirmation of the old Law, put half
the blood of the sacrifice into a cup, and the other half he shed upon the altar. And, after the book of the
Law had been read, he sprinkled the blood upon the people and said unto them: This is the blood of the
covenant that the Lord has made with you in all these words. And so was the Old Testament ratified and
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confirmed with blood. And in like manner was the New Testament confirmed with blood, saving that, in
order to declare the greater excellence of the New Testament brought by the Son of God, above the Old
Testament brought by the prophet Moses, whereas the Old Testament was ratified with the blood of a
brute beast, the New Testament was ratified with the blood of a rational man, and of that man who was
also God, that is to say, with the blessed blood of our holy Saviour himself. And that self-same blood did
our Lord here give unto his apostles in this blessed sacrament, as he plainly declared himself, saying: This
is my blood of the New Testament, or: This is the chalice of the New Testament in my blood which shall
be shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.
When our Lord said this, he declared therein the efficacy of the New Testament above the old, in that the
old Law in the blood of beasts could only promise the remission of sin that was to come later. For as Saint
Paul says: It was impossible that sin should be taken away by the blood of brute beasts. But the new Law
with the blood of Christ does perform the thing that the old Law promised, that is, the remission of sin
And therefore our Saviour said: This is the chalice of the New Testament in my blood – that is, to be
confirmed in my blood – which shall be shed for the remission of sins.
His words also declared the wonderful excellence of this new blessed sacrament above the sacrifice of
the paschal lamb, in these words: For you and for many. For in these words our Saviour spoke, says Saint
Chrysostom, as though he meant to say: The blood of the paschal Lamb was shed only for the first-born
among the children of Israel, but this blood of mine shall be shed for the remission of the sin of all the
whole world.
TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE GOLDEN CALF: EXODUS 32:1-20
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered
themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this
Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
And Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and
your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their
ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving
tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of
the land of Egypt! When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and
said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt
offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt,
have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them;
they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These
are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the LORD said to Moses, “I
have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath
may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation.”
But Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy
people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
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Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil
against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by
thine own self, and didst say to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this
land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.’” And the LORD
repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.
And Moses turned, and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the testimony in his hands,
tables that were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the
tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. When
Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the
camp.” But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the
sound of singing that I hear.” And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing,
Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the
mountain. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and
scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink it.
A READING FROM ON THE DIVINE IMAGES BY ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS

ON THE DIVINE IMAGES III. 4, 6, 8; (1996) TR. ANDREW LOUTH
God, the best physician of souls, prohibits from making images those who are still infants and ill with a
diseased inclination to idolatry, those who are apt to venerate idols as gods. For it is impossible to make
an image of God who is incorporeal, invisible, and with neither shape nor circumscription; how can what
cannot be seen be depicted? That they did venerate idols as gods, listen to what Scripture says in
Exodus, when Moses went up on to Mount Sinai and was there for some time, waiting to receive
the Law from God. The senseless people rose up against the servant of God, Aaron, saying, Make
us gods to go before us; as for this man, Moses, we do not know what has become of him.
I know what the One who cannot lie said: The Lord your God is one Lord, and you shall not make
any carved likeness, of anything in heaven or on the earth, and all who venerate carved images
shall be put to shame. I venerate one God, one divinity but also I worship a trinity of persons, God the
Father and God the Son incarnate and God the Holy Spirit. I do not offer three venerations, but one, not
to each of the persons separately, but I offer one veneration to the three persons together as one God. I
do not venerate the creation instead of the creator, but I venerate the Creator, created for my sake, who
came down to his creation that he might glorify my nature and bring about communion with the divine
nature. I venerate together with the King and God the purple robe of his body, not as a garment, nor
as a fourth person (God forbid!), but as unchangeably equal to God and the source of anointing.
For the nature of the flesh did not become divinity, but as the Word became flesh immutably,
remaining what it was, so also the flesh became the Word without losing what it was, being rather
made equal to the Word hypostatically. Therefore I am emboldened to depict the invisible God,
not as invisible, but as he became visible for our sake, by participation in flesh and blood. I do not
depict the invisible divinity, I depict God made visible in the flesh.
It was, therefore, for the Jews, on account of their sliding into idolatry, that these things were ordained by
the Law. To speak theologically, however, we, who, passing beyond childhood to reach maturity, are no
longer under a custodian, have received the habit of discrimination from God and know what can be
depicted and what cannot be delineated in an image. For it is now clear that you cannot depict the
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invisible God. When you see the bodiless become human for your sake, then you may accomplish
the figure of a human form; then you may depict him on a board and set up to view the One who
has accepted to be seen. Depict his ineffable descent, his birth from the Virgin, his being
baptized in the Jordan, his transfiguration on Tabor, what he endured to secure our freedom
from passion, the miracles which are symbols of his divine nature and activity accomplished
through the activity of the flesh, the saving tomb of the Saviour, the resurrection, the ascent into
heaven. Depict all these in words and in colours, in books and on tablets.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

MOSES IS GIVEN THE FULL REVELATION OF GOD: EXODUS 33:7-11, 18-23; 34:5-9, 29-35
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; and he called it
the tent of meeting. And every one who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was
outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up, and every man stood at
his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the
pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses.
And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, all the people would rise
up and worship, every man at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man
speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young
man, did not depart from the tent.
Moses said, “I pray thee, show me thy glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you,
and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see
me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock;
and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I
have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”
And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to
anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses
made haste to bow his head toward the earth, and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favour in
thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and
pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thy inheritance.”
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand as he came
down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been
talking with God. And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face
shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders
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of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the people of Israel
came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in
before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and
told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the
skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses would put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak
with him.

ON PSALM 118 17:26-29 (CSEL 62:390-392); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Let your face shine on your servant, and teach me your precepts. The Lord enlightens his saints and
makes his light shine in the hearts of the just. This means that when you see wisdom in anyone you can
be sure that the glory of God has come down and flooded that person’s mind with the light of
understanding and knowledge of divine truth. With Moses, however, it was different: God’s glory affected
his body also, causing his face to shine. Indeed, his countenance was so transfigured that the Jews were
afraid to look at him, and he was obliged to cover his face with a veil so that the children of Israel should
not be alarmed at the sight of it.
Now the face of Moses represents the splendour of the Law; yet this splendour is not to be found in the
written letter but in the Law’s spiritual interpretation. As long as Moses lived, he wore a veil over his face
whenever he spoke to the Jewish people. But after his death Jesus, or Joshua, the son of Nun, spoke to
the elders and the people without a veil. When he did so no one was afraid, even though God had spoken
to Joshua as well as to Moses, assuring him that he would be with him just as he had been with Moses
and would make him resplendent also. Joshua's glory, however, would be seen in his deeds rather than in
his face. By this the Holy Spirit signified that when Jesus, the true Joshua, came, he would lift the veil from
the heart of anyone who turned to him in willingness to listen, and that person would then see his true
Saviour with unveiled face.
So it was that, through the coming of his Son, God the almighty Father made his light shine into the
hearts of the Gentiles, bringing them to see his glory in the face of Christ Jesus. This is clearly stated in the
Apostle’s letter, where we find the following written: The God who commanded light to shine out of
darkness has made his light shine in our hearts, to enlighten us with the knowledge of God’s glory
shining in the face of Christ Jesus.
And so when David says to the Lord Jesus: Let your face shine upon your servant, he is expressing his
longing to see the face of Christ, so that his mind may be capable of enlightenment. These words can be
taken as referring to the incarnation, for as the Lord himself declared: Many prophets and righteous men
have desired to have this vision. David was not asking for what had been denied to Moses, namely that he
might see the face of the incorporeal God with his bodily eyes. (And yet if Moses, who was such a wise
and learned man, could ask for this direct, unmediated vision, it was because it is inherent in our human
nature for our desire to reach out beyond us.) There was nothing wrong, therefore, in David’s desire to
see the face of the Virgin’s Son who was to come; he desired it in order that God’s light might shine in his
heart, as it shone in the hearts of the disciples who said: Were not our hearts burning within us when he
opened up the Scriptures to us?
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THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE OTHER BOOK OF THE COVENANT: EXODUS 34:10-28
And he said, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been
wrought in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of
the LORD; for it is a terrible thing that I will do with you.
“Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant
with the inhabitants of the land whither you go, lest it become a snare in the midst of you. You shall tear
down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god,
for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of
the land, and when they play the harlot after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and one invites you,
you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters play the harlot
after their gods and make your sons play the harlot after their gods.
“You shall make for yourself no molten gods.
“The feast of unleavened bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I
commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out from
Egypt. All that opens the womb is mine, all your male cattle, the firstlings of cow and sheep. The firstling
of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the first-
born of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in ploughing time and in harvest you shall
rest. And you shall observe the feast of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of
ingathering at the year’s end. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God,
the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man
desire your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.
“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the
passover be left until the morning. The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house
of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words; in accordance with these words I have made a
covenant with you and with Israel.” And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he
neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten
commandments.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON PRAYER BY TERTULLIAN

DE ORATIONE 28-29 (CCL 1:273-274); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Prayer is the spiritual offering that has replaced the ancient sacrifices. What good do I receive from the
multiplicity of your sacrifices? asks God. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and I do not want
the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats. Who has asked for these from your hands? What God
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has asked for, we learn from the Gospel: The hour will come, it says, when true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. God is spirit, and so he looks for worshipers who are like himself.
We are the true worshipers and the true priests. Praying in spirit we offer prayer to God as a sacrifice.
Prayer is an appropriate and an acceptable sacrifice to God. It is the offering he has asked for and the
offering he expects. We must make this offering with our whole heart. We must fatten it on faith, prepare
it by truth, keep it unblemished by innocence, spotless by chastity, and we must crown it with love. We
must escort it to the altar of God in a procession of good works to the sound of psalms and hymns. Then
it will gain for us all that we ask of God. What can God refuse to prayer offered in spirit and in truth, when
he himself asks for such prayer? How many proofs of its efficacy we read about, hear of, and believe!
Of old prayer brought deliverance from fire and beasts and hunger even before it received its pattern
from Christ. How much greater then is the power of Christian prayer! It does not bring an angel of
comfort to the heart of a fiery furnace, or shut the mouths of lions, or transport to the hungry food from
the fields. The grace it wins does not remove all sense of pain, but it does endow those who suffer with
the capacity to endure and the faith to know what the Lord will give those who suffer for the name of
God.
In the past prayer caused plagues, routed armies, withheld the blessing of rain. Now the prayer of good
people turns aside the anger of God, keeps vigil for their enemies, pleads for their persecutors. If prayer
once had the power to call down fire from heaven, is it any wonder that it can call down from heaven the
waters of grace? Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God. But Christ has willed that it should work
no evil: all the power he has given it is for good.
All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come
from their barns and caves they look up to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion.
The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the
form of a cross, and give voice to what seems to be a prayer.
What more need be said about the duty of prayer? Even the Lord himself prayed. To him be honour and
power for ever and ever. Amen.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE BUILDING OF THE SANCTUARY AND THE ARK: EXODUS 35:30 – 36:1; 37:1-9
And Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of
Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability, with intelligence, with
knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in
cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to
teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with ability to
do every sort of work done by a craftsman or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and
scarlet stuff and fine twined linen, or by a weaver – by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
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“Bezalel and Oholiab and every able man in whom the LORD has put ability and intelligence to know how
to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has
commanded.”
Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth,
and a cubit and a half its height. And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a
moulding of gold around it. And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four corners, two rings on its one
side and two rings on its other side. And he made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold, and
put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark. And he made a mercy seat of pure
gold; two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And he made two cherubim
of hammered gold; on the two ends of the mercy seat he made them, one cherub on the one end, and
one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat he made the cherubim on its two ends.
The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their
faces one to another; toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubim.

THE LIFE OF MOSES 170, 173-175, 184-188; CWS (1978) TR. MALHERBE & FERGUSON
What then is that tabernacle not made with hands which was shown to Moses on the mountain and to
which he was commanded to look as to an archetype so that he might reproduce it in a handmade
structure? God said, See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. Of
what things not made with hands are these an imitation? And what benefit does the material imitation of
those things Moses saw there convey to those who look at it?
Taking a hint from what has been said by Paul, who partially uncovered the mystery of these things, we
say that Moses was earlier instructed by a type in the in mystery of the tabernacle which encompasses
the universe. This tabernacle would be Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God, who in his own
nature was not made with hands, yet capable of being made when it became necessary for this
tabernacle to be erected among us. Thus, the same tabernacle is in a way both unfashioned and
fashioned, uncreated in pre-existence but created in having received this material composition. This one
is the Only Begotten God, who encompasses everything in himself but who also pitched his own
tabernacle among us.
Whenever the prophet looks to the tabernacle above, he sees the heavenly realities through these
symbols. But if one should look at the tabernacle below, since in many places the Church also is called
Christ by Paul, he would see the Church. In this tabernacle both the sacrifice of praise and the incense of
prayer are seen offered continually at morning and evening. The great David allows us to perceive these
things when he directs the incense of his prayer in an odour of sweetness to God, performing his sacrifice
through the lifting up of his hands.
The skin dyed red and the coverings made of hair, which add to the decoration of the tabernacle, are per-
ceived respectively as the mortification of the sinful flesh and the ascetic way of life. By these the
tabernacle of the church is especially beautified. By nature these skins do not have in themselves a vital
power, but they become bright red because of the red dye. This teaches that grace, which flourishes
through the Spirit, is not found in men unless they first make themselves dead to sin. Whether or not
Scripture signifies by the red dye chaste modesty, I leave for whoever wishes to decide. The woven hair,
which produced a fabric rough and hard to the touch, foreshadows the self-control which is rough and
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consumes the habitual passions. The life of virginity demonstrates in itself all such things, as it chastises
the flesh of all those who live this way.
If the interior, which is called the Holy of Holies, is not accessible to the multitude, let us not think that
this is at variance with the sequence of what has been perceived. For the truth of reality is truly a holy
thing, a holy of holies, and is incomprehensible and inaccessible to the multitude. Since it is set in the
secret and ineffable areas of the tabernacle of mystery, the apprehension of the realities above
comprehension should not be meddled with; one should rather believe that they do exist and that they
remain in the secret and ineffable areas of the intelligence.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

THE TABERNACLE IS BUILT; THE CLOUD OF THE LORD: EXODUS 40:16-38
Thus did Moses; according to all that the LORD commanded him, so he did. 17 And in the first month in
the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. 18 Moses erected the
tabernacle; he laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars; and he
spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent over it, as the LORD had
commanded Moses. And he took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark, and
set the mercy seat above on the ark; and he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the
screen, and screened the ark of the testimony; as the LORD had commanded Moses. And he put the table
in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil, and set the bread in order on
it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses. And he put the lampstand in the tent of
meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, and set up the lamps before the LORD;
as the LORD had commanded Moses. And he put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil,
and burnt fragrant incense upon it; as the LORD had commanded Moses. And he put in place the screen
for the door of the tabernacle. And he set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle of the
tent of meeting, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the cereal offering; as the LORD had
commanded Moses. And he set the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it
for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet; when they
went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed; as the LORD
commanded Moses. And he erected the court round the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen
of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses
was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode upon it, and the glory of the LORD
filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the
tabernacle, the people of Israel would go onward; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go
onward till the day that it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the LORD was upon
the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.

ON JOHN IV.4 (PG 73:620-621, 625); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
Emmanuel, God-with-us, is presented in figure and image when Scripture says: And you will place the ark
of the testimony in the tabernacle and cover it with the veil. For in the preceding account the Word was
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described to us as in the whole tabernacle; for it was the house in which God dwelt, namely, the holy
body of Christ. But despite that, the ark gives us the same meaning in detail. For it was made of acacia
wood, for you to perceive his incorruptibility. It was entirely overlaid with pure gold, as it is written, both
inside and outside. For everything in him, both divine and human, is precious and splendid; and in
everything he is pre-eminent, as Paul says. Gold, then, stands for honour and pre-eminence in general. So
the ark was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold, and had the divine Law put into it as a symbol of
the indwelling Word of God united to a holy body. For the Word of God was also the Law, even, if not in
human form, as the Son is. But it is covered with the veil.
It was much the same with God the Word made man, the covering of his own body obscured to the
many. He, too, was hidden by his holy flesh as by a veil. Some of the Jews, therefore, failing to recognize
his divine majesty, sometimes tried to stone him to death, accusing him of claiming to be God, when he
was a man. Others again did not hesitate to say: Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How, then, can he say: ‘I have come down from heaven.’ So the laying of a veil on the
ark tells us symbolically that Jesus would not be recognized by the many. Then even the ark itself was a
symbol of him. So it was even he who went before the Israelites in the desert, taking the place of God at
that time; for it was he who led the people. The psalmist is also a witness to this, saying: When you went
before your people, O God, when you crossed the desert, the earth shook and the heavens, too, poured
down rain. For the ark being always in front clearly means that God leads the way.
For Christ is one, but is understood in many and various ways: he is the tabernacle, because of the veil of
flesh; he is the ark, containing the divine Law, as he is the Word of God the Father; again he is the table,
as life and nourishment; the lampstand, as intellectual and spiritual light; he is the altar of sacrifice, as the
fragrant odour in sanctity; and the altar of offerings, as an offering for the life of the world. Thus all things
in life are sanctified, for Christ is entirely holy, in whatever way he is understood.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS: LEVITICUS 8:1-17; 9:22-24
The LORD said to Moses, “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and
the bull of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread; and assemble all the
congregation at the door of the tent of meeting.” And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and the
congregation was assembled at the door of the tent of meeting.
And Moses said to the congregation, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded to be done.” And
Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. And he put on him the coat, and girded
him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and girded him with the
skilfully woven band of the ephod, binding it to him therewith. And he placed the breastpiece on him, and
in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim. And he set the turban upon his head, and on the
turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Then Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated
them. And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and
the laver and its base, to consecrate them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head, and
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anointed him, to consecrate him. And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and clothed them with coats, and
girded them with girdles, and bound caps on them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Then he brought the bull of the sin offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the
bull of the sin offering. And Moses killed it, and took the blood, and with his finger put it on the horns of
the altar round about, and purified the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar, and
consecrated it, to make atonement for it. And he took all the fat that was on the entrails, and the
appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar. But the
bull, and its skin, and its flesh, and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the LORD
commanded Moses.
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down from offering the
sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of
meeting; and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the
people. And fire came forth from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat upon the
altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

ALEXANDRIA
ON JOHN 11.8 (PG 74:505-508); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
As a man the Mediator between God and man intercedes on our behalf, and because he is our very great
and most holy High Priest who offers himself as a sacrifice for us, his prayers appease the anger of his
Father. Christ is himself both sacrifice and priest, both mediator and victim without blemish, the true
lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
The mediation of Moses in ancient times was a clear type and symbol of the mediation of Christ as
manifested in the last days, and the high priest of the Law was a figure of the High Priest who is above the
Law. Indeed, all that relates to the Law is a foreshadowing of the truth. The saintly Moses, and with him
the celebrated Aaron, always stood between God and the people of Israel. They placated God’s anger at
the people’s sins, calling on heaven to be merciful to their weakness; they invoked blessings on them and
offered the sacrifice and gifts ordained by the Law for sins, or as thank-offerings for the blessings God had
given them.
But Christ, who appeared in the last days to supersede the types and symbols of the Law, is both High
Priest and Mediator. As a man he intercedes for us, but as God he is one with God the Father in
bestowing blessings upon those who are worthy of them. Paul’s saying, Grace and peace be with you
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, teaches us this quite clearly. Christ prays for us as
a man, but as God he also gives. For being a High Priest who is holy, innocent, and undefiled, he did not
offer himself in sacrifice for his own frailty as did those to whom it fell to offer sacrifice according to the
Law. No, it was for the salvation of our souls and on account of our sin that he made this offering, and
made it once for all. He undertook to plead on our behalf and he is himself the sacrifice for our sins,
and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world, for the sins of every nation and
race that is called to attain righteousness and holiness through faith.
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MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT: LEVITICUS 16:2-28
The LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at all times into the holy place
within the veil, before the mercy seat which is upon the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy seat. But thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a
sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and shall have the
linen breeches on his body, be girded with the linen girdle, and wear the linen turban; these are
the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on. And he shall take
from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a
burnt offering.
“And Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself
and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats, and set them before the LORD at the door of
the tent of meeting; and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the
other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD, and
offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive
before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to
Azazel.
Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself
and for his house; he shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. And he shall take a censer full
of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small;
and he shall bring it within the veil and put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the
cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat which is upon the testimony, lest he die; and he
shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy
seat, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.
Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood within
the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy
seat and before the mercy seat; thus he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the
uncleannesses of the people of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins; and so
he shall do for the tent of meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.
There shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he enters to make atonement in the holy
place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the
assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar which is before the LORD and make
atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat, and
put it on the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood upon it with
his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the people of
Israel.
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And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the
altar, he shall present the live goat; and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live
goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions,
all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the
wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon
him to a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness.
Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments which he put on
when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there; and he shall bathe his body in water in a
holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of
the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. And the fat of the sin offering he shall
burn upon the altar. And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in
water, and afterward he may come into the camp. And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the
sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be carried forth
outside the camp; their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned with fire. And he who burns
them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF BARNABAS

THE LETTER OF BARNABAS 7-8; ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS 6 (1948) TR. KLEIST.
Bear in mind, O children of joy, that there is not a single thing which the Lord in his goodness has not
made clear to us beforehand, so that we may know to whom all our thanks and praises are due. Though
the Son of God was the divine Lord, and the future Judge of living and dead alike, yet nevertheless he
suffered, in order that his affliction might win life for us.
Notice the directions he gave. Take a couple of goats, unblemished and well-matched; bring them for an
offering, and let the priest take one of them for a burnt offering. And what are they to do with the other?
The other, he declares, is accursed. (Now see how plainly the type of Jesus appears.) Spit on it, all of you;
thrust your goads into it, wreathe its head with scarlet wool, and so let it be driven out into the desert.
This is done, and the servant leads the animal into the desert, where he takes off the wool and leaves it
there, on the bush we call a bramble (the plant we usually eat the berries of, if we come across it in the
countryside; nothing has such tasty fruit as a bramble). Now what does that signify? Notice that the first
goat is for the altar, and the other is accursed; and that it is the accursed one that wears the wreath. That
is because they shall see him on That Day clad to the ankles in his red woollen robe, and will say, ‘Is not
this he whom we once crucified, and mocked and pierced and spat upon? Yes, this is the man who told us
that he was the son of God.’ But how will he resemble the goat? The point of there being two similar
goats, both of them fair and alike, is that when they see him coming on the Day, they are going to be
struck with terror at the manifest parallel between him and the goat. In this ordinance, then, you are to
see typified the future sufferings of Jesus.
But why should they put the wool on the thorns? This too is a type of Jesus, meant for the Church’s
instruction. For if one wanted to take the scarlet wool for himself, it would cost him much suffering, since
the thorns were fearsome and could only be mastered with anguish. Similarly, says he, those who would
behold me and possess my kingdom must go through affliction and suffering before they can reach me.
What now, do you suppose, is the significance of his next direction to the Jews? Men whose sins had
come to a head were to bring a heifer for an offering, and slay it and burn it. Then, after gathering up the
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ashes and putting them into basins of water, young children were to tie scarlet wool on branches of wood
(here again, you see, we have the scarlet wool and the type of the Cross), together with sprigs of hyssop;
and with these the people were to be sprinkled, man by man, by the youngsters, to cleanse them from
their sins. See how clearly he is speaking to you here! The calf is Jesus, and the sinners who offer it are
those who dragged him to the slaughter. Why was the wool put on living wood? Because the royal realm
of Jesus is founded on a Tree, and they who hope in him shall have eternal life. To ourselves it is plain
enough that these were the true reasons for doing things in this way; but to them it was all dark, because
their ears were deaf to the voice of the Lord.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

COMMANDMENTS CONCERNING ONE’S NEIGHBOUR: LEVITICUS 19:1-18, 31-37
And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I
the LORD your God am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep
my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods: I am the
LORD your God.
“When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.
It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, or on the morrow; and anything left over until the third day
shall be burned with fire. If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be accepted,
and every one who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned a holy thing of the LORD; and
that person shall be cut off from his people.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you
gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you
gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am
the LORD your God.
“You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely,
and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
“You shall not oppress your neighbour or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you
all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you
shall fear your God: I am the LORD.
“You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in
righteousness shall you judge your neighbour. You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your
people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbour: I am the LORD.
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbour, lest you bear sin
because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people,
but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD.
“Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your
God.
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“You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God:
I am the LORD.
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns
with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were
strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just
balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt. And you shall observe all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them: I am the LORD.”
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA

ON CONSCIENCE, 40-45 (SC 92:209-216); FROM WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
When God created man, he implanted in us something of his own divinity, in the way of a more ardent
disposition, with a shining spark of reason to illuminate our minds and teach us the difference between
good and evil. This is called conscience, which is the natural law. It was by submitting to this law, that is,
to the conscience, that the patriarchs and all the faithful in the days before the written Law were well-
pleasing to God. But since conscience was clogged and trampled on by humanity in general through
successive sins, we needed the written Law, we needed the holy Prophets, and we needed the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ to uncover and awaken it, and to bring the buried spark back to life through the
observance of his holy commands. So it is now up to us either to keep it buried, or to allow it to shine in
us and illuminate us if we obey it. For when our conscience tells us to do something and we ignore it, and
it speaks again and we still do nothing but trample on it, we finally bury it, and it can no longer speak
clearly to us because of the weight pressing on it.
Let us take the greatest care, then, brothers, to guard our conscience as long as we live in this world, and
not allow it to convict us of any wrongdoing, nor despise it even in the smallest matters for any reason at
all. For, as you know, from scorning such small and supposedly unimportant things we are led to despise
even great things. Both living a good life and living a life of sin grow from small beginnings, to end in
either great good or great evil.
Then we must guard our conscience in relation to God, in relation to our neighbour and in relation to
material things. In relation to God, so as not to despise his commands, even if no one sees us or expects
anything of us. We guard our conscience for God in secret, for instance, when we do not neglect prayers
and, when our mind is inflamed with passion, we agree to calm down and relax; and, when we see our
neighbour talking or doing anything, we refrain from suspecting and condemning him for appearing to be
up to no good.
Guarding our conscience in relation to our neighbour means to do nothing at all which we know will
distress or frighten our neighbour, either by deed, word, gesture or look. For, as I have often told you
before, even a gesture can upset a neighbour, and so can a look.
Guarding our conscience in relation to material things means not to misuse anything, nor let anything be
wasted or left lying about, but if we see anything lying about not to ignore it, even if it is something quite
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unimportant, but pick it up and return it to its right place; it also means not to neglect our clothes. Equally
with food: you can satisfy your needs with a small amount of vegetables or lentils, or a few olives; but to
refuse to do so, and to insist on having either pleasanter or more expensive food – all such things are
against conscience.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS ARE PROMISED BY GOD: LEVITICUS 26:3-17, 38-45
“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in
their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your
threshing shall last to the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last to the time for sowing; and you shall
eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land securely. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall
lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will remove evil beasts from the land, and the sword shall
not go through your land. And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall
fall before you by the sword. And I will have regard for you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and
will confirm my covenant with you. And you shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old
to make way for the new. And I will make my abode among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I
will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, who
brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars
of your yoke and made you walk erect.
“But if you will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and
if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
I will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that waste the eyes
and cause life to pine away. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it; I will set my
face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies; those who hate you shall rule over you,
and you shall flee when none pursues you.
“And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those of you
that are left shall pine away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity; and also because of the
iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away like them.
“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery which they committed
against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into
the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their
iniquity; then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and
my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be left by them, and enjoy its
Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they
spurned my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of
their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my
covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God; but I will for their sake remember the covenant with
their forefathers, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be
their God: I am the LORD.”
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IN LEV. 16:1-3, 4-5; FATHERS OF THE CHURCH 83 (1990) TR. G.W. BUCKLEY.
The omnipotent God, who lays down for men the contest of observing his Law in this world, lists what
ought to be done and not done, announces suitably at the end of the book of Leviticus where each
individual observance is established, what reward he who fulfils them bears and what punishment he
who does not observe them undergoes.
But if the Law, according to what the Jews maintain, is not spiritual but carnal, there is no doubt that he
grants carnally observed blessings also to those who observe them carnally. But if, as it seems to the
Apostle Paul, the Law is spiritual then it must be observed spiritually and there is a spiritual reward of the
blessings for which they hope. For it is by a perfect logic that the spiritual Law gives spiritual blessings and
by a no less perfect logic that the curses and condemnations of the spiritual Law are not physical. So that
what we say may not be doubted, let us hear the voice of the Apostle Paul himself writing about spiritual
blessings to the Ephesians: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven.
And you will eat your bread in abundance. I do not take that to be a physical blessing, as if he who keeps
the Law of God obtains this ordinary bread in abundance. Why? Do not the impious and wicked eat bread
not only in abundance but even in delight? Therefore, if we turn our attention more to him who said, I am
the living bread which descended from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever, and if we
consider that he who said this was the Word by which souls are nourished, then we will
understand about which bread it was said, And you will eat your bread in abundance. In
Proverbs, Solomon also proclaims similar things about the just man when he says, When the just
man eats, he will fill his soul; but the souls of the impious will be in extreme poverty. If you take
it according to the literal sense, it appears false. For the souls of the impious take food with
eagerness and strive after satiety; but the just meanwhile are hungry. Paul was just and he said,
Up to this hour we are hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and we are beaten with fists. But if you
consider how the just man always and without interruption eats from the living bread and fills
his soul with the heavenly food which is the Word of God and his Wisdom, you will find how the
just man eats his bread in abundance from the blessing of God.
And you will dwell secure upon your land. The unjust man is never secure but is always moved and
wavers and is carried about by every wind of doctrine. But the just man who keeps the Law of God dwells
secure upon his land. For his understanding is made firm by saying to God, Confirm me, O Lord, in your
words. Therefore, he lives upon his land grounded in the faith because his building is not placed upon
sand, and his root is not ‘upon a rock’, but indeed his house was founded upon the earth, but his plant
took root in the depth of the earth, that is, in the interior of his soul. Therefore, it is rightly said to a soul
of this kind in the blessings, You will dwell secure upon your land; and I will give peace upon your land.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

THE LAWS OF THE LEVITES: NUMBERS 3:1-13; 8:5-11
These are the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount
Sinai. These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the first-born, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar;
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these are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to minister in the
priests office. But Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered unholy fire before the LORD
in the wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the
lifetime of Aaron their father.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they
may minister to him. They shall perform duties for him and for the whole congregation before the tent of
meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle; they shall have charge of all the furnishings of the tent of
meeting, and attend to the duties for the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. And you shall
give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel. And
you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to their priesthood; but if any one else comes
near, he shall be put to death.”
And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of
every first-born that opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, for all the
first-born are mine; on the day that I slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own
all the first-born in Israel, both of man and of beast; they shall be mine: I am the LORD.”
And the LORD said to Moses, “Take the Levites from among the people of Israel, and cleanse them. And
thus you shall do to them, to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of expiation upon them, and let them go
with a razor over all their body, and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves. Then let them take a
young bull and its cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you shall take another young bull for a
sin offering. And you shall present the Levites before the tent of meeting, and assemble the whole
congregation of the people of Israel. When you present the Levites before the LORD, the people of Israel
shall lay their hands upon the Levites, and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD as a wave
offering from the people of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of the LORD.”
A READING FROM AGAINST THE HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

ADV. HAER. 4.14.2-3; 15, 1; FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE II.
From the beginning God formed man in view of his gifts. He chose the Patriarchs in order to save them.
He began to prepare a people, teaching it, obstinate as it was, to follow him. He provided Prophets, to
make men accustomed to having God’s Spirit within them and to having communion with God. God
indeed needed no one’s company, but he shared his company with those who needed him. For those
who pleased him he set down, like an architect, his plan of salvation. In his own person he gave guidance
to his people in Egypt, though they did not see him. To those in the desert, who were restless, he gave an
appropriate Law. To those who entered the good land he gave a fitting inheritance. For those who
returned to the Father he killed the fatted calf, and put on them the best robe in these many ways he
blended the human race to a harmony of salvation.
For this reason John said in the Apocalypse, His voice was like the sound of many waters. The Spirit of
God is indeed like many waters, because the Father is both rich and great. And the Word passing through
all those men, without grudging gave help to all who were obedient by drawing up in writing a Law
adapted and applicable to every class among them. By this Law he prescribed how they were to make the
Tabernacle, build the Temple, choose Levites, offer sacrifices and oblations, carry out rites of purification,
and fulfil all the rest of their service.
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He himself has no need of these things. Even before the time of Moses, every good was to be found in
him, and the origin of every fragrance and all the smoke of pleasant incense. The people were quick to
turn back to idols, but God instructed them. Many times he freed them, urging them to persevere in his
service. He called them to things of supreme importance by means of things of less importance, that is,
he called them by shadows to those things which are real; he called them by temporal things to eternal
things, by the carnal to the spiritual, by the earthly to the heavenly.
God told Moses, See that you make them all after the pattern which you have seen on the mountain. For
forty days Moses was learning to remember God’s words, the heavenly patterns, the spiritual images, the
foreshadowing of things to come. Paul, too, says this, For they drank from that spiritual rock which
followed them; and the rock was Christ. Paul, again, listed the things which were in the Law, and
concluded, All these things happened to them but they were written down as a warning to us upon whom
the end of the ages has come.
By means of shadows they began to learn the fear of God and perseverance in his service. So the Law was
both instruction for them and the foretelling of things to come.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

THE CLOUD UPON THE TABERNACLE AND THE SILVER TRUMPETS: NUMBERS 9:15 – 10:10, 33-36
On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony;
and at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was continually;
the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud was taken up
from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down,
there the people of Israel encamped. At the command of the LORD the people of Israel set out, and at the
command of the LORD they encamped; as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in
camp. Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the
charge of the LORD, and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and
according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp; then according to the command of the
LORD they set out. And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning; and when the cloud
was taken up in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud was
taken up they set out. Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued
over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out; but when it
was taken up they set out. At the command of the LORD they encamped, and at the command of the
LORD they set out; they kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses.
The LORD said to Moses, “Make two silver trumpets; of hammered work you shall make them; and you
shall use them for summoning the congregation, and for breaking camp. And when both are blown, all
the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. But if they blow
only one, then the leaders, the heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. When you
blow an alarm, the camps that are on the east side shall set out. And when you blow an alarm the second
time, the camps that are on the south side shall set out. An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set
out. But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual
statute throughout your generations. And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who
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oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before
the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. On the day of your gladness also, and at
your appointed feasts, and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt
offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; they shall serve you for remembrance before
your God: I am the LORD your God.”
So they set out from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD
went before them three days journey, to seek out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the LORD
was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp.
And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let thy enemies be scattered; and let
them that hate thee flee before thee.” And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand
thousands of Israel.”
A READING FROM THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH
BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, 5 (PG 68:393-396); WORD IN
SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The glory of Christ filled the true Tabernacle, which is the Church, from the very moment it was set up on
earth. This, surely, is what is signified by the cloud that covered the first Tabernacle. Christ has filled the
Church with his glory, and now like a fire, he shines forth to give light to those who live in the darkness of
ignorance and error. He shades and protects those already enlightened by the dawn of his day in their
hearts. He refreshes them with the heavenly dew of his consolations sent down from above through the
Spirit. This is what we should understand by the saying that by night he appeared in the form of fire, and
by day in the form of cloud. Those who were as yet uninstructed in the teaching of Christ required
spiritual enlightenment to bring them to a knowledge of God; but the more advanced, whose minds had
been illumined by faith, were in need of protection from the scorching heat of the day, and of courage to
bear the burdens of this present life. For all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will suffer persecution.
Whenever the cloud moved forward, the Tabernacle went with it; when the cloud settled, the Tabernacle
came to rest with it and the Israelites broke their journey. Now the meaning of this for us is that wherever
Christ leads, the Church, the holy multitude of believers, follows him. The faithful are never separated
from the Saviour who calls them to himself. We may not be able to find any special meaning in the
constant halts and new departures throughout our spiritual journey under Christ's guidance. It is the
whole journey, following the cloud whether it moves forward or settles, that symbolizes our desire to be
with God.
Nevertheless, if we would have a more subtle interpretation, we could perhaps say that our first
departure is from unbelief to faith, from ignorance to knowledge, and from having no perception of the
true God to clear recognition of the Creator and Lord of the universe. The second stage, and an essential
one, is conversion from sin and licentiousness to a desire for amendment both in thought and deed. But
the best and most glorious is the third part of the journey, because in it we leave behind what is deficient
and move onward toward what is perfect both in our actions and in our belief.
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So, little by little, we advance toward the ideal we see in Christ, to become the perfect man, sharing in the
perfection of Christ himself. This surely is what Saint Paul means by saying: Forgetting what lies behind
me and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the goal, the heavenly reward to which
God calls me in Christ Jesus.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

THE SPIRIT IS POURED OUT UPON THE ELDERS AND JOSHUA: NUMBERS 11:4-6, 10-30
Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving; and the people of Israel also wept again, and
said, “O that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the
melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all
but this manna to look at.”
Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and the
anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. Moses said to the LORD, “Why hast thou
dealt ill with thy servant? And why have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou dost lay the burden of
all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I bring them forth, that thou shouldst say to
me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries the sucking child’, to the land which thou didst swear to
give their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say,
‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, the burden is too heavy for
me. If thou wilt deal thus with me, kill me at once, if I find favour in thy sight, that I may not see my
wretchedness.”
And the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be
the elders of the people and officers over them; and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take
their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take some of the spirit
which is upon you and put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you
may not bear it yourself alone. And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall
eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was
well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat one
day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your
nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and
have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come forth out of Egypt?”’” But Moses said, “The people
among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot; and thou hast said, I will give them meat, that
they may eat a whole month! Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to suffice them? Or shall all
the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?” And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the
LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD; and he gathered seventy men of the
elders of the people, and placed them round about the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and
spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders; and
when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did so no more.
Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit
rested upon them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they
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prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the
camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses,
forbid them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people
were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” And Moses and the elders of Israel
returned to the camp

CONFERENCE 3.6.1, 7.5-7; ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS, TR. RAMSEY.
Now something must be said about the renunciations which the tradition of the Fathers and the authority
of Holy Scripture show to be three and which each one of us ought to pursue with all our zeal. The first is
that by which in bodily fashion we despise all the wealth and resources of the world. The second is that
by which we reject the former behaviour, vices, and affections of soul and body. The third is that by which
we call our mind away from everything that is present and visible and contemplate only what is to come
and desire those things that are invisible.
We read that the Lord commanded Abraham to do these three things all at once when he said to him,
Leave your country and your kinsfolk and your father’s house. First he spoke of your country – namely, of
the resources of this world and of earthly wealth; secondly, of your kinsfolk – namely, of the former way
of life and behaviour and vices that have been related to us from our birth by a connection as it were of a
certain affinity or consanguinity; thirdly, of your father’s house – namely, of every vestige of this world
which the eyes gaze upon.
Therefore, if we desire to achieve true perfection we ought to strive so that, just as with our body we
have disdained parents, homeland, wealth, and the pleasures of the world, we may also in our heart
abandon all these things and not turn back again in our desires to what we have left behind, like those
who were led out by Moses. Although, to be sure, they did not return in body, nonetheless they are said
to have turned back to Egypt in their heart, for they abandoned the God who had led them out with such
powerful signs and they venerated the idols of Egypt that they had once disdained. Scripture recalls it
thus: In their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron: Make for us gods who will go before us.
We would be censured along with those who dwelled in the desert and who desired the disgusting food
of vice and filthiness after having eaten the heavenly manna, and we would seem to complain like them:
It was well with us in Egypt, when we sat over pots of flesh and ate onions and garlic and cucumbers and
melons. Although this manner of speaking first referred to that people, nonetheless we see it now daily
fulfilled in our life and profession. For everyone who has first renounced this world and then returns to
his former pursuits and his erstwhile desires proclaims that in deed and in intention he is the same as
they were, and he says: ‘It was well with me in Egypt’.
I fear that there will be found as many such people as we read there were multitudes of sinners in the
time of Moses. For although six hundred and three thousand armed men were said to have left Egypt, no
more than two of these entered the promised land. Hence we must strive to take our models of virtue
from the few and far between, since, according to that figure of speech in the Gospel, many are said to be
called but few are said to be chosen. Bodily renunciation and removal from Egypt, as it were, will be of no
value to us, therefore, if we have been unable to obtain at the same time the renunciation of heart which
is more sublime and more beneficial.
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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE MURMURING OF MIRIAM AND AARON AGAINST MOSES: NUMBERS 12:1-15
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had
married a Cushite woman; and they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not
spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men
that were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam,
“Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the LORD came
down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both
came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself
known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with
all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the
form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed; and when the cloud removed
from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam,
and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have
done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he
comes out of his mother’s womb.” And Moses cried to the LORD, “Heal her, O God, I beseech thee.” But
the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let
her be shut up outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” So Miriam was
shut up outside the camp seven days; and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was
brought in again.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON NUMBERS BY ORIGEN

IN NUM. 7.1-2 (SC 29:133-136); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
According to St Paul, everything that happened to the Israelites was symbolic, and was recorded as a
warning to us. If this is so we should try to learn what we can from the story of Aaron and Miriam, who
were rebuked by God for speaking against their brother Moses. Miriam received the additional
punishment of leprosy. The chosen people took this chastisement so much to heart that they
discontinued their journey to the promised land, and the Tent of the Presence stood still, until Miriam
had completed her seven days’ exclusion from the camp. What we are given here, in the first place, is a
useful and necessary lesson not to speak ill of our neighbours, and not to make derogatory remarks about
good and holy people, or indeed about anyone at all, when we see the anger and vengeance of God that
result. Those who do so may be said to speak against Moses. Because of this they become spiritual lepers;
their unclean hearts exclude them from the camp which is the Church of God.
Now whether speaking against Moses means that these people are heretics, or whether they are
members of the Church who slander their brothers and sisters and speak ill of their neighbours, there is
no doubt that all who practise this vice are lepers at heart. In the case of Miriam, this leprosy was healed
on the seventh day, thanks to the intervention of Aaron the High Priest; but as for us, if we allow
ourselves to indulge our cruel habit of speaking ill of people and our souls are punished with leprosy, we
shall continue in our spiritual uncleanness until the last day of all, that is until the day of resurrection,
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unless we change our ways while there is still time for us to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus, asking him
to help us to do penance and be purified.
And now let us hear the account of what happened afterward, and how the Holy Spirit paid tribute to
Moses. Scripture tells us that the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the door of the Tent of
the Presence. Aaron and Miriam were summoned, and they both came forward. The Lord said to them:
Listen to my words. If any one of you is a prophet, I make myself known to him in visions, and speak to
him in dreams. It is not so, however, with my servant Moses; he alone is faithful of all my household.
With him I speak face to face, clearly and not by means of symbols or parables, and he has seen the
glory of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Scripture goes on
to say that the Lord’s anger struck them, and he dismissed them from his presence. When the cloud
departed from the tent, there stood Miriam, white as snow with leprosy.
You see what punishment those envious tongues brought on themselves, and in contrast what honours
they earned for the brother they had abused. He was honoured, they were disgraced; he was covered
with glory, they were covered with leprosy; he was praised, they were blamed.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

SCOUTS ARE SENT INTO CANAAN: NUMBERS 12:16 – 13:3, 17-33
After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.
The LORD said to Moses, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel;
from each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them.” So Moses sent
them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were
heads of the people of Israel.
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb yonder, and go
up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or
weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and
whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and
whether there is wood in it or not. Be of good courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the
time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance of
Hamath. They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the
descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came to
the Valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it
on a pole between two of them; they brought also some pomegranates and figs. That place was called
the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down from there.
At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and
to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back
word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We
came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people
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who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the
descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and
the Amorites dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and occupy it; for we are
well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up
against the people; for they are stronger than we.” So they brought to the people of Israel an evil report
of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone, to spy it out, is a
land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there
we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim); and we seemed to ourselves like
grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
A READING FROM A LETTER BY ST AUGUSTINE

LETTER 140.13-15 (PL 33:543-544); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
When the time came for the grace of the New Testament to be revealed through the man Christ Jesus,
there was no question of his attracting us to himself with the promise of earthly happiness. This explains
our Lord’s willingness to undergo suffering, to be scourged, spat upon, mocked, nailed to the Cross, and
to accept death itself like one conquered and humiliated. All this he endured so that those who believed
in him might learn what recompense for their dutiful service they could ask for and expect from God who
had made them his children They had to learn to serve him without any eye to earthly prosperity, for to
value their faith at so low a price would be tantamount to rejecting it and trampling it underfoot.
By his great human compassion and by appearing among us in the form of a servant, Christ, who is both
God and man, meant to teach us what we should spurn in this life and what we should hope for in the
next It was accordingly at the very height of his Passion, when his enemies thought they had won such a
mighty victory, that he gave voice to our human weakness which was being crucified together with our
former selves to set our sinful bodies free; and his cry was My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?
In taking up this expression of our frailty our Head is praying the psalm: My God, my God, look upon me:
why have you forsaken me? Here the suppliant feels abandoned; his prayer seems to be of no avail.
Jesus made these words his own; they are the words of his Body, that is, of the Church which must
endure the travail of conversion from unregenerate human nature into the new creation. His is the voice
of our human weakness, which has to be weaned from the good things of the Old Testament and taught
to long after and hope for those of the New.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE MURMURING OF THE PEOPLE AND THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES: NUMBERS 14:1-25
Then all the congregation raised a loud cry; and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel
murmured against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in
the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why does the LORD bring us into this
land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us
to go back to Egypt?”
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And they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell
on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. And Joshua the son of
Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, rent their
clothes, and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to
spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it
to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only, do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the
people of the land, for they are bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with
us; do not fear them.” But all the congregation said to stone them with stones.
Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. And the LORD said
to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all
the signs which I have wrought among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them,
and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for thou didst bring up this people in thy
might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, O
LORD, art in the midst of this people; for thou, O LORD, art seen face to face, and thy cloud stands over
them and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou
dost kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard thy fame will say, ‘Because the LORD
was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to give to them, therefore he has slain
them in the wilderness.’ And now, I pray thee, let the power of the LORD be great as thou hast promised,
saying, The LORD is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children, upon the third and
upon the fourth generation. Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray thee, according to the greatness of
thy steadfast love, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
Then the LORD said, “I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, and as all the earth
shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I
wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the proof these ten times and have not
hearkened to my voice, shall see the land which I swore to give to their fathers; and none of those who
despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully,
I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now, since the
Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the
way to the Red Sea.”

IN JOH. 84.1-2 (CCL 36:536-538); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The Lord marked out for us the fullness of love we ought to have for each other when he told us: There is
no greater love than to lay down one's life for one’s friends. Taking into account his previous words,
namely: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you, the conclusion we must
draw is the same as that of the evangelist John who recorded these statements. In his first letter John
tells us that we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren in the same way as Christ laid down his life
for us, loving one another after the example of Christ who loved us and made the supreme sacrifice for
us.
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Surely this is what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: When you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler,
consider carefully what is set before you, then stretch out your hand and take your portion knowing that
you in your turn will have to provide the same kind of meal. What is this ruler’s table, if not the altar at
which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? And what does it mean to sit at
this table, if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to stretch out your hand and take your
portion knowing that you will have to provide the same kind of meal yourself, if not what I have already
told you, namely that just as Christ laid down his life for us so we too ought to lay down our lives for our
brethren? This is what the apostle Peter said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might
follow in his footsteps.

This is what it means to provide the same kind of meal, and what their burning love enabled the blessed
martyrs to do. If we are to give true meaning to our celebration of their memorials, approaching the
Lord’s table at the very feast at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide the same kind of meal.
At this table we do not commemorate the martyrs in the same way as we commemorate others who now
rest in peace, so as to include them in our prayers, but rather in order that they should pray for us and
help us to follow in their footsteps. They practiced that perfect love which Christ said could not be
surpassed, offering their brethren the same kind of meal as they themselves had received from the table
of the Lord.
This must not be understood as implying that we can be the Lord’s equals by bearing witness to him to
the extent of shedding our blood. Christ had the power to lay down his life and to take it up again; but we
cannot choose how long we shall live, and death comes to us even against our will. Finally, even if martyrs
die for their brethren, none of them by shedding his blood brings forgiveness for the sins of his brothers,
as Christ brought forgiveness to us. In this he gave us not so much an example to imitate as a reason for
rejoicing. Insofar, then, as they shed their blood for their brethren, the martyrs provided the same kind of
meal as they themselves had received from the table of the Lord. Let us therefore love one another as
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE MUTINY OF KORAH, DATHAN AND ABIRAM: NUMBERS 16:1-11, 16-24, 28-35
Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On
the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; and they rose up before Moses, with a number of the
people of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-
known men; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to
them, “You have gone too far! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is
among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” When Moses heard it,
he fell on his face; and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the LORD will show who is
his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him; him whom he will choose he will cause to
come near to him. Do this: take censers, Korah and all his company; put fire in them and put incense
upon them before the LORD tomorrow, and the man whom the LORD chooses shall be the holy one. You
have gone too far, sons of Levi!” And Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: is it too small a
thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near
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to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister
to them; and that he has brought you near him, and all your brethren the sons of Levi with you? And
would you seek the priesthood also? Therefore it is against the LORD that you and all your company have
gathered together; what is Aaron that you murmur against him?”
And Moses said to Korah, “Be present, you and all your company, before the LORD, you and they, and
Aaron, tomorrow; and let every one of you take his censer, and put incense upon it, and every one of you
bring before the LORD his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.”
So every man took his censer, and they put fire in them and laid incense upon them, and they stood at
the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Then Korah assembled all the congregation
against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the
congregation.
And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I
may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces, and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of
all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be angry with all the congregation?” And the LORD said to
Moses, “Say to the congregation, Get away from about the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
And Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, and that it has
not been of my own accord. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they are visited by the
fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground
opens its mouth, and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol,
then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD.”
And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder; and the earth opened
its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all
their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; and the earth closed over
them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel that were round about them fled
at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!” And fire came forth from the LORD, and
consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TRINITY BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND

ON THE TRINITY 2.13-14 (PG 39:691-698); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
The font in which they are baptized in the name of the Trinity is the source of salvation for all believers,
and those washed in it escape the jaws of the serpent. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the font
becomes a universal mother while remaining a virgin.
In that font we receive every grace. In it we are given a pledge of the blessings of paradise; in it he who
created our soul takes it for his bride, according to the words of Paul: I have betrothed you to Christ, so
as to present you as a pure bride to this one husband. But how shall I tell briefly of the most wonderful
grace of all? He whom the angels in heaven do not dare to call Father, we on earth learn to call by that
name without fear. In psalm twenty-six we sing: My father and mother have forsaken me (because Adam
and Eve lost their immortality), but the Lord has taken me into his care. It is the same as saying: ‘The Lord
has given me baptism as a mother, the Most High as a father, and the Saviour who was baptized for us as
a brother. Now I know that I have really been born again and have been saved, since I no longer hear it
said, Weep for the dead man who lies in darkness, but the invitation I longed for, Come, all you that
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labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. I will anoint each one of you, I will wash you and
clothe you with myself, completely and for ever, and I will feed you with my body and blood.’
Now it is time to enumerate the passages I have found, some even in the Old Testament, that refer to the
Holy Spirit and to the baptism by which we are born to eternal life. The undivided and transcendent
Trinity, foreseeing from all eternity the frailty of human nature, created water out of nothing for our
healing. It is clear, therefore, that when the Holy Spirit moved over the waters, they were sanctified for
ever and endowed with life-giving power.
The Holy Spirit appeared above the waters of the Jordan when our Lord was baptized and rested upon
him. The Spirit appeared this time in the form of a dove because the dove is a symbol of innocence and
the Lord said: You must be innocent as doves.
The flood too, which purified the world from its primeval wickedness, prefigures our purification from sin
by holy baptism. And the ark itself, which saved those who entered it, was an image of holy Church and of
the good hope she holds out to us. The dove that carried an olive branch to the ark as a sign that the
waters had subsided symbolized the coming of the Holy Spirit and our reconciliation with God, the olive
being a symbol of peace. The Red Sea received the Israelites whose faith did not waver and delivered
them from the perils they faced in Egypt from Pharaoh and his army. The whole history of their journey
from Egypt was therefore a foreshadowing of our salvation through baptism.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

CONCERNING THE WATERS OF MERIBAH AND THE BRONZE SERPENT: NUMBERS 20:1-13; 21:4-9
And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and
the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
Now there was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses
and against Aaron. And the people contended with Moses, and said, “Would that we had died when our
brethren died before the LORD! Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness,
that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to
bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water
to drink.” Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of
meeting, and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, and the LORD said to
Moses, “Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock
before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out of the rock for them; so you shall give
drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he
commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now,
you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck
the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their
cattle. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the
eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given
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them.” These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel contended with the LORD, and he
showed himself holy among them.
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people
became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you
brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this
worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that
many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have
spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So
Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole;
and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a
pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS BY ST AUGUSTINE

IN GAL. 22 (PL 35:2120-2121); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
If our natural, sinful life had not been symbolically hanging on the Cross when the Lord died, the
unregenerate instincts that were once ours would not have been crucified with him. But the apostle Paul
assures us that our former selves were put to death with Christ on the Cross. The Lord died to free our
bodies from the tyranny of sin. He intended us to be slaves of sin no longer.
Christ’s death and our sin were foreshadowed long ago in the desert, when Moses fastened a serpent to
a wooden stake and held it on high. We must remember that it was through heeding the voice of a
serpent that the human race had incurred the penalty of death, and so it was appropriate that a serpent,
fastened to a wooden standard and raised aloft, should prefigure the death of Christ. In that symbol we
have an image of the Lord's death by hanging.
Now if Scripture were to say: Cursed be all that hang from a tree, we should scarcely feel disturbed. Yet
that serpent hanging from a tree represents our Lord’s physical death. He himself confirmed this
interpretation by saying: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man
be lifted up above the earth. No one therefore will be likely to accuse Moses of intending to insult the
Lord by this action, when he understands the power the Cross contains for the healing of the human race.
Only because the serpent was a symbol of our Lord’s Cross did Moses command it to be erected, so that
the people who were dying from snakebite might find instant cure through fixing their gaze upon it.
The serpent was fashioned from bronze as a symbol of faith in the enduring effects of the Lord’s Passion
(A number of ancient artefacts, commonly called bronzes, are actually in existence today.) The fact is that
if people were to forget that Christ died for them and every record of the time of his Passion were to be
destroyed, the human race would indeed be in the grip of death. But faith in Christ’s Cross abides for
ever; it is as enduring as bronze. Despite the constant cycle of birth and death the Cross continues to be
held high above the earth for the healing of all who gaze upon it.
There need be no surprise, then, at the way in which Christ dealt with the curse on the human race. He
overcame that curse by taking it upon his own person. He vanquished death by undergoing death himself,
sin by identifying himself with sin, and the ancient serpent by means of another serpent. Death, sin and
the serpent were all included in God’s curse, but the Cross has triumphed over each of them. And so
there is profound truth in that word of Scripture: Cursed be all that hang on a tree. Christ grants
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justification to those who believe in him, simply because they have faith and not because they observe
the Law. This means that any fear of falling under the curse attached to the Cross has been taken away,
while love endures. The blessing granted to Abraham for his exemplary faith is extended to the Gentiles,
so that we may receive the promised Spirit through faith. In other words, the promised gift to believers is
not a spirit of outward observance based on fear, but one of inward devotion inspired by love.
FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

BALAAM IS CALLED TO CURSE ISRAEL: NUMBERS 22:1-8, 20-35
Then the people of Israel set out, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. And
Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was in great dread of the
people, because they were many; Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. And Moab said
to the elders of Midian, “This horde will now lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licks up the grass
of the field.” So Balak the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to Balaam
the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River, in the land of Amaw to call him, saying, “Behold, a
people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come
now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them
and drive them from the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is
cursed.”
So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand; and
they came to Balaam, and gave him Balaks message. And he said to them, “Lodge here this night, and I
will bring back word to you, as the LORD speaks to me”; so the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them;
but only what I bid you, that shall you do.”
So Balaam rose in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. But God’s anger
was kindled because he went; and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now
he was riding on the ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the LORD
standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the road, and went
into the field; and Balaam struck the ass, to turn her into the road. Then the angel of the LORD stood in a
narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. And when the ass saw the angel of the
LORD, she pushed against the wall, and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again.
Then the angel of the LORD went ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn
either to the right or to the left. When the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam;
and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the ass with his staff. Then the LORD opened the mouth of
the ass, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”
And Balaam said to the ass, “Because you have made sport of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for
then I would kill you.” And the ass said to Balaam, “Am I not your ass, upon which you have ridden all
your life long to this day? Was I ever accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”
Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with
his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face. And the angel of the LORD said
to him, “Why have you struck your ass these three times? Behold, I have come forth to withstand you,
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because your way is perverse before me; and the ass saw me, and turned aside before me these three
times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have slain you and let her live.” Then
Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that thou didst stand in the road
against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in thy sight, I will go back again.” And the angel of the LORD said to
Balaam, “Go with the men; but only the word which I bid you, that shall you speak.” So Balaam went on
with the princes of Balak.

IN ROM. 4.10-11 (PG 14:997-999); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Few people would die for a
righteous man, though perhaps for a good man one might have the courage to die.
Saint Paul has just told us that the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Now in
his desire to demonstrate the power of that love more fully, he gives us the convincing proof that it was
not for good men but for sinners that Christ died. It is indeed true that we were sinners before we turned
to God, and that our Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for us before we believed in him. This he surely
could not have done without an immense love for us, either the love he himself showed by dying for
sinners, or the love God the Father showed by giving his only Son for our redemption.
Few people would give their lives even for a righteous man, and all of us face death with reluctance, even
in a just cause. How great a Saviour we have then, and how deeply we ought to ponder his love for us! It
is a clear proof of his divine goodness that when the appointed time came, he did not hesitate to suffer
and die for the ungodly and the unjust. In the Gospel it is said that no one is good but God the Father; and
so unless our Saviour had been his Son, sharing in the Father's very substance, he could not have shown
such great goodness toward us. By this proof, therefore, we can recognize in him that good man for
whom someone might have the courage to die.
Once people have understood the extent of Christ’s goodness toward them and his love has been poured
into their hearts, they will long not only to die for this good man Christ, but to die voluntarily. In fact we
often see this happen, when Christians whose hearts are overflowing with the love of Christ present
themselves before their persecutors of their own free will and with the utmost courage, confessing the
name of Christ in the presence of angels and men for the whole world to hear. Not only do they have the
courage to suffer injustice for the name of this good man, but for his sake they are even ready to give
their lives. Few would do this even for a righteous man, since our love of this mortal life is so great that
even in a just cause hardly anyone can bear to die. Only for God’s sake will people have the courage to
submit to death of their own free will. For any other reason they can scarcely endure it, even in the cause
of justice and in obedience to the laws of nature.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

THE ORACLES OF BALAAM: NUMBERS 24:1-19
When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for
omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and saw Israel encamping
tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, and he took up his discourse, and said, “The oracle of
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Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the
words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes uncovered: how fair
are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! Like valleys that stretch afar, like gardens beside a
river, like aloes that the LORD has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. Water shall flow from his
buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be
exalted. God brings him out of Egypt; he has as it were the horns of the wild ox, he shall eat up the
nations his adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces, and pierce them through with his arrows.
He couched, he lay down like a lion, and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed be every one who
blesses you, and cursed be every one who curses you.”
And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to
Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times.
Therefore now flee to your place; I said, I will certainly honour you, but the LORD has held you back from
honour.” And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, ‘If Balak should
give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the LORD, to do
either good or bad of my own will; what the LORD speaks, that will I speak?’ And now, behold, I am going
to my people; come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.” And he
took up his discourse, and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is
opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who
sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes uncovered: I see him, but not now; I
behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel; it shall
crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be dispossessed, Seir also,
his enemies, shall be dispossessed, while Israel does valiantly. By Jacob shall dominion be exercised, and
the survivors of cities be destroyed!”
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN

ORATION 45:23-24 (PG 36:653-656); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
We are soon going to share in the Passover, and although we still do so only in a symbolic way, the
symbolism already has more clarity than it possessed in former times, because under the Law the
Passover was, if I may dare to say so, only a symbol of a symbol. Before long, however, when the Word
drinks the new wine with us in the kingdom of his Father, we shall be keeping the Passover in a yet more
perfect way, and with deeper understanding: he will then reveal to us and make clear what he has so far
only partially disclosed. For this wine, so familiar to us now, is eternally new.
It is for us to learn what this drinking is, and for him to teach us. He has to communicate this knowledge
to his disciples, because teaching is food, even for the teacher.
So let us take our part in the Passover prescribed by the Law, not in a literal way, but according to the
teaching of the Gospel; not in an imperfect way, but perfectly; not only for a time, but eternally. Let us
regard as our home the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly one; the city glorified by angels, not the one
laid waste by armies. We are not required to sacrifice young bulls or rams, beasts with horns and hoofs
that are more dead than alive and devoid of feeling; but instead, let us join the choirs of angels in offering
God upon his heavenly altar a sacrifice of praise. We must now pass through the first veil and approach
the second, turning our eyes toward the Holy of Holies. I will say more: we must sacrifice ourselves to
God, each day and in everything we do, accepting all that happens to us for the sake of the Word,
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imitating his Passion by our sufferings, and honouring his blood by shedding our own. We must be ready
to be crucified.
If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up your Cross and follow Christ. If you are crucified beside him like one
of the thieves, now like the good thief acknowledge your God. For your sake, and because of your sin,
Christ himself was regarded as a sinner; for his sake, therefore, you must cease to sin. Worship him who
was hung on the Cross because of you, even if you are hanging there yourself. Derive some benefit from
the very shame; purchase salvation with your death. Enter paradise with Jesus, and discover how far you
have fallen. Contemplate the glories there, and leave the other scoffing thief to die outside in his
blasphemy.
If you are a Joseph of Arimathea, go to the one who ordered his crucifixion, and ask for Christ's body:
make your own the expiation for the sins of the whole world. If you are a Nicodemus, like the man who
worshiped God by night, bring spices and prepare Christ's body for burial. If you are one of the Marys, or
Salome, or Joanna, weep in the early morning. Be the first to see the stone rolled back, and even the
angels perhaps, and Jesus himself.
PALM (PASSION) SUNDAY

AGAINST WICKED KINGS; A RIGHTEOUS KING, SON OF DAVID, IS PROMISED: JEREMIAH 22:1-9;
23:1-8
Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say,
‘Hear the word of the LORD, O King of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and
your people who enter these gates. Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from
the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the
fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word,
then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and
on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. But if you will not heed these words, I swear by
myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. For thus says the LORD concerning the
house of the king of Judah: “‘You are as Gilead to me, as the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make
you a desert, an uninhabited city. I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons; and they
shall cut down your choicest cedars, and cast them into the fire.
“‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbour, “Why has the LORD
dealt thus with this great city?” And they will answer, “Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD
their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the LORD. Therefore thus
says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered
my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for
your evil doings, says the LORD. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where
I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set
shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall
any be missing, says the LORD.
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“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he
shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days
Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The
LORD is our righteousness.’
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when men shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives
who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and
led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he
had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

IN HEBD. SANCTA, SERMON 36.1-2.4 (CCM 2A:294-295); WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
Our Lord Jesus Christ worked our salvation not in one way only, but undoubtedly in many ways. Since it
was in mercy that he had planned our redemption, he wrought this redemption in such a way that he
might serve as an example for us. My brothers, in this season you are recalling this redemption of ours.
Be careful, then, to reflect not only on the fact of this redemption but also on two other points: the
manner in which this redemption was wrought, and the place in which it was wrought. The manner of
redemption is the suffering of the Cross; the place, outside the city.
Let us then learn from the Cross of Jesus our proper way of living. Should I say ‘living’ or, instead, ‘dying’?
Rather, both living and dying. Dying to the world, living for God. Dying to vices and living by the virtues.
Dying to the flesh, but living in the spirit. Thus in the Cross of Christ there is death and in the Cross of
Christ there is life. The death of death is there, and the life of life. The death of sins is there and the life of
the virtues. The death of the flesh is there, and the life of the spirit. But why did God choose this manner
of death? He chose it as both a mystery and an example. In addition, he chose it because our sickness was
such as to make such a remedy appropriate.
It was fitting that we who had fallen because of a tree might rise up because of a tree. Fitting that the one
who had conquered by means of a tree might also be conquered by means of a tree. Fitting that we who
had eaten the fruit of death from a tree might be given the fruit of life from a tree. And because we had
fallen from the security of that most blessed place on earth into this great, expansive sea, it was fitting
that wood should be made ready to carry us across it. For no one crosses the sea except on wood, or this
world except on the Cross.
Let me say something now about the mystery contained in the manner of our redemption. Death on a
Cross is endured not on the earth but above the earth; and the victim’s limbs are not cut off but
stretched. They are stretched horizontally and perpendicularly, so that the crucified man is stretched out
in the four directions and seems to embrace the four quarters of the world, taking possession of both
heaven and earth. For when a Cross is set upright, the head is directed to heaven and the feet to earth,
and the outstretched arms to what is located between heaven and earth. Moreover, if you lay a crucified
man on the ground, one part of him will occupy the east, another the west, another the south, and
another the north.
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Do you see, now, the mystery in the kind of death Christ chose? The Apostle sets forth this point with
clarity, when he says: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the
Cross. And, revealing the mystery, he says: Therefore God exalted him and gave him the name that is
above all names, so that at the name of Jesus every knee might bend of those who are in heaven, on
earth, and under the earth. Since, then, he was to take possession of heaven and earth through the
Cross, on the Cross he embraced heaven and earth.
MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

JEREMIAH IS IN DANGER OF DEATH BECAUSE OF THE ORACLE OF THE RUINED TEMPLE:
JEREMIAH 26:1-15
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD,
“Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah which
come to worship in the house of the LORD all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not
hold back a word. It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the
evil which I intend to do to them because of their evil doings. You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD:
If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law which I have set before you, and to heed the words of my
servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not heeded, then I will make this
house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.’”
The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the
LORD. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all
the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!
Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city
shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the
LORD.
When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the
LORD and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the LORD. Then the priests and
the prophets said to the princes and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because
he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”
Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against
this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings,
and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will repent of the evil which he has pronounced
against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only
know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this
city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

SERMON 71.1-2 – EASTER VIGIL 443 (PL 54:386-387); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
I think that the instructions I have given you about our share in Christ’s Cross have sufficiently shown how
the Paschal Mystery should enter into the very life of the faithful, and how our daily conduct should be a
proclamation of what we honour at the Easter festival. You yourselves have experienced the value of this
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participation, and you have learned by your Lenten exercises how much both soul and body have to gain
from extended fasting, prolonged prayers, and increased generosity in almsgiving. There is scarcely
anyone who has not been enriched by these practices, and who has not preserved in the depths of his
memory something in which he may justifiably rejoice.
Since, then, the aim of our forty days’ observance has been to know something about the Cross in this
season of our Lord’s Passion, we must also strive to be found companions of Christ’s resurrection, and to
pass from death to life while we are yet in this mortal body.
The result of our undergoing a conversion from one state to another is that we cease to be what we were
and begin to be something more. But the end of our dying or living is of the utmost importance, for there
is a death that brings life, and a life that brings death. It is only in this fleeting world that both are sought
together, so that the difference in our future rewards depends upon the quality of our present actions.
We must therefore be dead to Satan and alive to God; we must abandon sin in order to rise to holiness.
And since Truth himself says: No one can serve two masters, let our master be the Lord who has raised up
the fallen to glory, not the one who has brought the upright to ruin.
The Apostle tells us: The first man came from the earth, a man of dust: the second man is from heaven.
As the man of dust was, so are those who are of the dust; and as the man of heaven is, so are those who
are of heaven. Just as we have been fashioned after the man of dust, so we shall also be fashioned after
the man of heaven. There is therefore every reason for us to rejoice at this exchange, which translates us
from earthly disrepute to heavenly honour through the untold mercy of him who descended to our level
in order to lift us up to his, by assuming not only the reality of our human nature but also its sinful
condition, and allowing his divine impassibility to be assailed by all the sufferings which are our mortal lot.
TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

LAMENTATION OVER THE LORD’S VINEYARD: JEREMIAH 8:13 – 9:8
“When I would gather them, says the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even
the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.” Why do we sit still? Gather
together, let us go into the fortified cities and perish there; for the LORD our God has doomed us to
perish, and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. We looked
for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
“The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole
land quakes. They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. For
behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you,”
says the LORD.
My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me. Hark, the cry of the daughter of my people from
the length and breadth of the land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they
provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with their foreign idols?” “The harvest is past, the
summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart
wounded, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
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Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my
people not been restored?
O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the desert a wayfarers’ lodging place, that I might
leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.
They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they
proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.
Let every one beware of his neighbour, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother is a supplanter,
and every neighbour goes about as a slanderer. Every one deceives his neighbour, and no one speaks the
truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.
Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, says the LORD.
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do,
because of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks
peaceably to his neighbour, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.”
A READING FROM ON THE VIRTUE OF PATIENCE BY ST CYPRIAN

ON THE VIRTUE OF PATIENCE 6-7 (CSEL 3:401-402); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, said that he had come down to earth to do his Father’s will. Among the
virtues that revealed his divine majesty was the endurance that mirrored his Father’s patience. Every act
of his, from the moment of his first appearing, bore the stamp of the patience with which it was carried
out. He was no sinner, but the Son of God; yet when he descended to earth from the heights of heaven,
he did not disdain to assume human nature and bear the sins of men. Laying aside his immortality for a
while, he suffered himself to be made mortal, in order that the innocent could die to save the guilty. He,
the Lord, was baptized by a servant, and though he had come to grant forgiveness of sins he did not think
it beneath him to wash in the life-giving waters. He fasted for forty days, yet it is through him that others
are filled with good things. If he hungered and thirsted, it was to enable those who were faint for want of
the word and grace of God to be filled with bread from heaven He engaged in combat with the devil who
tempted him, but was content to defeat his enemy by words alone.
He did not govern his disciples as a master rules his slaves. He was kind and gentle, loving them as
brothers, even washing the feet of the apostles, showing by his example how a servant should bear
himself toward his equals when his master dealt in such a way with his servants. No wonder he could
show such goodness to the disciples who obeyed him, if he was able to bear so long and so patiently with
Judas, eating and drinking with his enemy, recognizing the foe in his own household yet neither exposing
him publicly nor refusing his treacherous kiss.
At the time of his Passion and Cross, even before it had gone as far as the inhuman crucifixion and the
shedding of his blood, how patiently he bore reviling and reproach, insult and mockery! A little while
before, he had cured the eyes of a blind man with his spittle, yet now he allowed his tormentors to spit in
his face. His servants today scourge the devil and his angels in the name of Christ, but at the time of his
Passion Christ himself submitted to being scourged. He crowns the martyrs with never-fading flowers,
though he himself was crowned with thorns. Others he clothes in the garment of immortality, yet he
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himself was stripped of his earthly garments. He had fed them with bread from heaven, yet he himself
was fed with gall; and he who had poured out the saving cup was offered vinegar to drink
He the innocent, he the just, he rather who is the embodiment of innocence and justice, is counted
among evil-doers. Truth is confuted by false evidence. The future judge is subjected to judgment; the
Word of God is led to the Cross in silence. At the Lord's crucifixion the stars are thrown into confusion,
the elements are disturbed, earth trembles, and night swallows up day. But he himself is silent, unmoved,
hiding every sign of his godhead throughout the whole duration of his Passion. Enduring all things, he
perseveres to the end, so that in him patience may be brought to its full measure of perfection.
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

THE PROPHET’S SOUL IS POURED FORTH: JEREMIAH 11:18-20; 12:1-13
The LORD made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds. 19 But I was like a
gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, “Let us
destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered
no more.” But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, let me see
thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.”
Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I complain to thee; yet I would plead my case before thee. Why does
the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? Thou plantest them, and they
take root; they grow and bring forth fruit; thou art near in their mouth and far from their heart. But thou,
O LORD, knowest me; thou seest me, and triest my mind toward thee. Pull them out like sheep for the
slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter. How long will the land mourn, and the grass of
every field wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away,
because men said, “He will not see our latter end.”
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And
if in a safe land you fall down, how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan? For even your brothers and the
house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; believe
them not, though they speak fair words to you.”
“I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the
hands of her enemies. My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest, she has lifted up her voice
against me; therefore I hate her. Is my heritage to me like a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey
against her round about? Go, assemble all the wild beasts; bring them to devour. Many shepherds have
destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my portion, they have made my pleasant portion a
desolate wilderness. They have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourns to me. The whole land is made
desolate, but no man lays it to heart. Upon all the bare heights in the desert destroyers have come; for
the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the land to the other; no flesh has peace. They have
sown wheat and have reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out but profit nothing. They shall be
ashamed of their harvests because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”
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SERMON 70.3-5 – GOOD FRIDAY 443 (PL 54,:382-384); WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
When God, whose absolute being is immune from suffering, assumed our fragile humanity in Christ, he
strengthened it beyond measure. Henceforth it was no longer to remain under death’s dominion; through
a nature immortal in itself, mortal man would be raised to life.
We must strive, dearly beloved, with great effort of soul and body to join ourselves inseparably to this
mystery. While failure to observe the Paschal Solemnity would be a very grave offence, it would be still
more dangerous to be united with congregations at Church but have no sharing in our Lord’s Passion. The
apostle’s saying is true: If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. No one can truly worship the
suffering, dead and risen Christ unless he himself suffers, dies, and rises again with him.
For all the Church’s children this sharing in Christ’s death and resurrection begins at the mystery of
regeneration, when sin is destroyed and we are born to new life. There the Lord’s three-day sojourn in
the grave is represented by a three-fold immersion. The stone is, as it were, rolled away from the tomb,
and those who enter the font in their old, sin-stained condition are brought forth new by the baptismal
waters. What has been effected in mystery, however, must still be carried out in their daily lives. As long
as they are in this mortal body, those who are born of the Spirit must take up their cross.
Christ has lifted us up with himself on the Cross: there let the Christian take his stand. He knows it is the
place where his human nature was redeemed, and all his steps should be directed toward it – for the
Lord’s Passion is prolonged until the end of the world. Just as it is he whom we honour and love in the
saints, he whom we feed and clothe in the poor, so too it is he who suffers in all who endure adversity for
the sake of what is right, unless, indeed, we are to imagine that, with the spread of the faith, all
persecution has come to an end together with every conflict which ever raged against the blessed
martyrs – as if the bearing of the Cross were reserved only for those who have to suffer atrocious
torments for the love of Christ.
Wise souls who have learned to fear and love the one and only Lord and to hope in him alone, mortify
their passions and crucify their bodily senses. They prefer the will of God to their own lives, and insofar as
they renounce love of self for love of God, they love themselves all the more truly. In such members of
Christ’s body, beloved brethren, the Holy Passover is celebrated properly and they shall lack none of
those victories which our Saviour’s Passion has won.
MAUNDY THURSDAY

A LAMENTATION OF THE PROPHET; HIS CALL IS REPEATED: JEREMIAH 15:10-21
Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not
lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. So let it be, O LORD, if I have not entreated thee for
their good, if I have not pleaded with thee on behalf of the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time
of distress! Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?
“Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your
territory. I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for in my anger a fire is
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kindled which shall burn for ever.” O LORD, thou knowest; remember me and visit me, and take
vengeance for me on my persecutors. In thy forbearance take me not away; know that for thy sake I bear
reproach. Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of
my heart; for I am called by thy name, O LORD, God of hosts. I did not sit in the company of
merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me, for thou hadst filled me with
indignation. Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Wilt thou be to me
like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?
Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter
what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you
shall not turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against
you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the LORD. I
will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST EPHREM OF SYRIA

DIATESSARON 20.3-4, 6-7 (CSCO 145:201-204); WORD IN SEASON II, 2ND ED.
The evening before our Lord gave himself up to death he shared his own body with his Apostles and
offered them his blood, with the command that they were to do what he had done in order to keep the
memory of his Passion alive. Then a strange thing happened. Earlier Jesus had charged his disciples not to
fear death. Do not be afraid of those who have power to kill your body, he had said. But now he himself
showed fear, and begged to be spared the cup of suffering. Father, he prayed if it be possible, let this cup
pass me by. How are we to explain this?
The answer is that our Lord’s petition was wrung from the human weakness he had made his own. There
was no pretence about his incarnation; it was absolutely real. And since the donning of our poor
humanity had made him puny and defenceless, it was only natural that he should experience fear and
alarm. Eating to alleviate hunger, showing weariness after exertion, and revealing human weakness by
the need for sleep were all the effects of his taking our flesh and clothing himself with our infirmity.
Consequently when the moment of death drew near, he necessarily experienced the ultimate frailty of
our human condition; he was gripped by a dreadful horror of dying.
It was then that Jesus said to his disciples: Stay awake and pray that you may be spared the test. The spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak. And in answer to our question he might well say: ‘When you are afraid, it
is not your spirit that trembles but your human weakness. Remember then that I myself tasted the fear of
death in my desire to convince you that I truly shared your flesh and blood.’
A further answer to our question is that Jesus wished to teach his disciples how to commit themselves to
God both in life and in death. His own divine knowledge made him supremely wise, yet he prayed for
what his Father judged to be expedient. How much more ought we ignorant men to surrender our wills to
God’s omniscience!
We may also tell ourselves that we too were in our Lord’s mind as he prayed. In time of temptation our
minds become confused and our imagination runs riot. By persevering in prayer Jesus was showing us
how much we ourselves need to pray if we are to escape the wiles and snares of the devil. It is only by
constant prayer that we gain control of our distracted thoughts.
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Finally, there is our Lord’s desire to strengthen all who are afraid of death. By letting them see that he
himself had experienced fear he would show them that fear does not necessarily lead to sin, provided
one continues to resist it. This is the force of our Lord’s concluding prayer: Not my will, Father, but yours
be done. He is saying: ‘Yes, Father, I am ready to die in order to bring life to many.’
GOOD FRIDAY

THE LONELINESS OF THE PROPHET: JEREMIAH 16:1-15
The word of the LORD came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this
place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and
concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who begot them in this land: They shall die of
deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface
of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the
birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
“For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I
have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, my steadfast love and mercy. Both great and
small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or
make himself bald for them. No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead; nor
shall any one give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. You shall not go into
the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
Behold, I will make to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the
voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all
this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD
our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have
gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my
law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his
stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me; therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land which
neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will
show you no favour.’
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the LORD
lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up
the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I
will bring them back to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”

SERMON 59.4-6 – WEDS IN HWK 444 (PL 54:339-341); WORD IN SEASON II, 1ST ED.
When our Lord was handed over to the will of his cruel foes, they ordered him, in mockery of his royal
dignity, to carry the instrument of his own torture. This was done to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: A child is
born for us, a son is given to us; sovereignty is laid upon his shoulders. To the wicked, the sight of the
Lord carrying his own Cross was indeed an object of derision; but to the faithful a great mystery was
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revealed, for the Cross was destined to become the sceptre of his power. Here was the majestic spectacle
of a glorious conqueror mightily overthrowing the hostile forces of the devil and nobly bearing the trophy
of his victory.
As the crowd accompanied Jesus to the place of execution, the soldiers found a man called Simon of
Cyrene, onto whose shoulders they transferred the weight of the Lord’s Cross. This action prefigured the
faith of the Gentiles, to whom the Cross of Christ would mean glory rather than shame. By this
substitution the atonement of the unblemished lamb and the fulfilment of all the rites of the old Law
passed from the people of the circumcision to the Gentiles, from the children born of the flesh to those
born of the spirit
In the words of the Apostle: Christ our Passover is sacrificed. As the new and authentic sacrifice of
reconciliation, it was not in the Temple, whose cult was now at an end, that he offered himself to the
Father; nor was it within the walls of the city doomed to destruction for its crimes. It was beyond the city
gates, outside the camp, that he was crucified, in order that when the ancient sacrificial dispensation
came to an end a new victim might be laid on a new altar, and the Cross of Christ become the altar not of
the Temple, but of the world.
You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when all the elements combined to pronounce judgment in
execration of that crime. Figures gave way to reality, prophecy to manifestation, Law to Gospel. You drew
all things to yourself in order that the worship of the whole human race could be celebrated everywhere
in a sacramental form which would openly fulfil what had been enacted by means of veiled symbols in
that single Jewish Temple.
HOLY SATURDAY IN THE EASTER TRIDUUM

THE ANXIETIES OF THE PROPHET: JEREMIAH 20:7-18
O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I
have become a laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout,
“Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day
long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name”, there is in my heart as it were a
burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many
whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my familiar friends,
watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him, and take our revenge on
him.” But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not
overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonour will never
be forgotten. O LORD of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy
vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
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Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed
be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you”, making him very glad. Let that
man be like the cities which the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an
alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her
womb for ever great. Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in
shame?
A READING FROM A BYZANTINE CANON FOR HOLY SATURDAY

FROM MATTINS OF HOLY SATURDAY IN THE LENTEN TRIODION (1978)
O Lord my God, I will sing to you a funeral hymn, a song at your burial: for by your burial you have opened
for me the gates of life, and by your death you have slain death and hell. All things above and all beneath
the earth quaked with fear at your death, as they beheld you, my Saviour, upon your throne on high and
in the tomb below. For you lie before our eyes in a way beyond our understanding: a corpse and yet the
very source of life.
Today you keep holy the seventh day, which you blessed of old by resting from your works. You bring all
things into being and make all things new, observing the sabbath rest, my Saviour, and restoring your
strength. You have gained the victory by your greater strength: your soul was parted from your body yet
by your power, O Word, you have burst asunder the bonds of death and hell. Hell was filled with
bitterness when it met you, O Word, for it saw a man deified, marked by wounds yet all-powerful; and it
shrank back in terror at this sight.
You were torn but not separated, O Word, from the flesh you had taken. For though your temple was
destroyed at the time of your Passion, the person of your Godhead and of your flesh is one: in both you
are one Son, the Word of God, both God and man. The fall of Adam brought death to man but not to
God. Hell is king over mortal men, but not for ever. Laid in the tomb, mighty Lord, with your mighty hand
you burst asunder the bars of death. To those from every age who slept in the tombs, you have
proclaimed true deliverance, O Saviour, who have become the firstborn from the dead.
Be astounded, O heavens, and let the foundations of the earth be shaken. He who dwells on high is
numbered among the dead and dwells as a stranger in a narrow tomb. The second Adam, he who dwells
on high, has come down to the first Adam in the depths of hell. The disciples’ courage failed, but Joseph
of Arimathea was more bold; for seeing the God of all a naked corpse, he asked for the body and buried
him.
Coming forth from a birth without travail and wounded in your side with a spear, O My Maker, you have
brought to pass the re-creation of Eve. Becoming Adam, you have in a way surpassing nature slept a life-
giving sleep, awakening life from sleep and from corruption by your almighty power.
‘Do not weep for me O Mother, beholding in the tomb the Son whom you conceived in your womb
without seed. For I shall rise and be glorified, and as God I shall exalt in everlasting glory those who
magnify you with faith and love.’
‘O Son without beginning, I was blessed by your strange birth in ways surpassing nature, for I was spared
all travail. But now looking upon you, my God, as a lifeless corpse, I am pierced by the sword of bitter
sorrow. But arise, that I may be truly magnified.’
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
Year II
EASTER
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MONDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

APPEARANCES AND ASCENSION OF THE LORD; ELECTION OF MATTHIAS: ACTS 1:1-26
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when
he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had
chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during
forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to
depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for
John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own
authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said
this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they
were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of
Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will
come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s
journey away; and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of
Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves
to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred
and twenty), and said, “Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was
numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. (Now this man bought a field with the
reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.
And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language
Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his habitation become
desolate, and let there be no one to live in it'; and 'His office let another take.’ So one of the men who
have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from
the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us – one of these men must become with
us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed
Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which
one of these two thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas
turned aside, to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was
enrolled with the eleven Apostles.
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A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY ATTRIBUTED TO ST. HIPPOLYTUS

A PASCHAL HOMILY (SC 27: 116-118, 184-190); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Now the holy rays of the light of Christ shine forth, the pure stars of the pure Spirit rise, the heavenly
treasures of glory and divinity lie open. In this splendour the long dark night has been swallowed up and
the dreary shadows of death have vanished. For us who believe in him a glorious day has dawned, a long
unending day, the mystical Passover symbolically celebrated by the Law and effectually accomplished by
Christ, a wonderful Passover, a miracle of divine virtue, a work of divine power. This is the true festival
and the everlasting memorial, the day upon which freedom from suffering comes from suffering,
immortality from death, life from the tomb, healing from a wound, Resurrection from the fall, and
Ascension into heaven from descent into hell.
To show that he had power over death Christ had exercised his royal authority to loos death’s bonds even
during his lifetime, as for example when he gave the command, Lazarus, come out and Arise, my child.
For the same reason he surrendered himself completely to death, so that in him that gluttonous beast
with his insatiable appetite would die completely. Since death’s power comes from sin, it searched
everywhere in his sinless body for its accustomed food for sensuality, pride, disobedience or, in a word,
for that ancient sin which was its original sustenance. In him, however, it found nothing to feed on and
so, entirely closed in upon itself and destroyed for lack of nourishment, death become its own death.
Many of the just, proclaiming the Good News and prophesying, were awaiting him who was to become by
his Resurrection the firstborn from the dead. And so, to save all members of the human race, whether
they lived before the Law, under the Law, or after his own coming, Christ dwelt three days beneath the
earth. After his Resurrection it was the women who were the first to see him, for as a woman brought the
first sin into the world, so a woman first announced the news of life to the world. Thus they heard the
holy words, Women, rejoice; for sadness was to be swallowed up by the joy of the Resurrection.
When Christ had clothed himself completely in the humanity created in God’s image and transformed
into the heavenly man the old man he had put on, the image united to himself ascended with him into
heaven. At the sign of the great mystery of human nature now ascending with God the angelic powers
cried out with joy, commanding the hosts of heaven: Lift up your gates, your princes, be lifted up, you
everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall enter. They, seeing the unheard of wonder of human nature
united to God, exclaimed in their turn: Who is this King of glory? and received the reply: The Lord of
hosts, he is the King of glory, the strong, the mighty, the powerful in battle.
TUESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PETER’S FIRST ADDRESS: ACTS 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came
from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this
sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking
in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking
Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and
Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were
amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They
are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who
dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as
you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and
they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood,
and fire, and vapour of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the
day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.’”

ON THE PASCHAL SOLEMNITY 4-5 (PG 24:698-699); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Each year we mark the beginning of the paschal season by a feast for which we prepare by a period of
fasting. Our fast, like that of Moses and Elijah, lasts for forty days, but the feast itself we shall celebrate
repeatedly until the end of time.
When we set out on our journey to God we gird our loins with chastity and, safeguarding the steps of our
soul as though with sandals, we prepare to run the race of our heavenly vocation. Repelling our enemies
with the staff of the word of God and with the power of prayer, we hasten eagerly toward our Passover
into heaven, away from things below toward those above, away from this mortal life toward life
everlasting.
For when we have successfully accomplished our Passover an even greater feast awaits us. The Jews call
this feast Pentecost and it is a foreshadowing of the kingdom of heaven. Moses said: You are to count
seven weeks from the time when you begin to harvest the grain, and then you shall offer the new loaves of
this new harvest to God. In the symbol of the harvest he was clearly referring prophetically to the
vocation of the Gentiles. The new loaves are the souls offered to God through Christ; they are the
Churches made up of all nations, for whom God in his love for us gives the greatest feast of all. Reaped by
the sickles of the Apostles’ teaching, we are gathered into the Churches all over the world, as though
onto threshing-floors. We are made into one body by our common faith, salted by the word of God in
which we are instructed, reborn through water and the fire of the Holy Spirit, and offered to God through
Christ like loaves full of goodness, a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice.
So now that the Mosaic types have given place to the sacred reality they foreshadowed, we have learned
to celebrate this more joyful festival as though already united to our Saviour in the blessedness of his
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kingdom. During this feast we are allowed to rest from our labours, for we are taught to imitate the rest
that we hope to enjoy in heaven. We neither kneel for prayer nor exhaust ourselves with fasting: it is not
fitting for those who have been granted the grace of Resurrection to cast themselves onto the ground
again, nor for those who have been freed from their passions to endure the same hardships as those still
enslaved.
Accordingly, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost for seven full weeks after Easter, just as in the six weeks
before Easter we spent forty days in courageous self-denial. Six is a number associated with activity, since
we are told that God created the world in six days: but as the number seven symbolizes rest, it is
appropriate for our labours to be followed by a period of rest lasting seven weeks, during which we
celebrate a second great feast. Because we see in these holy days of Pentecost an image of the rest to
come, it is right for our souls to rejoice and for our bodies to find repose and cease fasting as though
already united to the bridegroom
WEDNESDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

PETER’S PROCLAMATION OF JESUS CRUCIFIED AND RISEN: ACTS 2:22-41
Peter said, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty
works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this
Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by
the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not
possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he
is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore, my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover, my flesh will dwell in hope. For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One
see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou wilt make me full of gladness with thy
presence.’
“Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his
tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection
of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised
up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear. For David
did not ascend into the heavens; but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, till I
make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has
made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles,
“Brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For
the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God
calls to him.” And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from
this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day
about three thousand souls.
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CATECHESIS 21.1-3 (PG 33:1087-1091); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
When you were baptized into Christ and clothed yourselves in him, you were transformed into the
likeness of the Son of God. Having destined us to be his children by adoption, God gave us a likeness to
Christ in his glory, and, living as you do in communion with Christ, you yourselves are rightly called
‘christs’ or anointed ones. When he said: Do not touch my anointed ones, God was speaking of you.
You became ‘christs’ when you received the sign of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, everything took place in you
by means of images, because you yourselves are images of Christ. Christ bathed in the river Jordan,
imparting to its waters the fragrance of his divinity, and when he came up from them the Holy Spirit
descended upon him; like resting upon like. So you also, after coming up from the sacred waters of
Baptism, were anointed with chrism, which signifies the Holy Spirit, by whom Christ was anointed and of
whom blessed Isaiah prophesied in the name of the Lord: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor.
Christ’s anointing was not by human hands, nor was it with ordinary oil. On the contrary, having destined
him to be the Saviour of the whole world, the Father himself anointed him with the Holy Spirit. The words
of Peter bear witness to this: Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit. And David the
prophet proclaimed: Your throne, O God, shall endure forever, your royal sceptre is a sceptre of justice.
You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil
of gladness above all your fellows.
The oil of gladness with which Christ was anointed was a spiritual oil; it was in fact the Holy Spirit himself
who is called the oil of gladness because he is the source of spiritual joy. But you also have been anointed
with oil, and by this anointing you have entered into fellowship with Christ and have received a share in
his life. Beware of thinking of this chrism as merely ordinary oil. As the eucharistic bread after the
invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer ordinary bread but the body of Christ, so also the oil after the
invocation is no longer plain ordinary oil but Christ’s gift which by the presence of his divinity becomes
the instrument through which you receive the Holy Spirit. While symbolically, on your foreheads and
organs of sense, your bodies are anointed with this oil that we see; your souls are sanctified by the holy
and life-giving Spirit.
THURSDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FIRST COMMUNITY; THE HEALING OF THE SICK MAN: ACTS 2:42 – 3:10
And they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the
prayers.
And fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done through the Apostles. And all
who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and
distributed them to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking
bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour
with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
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Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame
from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to
ask alms of those who entered the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked
for alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention
upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but I
give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And he took him by the right hand
and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and
walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw
him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of
the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY OF THE SECOND

VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM 5-6; WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
In ancient times God, who wishes everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, spoke to
our fathers through the prophets in many different ways. Then in the fullness of time he sent his Son,
the word made flesh and anointed by the Holy Spirit, to preach the Good News to the poor, to heal
the contrite of heart, to be a physician for both body and soul and the mediator between God and
the human race. Through his human nature united with the person of the Word, we have been
saved. Christ made the perfect satisfaction needed to reconcile us with God and he gave us the
means of worshiping God worthily.
The work of redeeming our race and giving full glory to God, foreshadowed by the divine wonders
performed among the people of the old covenant, was accomplished by Christ the Lord principally by the
paschal mystery of his blessed Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and Ascension in glory. By dying he
destroyed our death and by rising he restored our life. From his side as he slept the sleep of death on the
Cross came forth the wonderful Sacrament which is the whole Church.
As Christ was sent by the Father, so he in his turn sent the Apostles, men filled with the Holy Spirit, to
preach the Good News to all creation. They were to proclaim that by his death and Resurrection the Son
of God has freed us from the power of Satan and from death and introduced us into the kingdom of the
Father. Moreover, they were to give effect to the saving work they proclaimed by means of the sacrifice
around which all our liturgical life revolves.
So it is that by Baptism men, women, and children are plunged into the paschal mystery, dying, being
buried, and rising again with Christ. They receive the Spirit who makes them children of God so that they
cry out, Abba, Father, and become the true worshipers the Father seeks. So likewise they proclaim the
Lord’s death until he comes every time they eat the Lord’s Supper. On the very day of Pentecost, when
the Church appeared before the world, those who believed the word of Peter were baptized. They then
devoted themselves to listening to the Apostles’ teaching, sharing the common life, breaking bread, and
praying. They gave praise to God and won the good will of all the people.
From that time onward the Church has never failed to gather together to celebrate the paschal mystery.
It reads what is written about Christ in every part of Scripture, it celebrates the Eucharist, in which the
triumphant victory of his death is once again made present, and at the same time it praises God’s glory by
thanking him for the priceless gift he has given us in Christ Jesus.
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FRIDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

PETER’S ADDRESS ON THE GLORIFICATION OF JESUS: 3:11 – 4:4
While the man who had been healed clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the
portico called Solomons, astounded. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people, “Men of Israel, why
do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him
walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus,
whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But
you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the
Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name, by faith in his
name, has made this man strong whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Jesus has given
the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
“And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by
the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn
again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the
Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time
for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. Moses said, ‘The Lord
God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall listen to him in
whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be
destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came
afterwards, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God
gave to your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your posterity shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you
from your wickedness.”
And as they were speaking to the people, the Priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees
came upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the
resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the morrow, for it was
already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to
about five thousand.

CATECHESIS 22.1. 3-6 (PG 33:1098-1106); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and gave it to his disciples and said: ‘Take, eat: this is my body.’ He took the cup, gave thanks and said:
‘Take, drink: this is my blood.’ Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have
any further doubt? Since he himself has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to
question it and say that it is not his blood?
Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of
Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of
wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and one blood with him. Having his body and blood
in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers, as Saint Peter says, in the divine nature.
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Once when speaking to the Jews Christ said: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall have
no life in you. This so horrified them that they left him. Not understanding his words in a spiritual way,
they thought the Saviour wished them to practise cannibalism.
Under the old covenant there was showbread, but it came an end with the old dispensation to which it
belonged. Under the new covenant there is bread from heaven and the cup of salvation. These sanctify
both soul and body, the bread being adapted to the sanctification of the body, the Word to the
sanctification of the soul.
Do not, then, regard the Eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and
blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith.
You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not
bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long ago
when he sang: Bread strengthens the heart and makes the face glow with the oil of gladness. Strengthen
your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of your soul.
May purity of conscience remove the veil from the face of your soul so that by contemplating the glory of
the Lord, as in a mirror, you may be transformed from glory to glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be
glory for ever and ever. Amen.
SATURDAY, OCTAVE OF EASTER

PETER AND JOHN BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN: ACTS 4:5-31
On the morrow their rulers and Elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the
High Priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when
they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and Elders, if we are being examined
today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed, be it known to
you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This is the stone which was
rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the corner. And there is salvation in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common
men, they wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man that had
been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had
commanded them to go aside out of the Council, they conferred with one another, saying, “What shall
we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is manifest to all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the
people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged
them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is
right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of
what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no
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way to punish them, because of the people; for all men praised God for what had happened. For the man
on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
When they were released they went to their friends and reported what the Chief Priests and the Elders
had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign
Lord, who didst make the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who by the mouth of
our father David, thy servant, didst say by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples
imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered
together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’ – for truly in this city there were gathered together
against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles
and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy plan had predestined to take place. And now,
Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou
stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy
servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken;
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
A READING FROM AN EASTER SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

SERMON 3 ON THE RESURRECTION 1-2 (PL 185:148-149); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Christ is the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep and the firstborn from the dead. His Resurrection, which is the prototype of all others, has
guaranteed the rising of our souls in the first resurrection and of our bodies in the second, for he offers
his own risen body to our souls as Sacrament and to our bodies as exemplar. Even for our souls Christ’s
single Resurrection has prepared a twofold grace: through the living out of the paschal mystery in our
daily lives we rise from the death of sin, and by our joyful celebration of the paschal feast today we rouse
ourselves from the torpor of sleep.
Truly slothful and half-hearted must that person be who does not feel a thrill of joy, a sense of new life
and vigour, at the glad cry: The Lord is risen! For myself; when I looked upon the dead Jesus I was
overwhelmed by despairing grief, but in the living God, as Scripture says, my heart and my flesh rejoice. It
is with no mean profit to faith, no slight dividend of joy, that Jesus returns to me from the tomb, for I
recognize the living God where only a little while ago I mourned a dead man. My heart was sorrowing for
him as slain; but now that he is risen, not only my heart but my flesh also rejoices in the confident hope of
my own resurrection and immortality.
I slept and I arose, Christ says. Awake, then, my sleeping soul, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give
you light! As the new sun rises from below, the grace of the Resurrection already casts its radiance over
the whole world, a radiance reflected in the eyes of those who have watched for him since daybreak, a
dawn that ushers in the day of eternity. This is the day that knows no evening, the day whose sun will
never set again. Only once has that sun gone down, and now once and for all it has ascended above the
heavens, leading death captive in its train.
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. And you also, if you watch daily at the
threshold of wisdom, fixing your eyes on the doorway and, like the Magdalen, keeping vigil at the
entrance to his tomb, you also will find what she found. You will know that what was written of Wisdom
was written of Christ: She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. Anyone who rises
early to seek her will have no trouble; he will find her sitting at his gates. While it was still dark Mary had
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come to watch at the tomb, and she found Jesus whom she sought standing there in the flesh. But you
must know him now according to the spirit, not according to the flesh, and you can be sure of finding his
spiritual presence if you seek him with a desire like hers, and if he observes your persevering prayer. Say
then to the Lord Jesus, with Mary’s love and longing: My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within
me earnestly seeks for you. Make the Psalmist’s prayer your own as you say: O God, my God, I watch for
you at morning light; my soul thirsts for you. Then see if you do not also find yourselves singing with them
both: In the morning fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
LOW SUNDAY

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST: COLOSSIANS 3:1-17
right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have
died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear
with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,
which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once walked, when you
lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on
the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be
Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and
in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and
patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the
Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything
together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish
one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your
hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him.
A READING FROM A PASCHAL HOMILY BY BISHOP BASIL OF SELEUCIA

PASCHAL HOMILY (PG 28:1079-1082); WORLD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Christ descended into hell to liberate its captives. In one instant he destroyed all record of our ancient
debt incurred under the Law, in order to lead us to heaven where there is no death but only eternal life
and righteousness.
By the Baptism which you, the newly-enlightened, have just received, you now share in these blessings.
Your initiation into the life of grace is the pledge of your resurrection. Your Baptism is the promise of the
life of heaven. By your immersion you imitated the burial of the Lord, but when you came out of the
water you were conscious only of the reality of the Resurrection.
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Believe in this reality, of which previously you saw only the outward signs. Accept the assurance of Paul
when he says: If we have been united to Christ in a death like his, we shall be united to him also in a
resurrection like his. Baptism is the planting of the seed of immortality, a planting which takes place in the
font and bears fruit in heaven. The grace of the Spirit works in a mysterious way in the font, and the
outward appearance must not obscure the wonder of it. Although water serves as the instrument, it is
grace which gives rebirth. Grace transforms all who are placed in the font just as the seed is transformed
in the womb. It refashions all who go down into the water as metal is recast in a furnace. It reveals to
them the mysteries of immortality; it seals them with the pledge of resurrection
These wonderful mysteries are symbolized for you, the newly-enlightened, even in the garments you
wear. See how you are clothed in the outward signs of these blessings. The radiant brightness of your
robe stands for incorruptibility. The white band encircling your head like a diadem proclaims your liberty.
In your hand you hold the sign of your victory over the devil. Christ is showing you that you have risen
from the dead. He does this now in a symbolic way, but soon he will reveal the full reality if we keep the
garment of faith undefiled and do not let sin extinguish the lamp of grace. If we preserve the crown of the
Spirit, the Lord will call from heaven in a voice of tremendous majesty, yet full of tenderness: Come,
blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world.
To him be glory and power forever, through endless ages. Amen.
MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY; ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA: ACTS 4:32 – 5:16
Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the
things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the
Apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold
them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the Apostles' feet; and distribution was
made to each as any had need. Thus Joseph who was surnamed by the Apostles Barnabas (which means,
Son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field which belonged to him, and brought the
money and laid it at the Apostles’ feet.
But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge
he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the Apostles’ feet. But Peter
said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the
proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it
not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men
but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who
heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said
to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said
to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Hark, the feet of those
that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at
his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried
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her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole Church, and upon all who heard of these
things.
Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the Apostles. And they were
all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high
honour. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, so
that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came
by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around
Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

THE CONFERENCES 18.4.2-5.4; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
There are in Egypt three kinds of monks. Two of them are very good, whilst the third is lukewarm and
utterly to be avoided. The first is that of the cenobites, who live together in a community and are
governed by the judgement of one elder. The greatest number of monks dwelling in Egypt are of this
kind. The second is that of the anchorites. These are first instructed in the cenobia and then, perfected in
their practical way of life, choose the recesses of the desert. We too have chosen to be part of this
profession. The third and blameworthy type is that of the sarabaites.
The discipline of the cenobites took its rise at the time of the apostolic preaching. For such was the whole
multitude of believers in Jerusalem described in the Acts of the Apostles: The multitude of believers had
one heart and one soul, and none of them said that what he possessed was his own, but all things were
common to them. They sold their possessions and their belongings and distributed them to all as each had
need.
Such, I say, was the whole Church then, whereas now it is difficult to find even a few like that in the
cenobia. But, at the death of the Apostles, the multitude of believers began to grow lukewarm, especially
those who came over to the faith of Christ from different foreign nations. Because of their rudimentary
faith and inveterate paganism, the Apostles asked nothing more of them than that they abstain from
things sacrificed to idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood. But this liberty, which
was conceded to the pagans because of the weakness of their new faith, gradually began to spoil the
perfection of the Church in Jerusalem, and, as its number daily increased, the warmth of that new faith
grew cold, and not only newcomers to the faith of Christ but even the leaders of the Church relaxed their
strictness. For some people, thinking that what they saw conceded to the pagans because of their
weakness was lawful for them as well, thought that it would be no loss to themselves if they believed in
and confessed Christ whilst keeping their belongings and property.
Those in whom the apostolic fervour still existed, however, where mindful of that earlier perfection.
Abandoning their towns and the company of the negligent, they began to live in rural and more secluded
places and to practise privately and individually what they remembered had been taught by the Apostles
throughout the body of the Church. As time went on they gradually separated themselves from the
crowds of believers because they abstained from marriage, cut themselves off from the company of their
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parents and from the life of this world. They were called monks or monazontes because of the strictness
of their solitary lives. They are also called cenobites from their common fellowship, and their cells and
dwelling places are called cenobia. This alone, then, was the most ancient kind of monks, which is first not
only in time but also in grace, and which remained inviolable throughout the years, up until the era of
Abba Paul and Abba Antony. We see that remnants of it endure even now in strict cenobia.
TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE APOSTLES BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN: ACTS 5:17-42
The High Priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and, filled with
jealousy, they arrested the Apostles and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the
Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to
the people all the words of this Life.” And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and
taught.
Now the High Priest came and those who were with him and called together the Council and all the
senate of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not
find them in the prison, and they returned and reported, “We found the prison securely locked and the
sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it we found no one inside.” Now when the captain of
the temple and the Chief Priests heard these words, they were much perplexed about them, wondering
what this would come to. And some one came and told them, “The men whom you put in prison are
standing in the temple and teaching the people.” Then the captain with the officers went and brought
them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the Council. And the High Priest questioned
them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with
your teaching and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the Apostles answered,
“We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging
him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and
forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to
those who obey him.”
When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the Council named
Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honour by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put
outside for a while. And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. For
before these days Theudas arose, giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four
hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.
After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him;
he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away
from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of
God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”
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So they took his advice, and when they had called in the Apostles, they beat them and charged them not
to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the Council, rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name. And every day in the temple and at home
they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

THE ASKETIKON, LONGER RESPONSE 8; TR. PLUSCARDEN
Is it necessary first to renounce everything and then come to the way of life according to God?
Since our Lord Jesus Christ says to all, if anyone comes to me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow me; and again, whoever does not renounce all he has cannot be my disciple, we think that this
commandment extends to a necessary estrangement from many things. For first of all, we who have
given up the hidden things of shame renounce the devil and the passions of the flesh, family ties and
human friendships and any manner of life that conflicts with the strictness of the Gospel of salvation.
And, what is still more necessary, he who has put off the old nature with its practices which is corrupt
through deceitful desires renounces even himself. He also renounces all affections of this world which can
hinder the aim of godliness.
Such a man regards as his true parents those who have given birth to him by the Gospel, he regards as his
brothers those who received the same spirit of adoption, and he will consider all possessions as foreign to
him, as indeed they are. In a word, how can he to whom the whole world has been crucified on account
of Christ, and he to the world, be a sharer any longer in the cares of the world? For our Lord Jesus Christ
goes to extremes in hatred of the soul and denial of self, when he says, if anyone comes to me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. Again, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his
own father and mother, and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he
cannot be my disciple.
Perfect renunciation, therefore, consists in one’s attaining freedom from desire concerning this life and
having the sentence of death so as not to rely on oneself. Its beginnings, however, are alienation from
external things such as possessions, vainglory, the common customs of life, or attachment to useless
things. Examples are given us by the holy disciples of the Lord: John and James, who left their father
Zebedee and even their boat, their only source of livelihood; Matthew, who rose up from the tax-office
and followed the Lord, not only leaving the profits in the tax-office, but also despising the dangers likely
to come upon himself and his family at the hands of the authorities for leaving the accounts of the tax-
office in disorder. To Paul the whole world was crucified, and he to the world.
In the same way one who is violently seized by the desire to follow Christ can no longer care for anything
to do with this life: not for the love of parents or relations, if this is in opposition to the commandments
of the Lord; not for the fear of men according to the example of the saints who said, we must obey God
rather than men; and not because of derision from outsiders on account of their good works.
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WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

SEVEN MEN FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT ARE CHOSEN: ACTS 6:1-15
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the
Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the
body of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve
tables. Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of
wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of
the word.” And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a
proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the Apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon
them.
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a
great many of the Priests were obedient to the faith.
And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of
those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the
Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen. But they could not
withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated men, who said,
“We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people
and the Elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the
Council, and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy
place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will
change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the Council saw that
his face was like the face of an angel.

SERMON 315, 1-3; WSA (1994), TR. HILL
You have all heard in the reading how the blessed Stephen was ordained Deacon with six others, himself
being the seventh, and how he won through to his heavenly crown. This is the first special privilege of the
first martyr: that whilst we can scarcely lay hands on the stories of other martyrs to read them as we
celebrate their feasts, the passion of this one is to be found in a book from the canon of Scripture, The
Acts of the Apostles. The reading of this book starts on Easter Sunday, as is the custom of the Church. In
this book you have heard how seven Deacons, including St Stephen, were elected and then ordained by
the Apostles. The Apostles first, the Deacons second; and the Deacons produced a martyr before the
Apostles, the lambs provided a victim before the rams.
But what a very similar passion he underwent to that of his Lord and Saviour! False witnesses against the
one as against the other; and about the same matter. You know what the false witnesses said against the
Lord Christ: We heard him say ourselves, I will pull down this temple, and after three days I will build
another new one. The Lord, though, hadn’t actually said this; but falsehood wanted to stick close to the
truth. Where he said ‘Pull down’, the false witnesses said ‘I will pull down’. They changed a few syllables;
but the false witnesses were all the worse, for wishing to stick near the truth in their calumny.
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And what was Stephen charged with? We heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this temple,
and change the custom of the Law. They were giving false testimony, and prophesying the truth. Just as
Caiaphas, their master, chief of the priests, when advising the Jews that Christ should be killed, said this:
It is expedient that one should die, rather than that the whole nation should perish; but the evangelist
says, this he did not say of himself; but since he was High Priest that year, he prophesied that it was
necessary for Christ to die for the people. What’s this, brothers? Great indeed is the force of truth. People
hate the truth, and they prophecy the truth without knowing it. Actually, they don’t do it, but it is done
through them.
They brought him before the Council, in order to obtain a more impressive judgement. But the friend of
Christ, when they had stated their case, proclaimed the truth about his Lord. He was going to die; why
should a God-fearing tongue keep quiet before the godless? Why not die for the truth? In this one
respect he was unlike his Lord when their trials are compared, because of a very definite mystery. When
the Lord was brought to his Passion, he preferred to keep quiet on being interrogated; this man did not
keep quiet. Why did Christ prefer to keep quiet? Because it had been foretold about him: Like a sheep he
was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb without a voice before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth.
Why, though, did St Stephen refuse to keep quiet? Because the Lord himself had said, What I tell you in
the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear in the ear, proclaim on the rooftops.
THURSDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

STEPHEN BEGINS A SERMON ON THE HISTORY OF THE FATHERS: ACTS 7:1-16
The High Priest said, “Is this so?” And Stephen said: “Brethren and fathers, hear me. The God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to
him, ‘Depart from your land and from your kindred and go into the land which I will show you.’ Then he
departed from the land of the Chaldeans, and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him
from there into this land in which you are now living; yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a
foot's length, but promised to give it to him in possession and to his posterity after him, though he had no
child. And God spoke to this effect, that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others, who
would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years. ‘But I will judge the nation which they serve,'
said God, 'and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ And he gave him the covenant
of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and
Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him, and rescued him out of
all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him
governor over Egypt and over all his household. Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and
Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was
grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time. And at the second visit Joseph made himself known
to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and called to him Jacob
his father and all his kindred, seventy-five souls; and Jacob went down into Egypt. And he died, himself
and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought
for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.”
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A READING FROM THE EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM BY ORIGEN
ORIGEN, EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM, 41-42 (PG 11:618-619); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
If passing from unbelief to faith means that we have passed from death to life, we should not be
surprised to find that the world hates us. Anyone who has not passed from death to life is incapable of
loving those who have departed from death’s dark dwelling place to enter a dwelling made of living
stones and filled with the light of life. Jesus laid down his life for us; so we too should lay down our lives, I
will not say for him, but for ourselves and also, surely, for those who will be helped by the example of our
martyrdom.
Now is the time for Christians to rejoice. Scripture says that we should rejoice in our sufferings, because
we know that suffering trains us to endure with patience, patient endurance makes us pleasing to God,
and being pleasing to God gives us ground for a hope that will not be disappointed. Only let the love of
God be poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
The more we share in the sufferings of Christ, the more we share, through him, in his consolations. We
should be extremely eager to share in Christ’s sufferings and to let them be multiplied in us if we desire
the superabundant consolation that will be given to those who mourn. This consolation will not perhaps
be the same for all, for if it were, Scripture would not say: The more we share in the sufferings of Christ,
the more we share in his consolation. Sharing in his consolation will be proportionate to our sharing in his
suffering.
God says through the prophet: At an acceptable time I heard you; on the day of salvation I helped you.
What time could be more acceptable than when, for our fidelity to God in Christ, we are made a public
spectacle and led away under guard, not defeated but triumphant?
In Christ and with Christ the martyrs disarm the principalities and powers and share in his triumph over
them, for their share in Christ’s sufferings makes them sharers also in the mighty deeds those sufferings
accomplished. What could more appropriately be called the day of salvation than the day of such a
glorious departure from this world?
FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE STORY OF MOSES IN STEPHEN’S SERMON: ACTS 7:17-43
Stephen said to the Council, “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to
Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till there arose over Egypt another king who had not
known Joseph. He dealt craftily with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, that they
might not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born, and was beautiful before God. And he was brought
up for three months in his father’s house; and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him
and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he
was mighty in his words and deeds.
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And seeing
one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking the Egyptian.
He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they
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did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarrelling and would
have reconciled them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who
was wronging his neighbour thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you
want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled, and became an exile in the
land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame
of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it he wondered at the sight; and as he drew near to look, the voice of
the Lord came, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses
trembled and did not dare to look. And the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the shoes from your feet, for the
place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the ill-treatment of my people that are in
Egypt and heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to
Egypt.’
“This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ God sent as both ruler and
deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed
wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses
who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up.’
This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai,
and with our fathers; and he received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but
thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods to go before
us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their
hands. But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of
the prophets: ‘Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices, forty years in the wilderness, O house of
Israel? And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made
to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.’”

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1091-1095
In the liturgy the Holy Spirit is teacher of the faith of the People of God and artisan of "God's
masterpieces," the sacraments of the New Covenant. The desire and work of the Spirit in the heart of the
Church is that we may live from the life of the risen Christ. When the Spirit encounters in us the response
of faith which he has aroused in us, he brings about genuine cooperation. Through it, the liturgy becomes
the common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church.
In this sacramental dispensation of Christ's mystery the Holy Spirit acts in the same way as at other times
in the economy of salvation: he prepares the Church to encounter her Lord; he recalls and makes Christ
manifest to the faith of the assembly. By his transforming power, he makes the mystery of Christ present
here and now. Finally, the Spirit of communion unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ.
In the sacramental economy the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant. Since Christ's
Church was "prepared in marvelous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and in the Old
Covenant,"14 the Church's liturgy has retained certain elements of the worship of the Old Covenant as
integral and irreplaceable, adopting them as her own: notably, reading the Old Testament; praying the
Psalms; above all, recalling the saving events and significant realities which have found their fulfillment in
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the mystery of Christ (promise and covenant, Exodus and Passover, kingdom and temple, exile and
return).
It is on this harmony of the two Testaments that the Paschal catechesis of the Lord is built,15 and then,
that of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church. This catechesis unveils what lay hidden under the
letter of the Old Testament: the mystery of Christ. It is called "typological" because it reveals the newness
of Christ on the basis of the "figures" (types) which announce him in the deeds, words, and symbols of the
first covenant. By this re-reading in the Spirit of Truth, starting from Christ, the figures are
unveiled.16 Thus the flood and Noah's ark prefigured salvation by Baptism,17 as did the cloud and the
crossing of the Red Sea. Water from the rock was the figure of the spiritual gifts of Christ, and manna in
the desert prefigured the Eucharist, "the true bread from heaven."18
For this reason, the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, re-reads
and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the "today" of her liturgy. But this also demands that
catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of
salvation as the Church's liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.
SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

END OF STEPHEN’S SERMON AND HIS MARTYRDOM: ACTS 7:44 – 8:3
Stephen said to the Council, “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke
to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought
it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was
until the days of David, who found favour in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the
God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses
made with hands; as the prophet says, ‘Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you
build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your
fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who
announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against him. But he,
full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of
God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of
God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then
they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a
young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he
had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting to his death.
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And on that day a great persecution arose against the Church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered
throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. Devout men buried Stephen, and made
great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the Church, and entering house after house, he
dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

What did Stephen do? First take a look at the one whom this good friend was imitating. While the Lord
Jesus Christ was hanging on the Cross, he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. He, though,
said, Father; Stephen said, Lord Jesus. What else did he also say? Receive my spirit. You spoke to the
Father, I to you. I recognize the Mediator; you came to lift up the fallen; you hadn’t fallen with me.
Receive, he said, my spirit.
That was his prayer for himself; something else came into his mind, in which he might imitate his Lord.
Recall the words of the one hanging on the Cross, and mark the words of the one who was being stoned
for confessing him. What did the former say? Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do.
Possibly, Stephen was at that time among those who did not know what they were doing. Many of them,
you see, afterward came to believe. And we are not certain which group the blessed Stephen came from,
whether he was one of those who had previously believed in Christ. If not, then that prayer also availed
for him: Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do.
And yet Saul too was one of those. When Stephen the lamb was being stoned, he was still a wolf, still
thirsting for blood, still thinking his own hands were not enough to stone him with, and therefore keeping
the coats of those who were doing the stoning. So Stephen recalled what had been said for him, Father,
forgive them, because they know not what they do; and to imitate his Lord even in this respect, in order to
be his friend, he too said, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Do you suppose Saul heard these
words? He certainly heard, but he jeered; and yet he was included in Stephen’s prayer. He was still
rampaging around, and already Stephen was being heard on his behalf.
Such a lovely picture this is: where you see holy Stephen being stoned, you can see Saul keeping the coats
of those doing the stoning. This man is Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, this man is Paul, the servant of
Christ Jesus. Yes, you listened very well to the voice saying Why are you persecuting me? You were laid
low, you were raised up; laid low as a persecutor, raised up as a preacher. Tell us, let us hear it: Paul, the
servant of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Certainly not by your will, was it, dear Saul? We have seen the
fruit of your will: Stephen was slain by your will. We can see your fruits that came by the will of God: you
are read everywhere, chanted everywhere, everywhere you are converting to Christ the hearts that
oppose him, everywhere as a good shepherd you are gathering huge flocks.
You are reigning with the one you stoned, reigning with Christ. There you can both see each other, can
both now hear my sermon; both of you please pray for us. He will listen to you both, the one who
crowned you; first one, and then the other; one who suffered persecution, the other who did the
persecuting. Then the first was a lamb, the other a wolf; now, though, both are lambs. May the lambs
acknowledge us, and see us in the flock of Christ. May they commend us to him in their prayers, so as to
obtain a quiet and tranquil life for the Church of their Lord.
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SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PHILIP IN SAMARIA. SIMON THE MAGICIAN: ACTS 8:4-25
Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to a city of Samaria,
and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by
Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who
were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralysed or lame were healed. So there
was much joy in that city.
But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation
of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all gave heed to him, from the least to the
greatest, saying, “This man is that power of God which is called Great.” And they gave heed to him,
because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he
preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both
men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And
seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
Now when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to
them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it
had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then
they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was
given through the laying on of the Apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me also this
power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “Your
silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have
neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this
wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” And Simon answered, “Pray for
me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the
gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

SERMON 34, 1-3.5-6 (CCL 41, 424-426); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Sing to the Lord a new song; his praise is in the assembly of the saints. We are urged to sing a new song to
the Lord. This new song is the song that has been learned by the new man. Now a song is a thing of joy;
more profoundly, it is a thing of love. It is the person who has learned to love the new life who has
learned to sing the new song. In order to be able to sing the new song, therefore we need to be reminded
of the nature of the new life, for the new man, the new song, the new covenant, all belong to the same
kingdom. Not only, then, will the new man sing the new song, he will also belong to the new covenant.
There is no one who does not love something, but the question is, what to love. The psalms do not tell us
not to love, but to choose the object of our love. But how can we choose unless we are first chosen? We
cannot love unless someone has loves us first. Listen to the apostle John: We love him, because he first
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loved us. The source of our love for God can only be found in the fact that God loved us first. He has given
us himself as the object of our love, and he has also given us its source. What this source is you may learn
more clearly from the apostle Paul who tells us: The love of God has been poured into our hearts. This love
is not something we generate ourselves; it comes to us through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Since we have such an assurance, then, let us love God with the love he has given us. As John tells us
more fully: God is love, and whoever dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. It is not enough to say:
Love is from God. Which of us would dare to pronounce the words of Scripture: God is love? He alone
could say it who knew what it was to have God dwelling within him. God offers us a short route to the
possession of himself. He cries out: Love me and you will have me, for you would be unable to love me if
you did not possess me already.
My dear brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fruit of the true faith and holy seed of heaven, all you
who have been born again in Christ and whose life is from above, listen to me; or rather; listen to the
Holy Spirit saying through me: Sing to the Lord a new song. Look, you tell me, I am singing. Yes indeed,
you are singing; you are singing clearly, I can hear you. But make sure that your life does not contradict
your words. Sing with your voices, your hearts, your lips, and your lives: Sing to the Lord a new song.
Now it is your unquestioned desire to sing of him whom you love, but you ask me how to sing his praises.
You have heard the words: Sing to the Lord a new song, and you wish to know what praises to sing. The
answer is: His praise is in the assembly of the saints; it is in the singers themselves. If you desire to praise
him, then live what you express. Live good lives, and you yourselves will be his praise.
MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PHILIP BAPTIZES THE EUNUCH: ACTS 8:26-40
But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from
Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a
minister of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to
worship and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to
Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and
asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading
was this: “As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his
mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up
from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about
himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told
him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch
said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop,
and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they
came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and
went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all
the towns till he came to Caesarea.
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The Lord said somewhere, after he had risen from the dead, Receive the Holy Spirit, and after saying
Receive the Holy Spirit, he immediately added, whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; that is, it’s
the Spirit who forgives, not you. But the Spirit is God. So it’s God who forgives, not you. What, though, are
you in relation to the Spirit? Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells
in you? So God dwells in his holy temple, that is among his holy faithful, in his Church and it is through
them he forgives sins.
But if he forgives through human agency, he can also forgive apart from human agency. To some he gave
forgiveness through John; through whom did he give grace to John himself? Wishing to demonstrate this
and to confirm this truth, God very suitably arranged that when some people in Samaria had been
evangelized and baptized, and baptized by Philip, one of the seven Deacons originally chosen, they did
not receive the Holy Spirit, and yet they had been baptized. This was told to the disciples in Jerusalem,
and they came to Samaria so that those who had been baptized might receive the Holy Spirit by their
laying on their hands.
When Simon saw this, he thought it was something possessed by men, and wanted to possess it himself.
Thinking it was possessed by men, he wanted to buy it from men. Then Peter denounced him and said,
you have neither part nor portion in this faith. For you thought the gift of God is something to be bought
with money. Now I would like you to take note of why I have wanted to remind you of this story. It was
proper for God to show first that he works through men; but next that he works through himself, in case
people should think what Simon thought, that that sort of power belongs to men, not to God – though
the disciples themselves already knew this. After all, one hundred and twenty people had been gathered
together when the Holy Spirit came upon them without the laying on of anyone’s hands. I mean, who had
then imposed hands on them? And yet he came, and they were the first ones he filled.
After that scandal of Simon, what did God do? Notice him teaching, not by words but by events. Philip
had baptized people and the Holy Spirit hadn’t come upon them until the Apostles had come along and
laid their hands upon them. This same Philip later baptised the eunuch of Queen Candace. He had been
worshipping in Jerusalem, and on his way back from there was reading the prophet Isaiah in his chariot
and not understanding it. Philip was prompted to approach the chariot, and he explained the reading,
insinuated the faith, preached Christ. The eunuch believed in Christ, and said when they came to some
water, Look, here is water; who is to prevent me being baptized? Philip said to him, do you believe in Jesus
Christ? He answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And immediately he went down with him
into the water. Once the mystery and Sacrament of Baptism had been carried out, since there was no
expectation of the Apostles coming as on the previous occasion, so that no one should think the gift of
the Holy Spirit was at the disposal of men, the Holy Spirit came immediately. That put an end to Simon’s
ideas, to make sure he didn’t have imitators in that kind of thinking.
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TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE CALLING OF SAUL: ACTS 9:1-22
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the High Priest and
asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men
or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and
suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to
him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men
who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul arose from the
ground; and when his eyes were opened, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought
him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he
said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in
the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man
named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias
answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints at
Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the Chief Priests to bind all who call upon thy name.” But the
Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and
kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So
Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord
Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight
and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he
regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened.
For several days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And in the synagogues immediately he
proclaimed Jesus, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed, and said, “Is not
this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called on this name? And he has come here for
this purpose, to bring them bound before the Chief Priests.” But Saul increased all the more in strength,
and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
A READING FROM SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

We have heard the Apostle’s words, or rather through the Apostle the words of Christ speaking in the one
whom he made into a preacher out of a persecutor; the lamb slain by wolves making lambs out of wolves.
What happened in the case of Paul had been foretold in a notable prophecy when the holy Patriarch
Jacob was blessing his sons. This concerned them as present then, but also looked forward to things to
come. Paul, as he informs us himself, was of the tribe of Benjamin. Now when Jacob, in blessing his sons,
came to the blessing of Benjamin, he said about him, Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. So what, then? If the
wolf is ravenous, is it always ravenous? Surely not! In the morning he will ravage, at evening he will divide
the prey. This was fulfilled in the Apostle Paul, because it had also been foretold about him.
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Now, if you agree, let us take a look at him ravaging in the morning, and in the evening dividing the prey.
Morning and evening were said, as though to say, ‘Before and after’. So let us take it like this: ‘He will
ravage before, he will divide the prey afterward.’ Observe him ravaging: Saul, as the Acts of the Apostles
tell us, on receiving letters from the chief priests, that wherever he should find followers of the way of
God, he should arrest and bring them, to be punished, of course, went off breathing and panting
slaughter.
We have heard how in the morning he will ravage; let us see how at evening he will divide the prey. He
was laid low by the voice of Christ from heaven, and as he received the injunction forbidding him to rage,
he fell on his face. First he must be laid low, then raised up; first he must be struck, later on healed.
Christ, after all, would not be able to live in him later on, unless what had previously lived badly were slain
in him. So what did he hear when he was laid low? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for
you to kick against the goad. And he said: Who are you, Lord? And the voice from above: I am Jesus of
Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. The head in heaven was crying out for his members still located on
earth, and he didn’t say, ‘Why are you persecuting my servants?’ but Why are you persecuting me? And
he answered What do you wish me to do?
He is now preparing himself to obey, where previously he had worked himself up to destroy. Already the
preacher is being fashioned out of the persecutor, the sheep out of the wolf, the loyal soldier out of the
enemy. He heard what he must do. Yes, certainly he was struck blind. For his heart to shine with an inner
light, the outer light was for a time snatched away from him; it was withdrawn from the persecutor, to be
restored in due course to the preacher. And yet during the period when he couldn’t see anything else, he
was seeing Jesus. Thus even in his very blindness the mystery of what it is to be a believer was taking
shape; since those who believe in Christ ought to fix their gaze on him, ought to reckon everything else as
scarcely even real; so that the creature becomes cheap in their eyes, while the creator grows all the
dearer in their hearts.
WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

SAUL IN JERUSALEM. PETER’S MIRACLES: ACTS 9:23-43
When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill Saul, but their plot became known to him. They
were watching the gates day and night, to kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down
over the wall, lowering him in a basket.
And when he had come to Jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him,
for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the Apostles,
and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he
had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching
boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists; but they were seeking
to kill him. And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him off to
Tarsus.
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So the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in
the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied.
Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints that lived at Lydda.
There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And
Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose.
And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
Now there was at Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas. She was full of good works and
acts of charity. In those days she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her, they laid her in an
upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to
him entreating him, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter rose and went with them. And when he
had come, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping, and showing
tunics and other garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside
and knelt down and prayed; then turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, rise.” And she opened her eyes,
and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then calling the saints
and widows he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the
Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
A READING FROM THE WRITING OF ST ANTHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA

ON THE INCARNATION, 29-30; WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
If it is by the sign of the Cross and by faith in Christ that death is trampled underfoot, it is clear that it is
Christ himself and none other who is the Archvictor over death and has robbed it of its power. Death
used to be strong and terrible, but now, since the advent of the Saviour and the death and Resurrection
of his body, it is despised. When the sun rises after the night and the whole world is lit up by it, nobody
doubts that it is the sun which has thus shed its light everywhere and driven away the dark. Equally clear
is it, since this utter scorning and trampling down of death has ensued upon the Saviour’s manifestation
in the body and his death on the Cross, that it is he himself who brought death to nought and daily raises
monuments to his victory in his own disciples. How can you think otherwise, when you see people
naturally weak hastening to death, unafraid at the prospect of corruption, fearless of the descent into
Hades, even indeed with eager soul provoking it, not shrinking from tortures, but preferring thus to rush
on death for Christ’s sake, rather than to remain in this present life?
If, as we have shown, death was destroyed and everybody tramples on it because of Christ, how much
more did he himself first trample and destroy it in his own body! How could the destruction of death have
been manifested at all, had not the Lord’s body been raised?
People who are dead cannot take effective action; their power of influence on others lasts only till the
grave. Deeds and actions that energise others belong only to the living. Well, then, look at the facts in this
case. The Saviour is working mightily among us every day. He is invisibly persuading numbers of people all
over the world to accept his faith and be obedient to his teaching. Can anyone, in face of this, still doubt
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that he has risen and lives, or rather that he is himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of
men, so that they throw all the traditions of their fathers to the winds and bow down before the teaching
of Christ? If he is no longer active in the world, as would be the case if he were dead, how is it that he
makes the living to cease from their activities, the adulterer from his adultery, the murderer from
murdering, the unjust man from avarice, while the profane and godless become religious? This is the
work of One who lives, not of one dead; and, more than that, it is the work of God.
THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PETER CALLED INTO THE HOUSE OF THE CENTURION CORNELIUS: ACTS 10:1-33
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a
devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed
constantly to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in
and saying to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror, and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to
him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa,
and bring one Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the
seaside.” When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout
soldier from among those that waited on him, and having related everything to them, he sent them to
Joppa.
The next day, as they were on their journey and coming near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to
pray, about the sixth hour. And he became hungry and desired something to eat; but while they were
preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opened, and something descending, like a great
sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the
air. And there came a voice to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “No, Lord; for I have never
eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God
has cleansed, you must not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once
to heaven.
Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold,
the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate and
called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering
the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down, and
accompany them without hesitation; for I have sent them.” And Peter went down to the men and said, “I
am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?” And they said, “Cornelius, a
centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was
directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to hear what you have to say.” So he
called them in to be his guests.
The next day he rose and went off with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together
his kinsmen and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and
worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” And as he talked with him, he
went in and found many persons gathered; and he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is
for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not
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call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you
sent for me.”
And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house;
and behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel, saying, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and
your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called
Peter; he is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the seaside.’ So I sent to you at once, and you
have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all
that you have been commanded by the Lord.”

All the commandments given to the Jews are shadowy signs of things to come. After the light of the
world, our Lord Jesus Christ, has come, they are read only in order to be understood, not also in order to
be observed. So Christians have been given the freedom to eat what they like, in moderation, with a
blessing, with thanksgiving. So perhaps Peter too was told Kill and eat in this sense, that he need no
longer be bound to Jewish observances.
But all the same, to prove to you that all this was a symbolic showing, that vessel contained creeping
things; could he possibly eat creeping things? So what does all this symbolism mean? That receptacle
signifies the Church; the four lines it was hanging from are the four quarters of the earth, through which
the Catholic Church stretches. So all those who wish to go apart into a sect and to cut themselves off
from the whole, do not belong to the sacred reality signified by the four lines. God says his holy ones are
to be gathered together at the end from the four winds, because now the Gospel faith is being spread
abroad through all those four cardinal points of the compass. So those animals are the nations which
were unclean in their superstitions and lusts before Christ came.
It’s clear, you see, from many places in Scripture that Peter can stand for, or represent, the Church; the
Church is the body of Christ. Let him then receive the Gentiles now made clean, their sins having been
forgiven; that’s why the gentile Cornelius had sent for him. This man’s charities had been accepted and
had cleansed him after a fashion; it only remained for him, like clean food, to be incorporated into the
Church, that is, into the Lord’s body. Peter, though, was worried about handing the Gospel over to the
Gentiles, because those of the circumcision who believed were not allowing the Apostles to hand on the
Christian faith to the uncircumcised unless they accepted circumcision, which had been the tradition of
their ancestors.
So that receptacle removed this hesitation of his; and that’s why after that vision he was allowed by the
Holy Spirit to go with the men who had come from Cornelius; and off he went. Cornelius, you see, and the
people with him were to be regarded as being among those animals which had been shown him in that
receptacle; God, however, had already made them clean, because he had accepted the charitable acts
they had performed from there. So now they had to be killed and eaten; that is, the old life in which they
had not known Christ was to be slain in them, and they were to pass over into his body, as into the new
life of the fellowship of the Church.
Why was it let down three times from heaven? Because all these nations, who belong to the four quarters
of the globe, where the Church signified by the four lines to which that receptacle was connected is being
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sown like seed, are baptized in the name of the Trinity. They are being renewed by believing in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in order to belong to the communion of the saints. So
the four lines and the triple letting down also yields the number twelve of the Apostles; as though three
each were allotted to the four quarters. Four threes, you see, make twelve. I think that’s enough, don’t
you, about this vision.
FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

CORNELIUS BAPTIZED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. PETER’S JUSTIFICATION: ACTS 10:34 – 11:4, 15-18
Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation
anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the word which he sent to
Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), the word which was proclaimed
throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that
were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the
country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised
him on the third day and made him manifest; not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as
witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to
the people, and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To
him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through
his name.”
While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from
among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been
poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter
declared, “Can anyone forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as
we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to
remain for some days.
Now the Apostles and the brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word
of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “Why did you
go to uncircumcised men and eat with them? But Peter began and explained to them in order:
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the
word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If
then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was
I that I could withstand God?” When they heard this they were silenced. And they glorified God, saying,
“Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life.”

EXPOSITION OF PSALM 96, 13; WSA (2002) TR. MARIA BOULDING
Sion heard and was glad. What did Sion hear? That all God’s angels worship him? Yes, to be sure; but
what else did Sion hear? This is what it heard: the heavens have proclaimed his justice, and the nations
have seen his glory. Let all who worship graven images be put to shame, those who boast of their idols.
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The Church had not yet extended to the Gentiles, you see. Some of the Jews in Judea had come to
believe, but these Jews imagined that they alone belonged to Christ. Then the Apostles were sent to the
Gentiles, and the word was preached to Cornelius.
He believed and was baptised, and his companions were baptised with him. You know what had
happened to lead them to Baptism: Peter came to Cornelius’ house; but Cornelius was from the Gentiles,
so he and his friends were uncircumcised. In order, therefore that Peter and his companions might have
no hesitation about delivering the Gospel to uncircumcised persons, the Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius
and the others even before they were baptised; the Spirit filled them and they began to speak in tongues.
Until this time the Holy Spirit had never fallen upon any unbaptised person; but he fell on these before
their Baptism. Peter might well have hesitated over whether to baptise the uncircumcised, but the Holy
Spirit came and they began to speak in tongues. The invisible gift was conferred and removed any doubt
about the visible Sacrament; so they were all baptised.
Now you find it recorded in Scripture that the Apostles and the brethren in Judea heard that the Gentiles
too had accepted the word of God, and they glorified God. It is this thanksgiving on their part which is
mentioned in our psalm: Sion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judea leapt for joy. What did Sion
hear, to inspire such gladness? That the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. One wall had already
been set in place, but as yet there was no corner. The Church in Judea is rightly called Sion here. Scripture
records that the Apostles and the brethren in Judea heard – does that not mean that the daughters of
Judea leapt for joy. What did they hear? That the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. And where
does the psalm testify to the same event? The heavens have proclaimed his justice and all nations have
seen his glory. And since they were Gentiles who had come to believe, former idol-worshippers, the
psalm continued, Let all who worship graven images be put to shame, those who boast of their idols.
Rightly, then, is it said, Sion heard and was glad, and the daughter of Judea leapt for joy.
SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH: ACTS 11:19-30
Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as
Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them,
men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. News of
this came to the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and
saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast
purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to
the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to
Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church, and taught a large company of people; and in
Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.
Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus
stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took
place in the days of Claudius. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send
relief to the brethren who lived in Judea; and they did so, sending it to the Elders by the hand of Barnabas
and Saul.
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A READING FROM ON CHRISTIAN PERFECTION BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
ON CHRISTIAN PERFECTION (JAEGER 8:174-177); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
No one has known Christ better than Paul, nor has anyone surpassed him in the example he gave of what
anyone should be who bears Christ’s name. So perfectly did he mirror his Master that he became his very
image. He was transformed into his model and it seemed to be no longer Paul who lived and spoke, but
Christ himself living in Paul. His words Since you seek a proof that it is Christ who speaks in me, and, it is
no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, show his keen awareness of this grace.
Paul teaches us the meaning of Christ’s name when he calls him the power and wisdom of God, our
peace, the unapproachable light in which God dwells, our sanctification and redemption, our great High
Priest, our paschal sacrifice, our expiation; when he declares him to be the reflection of God’s glory, the
perfect likeness of his nature, the Creator of all ages, our spiritual food and drink, the rock and the water,
the foundation of our faith, the cornerstone, the image of the invisible God. He shows what Christ’s name
means when he says that he is the mighty God, the Head of his Body the Church, the firstborn of the new
creation, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the firstborn from the dead, the eldest of many
brethren, and when he tells us that Christ is the mediator between God and man, the only-begotten Son
crowned with glory and honour, the Lord of glory, the beginning of all things, the King of justice and of
peace, the King of the whole universe, the ruler of a realm that has no boundaries.
Paul calls Christ by many other titles too numerous to mention. Their cumulative force when taken
together gives some conception of what the name ‘Christ’ really means, and shows us his inexpressible
majesty in so far as our minds can comprehend it. Since by the goodness of God we who are called
Christians have been granted the honour of sharing this name, the greatest, the highest, the most
sublime of all names, each of the titles that explains its meaning should have its reflection in us: if we are
not to be false to this name we must bear witness to it by our lives.
SUNDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

BEHEADING OF JAMES AND FREEING OF PETER. PUNISHMENT OF HEROD: ACTS 12:1-23
About that time Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the Church. He killed
James the brother of John with the sword; and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to
arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him
in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring
him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison; but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the
Church.
The very night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound
with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison; and behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared, and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up
quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your
sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your mantle around you and follow me.” And he went
out and followed him; he did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was
seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading
into the city. It opened to them of its own accord, and they went out and passed on through one street;
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and immediately the angel left him. And Peter came to himself, and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord
has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were
expecting.”
When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark,
where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the
gateway, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the
gate but ran in and told that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are mad.” But she
insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking; and when they opened,
they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them
how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell this to James and to the brethren.”
Then he departed and went to another place.
Now when day came, there was no small stir among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And
when Herod had sought for him and could not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they
should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and remained there.
Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and they came to him in a body, and having
persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the
king's country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne,
and made an oration to them. And the people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of man!”
Immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he did not give God the glory; and he was eaten by
worms and died.

SERMON 53, 1-2 (CCL 23:214-216); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Christ is risen! He has burst open the gates of hell and let the dead go free; he has renewed the earth
through the members of his Church now born again in Baptism, and has made it blossom afresh with men
brought back to life. His Holy Spirit has unlocked the doors of heaven, which stand wide open to receive
those who rise up from the earth. Because of Christ’s Resurrection the thief ascends to Paradise, the
bodies of the blessed enter the holy city, and the dead are restored to the company of the living; there is
an upward movement in the whole of creation, each element raising itself to something higher. We see
the underworld restoring its victims to the upper regions, earth sending its buried dead to heaven, and
heaven presenting the new arrivals to the Lord. In one and the same movement our Saviour’s Passion
raises men from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights.
Christ is risen! His rising brings life to the dead, forgiveness to sinners, and glory to the saints. And so
David the prophet summons all creation to join in celebrating the Easter festival: Rejoice and be glad, he
cries, on this day which the Lord has made.
The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night. Christ is this day, says the Apostle; such is the
meaning of his words: Night is almost over; day is at hand. He tells us that night is almost over, not that
it is about to fall. By this we are meant to understand that the coming of Christ’s light puts Satan’s
darkness to flight, leaving no place for any shadow of sin. His everlasting radiance dispels the dark clouds
of the past and checks the hidden growth of vice. The Son himself is the day to whom The Day, his Father,
communicates the mystery of his Divinity. He it is who says through the mouth of Solomon, I have caused
an unfailing light to rise in heaven. And as in heaven no night can follow day, so no sin can overshadow
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the justice of Christ. The celestial day is perpetually bright and shining with brilliant light; clouds can never
darken its skies. In the same way, the light of Christ is eternally glowing with luminous radiance, and can
never be extinguished by the darkness of sin. This is why John the Evangelist says: The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has never been able to overpower it.
And so, my friends, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day. Let no one, conscious of his
sinfulness, withdraw from our common celebration, nor let anyone be kept away from our public prayer
by the burden of guilt. Sinner one may indeed be, but no one must despair of pardon on this day which is
so highly privileged; for if a thief could receive the grace of Paradise, how could a Christian be refused
forgiveness?
MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE MISSION OF BARNABAS AND PAUL IN THE WORK OF THE GOSPEL: ACTS 12:24 – 13:14A
The word of God grew and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had
fulfilled their mission, bringing with them John whose other name was Mark.
Now in the Church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,
Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were
worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to
which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them
off.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they
had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon
a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a
man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas
the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul
from the faith. But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said,
“You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop
making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and
you shall be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and
he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what
had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and
returned to Jerusalem; but they passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisidia.
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF BISHOP EUSEBIUS OF EMESA

THE APOSTLES AND THE FAITH, 2:15-16; WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
Two men entered a city, carrying with them no food, no money, no extra garment. Who do you think
welcomed them? What lodging was prepared for them, and where? Do you not marvel at the authority of
the one who sent them and at the faith of those who were sent? Two strangers entered a city. What did
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they possess? What did they preach? ‘He was crucified,’ they said. They were humble, untrained,
unlettered, needy. Yet what they preached was the Cross, and it was from this preaching that faith was to
come!
But despite the obstacles virtue won out. The Cross was preached and temples were razed; the Cross is
preached and kings are won over. The Cross is preached and the wise are proved wrong, pagan feasts are
abolished, and their gods are melted down. Why do you marvel that the Apostles were believed or that
they were received? Let not these great wonders pass us by. Men who were strangers, unknown and
knowing no one, and bringing nothing to catch the eye, traversed the world, preaching the crucified one,
and commending fasting in place of drunkenness, a troublesome chastity in place of lust: a serious
burden to those who were concerned to accept these exhortations to moral behaviour in place of
abominable practices.
These men took possession of peoples and made cities their own. Yet what treasure did they have? The
power of the Cross. Consider the riches of kings and the riches of the Apostles. See how different is their
condition. A king is magnificent, the Apostles are humble; though mortal, they effect by God’s power the
deeds of God.
Before the crucifixion the disciples do nothing, but after it they act. If they accomplished anything before
the crucifixion, they did so in obscurity. But after the sacred blood erased the decree written against us;
after we who were unclean were sprinkled; after death was put to death by death; after God, through a
man, conquered him who was devouring men; after death swallowed him up, only to cast him forth; after
sin was put to death by obedience; after Adam had been restored by another man; after error had been
corrected by the Virgin; after the thief entered Paradise on the very day on which Adam had departed
from Paradise; after error that had entered through a tree was corrected through a tree; after thorns on
the forehead replaced the thorns produced by the soil; after the Father showed mercy and the Son
received this mercy in our place; after sin was put to death and corruption was destroyed – then the
disciples, who before the crucifixion had been fearful, after the crucifixion raised their voices.
The Apostles obey; they rouse up men laid low in darkness. For power was imparted to those to whom
the Apostles came. They were no longer what they had been, what we had been; but they were clad with
power. And just as iron is cold before the fire is kindled, but when it is placed in the fire and grows white-
hot, it casts off its coldness and enkindles other things with its heat, so do mortal men who have put on
Jesus.
TUESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL’S SERMON IN THE SYNAGOGUE AT ANTIOCH OF PISIDIA: ACTS 13:14B-43
On the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the law and the
prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of
exhortation for the people, say it.” So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:
“Men of Israel, and you that fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made
the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And
for about forty years he bore with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in
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the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years. And
after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them
Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he
raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a
man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Saviour,
Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of
Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but
after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
“Brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you that fear God, to us has been sent the
message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize
him nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by
condemning him. Though they could charge him with nothing deserving death, yet they asked Pilate to
have him killed. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the
tree, and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those
who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring
you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by
raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.’ And
as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he spoke in this way, ‘I
will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore he says also in another psalm, ‘Thou wilt not
let thy Holy One see corruption.’ For David, after he had served the counsel of God in his own generation,
fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption; but he whom God raised up saw no
corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brethren, that through this man forgiveness of sins is
proclaimed to you, and by him every one that believes is freed from everything from which you could not
be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest there come upon you what is said in the prophets:
‘Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish; for I do a deed in your days, a deed you will never believe,
if one declares it to you.’”
As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And when
the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and
Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God

ON THE SACRAMENTS 2:20-23, 3:1-2; (1972) TR. YARNOLD
You were asked: ‘Do you believe in God the Father almighty?’ You replied: ‘I believe’, and you were
immersed: that is, buried. You were asked for a second time: ‘Do you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and
in his Cross?’ You replied: ‘I believe’, and you were immersed: which means that you were buried with
Christ. For one who is buried with Christ rises again with Christ. You were asked a third time: ‘Do you
believe also in the Holy Spirit?’ You replied: ‘I believe’, and you were immersed a third time, so that the
threefold confession might absolve the manifold lapses of the past.
We can give you an illustration of this. The holy Apostle Peter appeared to lapse through human
weakness during the Lord’s Passion. To wipe out and absolve the fault of his denial, he was asked by
Christ three times if he loved him. Peter replied: Lord, you know that I love you. He answered three times
so as to be absolved three times.
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Thus the Father forgives sin, so does the Son, and so does the Holy Spirit. Do not be surprised that we are
baptized in one name: in the name, that is, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; because
Christ spoke of only one name where there is one substance, one divinity, one majesty. This is the name
of which it is written: In this must all find salvation. It is in this name that you have all been saved, that
you have been restored to the grace of life.
So the Apostle exclaims, as you have just heard in the reading, Whoever is baptized, is baptized in the
death of Jesus. What does in the death mean? It means that just as Christ died, so you will taste death;
that just as Christ died to sin and lives to God, so through the Sacrament of Baptism you are dead to the
old enticements of sin and have risen again through the grace of Christ. This is a death, then, not in the
reality of bodily death, but in likeness. When you are immersed, you receive the likeness of death and
burial, you receive the Sacrament of his Cross; because Christ hung upon the Cross and his body was
fastened to it by the nails. So you are crucified with him.
The font has the shape and appearance of a sort of tomb. When we believe in the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit, we are received and immersed in it; that is, we are restored to life. You also receive the myrrh,
that is, the chrism, over your heads. Why over your heads? Because the faculties of the wise man are
situated in his head, says Solomon. Wisdom without grace is inert; but when wisdom receives grace, then
its work begins to move toward fulfilment. This is called regeneration.
What is regeneration? You can read in the Acts of the Apostles that a verse from the second Psalm, You
are my son, today I have begotten you, seems to refer to the Resurrection. That is why he is also called
The firstborn from the dead. For what is resurrection except that we rise from death to life? So it is in
Baptism, which is an image of death: when you are immersed and rise up again, there, certainly, is an
image of the Resurrection. So as Christ’s Resurrection is interpreted by the Apostle as a regeneration, so
also this resurrection from the font is a regeneration.
WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL AND BARNABAS TURN TO THE GENTILES: ACTS 13:44 – 14:7
The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews
saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled
him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be
spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold,
we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the
Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. But the Jews
incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution
against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their
feet against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue, and so spoke that a great company
believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their
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minds against the brethren. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore
witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of
the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, and some with the Apostles. When an attempt was
made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to molest them and to stone them, they learned of it
and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country; and there they preached
the gospel.
A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST PROSPER OF AQUITAINE

THE CALL OF ALL NATIONS II.16; WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
There can be no reason to doubt that Jesus Christ our Lord died for the unbelievers and the sinners. If
there had been anyone who did not belong to these, then Christ would not have died for all. But he did
die for all without exception. There is no one, therefore, in all mankind who was not, before the
reconciliation which Christ effected in his blood, either a sinner or an unbeliever.
The whole of mankind was under the sway of sin, in fetters because of the very same guilt. No one of the
ungodly, who differed only in their degree of unbelief, could be saved without Christ’s redemption. This
redemption spread throughout the world to become the good news for all without any distinction. In
fact, on the fiftieth day after the paschal feast on which the true Lamb had offered himself as a victim to
God, when the Apostles and those who were of one mind with them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
spoke the language of all the nations, a multitude of men of different races, stirred by the miracle, flocked
together, and in them the whole world was to hear the Gospel of Christ. There were then assembled, as
Scripture says, Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and
strangers of Rome, Jews also and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, who all heard the wonderful works of
God preached in their own tongues. Their testimony was to spread far and wide also to the more distant
nations. We believe that God’s providence had willed the expansion of the Roman Empire as a
preparation for his design over the nations, who were to be called into the unity of the body of Christ: He
first gathered them under the authority of one Empire.
But the grace of Christianity is not content with the boundaries that are Rome’s. Grace has now
submitted to the sceptre of the Cross of Christ many peoples whom Rome could not subject with her
arms, though Rome by her primacy of the apostolic priesthood has become greater as the citadel of
religion than as the seat of power.
THURSDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

HEALING OF THE CRIPPLE AT LYSTRA. GOING UP TO JERUSALEM: ACTS 14:8 – 15:4
Now at Lystra there was a man sitting, who could not use his feet; he was a cripple from birth, who had
never walked. He listened to Paul speaking; and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith
to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and walked. And
when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have
come down to us in the likeness of men!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, because he was the chief
speaker, they called Hermes. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of the city, brought oxen
and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the people. But when the Apostles Barnabas
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and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out among the multitude, crying, “Men, why
are you doing this? We also are men, of like nature with you, and bring you good news, that you should
turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is
in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways; yet he did not leave
himself without witness, for he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying
your hearts with food and gladness.” With these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering
sacrifice to them.
But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium; and having persuaded the people, they stoned Paul and
dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he
rose up and entered the city; and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had
preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium
and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and
saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed
Elders for them in every Church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they
believed.
Then they passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga,
they went down to Attalia; and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to
the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And when they arrived, they gathered the Church
together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the
Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples.
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised
according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had no small
dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to
Jerusalem to the Apostles and the Elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the Church,
they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave
great joy to all the brethren. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church and the
Apostles and the Elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON AN EASTER HYMN OF ST GREGORY

NAZIANZEN BY ST DOROTHEUS OF GAZA
DISCOURSE 16,167-169 (SC 92:462-464); WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
The Apostle urges us to worship God in a way worthy of rational creatures, by offering him our bodies as
a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to him. How are we to offer our bodies to God as a living
sacrifice? By no longer obeying the promptings of body and mind, but being guided by the Spirit, and not
gratifying the desires of our fallen nature. For that is how we put to death what is earthly in us. Such a
sacrifice is said to be living, holy, and pleasing to God.
But why is it called a living sacrifice? Because while an animal victim is sacrificed and dies at the same
time, Christians who offer themselves to God sacrifice themselves daily but remain alive. As David says:
For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
‘Let us offer ourselves,’ says St Gregory; that is, let us sacrifice ourselves, let us die to ourselves all day
long, like all the Saints, for the sake of Christ our God, for the sake of him who died for us.
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But how did the Saints die to themselves? By not loving the world or anything in the world, as the Catholic
Epistles say, but renouncing everything that panders to the appetites, or entices the eyes, and all pride in
possessions, that is, pleasure-seeking, covetousness, and vainglory, and taking up the Cross to follow
Christ, crucifying the world to themselves and themselves to the world. About this the Apostle says: Those
who belong to Christ have crucified the body, with its passions and desires. That is how the Saints died to
themselves.
But how did they offer themselves? By not living for themselves, but according to God’s commandments,
giving up their own desires in order to obey God, and to love him and their neighbours. As St Peter said:
We have given up everything to follow you. What did he give up? He had no money or property, no silver
or gold. All he had was his fishing net, and that was old, as St John Chrysostom remarked. But he gave
up, as he said, all his own desires, all worldly attachments, so that it is clear that if he had possessed
wealth and property he would have despised these as well. Then he took up his Cross and followed Christ,
according to the words: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That is how the Saints
offered themselves: dying, as we said, to all disordered inclinations and self-will, and living only for Christ
and his commandments.
FRIDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE APOSTLES DELIBERATE; THE DECISION OF THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM: ACTS 15:5-35
But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, “It is necessary to
circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses.”
The Apostles and the Elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been
much debate, Peter rose and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice
among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who
knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no
distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you make trial
of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able
to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
And all the assembly kept silence; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and
wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied,
“Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a
people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, ‘After this I will
return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up,
that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord,
who has made these things known from of old.’ Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble
those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols
and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. For from early generations Moses has
had in every city those who preach him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Then it seemed good to the Apostles and the Elders, with the whole Church, to choose men from among
them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas,
leading men among the brethren, with the following letter: “The brethren, both the Apostles and the
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Elders, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting. Since we have
heard that some persons from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave
them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send
them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by
word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden
than these necessary things: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and
from what is strangled and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together,
they delivered the letter. And when they read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation. And Judas and Silas,
who were themselves prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words and strengthened them. And
after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brethren to those who had sent them.
But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many
others also.
A READING FROM THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND

VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, LUMEN GENTIUM 19, 22
The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length to the Father, called to himself those he desired and appointed
twelve to be with him, whom he might send to preach the kingdom of God. These Apostles he established
in the form of a College or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter who was chosen
from amongst them. He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all peoples, so that,
sharing in his power, they might make all peoples his disciples and sanctify and govern them. Thus they
would spread the Church, administer it under the guidance of the Lord, and shepherd it until the end of
the world. They were fully confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost according to the Lord’s
promise: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit descends on you; and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
So, just as by the Lord’s decree St Peter and the rest of the Apostles constitute a unique apostolic College,
so the Roman Pontiff, Peter’s successor, and the Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, are related with
and united to one another. By ancient discipline the Bishops throughout the whole world lived in
communion with one another and with the Roman Pontiff in a bond of unity, charity and peace; they also
held Councils in order to settle together, in a decision rendered balanced and equitable by the advice of
many, all questions of major importance. Both these facts show clearly the collegiate character and
structure of the episcopal order, which is confirmed by the holding of Ecumenical Councils in the course
of the centuries. Indeed, pointing to it also quite clearly is the custom, dating from very early times, of
summoning a number of Bishops to take part in the elevation of one newly chosen to the highest
sacerdotal office. A man is made a member of the episcopal body by sacramental consecration and
hierarchical communion with the head and members of the College.
This College, composed of many members, is the expression of the diversity and universality of the
People of God. It also shows the unity of the flock of Christ because it is assembled under one head. In it
the Bishops, whilst loyally respecting the primacy and pre-eminence of their head, exercise their own
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proper authority for the good of their faithful and of the whole Church, whose organic structure and
harmony are strengthened by the continued influence of the Holy Spirit. The supreme authority over the
whole Church, which this College possesses, is exercised in a solemn way in an Ecumenical Council. Every
Ecumenical Council is confirmed or at least recognized as such by the successor of Peter and it is the
prerogative of the Roman Pontiff to convoke such Councils, to preside over them and to confirm them.
SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

BEGINNING OF PAUL’S SECOND JOURNEY. CONVERSION OF LYDIA: ACTS 15:36 – 16:15
And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us return and visit the brethren in every city where
we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” And Barnabas wanted to take with them
John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in
Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp contention, so that they
separated from each other; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas
and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria
and Cilicia, strengthening the Churches.
And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish
woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra
and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him and circumcised him because of
the Jews that were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their
way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by
the Apostles and Elders who were at Jerusalem. So the Churches were strengthened in the faith, and they
increased in numbers daily.
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to
speak the word in Asia. And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but
the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision
appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying, “Come over
to Macedonia and help us.” And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into
Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to
Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman
colony. We remained in this city some days; and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the
riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women
who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller
of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was said
by Paul. And when she was baptized, with her household, she besought us, saying, “If you have judged me
to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
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A READING FROM ON THE MYSTERIES BY ST AMBROSE
ON THE MYSTERIES, 3.8-12, 15; 5.26-28; NPNF 2.10 (1989) TR. DE ROMESTIN
What did you see? Water, certainly, but not water alone; you saw the Deacons ministering there, and the
Bishop asking questions and sanctifying. First of all, the Apostle taught you that you should not consider
the things which we see, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but
the things which are not seen are eternal. Believe, then, that the presence of the Godhead is there. Do
you believe the working, and not believe the presence? How can you have the working without the
presence?
Consider, however, how ancient is this mystery which was prefigured even in the origin of the world
itself. In the very beginning, when God made the heaven and the earth, the Spirit, it is said, moved upon
the waters. Take another testimony. All flesh was corrupted by its iniquities, as God said, My Spirit shall
not remain among men, because they are flesh, by which he shows that the grace of the Spirit is turned
away by carnal impurity and the pollution of grave sin. Because of this God, who desired to restore what
was lacking, sent the flood and commanded the just man Noah to go up into the ark. Noah, as the flood
was subsiding, first sent out a raven which did not return and then sent a dove which returned with an
olive branch. You see the water, you see the wood, you see the dove, do you still hesitate as to the
mystery?
The water, then, is that in which the flesh is dipped, that all carnal sin may be washed away and all
wickedness therein buried. The wood is that on which the Lord Jesus was fastened when he suffered for
us. The dove is that in the form of which the Holy Spirit descended, as you have read in the New
Testament, who inspires in you peace of soul and tranquillity of mind. The raven is the figure of sin, which
goes forth and does not return, if, in you, too, righteousness is preserved both inwardly and outwardly.
You must not, then, trust your bodily eyes; that which is not seen is seen more truly, for the object of
sight is temporal, but what is discerned by the mind and the spirit is eternal.
Is there, then, here any room left for doubt, when the Father clearly calls from heaven in the Gospel
narrative, and says: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased? When the Son also speaks, upon
whom the Holy Spirit showed himself in the likeness of a dove? When the Holy Spirit also speaks, who
came down in the likeness of a dove? When Scripture testifies that at the prayer of Jerubbaal, fire came
down from heaven, and again, when Elijah prayed, fire was sent forth and consecrated the sacrifice.
Do not consider the merits of individuals, but the office of the priests. Or, if you look at the merits,
consider the priest as Elijah. Look also upon the merits of Peter and Paul who handed down to us this
mystery which they had received of the Lord Jesus. To those of old a visible fire was sent that they might
believe; for us who believe, the Lord works invisibly. Believe, then, that the Lord Jesus who said, where
two or three are, there am I also, is present at the invocation of the priest. How much more where the
Church is and where his Mysteries are does he truly impart his presence!
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SUNDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL BEATEN, IMPRISONED AND MIRACULOUSLY FREED AT PHILIPPI: ACTS 16:16-40
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and
brought her owners much gain by soothsaying. She followed Paul and us, crying, “These men are servants
of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days. But
Paul was annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out
of her.” And it came out that very hour.
But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them
into the market place before the rulers; and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said,
“These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us
Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them; and the magistrates tore the
garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows
upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this
charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were
listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were
shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's fetters were unfastened. When the
jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we
are all here.” And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and
Silas, and brought them out and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the
Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him
and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their
wounds, and he was baptized at once, with all his family. Then he brought them up into his house, and set
food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God. But when it was
day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” And the jailer reported the words to
Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out and go in peace.” But Paul
said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have
thrown us into prison; and do they now cast us out secretly? No! let them come themselves and take us
out.” The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that
they were Roman citizens; so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked
them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison, and visited Lydia; and when they had seen the
brethren, they exhorted them and departed.

ON THE PASCHAL SOLEMNITY 7.9.10-12 (PG 24:701-706); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
In the time of Moses, the paschal lamb was sacrificed only once a year, on the fourteenth day of the first
month toward evening, but we of the new covenant celebrate our Passover every week on the Lord’s day.
We are continually being filled with the body of the Saviour and sharing in the blood of the Lamb. Daily
we gird ourselves with chastity and prepare, staff in hand, to follow the path of the Gospel. Leaning on
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the rod, that came forth from the root of Jesse, we are always departing from Egypt in search of the
solitude of the desert. We are constantly setting out on our journey to God and celebrating the Passover.
The Gospel would have us do these things not only once a year but daily.
We hold our Eucharistic celebration every week on the day of our Lord and Saviour, for this is our paschal
feast, the feast of the true Lamb who redeemed us. We do not circumcise the body with a knife, but with
the sharp edge of the word of God we cut away all evil from our souls. We use no unleavened bread,
except for that of sincerity and truth. Grace has freed us from outward Jewish customs and created us
anew in the image of God. It has given us a new law, a new circumcision, a new Passover, and made us
Jews inwardly, this releasing us from our former bondage.
On the fifth day of the week, while having supper with his disciples, the Saviour said to them: With all my
heart I have longed to eat this Passover with you. It was not the old Jewish Passover that he desired to
share with his disciples, but the new Passover of the new covenant that he was giving to them, and that
many prophets and upright people before him had longed to see. He proclaimed his desire for the new
Passover which he, the Word himself, in his infinite thirst for the salvation of the whole human race, was
establishing as a feast to be celebrated by all peoples everywhere. The Passover of Moses was not for all
peoples, indeed it could not be, because the law allowed it to be celebrated only in Jerusalem. Christ’s
desire, then, must have been not for the old Passover, but for the saving mystery of the new covenant
which was for everyone.
And so we too should eat this Passover with Christ. We should cleanse our minds of all the leaven of evil
and wickedness and be filled with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, becoming Jews inwardly,
in our souls, where the true circumcision takes place. We should anoint the lintel of our mind with the
blood of the Lamb who was sacrificed for us, and so ward off our destroyer. We should do this not only
once a year, but every week, continually.
On the day before the Sabbath we fast in memory of our Saviour’s passion, as the apostles were the first
to do when the bridegroom was taken from them. On the Lord’s day we receive life from the sacred body
of our saving Passover and our souls are sealed with his precious blood.
MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL GOES ON TO ATHENS: ACTS 17:1-18
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there
was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he argued with
them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were
persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas; as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the
leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked fellows of the rabble, they gathered a
crowd, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the
people. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city
authorities, crying, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason
has received them; and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,
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Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard this. And when they had
taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea; and when they arrived they went
into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they
received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many
of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the
Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came
there too, stirring up and inciting the crowds. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul off on his way to
the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens;
and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city
was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market
place every day with those who chanced to be there. Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers
met him. And some said, “What would this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of
foreign divinities” – because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST ANASTASIUS OF ANTIOCH

ORATION 4, 1-2 (PG 89:1347-1349); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Christ, who had shown by his words and actions that he was truly God and Lord of the universe, said to
his disciples as he was about to go up to Jerusalem: We are going up to Jerusalem now, and the Son of
Man will be handed over to the Gentiles and the chief priests and scribes to be scourged and mocked and
crucified.
These words bore out the predictions of the prophets, who had foretold the death he was to die in
Jerusalem. From the beginning holy Scripture had foretold Christ’s death, the sufferings that would
precede it, and what would happen to his body afterward. Scripture also affirmed that these things were
going to happen to one who was immortal and incapable of suffering because he was God.
Only by reflecting upon the meaning of the incarnation can we see how it is possible to say with perfect
truth both that Christ suffered and that he was incapable of suffering, and why the Word of God, in
himself incapable of suffering, came to suffer. In fact, we could have been saved in no other way, as
Christ alone knew and those to whom he revealed this truth. For he knows all the secrets of the Father,
even as the Spirit penetrates the depths of all mysteries.
It was necessary for Christ to suffer: his passion was absolutely unavoidable. He said so himself when he
called his companions dull and slow to believe because they failed to recognize that he had to suffer and
so enter into his glory. Leaving behind him the glory that had been his with the Father before the world
was made, he had gone forth to save his people. His salvation, however, could be achieved only by the
suffering of the author of our life, as Paul taught when he said that the author of our life himself was
made perfect through suffering. Because of us he was deprived of his glory for a little while, the glory that
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was his as the Father’s only begotten Son, but through the cross this glory is seen to have been restored
to him in a certain way in the body that he had assumed. Explaining what water the saviour referred to
when he said: He that has faith in me shall have rivers of living water flowing from within him, John says in
his gospel that he was speaking of the Holy Spirit which those who believed in him were to received, for
the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. The glorification he meant was
his death upon the cross for which the Lord prayed to the Father before undergoing his passion, asking
his Father to give him the glory that he had in his presence before the world began.
TUESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL SPEAKS IN THE AREOPAGUS OF ATHENS: ACTS 17:19-34
Those with whom Paul argued took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know
what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to
know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent
their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you
are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar
with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to
you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself
gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all
the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that
they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each
one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, ‘For
we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a
representation by the art and imagination of man. ‘The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he
commands all men everywhere to repent, ‘because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising
him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We will hear you
again about this.” So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among
them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

SERMON 150, 1-2, 4, 8-10; WSA (1992) TR. HILL
Your Graces will have noticed when the book of the Acts of the Apostles was being read that Paul was
talking at Athens. The Athenians enjoyed a great reputation among other peoples for every kind of
learning. The city was the native home of great philosophers. From it had spread through the rest of
Greece and other countries of the world a complex variety of philosophies. That’s where the Apostle was
talking, that’s where he was proclaiming Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, to the
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nations folly; but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. When he finished his address and they heard mention of the resurrection of the dead, which is
the most distinctive point of the faith of Christians, some of them scoffed, while others said, We will hear
you again on this matter.
Now, there is one overriding concern common to all philosophers within which they divide up into five
different sets of special opinions. In common, all philosophers strive by dedication, investigation,
discussion, by their way of life, to lay hold of the blessed life. This is their one reason for philosophising;
but I rather think the philosophers also have this in common with us. I mean, if I were to ask you why you
became Christians, every single one of you would answer me truthfully: ‘For the sake of the blessed life.’
Therefore the urge for the blessed life is common to philosophers and Christians, and I would even say
common to the whole human race. People who are good, after all, are good in order to be happy, and
those who are bad would not be bad unless they hoped they would thereby be made happy.
Now set before your eyes Epicureans, Stoics, and the Apostle; that is: Epicureans, Stoics, and Christians.
Let’s first question the Epicureans on what thing it is that makes life happy. They answer, ‘Bodily
pleasure.’ The Stoic answers: ‘A virtuous mind.’ The Christian: ‘The gift of God.’ And so brethren, in front
of our very eyes Epicureans and Stoics are debating with the Apostle, and teaching us by their debate
what we should reject and what we ought to choose. A virtuous mind is something very praiseworthy; but
tell me, Stoic, where do you get it from? It is not really your virtuous mind that makes you happy, but the
one who has given you virtue, who has inspired you to desire it, and granted you the capacity for it.
There is no life that deserves the name, to be called life, but a blessed life; and there can be no blessed
life that is not eternal. This is what everybody wants: truth and life. But how is one to get to such a great
possession, such a grand fortune? The philosophers have worked out for themselves ways that go wrong.
They have missed the true way, because God opposes the proud. We would also miss it, unless it had
come to us. That’s why the Lord says, I am the way. Lazy traveller, you didn’t want to come to the way;
the way came to you. You were inquiring how you should go: I am the way; you were asking where you
should go: I am the truth and the life. This is the doctrine of Christians; certainly not something to be set
beside the doctrines of the philosophers, but to be set incomparably above them, whether the sordid one
of the Epicureans, or the arrogant one of the Stoics.
WEDNESDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL IS ACCUSED BY THE JEWS AT CORINTH: ACTS 18:1-28
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus,
lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave
Rome. And he went to see them; and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them, and they
worked, for by trade they were tentmakers. And he argued in the synagogue every Sabbath, and
persuaded Jews and Greeks.
When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with preaching, testifying to the
Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and
said to them, “Your blood be upon your heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” And
he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next
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door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his
household; and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to
Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man
shall attack you to harm you; for I have many people in this city.” And he stayed a year and six months,
teaching the word of God among them.
But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack upon Paul and brought him
before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading men to worship God contrary to the law.” But when
Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious
crime, I should have reason to bear with you, O Jews; but since it is a matter of questions about words
and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I refuse to be a judge of these things.” And he drove
them from the tribunal. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front
of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to this.
After this Paul stayed many days longer, and then took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and with
him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he cut his hair, for he had a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he
left them there; but he himself went into the synagogue and argued with the Jews. When they asked him
to stay for a longer period, he declined; but on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God
wills”, and he set sail from Ephesus.
When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the Church, and then went down to Antioch.
After spending some time there he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia
and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed
in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and
taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to
speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to
him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brethren encouraged
him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through
grace had believed, for he powerfully confuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the
Christ was Jesus.

THE LIFE IN CHRIST, 4 (PG 150:582-583); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
After receiving the Sacrament of Chrismation, we approach the Holy Table, the consummation of our life
in Christ, which leaves no further happiness to be desired. Now it is no longer a question of sharing in
Christ’s death or burial or in a higher kind of life, but of welcoming the risen Lord himself. It is no longer
the gifts of the Spirit that we receive, insofar as we are able, but our benefactor himself, the very temple
that enshrines all gifts.
Christ is present in each of the Sacraments: he himself confirms us and cleanses us, and he is our food. He
is present to those receiving the Sacraments of initiation, though in different ways. In Baptism he takes
away the stain of sin and imprints his own image on the baptized. In Chrismation he brings into action the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which his own flesh is the repository. But when he leads communicants to his
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Table and gives them his body to eat he completely transforms them, raising them to his own level. This is
the last Sacrament we receive because it is impossible to go beyond it or to add to it anything whatever.
We remain imperfect even after Baptism has produced in us its full effect because we have not yet
received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are given in Chrismation Those baptized by Philip did not
receive the Holy Spirit simply by the grace of Baptism: it was necessary for John and Peter to lay their
hands on them. As Scripture says, the Holy Spirit had not yet come down on any of them; they had only
been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them and they
received the Holy Spirit.
Yet even among those who had been filled with the Spirit and who prophesied, spoke in tongues and
displayed other such gifts, there were some in the time of the Apostles who were so far from being divine
and spiritual as to be guilty of envy, rivalry, contention, and other similar vices. This is what Paul referred
to when he wrote to them: You are still unspiritual and are living on a purely human plane. They were
indeed spiritual by reason of the graces they had received, but these graces did not suffice to free them
from all sinfulness. With the Eucharist, however, it is different. No such charge can be brought against
those in whom the Bread of Life, which has saved them from death, has had its full effect and who have
not brought to this feast any wrongful dispositions. If this Sacrament is fully effective, it is quite
impossible for it to allow the slightest imperfection to remain in those who receive it.
If you would know the reason for this, it is because through communion, in fulfilment of his promise,
Christ dwells in us and we in him. He lives in me, he said, and I in him. When Christ lives in us, what can
we lack? When we live in Christ, what more can we desire? We at once become spiritual in body and soul
and in all our faculties because our soul is united to his soul, our body to his body, our blood to his blood.
The consequence is that the higher prevails over the lower, the divine over the human. As Paul says,
referring to the Resurrection: What is mortal is swallowed up by life. And elsewhere he writes: It is no
longer I who live: it is Christ who lives in me.
THURSDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL AT EPHESUS. CONVERSIONS AND MIRACLES: ACTS 19:1-20
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he
found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they
said, “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you
baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of
repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On
hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon
them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about
twelve of them in all.
And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the
kingdom of God; but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the
congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of
Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both
Jews and Greeks.
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And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried
away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some
of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had
evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of a Jewish High Priest
named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who
are you?” And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and
overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to
all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord
Jesus was extolled. Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their
practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned
them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of
silver. So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.

THE LIFE IN CHRIST, 3 (PG 150:574-575); WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
The purpose of chrismation is to enable us to share in the power of the Holy Spirit. This anointing brings
the Lord Jesus himself to dwell in us, our only salvation and hope. Through him we are made sharers in
the Holy Spirit and are led to the Father. Unfailingly it procures for Christians those gifts that are needed
in every age, gifts such as faith, reverence for God, prayer, love, and purity. It does so even though many
are unaware of having received such gifts. Many do not know the power of this sacrament or even that
there is a Holy Spirit, as it says in the Book of Acts, because they were anointed before reaching the age
of reason and afterward they blinded their souls by sin. Nevertheless, the Spirit does in truth give the
newly initiated his gifts, distributing them to each one as he wills; and our Lord, who promised to be with
us always, never ceases to shower blessings on us.
Chrismation cannot be superfluous. We obtain the remission of our sins in baptism and we receive the
body of Christ at the altar. These sacraments will remain until the unveiled appearance of their author. It
cannot be doubted, then, that Christians also enjoy the benefits that belong to this holy anointing and
receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. How could some sacraments be fruitful and this one without effect?
How can we believe that Saint Paul’s words: He who promised is faithful, apply to some sacraments but
not to this one? If we discount the value of any sacrament we must discount the value of all, since it is the
same power that acts in each of them, it is the immolation of the same Lamb, it is the same death and the
same blood that gives each of them its efficacy.
The Holy Spirit is given to some, as Saint Paul says, to enable them to do good to others and to edify the
Church by prophesying, teaching revealed truth, or healing the sick by a mere word. The Spirit is given to
others for their own sanctification, imparting to them a shining faith and reverence for God, or making
them outstanding in purity, charity, or humility.
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FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

RIOTING AGAINST PAUL IN EPHESUS: ACTS 19:21-40
Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to
Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” And having sent into Macedonia two
of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
About that time there arose no little stir concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith,
who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered
together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we
have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul
has persuaded and turned away a considerable company of people, saying that gods made with hands are
not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the
temple of the great goddess Artemis may count for nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her
magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”
When they heard this they were enraged, and cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city
was filled with the confusion; and they rushed together into the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and
Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. Paul wished to go in among the crowd,
but the disciples would not let him; some of the Asiarchs also, who were friends of his, sent to him and
begged him not to venture into the theatre. Now some cried one thing, some another; for the assembly
was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd
prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, wishing to
make a defence to the people. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all
with one voice cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And when the town clerk had quieted the
crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is
temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these
things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these
men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the
craftsmen with him have a complaint against any one, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let
them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular
assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, there being no cause that we can give
to justify this commotion.”
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST AUGUSTINE

LETTER 137, 16 (PL 33:523-524); WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
In accordance with ancient prediction, he comes: the promised Christ; and in his birth, life, words, and
actions, in his Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension, all that the prophets foretold is fulfilled. He
sends the Holy Spirit upon the believers as they are all gathered together in one place, waiting with ex-
pectant longing for the promised gift. And as soon as they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they begin to
speak in the languages of every nation, to refute errors boldly, to preach the saving truth of the Gospel,
to urge people to repent of their former sinful lives, and to promise them the grace of God’s forgiveness.
Their proclamation of the true religion and of God’s loving kindness is confirmed by signs and wonders.
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Unbelievers stir up cruel persecution against them. They endure what they have been warned to expect,
they hope for what they have been promised, and they teach what they have been commanded. Few in
number, they are no sooner dispersed throughout the world than they convert whole peoples with
marvellous ease; in the midst of their enemies they grow in strength. Persecution multiplies them; no
suffering, no trial can hinder them from spreading to the very ends of the earth. Once a despised handful
of ignorant men, they become a noble company of enlightened teachers, brilliantly gifted and of polished
speech, who press into Christ’s service for the preaching of the Gospel all the skill and experience of the
wise, the eloquent, and the learned.
Now in adversity, now in prosperity, they vigilantly practice patience and self-control, and in the
calamities which exhaust the earth and herald the final consummation at the end of the world, they
discern the fulfilment of prophecy and so look forward with increased confidence to the eternal
happiness of their heavenly country. Although in all these events unbelieving and godless nations
continue to rage against the Church of Christ, the Church gains the victory by its endurance and by the
profession of a faith unshaken by the cruelty of its adversaries.
For long ages the truth lay hidden behind mysterious prophecies, but now it is revealed in the sacrifice of
Christ, and those sacrificial rites which foreshadowed it are abolished by the destruction of the Jewish
temple. By degrees the temples of the heathen divinities are also being destroyed together with their
images and impious rites, as the prophets foretold. Under cover of Christ’s name heresies spring up
against his very person. This too was predicted, but by means of such errors the doctrines of our holy
faith are developed.
All these things we now see accomplished in fulfilment of the Scriptures, and from so many important
instances of fulfilled prophecy we confidently look forward to the fulfilment of the remainder. Is there
anyone, then, longing for eternity and conscious of the shortness of this present life, who can resist such
clear and perfect proofs of the divine origin of our faith.
SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

BREAKING OF BREAD AT TROAS: ACTS 20:1-16
After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and having exhorted them took leave of them and
departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through these parts and had given them much
encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against
him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.
Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and
Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on and
were waiting for us at Troas, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in
five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them,
intending to depart on the morrow; and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lights
in the upper chamber where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus was sitting in the
window. He sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer; and being overcome by sleep, he fell down
from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and embracing him
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said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and
eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the lad away
alive, and were not a little comforted.
But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there; for so he had
arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came
to Mitylene. And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched
at Samos; and the day after that we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he
might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of
Pentecost.
A READING FROM THE FIRST APOLOGY IN DEFENCE OF THE CHRISTIANS BY ST JUSTIN

MARTYR
FIRST APOLOGY, 66-67; WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
None may share the Eucharist with us unless they believe that what we teach is true, unless they are
washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of their sins, and unless they live in
accordance with the principles given us by Christ.
We do not consume the Eucharistic bread and wine as ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught
that as Jesus Christ our Saviour became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so
also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the
incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.
The apostles in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded
them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: Do this in memory of me. This is my
body. In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: This is my blood, and he distributed it
only to them. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among
us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe
through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or in the
outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time
permits. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us, urging everyone to
imitate the examples of virtue we have heard about in the readings. Then we all stand up together and
pray.
On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers
prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give their assent by saying, “Amend.”
The Eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are
absent.
The wealthy if they wish may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The
collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all
who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a
word, he takes care of all who are in need.
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We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day of which God
put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our Saviour Jesus
Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and
disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.
SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

FROM MILETUS PAUL SUMMONS THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS: ACTS 20:17-38
And from Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus and called to him the Elders of the Church. And when they came
to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving
the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews;
how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and
from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall
me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await
me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my
course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom will see my face
no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not
shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the Church of God which he obtained with the
blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing
the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the
disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to
admonish every one with tears.
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give
you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You
yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. In all
things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord
Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced
Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his
face no more. And they brought him to the ship.
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COMMENTARY ON JOHN’S GOSPEL, 94.4-5 (PL 35:1869-1870); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The Lord said, I tell you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going away, because unless I go the
Advocate will not come to you. But if I go I will send him to you.
In other words, it is to your advantage that I should be taken from you as I am now, in the condition of
the servant. Now indeed I dwell among you as the Word made flesh; but I do not want you to go on loving
me with a merely natural affection, content with baby’s milk and lacking any ambition to leave the
nursery. It is for your own good that I am going away, because unless I do the Advocate will not come to
you. So far I have given you nothing but children’s food. Unless I mean you, you will never have any
appetite for solid meat. As long as you cling to my bodily presence in a purely natural way you will remain
incapable of receiving the Holy Spirit.
A question arises, however. When the Lord said that he had to go before the Advocate could come to the
disciples, and that if he went he would send him to them, did he mean that it was impossible for him to
send the Holy Spirit while he was still on earth? Surely no one would make such an assertion. He had
never left the dwelling-place of the Spirit; or had he come from the Father in such a way as no longer to
be with the Father. Besides, how could it have been impossible for Christ to send the Holy Spirit while he
was yet on earth, when we know he had received the abiding presences of the Spirit at his baptism? In
fact, we know that he and the Holy Spirit were inseparable.
What this gospel passage means is that the disciples could not receive the Holy Spirit as long as they only
knew Christ according to the flesh. Hence the assertion made by the apostle Paul after himself had
received the Holy Spirit: Even if we used to think of Christ in a human fashion, we do so no longer. When
we know the incarnate Word spiritually, our knowledge even of his humanity becomes more than merely
human. This, without any doubt, is the lesson their good Master wanted to give the disciples when he
told them he was going away for their own good, otherwise the Advocate would not come to them.
The withdrawal of Christ’s bodily presence from his disciples meant not only that the Holy Spirit would
come to them, but that the Father and the Son would also dwell with them in a spiritual manner. Christ’s
departure did not mean that the Holy Spirit would simply take his place. It meant rather that together
with Christ the Spirit would make his home in the hearts of the disciples. If this were not so, what would
become of our Lord’s promise to be with his disciples always, to the end of time? And what of that other
saying of his, The Father and I will come to him and make our home with him? The fact is that our Lord
promised to send the Holy Spirit in such a way that he himself would always remain with his disciples. And
when through the coming of the Spirit their purely natural and human affections had become
spiritualized, then they would be capable of the indwelling of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
MONDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. AGABUS PROPHESIES.
COUNCIL OF JAMES AND THE ELDERS: ACTS 21:1-26
And when we had parted from the Elders of Ephesus and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos,
and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we
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went aboard, and set sail. When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria,
and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we
stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. And when our
days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey; and they all, with wives and children,
brought us on our way till we were outside the city; and kneeling down on the beach we prayed and bade
one another farewell. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the brethren and
stayed with them for one day. On the morrow we departed and came to Caesarea; and we entered the
house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. And he had four
unmarried daughters, who prophesied. While we were staying for some days, a prophet named Agabus
came down from Judea. And coming to us he took Paul’s girdle and bound his own feet and hands, and
said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this girdle and
deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there begged him
not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?
For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “The will of the Lord be done.”
After these days we made ready and went up to Jerusalem. And some of the disciples from Caesarea
went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should
lodge.
When we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with
us to James; and all the Elders were present. After greeting them, he related one by one the things that
God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified God. And
they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have
believed; they are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews
who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe
the customs. What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Do therefore what
we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them
and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in
what they have been told about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law. But as for the
Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what
has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity.” Then Paul
took the men, and the next day he purified himself with them and went into the temple, to give notice
when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for every one of them.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST. MAXIMUS OF TURIN

SERMON 56, 1-2 (CCL 23:224-225); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Our Lord blossomed afresh when he rose from the tomb, and he bore fruit when he ascended to heaven.
As a flower he burgeoned from the depths of the earth; as the fruit he took his place on his lofty throne.
Enduring the torment of the Cross alone, he is that grain which he himself describes; surrounded by his
Apostles, now unshakeable in their faith, he is the fruit. In his converse with his disciples during those
forty days after his Resurrection, he taught them the fullness of mature wisdom, and reaped from them
an abundant harvest by the life-giving power of his words. Then he ascended to heaven, bringing his
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Father the fruits of his incarnate life, and leaving in his disciples the seed of holiness. Just as the eagle
leaves the low lying ground, makes for the heights, and climbs high to heaven, in like manner our Saviour
left the lower regions, made for the heights of Paradise, and reached heaven’s highest summit.
But what of the fact that an eagle often steals its prey by carrying off what belongs to another? Even so,
our Saviour did something not unlike that, for in a manner of speaking he stole his prey when he snatched
the manhood he had assumed from the jaws of hell and carried it off to heaven, freeing the human race
from slavery to an alien prince, that is, from the power of the devil, and leading it captive into a higher
captivity. As the prophet says, Ascending on high he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men. The
undoubted meaning of these words is this: that since the devil held the human race captive, our Lord, by
wresting it from him, took it captive himself and as the prophet tells us led that very captivity to the
heights of heaven. Both captivities do indeed bear the same name, but they differ one from the other.
The devil’s captivity means enslavement; Christ’s, on the contrary, means restoration to freedom.
TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL IS ATTACKED BY A VIOLENT CROWD: ACTS 21:27-39
When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple,
stirred up all the crowd, and laid hands on him, crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is
teaching men everywhere against the people and the law and this place; moreover he also brought
Greeks into the temple, and he has defiled this holy place.” For they had previously seen Trophimus the
Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the
city was aroused, and the people ran together; they seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and
at once the gates were shut. And as they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort
that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He at once took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them; and
when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the tribune came up and
arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had
done. Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and as he could not learn the facts because
of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. And when he came to the steps, he was
actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd; for the mob of the people followed,
crying, “Away with him!”
As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?”
And he said, “Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and
led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from
Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; I beg you, let me speak to the people.”
A READING FROM A SERMON ON THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST BY ST GREGORY OF

NYSSA
ON THE ASCENSION (JAEGER 9.1.323-327); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The Gospel describes the Lord’s life upon earth and his return to heaven. But the sublime prophet David,
as though unencumbered by the weight of his body, rose above himself to mingle with the heavenly
powers and record for us their words as they accompanied the Master when he came down from heaven.
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Ordering the angels on earth entrusted with the care of human life to raise the gates, they cried: Lift up
your gates, you princes; be lifted up you everlasting doors. Let the King of glory enter.
But because wherever he is, he who contains all things in himself makes himself like those who receive
him, not only becoming a man among men, but also when among angels conforming his nature to theirs,
the gatekeepers asked: Who is this King of glory?
He is the strong one, they were told, mighty in battle, the one who is to grapple with and overthrow the
captor of the human race who has the power of death. When this last enemy has been destroyed, he will
restore us to freedom and peace.
Now the mystery of Christ’s death is fulfilled, victory is won, and the Cross, the sign of triumph, is raised
on high. He who gives us the noble gifts of life and a kingdom has ascended into heaven, leading captivity
captive. Therefore the same command is repeated. Once more the gates of heaven must open for him.
Our guardian angels, who have now become his escorts, order them to be flung wide so that he may
enter and regain his former glory. But he is not recognized in the soiled garments of our life, in clothes
reddened by the winepress of human sin. Again the escorting angels are asked: Who is this King of glory?
The answer is no longer, The strong one, mighty in battle, but, The lord of hosts, he who has gained power
over the whole universe, who has recapitulated all things in himself who is above all things, who has
restored all creation to its former state: He is the King of glory.
You see how much David has added to our joy in this feast and contributed to the gladness of the Church.
Therefore as far as we can let us imitate the prophet by our love for God, by gentleness and by patience
with those who hate us. Let the prophet’s teaching help us to live in a way pleasing to God in Christ Jesus
our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL TELLS THE JEWS OF HIS CONVERSION: ACTS 21:40 – 22:21
And when the tribune had given him leave, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the
people; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying:
“Brethren and fathers, hear the defence which I now make before you.”
And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet. And he
said:
“I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated
according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as you all are this day. I
persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the High
Priest and the whole Council of Elders bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brethren, and
I journeyed to Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be
punished.
“As I made my journey and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone
about me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
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And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are
persecuting.’ Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was
speaking to me. And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus,
and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ And when I could not see because of the
brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.
“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well-spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,
came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And in that very hour I
received my sight and saw him. And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to
see the Just One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to all men of what
you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins,
calling on his name.’
“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying
to me, ‘Make haste and get quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about
me.’ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who
believed in thee. And when the blood of Stephen thy witness was shed, I also was standing by and
approving, and keeping the garments of those who killed him.’ And he said to me, ‘Depart; for I will send
you far away to the Gentiles.’”

PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS, VI, 121-127; WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
Christ’s going to the Father is at once a source of sorrow because it involves his absence, and of joy
because it involves his presence. And out of the doctrine of his Resurrection and Ascension spring those
Christian paradoxes, often spoken of in Scripture, that we are sorrowing yet always rejoicing; as having
nothing yet possessing all things.
This, indeed, is our state at present; we have lost Christ and we have found him; we see him not, yet we
discern him. We embrace his feet, yet he says, Touch me not. How is this? It is thus: we have lost the
sensible and conscious perception of him; we cannot look on him, hear him, converse with him, follow
him from place to place; but we enjoy the spiritual, immaterial, inward, mental, real sight and possession
of him; a possession more real and more present than that which the Apostles had in the days of his flesh,
because it is spiritual, because it is invisible. When he says that he should go away, and come again and
abide forever, he is speaking not merely of his omnipresent, divine nature, but of his human nature. As
being Christ he says that he, the incarnate mediator, shall be with his Church forever.
But again, you may be led to explain his declaration thus: ‘He has come again, but in his Spirit; that is, his
Spirit has come instead of him; and when it is said that he is with us, this only means that his Spirit is with
us.’ No one, doubtless, can deny this most gracious and consolatory truth, that the Holy Spirit has come;
but why has he come? To supply Christ’s absence or to accomplish his presence? Surely to make him
present. Let us not suppose that God the Holy Spirit comes in such sense that God the Son remains away.
No; he has not so come that Christ does not come, but rather he comes that Christ may come in his
coming. Through the Holy Spirit we have communion with Father and Son. In Christ we are built together,
says St Paul, for a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. You are the temple of God, the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Thus the Holy Spirit does not take the place of Christ in the soul, but secures that place for
Christ. St Paul insists much on this presence of Christ in those who have his Spirit. Do you not know, he
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says, that your bodies are the members of Christ? By one Spirit we are all baptized one body… you are the
body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it?
The Holy Spirit, then, vouchsafes to come to us, that by his coming Christ may come to us, not carnally or
visibly, but may enter into us. And thus he is both present and absent, absent in that he has left the earth,
present in that he has not left the faithful soul; or, as he says himself: The world sees me no more, but you
see me.
THE ASCENSION

ASCENDING ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE: EPHESIANS 4:1-24
called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to
the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all,
who is above all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of
Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to
men.” (In saying, “He ascended”, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts
of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all
things.) And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all
attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful
wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into
Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when
each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.
Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of
their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have given
themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of uncleanness. You did not so learn Christ!
– assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. Put off your
old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be
renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.

SERMON 73; FOC 93 (1996) TR. FREELAND & CONWAY
After the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the divine power in three days
raised the true Temple of God which Jewish wickedness had destroyed, on this very day, dearly beloved,
the number of the forty holy days is completed. While the Lord draws out the time of his bodily presence,
our faith in his Resurrection is being strengthened by the necessary signs. The Death of Christ had
greatly disturbed the hearts of the disciples. When the holy women, as the Gospel story has told
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us, proclaimed that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, the sepulchre was empty, and
that angels were witnesses of the living Lord, their words seemed to the Apostles and other
disciples as pure nonsense.
The Spirit of Truth would by no means have permitted this wavering in human weakness to enter the
hearts of his preachers, if their trembling anxiety and questioning delay were not to have established the
foundations of our faith. Consequently, it was our doubts, our danger, that was being considered in the
Apostles. We, in the guise of the Apostles, were being instructed against the slanders of the wicked and
the proofs of earthly wisdom. Let us give thanks for necessary slowness of the Holy Fathers. They
doubted so that we need not doubt.
These days, dearly beloved, between the Resurrection of the Lord and his Ascension provided the
opportunity to confirm great mysteries, to reveal great secrets. In these days the Holy Spirit was poured
into all the Apostles by the breath of the Lord; and to blessed Peter above all the others, after the keys of
the kingdom, the care of the Lord’s sheep is entrusted. Through all this time which went by between the
Resurrection of the Lord and his Ascension, the providence of God took thought for this: that they should
recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as truly risen, who was truly born, truly suffered, and truly died.
The result was that not only were they not afflicted with sadness but were filled with great joy when the
Lord went into the heights of heaven. Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when, in
the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all
heavenly creatures, to pass the angelic orders and to be raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its
ascension it did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal
Father, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature it was joined in the Son.
Since the Ascension of Christ is our elevation, and since, where the glory of the Head has preceded it,
there hope for the body is also invited, let us exult, dearly beloved, with worthy joy and be glad with a
holy thanksgiving. Today we are established not only as possessors of Paradise, but we have even pen-
etrated the heights of the heavens in Christ, prepared more fully for it through the indescribable grace of
Christ which we had lost through the ill will of the devil. Those whom the violent enemy threw down from
the happiness of our first dwelling, the Son of God has placed, incorporated within himself, at the right
hand of the Father, the Son of God who lives and reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy
Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SANHEDRIN: ACTS 22:22 – 23:11
Up to this word they listened to Paul; then they lifted up their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow
from the earth! For he ought not to live.” And as they cried out and waved their garments and threw dust
into the air, the tribune commanded him to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be
examined by scourging, to find out why they shouted thus against him. But when they had tied him up
with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man
who is a Roman citizen, and uncondemned?” When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and
said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” So the tribune came and said to
him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” The tribune answered, “I bought this
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citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.” So those who were about to examine
him withdrew from him instantly; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman
citizen and that he had bound him.
But on the morrow, desiring to know the real reason why the Jews accused him, he unbound him, and
commanded the Chief Priests and all the Council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before
them.
And Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience
up to this day.” And the High Priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the
mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me
according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” Those who stood by said,
“Would you revile God’s High Priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brethren, that he was the High
Priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the
Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope and the resurrection of
the dead I am on trial.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the
Sadducees; and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel,
nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamour arose; and some of the scribes
of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or
an angel spoke to him?” And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be
torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and
bring him into the barracks.
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified about me at
Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome.”

SERMON 74, 3-4 (CCL 138A:457-459); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The faith of the infant Church was increased by the Lord’s Ascension and strengthened by the gift of the
Spirit; it was to remain unshaken by fetters and imprisonment, exile and hunger, fire and ravening beasts,
and the most refined tortures ever devised by brutal persecutors. Even the blessed Apostles, though they
had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel
suffering of the Lord’s Passion and could not accept his Resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made
such progress through his Ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They
were able to fix their minds on Christ's divinity as he sat at the right hand of the Father, since what was
presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realization
that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor abandoned his disciples when he
ascended into heaven.
The truth is that the Son of Man was revealed as Son of God in a more perfect and transcendent way
once he had entered into his Father’s glory. He now began to be indescribably more present in his divinity
to those from whom he was further removed in his humanity. A more mature faith enabled their minds to
stretch upward to the Son in his equality with the Father; it no longer needed contact with Christ’s
tangible body, in which as man he is inferior to the Father. For while his glorified body retained the same
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nature, the faith of those who believed in him was now summoned to heights where, as the Father’s
equal, the only-begotten Son is reached not by physical handling but by spiritual discernment. This
explains why our Lord said to the Church in the person of Mary Magdalene, as she ran forward to cling to
him: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. In other words, I do not want you to
come to me corporeally, to recognize me by what your bodily senses tell you; I want you to wait for
something higher.
And when the eyes of his disciples, rapt in wonder, followed their ascending Lord to heaven, there stood
beside them two angels, in garments of marvellously shining whiteness, who said to them: Men of
Galilee, why are you standing looking up to heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you will come
again in the same way as you have seen him going up to heaven. By these words all the Church’s children
have been taught to believe that Jesus Christ will come again visibly in the same flesh in which he
ascended, and that there can be no doubt concerning the subjection of all things to him who was served
by angels from the moment of his birth. As it was an angel who announced to the blessed Virgin that
Christ would be conceived of the Holy Spirit, so too it was the song of heavenly beings that told the
shepherds of his virginal birth; and as the first attestations of his rising from the dead were delivered by
messengers from on high, so it was the task of angels to proclaim that he would come in the same flesh
to judge the world. All these things were intended to make us realise what tremendous angelic powers
are to accompany him when he comes to judge, since such mighty spirits ministered to him even when he
came to be judged himself.
SATURDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

THE JEWS’ PLOT AGAINST PAUL: ACTS 23:12-35
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they
had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. And they went to the Chief Priests
and Elders, and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed
Paul. You therefore, along with the Council, give notice now to the tribune to bring him down to you, as
though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes
near.”
Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush; so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.
And Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune; for he has something
to tell him.” So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and
asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.” The tribune took him by the
hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” And he said, “The Jews
have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire
somewhat more closely about him. But do not yield to them; for more than forty of their men lie in
ambush for him, having bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him;
and now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you.” So the tribune dismissed the young man,
charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of this.”
Then he called two of the centurions and said, “At the third hour of the night get ready two hundred
soldiers with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea. Also provide
mounts for Paul to ride, and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” And he wrote a letter to this effect:
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“Claudius Lysias to his Excellency the governor Felix, greeting. This man was seized by the Jews, and was
about to be killed by them, when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned
that he was a Roman citizen. And desiring to know the charge on which they accused him, I brought him
down to their Council. I found that he was accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing
deserving death or imprisonment. And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the
man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against
him.”
So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. And on
the morrow they returned to the barracks, leaving the horsemen to go on with him. When they came to
Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the
letter, he asked to what province he belonged. When he learned that he was from Cilicia he said, “I will
hear you when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.

SERMON 74, 5 (CCL 138A:459-461); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
Dearly beloved, let us exult with spiritual joy and rejoice before the Lord with the thanksgiving that is his
due, freely raising the eyes of our hearts to Christ’s dwelling place on high. Let no earthly desires weigh
down the minds that are summoned heavenward, no perishable things encumber those predestined for
what is everlasting, no deceptive snares entangle the feet that have entered upon the path of truth. The
faithful should make their way swiftly through these temporal things, knowing themselves to be mere
pilgrims in this earthly vale. The world’s consolations may attract us, but they must be bravely passed by;
it would be an unworthy act for us to embrace them We are urged to such total dedication by the blessed
Apostle Peter, who, in that zeal for feeding Christ’s sheep, which his threefold profession of love for his
Lord inspired in him, entreats us as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from carnal desires which war
against the soul. And on whose behalf do these carnal desires wage war? Are they not tools of the devil,
who enjoys bringing upward-striving men into bondage to lust for passing pleasures and robbing them of
the place from which he himself has fallen? Against his plots each of the faithful must keep careful watch,
so that he may be able to repulse the enemy from whatever quarter he may attack.
Now nothing is more effective against the devil’s wiles, dearly beloved, than tender compassion and
unselfish love; by these every sin can be either avoided or conquered. But such a degree of virtue cannot
be attained until its contrary is overcome; and there is surely nothing so hostile to mercy and works of
charity as the love of money, from the root of which all evil springs up. Unless this noxious weed is
starved to death, it is inevitable that the heart in which it has taken root will bring forth the thorns and
briars of vice rather than any flower of true virtue. Therefore, my beloved, let us resist this most pestilent
of evils and make charity our aim, for no virtue can flourish without it; and then by the same path of love
which Christ trod when he came down to us, we shall be able to ascend to him, to whom, with God the
Father and the Holy Spirit, belong honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL DEFENDS HIMSELF BEFORE FELIX: ACTS 24:1-27
And after five days the High Priest Ananias came down with some Elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus.
They laid before the governor their case against Paul; and when he was called, Tertullus began to accuse
him, saying:
“Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your provision, most excellent Felix, reforms are
introduced on behalf of this nation, in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. But, to
detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. For we have found this man a
pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the
Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. By examining him yourself you will be
able to learn from him about everything of which we accuse him.”
The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all this was so. And when the governor had motioned to
him to speak, Paul replied:
“Realizing that for many years you have been judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defence. As you
may ascertain, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship at Jerusalem; and they did not
find me disputing with any one or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues, or in the
city. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I admit to you, that
according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid
down by the law or written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these themselves accept, that
there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear
conscience toward God and toward men. Now after some years I came to bring to my nation alms and
offerings. As I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But
some Jews from Asia – they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, if they have anything
against me. Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the
Council, except this one thing which I cried out while standing among them, ‘With respect to the
resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you this day.’”
But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the tribune
comes down, I will decide your case.” Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in
custody but should have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to
his needs.
After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess; and he sent for Paul and heard him
speak upon faith in Christ Jesus. And as he argued about justice and self-control and future judgment,
Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present; when I have an opportunity I will summon you.” At
the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed
with him. But when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and desiring to do the
Jews a favour, Felix left Paul in prison.
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ALEXANDRIA
COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL, 9 (PG 74:182-183); WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
As the reason for his departure, our Lord mentioned his desire to open the way for our ascent to the
heavenly places and to prepare a safe passage for us by making smooth the road that had previously
been impassable. For heaven was then completely inaccessible to us – human foot had never trodden
that pure and holy country of the angels. It was Christ who first prepared the way for our ascent there. By
offering himself to God the Father as the first fruits of all who are dead and buried, he gave us a way of
entry into heaven and was himself the first man the inhabitants of heaven ever saw. The angels in
heaven, knowing nothing of the sacred and profound mystery of the incarnation, were astonished at his
coming and almost thrown into confusion by an event so strange and unheard of. Who is this coming
from Edom? they asked; that is, from the earth. But the Spirit did not leave the heavenly throng ignorant
of the wonderful wisdom of God the Father. Commanding them to open the gates of heaven in honour of
the king and master of the universe, he cried out: Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you
everlasting doors, that the king of glory may come in.
And so our Lord Jesus Christ has opened up for us a new and living way, as Paul says, not by entering a
sanctuary made with hands, but by entering heaven itself to appear before God on our behalf. For Christ
has not ascended in order to make his own appearance before God the Father. He was, is, and ever will
be in the Father and in the sight of him from whom he receives his being, for he is his Father’s unfailing
joy. But now the Word, who had never before been clothed in human nature, has ascended as a man to
show himself in a strange and unfamiliar fashion. And he has done this on our account and in our name,
so that being like us, though with his power as the Son, and hearing the command, Sit at my right hand,
as a member of our race, he might transmit to all of us the glory of being children of God.
As man then he appeared before the Father on our behalf, to enable us whom original sin had excluded
from his presence to see the Father’s face once more. As the Son he took his seat to enable us as sons
through him to be called children of God. So Paul, who claims to speak for Christ, teaching that the whole
human race has a share in the events of Christ’s life, says that God has raised us up with him and
enthroned its with him in heaven. To Christ as the Son by nature belongs the prerogative of sitting at the
Father’s side; this honour can rightly and truly be ascribed to him alone. Yet because his having become
man means that he sits there as one who is in all respects like ourselves, as well as being as we believe
God from God, in some mysterious way he passes this honour on to us.
MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL APPEALS TO CAESAR AND IS SUMMONED BY KING AGRIPPA: ACTS 25:1-27
Now when Festus had come into his province, after three days he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
And the Chief Priests and the principal men of the Jews informed him against Paul; and they urged him,
asking as a favour to have the man sent to Jerusalem, planning an ambush to kill him on the way. Festus
replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly. “So,” said
he, “let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man,
let them accuse him.”
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When he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and the
next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. And when he had come, the
Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem stood about him, bringing against him many serious charges
which they could not prove. Paul said in his defence, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the
temple, nor against Caesar have I offended at all.” But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favour, said to
Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem, and there be tried on these charges before me?” But Paul said,
“I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried; to the Jews I have done no wrong, as
you know very well. If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I
do not seek to escape death; but if there is nothing in their charges against me, no one can give me up to
them. I appeal to Caesar.” Then Festus, when he had conferred with his Council, answered, “You have
appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.”
Now when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus.
And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man left
prisoner by Felix; and when I was at Jerusalem, the Chief Priests and the Elders of the Jews gave
information about him, asking for sentence against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of
the Romans to give up any one before the accused met the accusers face to face, and had opportunity to
make his defence concerning the charge laid against him. When therefore they came together here, I
made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in.
When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed; but they had
certain points of dispute with him about their own superstition and about one Jesus, who was dead, but
whom Paul asserted to be alive. Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he
wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in
custody for the decision of the emperor, I commanded him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.”
And Agrippa said to Festus, “I should like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” said he, “you shall hear
him.”
So on the morrow Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with
the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then by command of Festus Paul was brought in.
And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole
Jewish people petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.
But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and as he himself appealed to the emperor, I
decided to send him. But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore I have brought
him before you, and, especially before you, King Agrippa, that, after we have examined him, I may have
something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable, in sending a prisoner, not to indicate the charges
against him.”

ALEXANDRIA
COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL, 11.11 (PG 74:559-562); WORD IN SEASON III.
All who receive the sacred flesh of Christ are united with him as members of his body. This is the teaching
of St Paul when he speaks of the mystery of our religion that was hidden from former generations, but
has now been revealed to the holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit; namely, that the Gentiles are joint-
heirs with the Jews, that they are members of the same body, and that they have a share in the promise
made by God in Christ Jesus.
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If in Christ all of us, both ourselves and he who is within us by his own flesh, are members of the same
body, is it not clear that we are one both with one another and with Christ? He is the bond that unites us,
because he is at once both God and man
With regard to our unity in the Spirit we may say, following the same line of thought, that all of us who
have received one and the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, are united intimately both with one another and
with God. Taken separately we are many, and Christ sends the Spirit who is both the Father’s Spirit and
his own, to dwell in each of us. Yet that Spirit, being one and indivisible, gathers together those who are
distinct from each other as individuals and causes them all to be seen as a unity in himself. Just as Christ’s
sacred flesh has power to make those in whom it is present into one body, so the one, indivisible Spirit of
God, dwelling in all, causes all to become one in spirit
Therefore Saint Paul appeals to us to bear with one another charitably, and to spare no effort in securing
by the bonds of peace, the unity that comes from the Spirit. There is but one body and one Spirit just as
there is but one hope held out to us by God’s call. There is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all, and works through all, and is in all. If the one Spirit dwells in us, the one
God and Father of all will be in us, and he through his Son will gather together into unity with one another
and with himself all who share in the Spirit.
There is also another way of showing that we are made one by sharing in the Holy Spirit. If we have given
up our worldly way of life and submitted once for all to the laws of the Spirit it must surely be obvious to
everyone that by repudiating in a sense our own life, and taking on the supernatural likeness of the Holy
Spirit who is united to us, our nature is transformed so that we are no longer mere men but also children
of God, spiritual men, by reason of the share we have received in the divine nature. We are all one,
therefore, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are one in mind and holiness, we are one
through our communion in the sacred flesh of Christ, and through our sharing in the one Holy Spirit.
TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL EXPLAINS HIS CAUSE IN THE PRESENCE OF KING AGRIPPA: ACTS 26:1-32
Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and
made his defence:
“I think myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defence today against all the
accusations of the Jews, because you are especially familiar with all customs and controversies of the
Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.
“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem, is
known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the
strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial for hope in the
promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship
night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you
that God raises the dead?
1035
“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I
did so in Jerusalem; I not only shut up many of the saints in prison, by authority from the Chief Priests,
but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the
synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme; and in raging fury against them, I persecuted them even
to foreign cities.
“Thus I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the Chief Priests. At midday, O king,
I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed
with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language,
‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you,
Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I
have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which
you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the
Gentiles – to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the
power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are
sanctified by faith in me.’
“Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those at
Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they
should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance. For this reason the Jews
seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I
stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would
come to pass: that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would
proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles.”
And as he thus made his defence, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are mad; your great learning is
turning you mad.” But Paul said, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.
For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely; for I am persuaded that none of these
things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the
prophets? I know that you believe.” And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time you think to make me a
Christian!” And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear
me this day might become such as I am – except for these chains.”
Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them; and when they
had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”
And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT
ON THE HOLY SPIRIT, 9.22-23; THE DIVINE OFFICE II
Who is there who can hear the names of the Holy Spirit and not feel exaltation in his soul, not lift up his
thoughts to that supreme nature? For he is called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from
the Father, the upright Spirit, the guiding Spirit. His chief and distinguishing name is Holy Spirit.
To the Spirit all creatures turn for their sanctification; all who live virtuously seek him, and are, by his
influence, refreshed and helped towards their own natural end.
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He is the source of holiness, the light of our understanding, for to every mind he offers his own light for
the discovery of truth.
Though by nature he is inaccessible, yet through his generosity men can receive him in themselves. He
fills all creatures with his power, but only those who are worthy can participate in him. But all do not
share him in the same measure; he distributes his power in proportion to men's faith.
He is simple in essence, but manifold in power. He is present to each in his fullness, and in his fullness is
present everywhere. He is divided, but does not suffer by the division; all share in him, but he remains
whole, like a sunbeam whose kindly influence benefits each creature as though it were present to that
creature alone, and shines over land and sea and dissolves in the air.
So too the Spirit is present like the sun to each individual who is capable of receiving him, and emits an
influence which is sufficient to help them all, but is not divided; and they profit by sharing in him
according to their natures, not according to his power.
Through him hearts are raised on high, the weak are led by the hand, those who are advanced gain
perfection. He it is who shines on those whose hearts are purified and stainless and makes them truly
spiritual through the common communion they have with him.
Even as bright and shining bodies, once touched by a ray of light falling on them, become even more
glorious and themselves cast another light, so too souls that carry the Spirit, and are enlightened by the
Spirit, become spiritual themselves and send forth grace upon others.
This grace enables them to foresee the future, to understand mysteries, to grasp hidden things, to
receive spiritual blessings, to have their thoughts fixed on heavenly things, and to dance with the angels.
So is their joy unending, so is their perseverance in God unfailing, so do they acquire likeness to God, so –
most sublime of all – do they themselves become divine.
WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL SAILS FOR ROME: ACTS 27:1-20
And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a
centurion of the Augustan Cohort, named Julius. And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was
about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a
Macedonian from Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon; and Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave
him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting to sea from there we sailed under the lee of
Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and
Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy, and
put us on board. We sailed slowly for a number of days, and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the
wind did not allow us to go on, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. Coasting along it with
difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.
As much time had been lost, and the voyage was already dangerous because the fast had already gone
by, Paul advised them, saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only
of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” But the centurion paid more attention to the captain and
1037
to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. And because the harbour was not suitable to winter in,
the majority advised to put to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a
harbour of Crete, looking northeast and southeast, and winter there.
And when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed
anchor and sailed along Crete, close inshore. But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck
down from the land; and when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and
were driven. And running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to
secure the boat; after hoisting it up, they took measures to undergird the ship; then, fearing that they
should run on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and so were driven. As we were violently storm-tossed,
they began next day to throw the cargo overboard; and the third day they cast out with their own hands
the tackle of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars appeared for many a day, and no small tempest lay
on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, LUMEN GENTIUM 4, 12; WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
On the day of Pentecost when the Son had completed the work on earth assigned to him by the Father,
the Holy Spirit was sent to sanctify the Church unceasingly so that through Christ, in the one Spirit,
believers would have access to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life, a fountain of water welling
up to give a life that is eternal. Through him the Father gives life to those who were dead because of their
sins, and at last raises up their mortal bodies.
Building up and guiding the Church by means of varied gifts, both hierarchical and charismatic, and
adorning her with his fruits, the Spirit leads her into all truth and gives her unity in communion and
service. The Spirit is perpetually renewing the Church’s youth by the power of the Gospel and leading her
to perfect union with her Bridegroom. The Spirit and the bride say to the Lord Jesus: ‘Come!’
The whole Church is thus shown to be a people made one as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one.
The body of believers as a whole, each one of whom has been anointed by the Holy One, cannot err in
matters of faith They demonstrate this special inerrancy of theirs when their supernatural instinct of faith
causes all from the Bishops down to the most humble lay person to agree in matters of faith and morals.
Through this instinct of faith, which is awakened and kept alive by the Spirit of truth, the people of God
hold indefectibly to the faith once delivered to the Saints; with true insight they penetrate it more deeply
and they apply it ever more perfectly in their lives. They do all this under the guidance of the sacred
Magisterium of the Church to which they loyally defer, not as to the words of men, but as to the very
word of God.
The Holy Spirit sanctifies and guides God’s people and enriches them with virtues through the Sacraments
and other ministrations of the Church. He also distributes special graces among believers in every state of
life, apportioning his gifts to each one as he wills. By these gifts the Spirit prepares them and makes them
eager to undertake various tasks and offices which serve the renewal and building up of the Church As
Scripture says: The power of the Spirit is shown in a particular way in each one for the good of all.
1038
These charisms, the simpler and more widespread as well as the most outstanding, should fill us with a
sense of gratitude, for they are especially adapted to the needs of the Church and are of the greatest
value to her.
THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL’S ENCOURAGEMENT AND THE SHIPWRECK: ACTS 27:21-44
As they had been long without food, Paul then came forward among them and said, “Men, you should
have listened to me, and should not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. I now bid
you take heart; for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there
stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid,
Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and lo, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take
heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we shall have to run on
some island.”
When the fourteenth night had come, as we were drifting across the sea of Adria, about midnight the
sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they sounded and found twenty fathoms; a little farther
on they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let
out four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape
from the ship, and had lowered the boat into the sea, under pretence of laying out anchors from the bow,
Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat, and let it go.
As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day
that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you to take
some food; it will give you strength, since not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” And when
he had said this, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to
eat. Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. (We were in all two hundred and
seventy-six persons in the ship.) And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out
the wheat into the sea.
Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they
planned if possible to bring the ship ashore. So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the
same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders; then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for
the beach. But striking a shoal they ran the vessel aground; the bow stuck and remained immovable, and
the stern was broken up by the surf. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim
away and escape; but the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their purpose. He
ordered those who could swim to throw themselves overboard first and make for the land, and the rest
on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all escaped to land.
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ALEXANDRIA
COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN’S GOSPEL, 10 (PG 74:434); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in
the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we should
begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do
only by sharing in the Holy Spirit.
It was most fitting that the sending of the Spirit and his descent upon us should take place after the
departure of Christ the Saviour. As long as Christ was with them in the flesh, it must have seemed to
believers that they possessed every blessing in him; but when the time came for him to ascend to his
heavenly Father, it was necessary for him to be united through his Spirit to those who worshiped him,
and to dwell in our hearts through faith. Only by his own presence within us in this way could he give us
the confidence to cry out, Abba, Father, make it easy for us to grow in holiness and, through our
possession of the all-powerful Spirit, fortify us invincibly against the wiles of the devil and the assaults of
other men.
It can easily be shown from examples both in the Old Testament and the New that the Spirit changes
those in whom he comes to dwell; he so transforms them that they begin to live a completely new kind of
life. Saul was told by the prophet Samuel: The Spirit of the Lord will take possession of you, and you shall
be changed into another man. St Paul writes: As we behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, that
glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, transforms us all into his own likeness, from one degree
of glory to another.
Does this not show that the Spirit changes those in whom he comes to dwell and alters the whole pattern
of their lives? With the Spirit within them it is quite natural for people who had been absorbed by the
things of this world to become entirely otherworldly in outlook, and for cowards to become people of
great courage. There can be no doubt that this is what happened to the disciples. The strength they
received from the Spirit enabled them to hold firmly to the love of Christ and to face without fear the
violence of their persecutors. Very true, then, was our Saviour’s saying that it was to their advantage for
him to return to heaven: his return was the time appointed for the descent of the Holy Spirit.
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL ON THE ISLE OF MALTA. JOURNEY TO ROME: ACTS 28:1-14
After we had escaped, we then learned that the island was called Malta. And the natives showed us
unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.
Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, when a viper came out because of the heat
and fastened on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one
another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed
him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They waited,
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expecting him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead; but when they had waited a long time and saw no
misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
Now in the neighbourhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named
Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It happened that the father of
Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery; and Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him
healed him. And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also
came and were cured. They presented many gifts to us; and when we sailed, they put on board whatever
we needed.
After three months we set sail in a ship which had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the
Twin Brothers as figurehead. Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. And from there we
made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium; and after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day
we came to Puteoli. There we found brethren, and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so
we came to Rome.
A READING FROM THE MIRROR OF FAITH BY BLESSED WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY

THE MIRROR OF FAITH (PL 180:384); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
If you feel a natural hesitation when confronted with the more profound mysteries of faith, take courage,
Christian soul, and say not contentiously but with loving submission: ‘How can these things be?’ Let your
question be a prayer, let it be an expression of love, piety, and humble longing. Seek not to explore the
heights of the divine majesty, but to find salvation in the saving deeds of God our Saviour.
Then the Messenger of God’s great design will reply: When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send you
from the Father, he will remind you of everything and teach you all truth. Even as no one knows the
thoughts of man except the spirit of the man that is within him, so no one comprehends the thoughts of
God except the Spirit of God.
Hasten therefore to share in the Holy Spirit. He is with you when you call upon him; you can call upon him
only because he is already present. When he comes in answer to your prayer, he comes with an
abundance of divine blessings. He is the river whose streams give joy to the city of God.
If when he comes he finds you humble, silent, and trembling at the words of God, he will rest upon you
and reveal what God the Father has hidden from the wise and the prudent of this world. You will then
begin to understand the things holy Wisdom could have told his disciples on earth, but which they were
unable to bear until the Spirit of truth came who was to teach them all truth. We cannot hope to learn
from the lips of any man truths that Truth himself could not convey. For he himself has told us: God is
spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth, so those who wish to know him must
seek understanding of their faith and perception of its pure and simple truth only through the Holy Spirit.
In the darkness and ignorance of this life the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens the poor in spirit, the
love that draws them on, the sweetness that attracts them, their access to God, the love of the loving.
The Spirit is devotion and piety. From one degree of faith to the next the Spirit reveals to believers the
justice of God, so that grace follows grace, and the faith that comes from hearing gives place to a faith
enlightened by understanding.
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SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE

PAUL A CAPTIVE IN ROME: ACTS 28:15-31
And the brethren at Rome, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns
to meet us. On seeing them Paul thanked God and took courage. And when we came into Rome, Paul was
allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier that guarded him.
After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews; and when they had gathered, he said to
them, “Brethren, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was
delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. When they had examined me, they
wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But when the
Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar – though I had no charge to bring against my nation.
For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of
Israel that I am bound with this chain.” And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea
about you, and none of the brethren coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. But we
desire to hear from you what your views are; for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is
spoken against.”
When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in great numbers. And he
expounded the matter to them from morning till evening, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to
convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some were
convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved. So, as they disagreed among themselves, they
departed, after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through
Isaiah the prophet: ‘Go to this people, and say, You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall
indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed; lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.’ Let it be known to you then that this salvation
of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” And he lived there two whole years at his own
expense, and welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord
Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.

ON THE TRINITY, 2.12 (PG 39:667-674); WORD IN SEASON III, 1ST ED.
The Holy Spirit renews us in Baptism through his Godhead, which he shares with the Father and the Son.
Finding us in a state of deformity, the Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with his grace, leaving
no room for anything unworthy of our love. The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from
the earthly men we were, made of dust and ashes, into spiritual men, sharers in the divine glory, sons and
heirs of God the Father, who bear a likeness to the Son and are his coheirs and his brothers, destined to
reign with him and to share his glory. In place of earth the Spirit reopens heaven to us and gladly admits
us into Paradise, giving us even now greater honour than the angels, and by the holy waters of Baptism
extinguishing the unquenchable fires of hell.
We have two conceptions: to the human body we owe our first conception; to the divine Spirit, our
second. John says: To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children
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of God; who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. All who
believed in Christ, he says, received power to become children of God, that is, of the Holy Spirit, and to
gain kinship with God. To show that their parent was God the Holy Spirit, he adds these words of Christ: I
give you this solemn warning, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of
God.
Visibly, through the ministry of priests, the font gives symbolic birth to our visible bodies. Invisibly,
through the ministry of angels, the Spirit of God, whom even the mind’s eye cannot see, baptizes into
himself both our souls and bodies, giving them a new birth
Speaking quite literally, and also in harmony with the words, of water and the Spirit, John the Baptist says
of Christ: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Since we are only vessels of clay, we must
first be cleansed in water and then hardened by spiritual fire – for God is a consuming fire. We need the
Holy Spirit to perfect and renew us, for the fire of the Spirit can also wash us and the water of the Spirit
can also melt us down and recast us.
PENTECOST

WHOEVER RECEIVES THE SPIRIT OF GOD, ARE CHILDREN OF GOD: ROMANS 8:5-27
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but
to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it
does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who
does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are
dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit which dwells in you.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you live according
to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself
bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the
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children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and
not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait
for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is
seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it
with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows
what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

SERMON 271 (PL 38:1245-1246); WORD IN SEASON III, 2ND ED.
The glad day has dawned, brothers and sisters, on which holy church is resplendent in the faces of the
faithful and warm in their hearts. This day that we are celebrating, of course, is the one of which the Lord
Jesus Christ, glorified after the resurrection by his ascension, sent the Holy Spirit. That, after all, is what
was written in the Gospel, when he said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who
believes in me, …. “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” The Evangelist went on to explain,
“Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit
had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” So it remained, once Jesus was glorified when
he had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, for the Holy Spirit now to be given, sent by him as
it had been promised by him; and that indeed is what happened.
The Lord, you see, spent forty days with his disciples after the resurrection and then ascended into
heaven; and on the fiftieth day, which we are celebrating today, he sent the Holy Spirit, as it is written,
that “suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house where
they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance. That guest was purging their hearts of worldly chaff; that fire was consuming the straw
of ancient lusts; those tongues they were speaking in, filled by the Holy Spirit, were prefiguring the church
of the future through the languages of all nations.
I mean, just as after the flood the ungodly pride of the people built a high tower against the Lord and the
human race was deservedly divided by languages, so that each nation would speak its own language and
thus not be understood by the others; so in a similar way the devout humility of the faithful has brought
to the unity of the church the variety of their different languages, so that what discord had dissipated
charity might gather together and the scattered members of the human race, as of one body, might be
attached to their one head Christ, and so reunited and fused together into the unity of the holy body by
the fire of love. And so it is that those people have absolutely no share in this gift of the Holy Spirit who
hate the grace of peace, who do not hold on to the fellowship of unity… You, though, my brothers and
sisters, members of the body of Christ, seedlings of unity, sons and daughters of peace, keep this day
joyfully, celebrate it without anxiety. Among you, after all, is being fulfilled what was being prefigured in
those days, when the Holy Spirit came. Because just as then, whoever received the Holy Spirit, even as
one person, started speaking all languages, so too now the unity itself is speaking all languages
throughout all nations; and it is by being established in this unity that you have the Holy Spirit; you that
do not break away in any schism from the church of Christ, which speaks all languages.
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HOLY TRINITY

When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or
wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with
you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible
words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the
wisdom of men but in the power of God.
this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God
decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear
heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”, God has
revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what
person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends
the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this
in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who
possess the Spirit.
The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not
able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is
himself to be judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we
have the mind of Christ.
A READING FROM THE ORATION ON HOLY BAPTISM BY ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN

ORATION 40, 41-44: NPNF 2.7, TR. BROWNE & SWALLOW
Before all else, I beg you, keep the good deposit of the faith, by which I live and work; with which I endure
all that is so distressful and despise all delights; that is, hold fast to the confession of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.
This I commit unto you today; with this I will baptize you and make you grow. This I give you to share, and
to defend all your life, the one Godhead and power, found in the Three in unity, and comprising the Three
separately, not unequal in substance or nature, neither increased nor diminished by superiorities or
inferiorities; in every respect equal, in every respect the same; just as the beauty and the greatness of the
heavens is one. This is the infinite conjunction of three infinite Ones, each is God when considered in
Himself; as the Father, so the Son; as the Son, so the Holy Spirit.
No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendour of the Three; no sooner do I
distinguish them than I am carried back to the One. When I think of any One of the Three I think of him as
the Whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking of escapes me. I cannot
grasp the greatness of that One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the Rest. When I contemplate
the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the Undivided Light.
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I should like to call the Father the greater, because from him flows both the equality and the being of the
equals, but I am afraid to use the word ‘origin’, lest I should make him the origin of inferiors and thus
insult him by creating a precedence of honour. For to put down those who are from him gives no glory to
him as the source. I fear you should take hold of this word ‘greater’, and divide the nature, using the word
greater in all senses, although in reality it does not apply to the nature but only to origination. For in the
consubstantial Persons there is nothing greater or less in terms of substance.
Are you afraid of being reproached with Tritheism? Just accept this one good thing, the unity in the
Three, and leave me to fight the battle. Let me be the ship-builder, and you use the ship. See how great is
my indulgence; see the goodness of the Spirit; the war shall be mine, yours the achievement; I will be
under fire, and you shall live in peace; only join with your defender in prayer. I have three stones which I
will sling at the Philistine; I have three floods against the brushwood with which I will consecrate the
sacrifice with water, raising the most unexpected fire; and I will throw down the prophets of shame by
the power of the Sacrament.
What need have I any more of speech? It is the time for teaching, not for controversy. I protest before
God and the elect angels: be baptized in this faith. If there is any other writing on your heart than that
which my teaching demands, come and have the writing changed; I am no unskilled calligrapher of these
truths. I write that which is written upon my own heart; I teach that which I have been taught, and I have
kept it from the beginning even up to the time of these grey hairs.
CORPUS CHRISTI

God said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders of
Israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD; but the others shall not come
near, and the people shall not come up with him.’
Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he
took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the LORD
has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people,
and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all
these words.’
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders of Israel went up, and they saw the
God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven
for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and
ate and drank.
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A READING FROM THE BULL TRANSITURUS OF POPE URBAN IV

THE BULL TRANSITURUS; TR. O’CONNOR (1988) FROM THE HIDDEN MANNA
About to pass from this world to the Father, our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, since the time of his
Passion was at hand, instituted the great and wonderful Sacrament of his Body and Blood, bestowing his
Body as food and his Blood as drink. For, as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we announce
the death of the Lord. Indeed, at the institution of this Sacrament, he himself said to the Apostles: Do this
in memory of me: so that for us the special and outstanding memorial of his love would be this venerable
Sacrament; a memorial in which we attain the corporeal Presence of the Saviour himself.
Other things which we remember we embrace spiritually and mentally: we do not thereby obtain their
real presence. However, in this sacramental commemoration, Jesus Christ is present with us in his proper
substance, although under another form. As he was about to ascend into heaven, he said to the Apostles
and their helpers, I will be with you all days even unto the consummation of the world. He comforted
them with a gracious promise that he would remain and would be with them even by his corporeal
presence. Therefore he gave himself as nourishment, so that, since man fell by means of the food of the
death-giving tree; man is raised up by means of the food of the life-giving tree. Eating wounded us, and
eating healed us. Thus the Saviour says, My Flesh is real food. This bread is taken but truly not consumed,
because it is not transformed into the eater. Rather, if it is worthily received, the recipient is conformed
to it.
We should celebrate continuously the memory of this memorial, because the more frequently his gift and
favour are looked upon, so much the more firmly are they kept in memory. Therefore, although this
memorial Sacrament is frequented in the daily solemnities of the Mass, we nevertheless think suitable
and worthy that, at least once a year – especially to confound the lack of faith and the infamy of heretics
– a more solemn and honourable memory of this Sacrament be held. This is so because on Holy Thursday,
the day on which the Lord himself instituted this Sacrament, the universal Church, occupied with the
reconciliation of penitents, blessing the chrism, fulfilling the Commandments about the washing of the
feet and many other such things, is not sufficiently free to celebrate so great a Sacrament.
Moreover we know that, while we were constituted in a lesser office, it was divinely revealed to certain
Catholics that a feast of this kind should be celebrated generally throughout the Church. Therefore, to
strengthen and exalt the Catholic Faith, we decree that, besides the daily memory that the Church makes
of this Sacrament, there be celebrated a more solemn and special annual memorial. Then let the hearts
and mouths of all break forth in hymns of saving joy; then let faith sing, hope dance, charity exult,
devotion applaud, the choir be jubilant, and purity delight. Then let each one with willing spirit and
prompt will come together, laudably fulfilling his duties, celebrating the Solemnity of so great a Feast.
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We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his
purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in
order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also
called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but
gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against Gods
elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from
the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As
it is written, “For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be
slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A READING FROM CHRIST, THE IDEAL OF THE MONK BY BLESSED COLUMBA

MARMION
CHRIST, THE IDEAL OF THE MONK, 2.17.5
When a person fails in charity, and receives Christ in Holy Communion, he cannot say to him: ‘My Jesus, I
love you with all my heart.’ It would be a lie, since he does not envelop Christ and his members with a
self-same love. He has not accepted the mystery of the Incarnation in its totality; he stops at Christ’s
individual manhood, and forgets the spiritual prolongation of the Incarnation which is the Mystical Body
of Jesus. So, then, when we communicate, we ought ever to be ready to embrace, in one and the same
charity, Christ and all that is united to him; for the measure of the giving of Christ to our souls is that of
our own donation to our brethren. The Eucharist is a Sacrament of union with Christ, and of union
between souls.
Thus a soul who draws near to our Lord, in Communion, in these dispositions of unreserved love towards
the neighbour is very pleasing to the Sacred Heart. Christ showers magnificent gifts upon it; moreover,
faults and shortcomings in respect to the other virtues are at once forgiven, because of this fervent love it
bears towards the members of Jesus. When, on Maundy Thursday, the Abbot has communicated all the
members of the monastic family, the angels who behold us see that we are all one in Christ, each one
being united to Christ Jesus, and Christ being one, we are then truly one in him. We thus fulfil the dearest
desire of the Word Incarnate.
Indeed, at the supreme farewell hour, when Christ Jesus spoke for the last time with his Apostles before
entering into his sorrowful Passion and sacrificing himself for the world’s salvation, what is the exclusive
theme of his discourse and the first object of his prayer? Spiritual charity. A new commandment I give
unto you… by this shall all men know that you are my disciples… Father… that they may be one, as we also
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are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. That is the testament of Christ’s
Heart.
Our Blessed Father St Benedict, in concluding his Rule, also leaves us as his last testament, his magnificent
teaching on good zeal. After having set forth in detail the ordering of our life, he sums up all his doctrine
in this short chapter. And what does he tell us? Does he speak to us of prayer? Of contemplation? Of
mortification? Undoubtedly, the holy Patriarch forgets nothing of all this, as we have seen; but having
reached the end of his long life so full of experience, at the moment of closing the monastic code which
contains for us the secret of perfection, he speaks to us, before all else, of mutual love; he wishes, with
that intense desire which was that of Jesus at the Last Supper, to see us excel in most fervent love. This
chapter is the worthy crowning of a Rule which is but the pure reflection of the Gospel.
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TWO YEAR LECTIONARY
Year II
ORDINARY TIME: WEEKS 18 TO 34

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SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE PROPHET OBADIAH

PROPHECIES AGAINST EDOM; OBADIAH 1:1-21
The vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom: We have heard tidings from the LORD, and a messenger has
been sent among the nations: “Rise up! let us rise against her for battle!” Behold, I will make you small
among the nations, you shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live
in the clefts of the rock, whose dwelling is high, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the
ground?” Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, thence I will bring
you down, says the LORD.
If thieves came to you, if plunderers by night – how you have been destroyed! – would they not steal only
enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? How Esau has
been pillaged, his treasures sought out! All your allies have deceived you, they have driven you to the
border; your confederates have prevailed against you; your trusted friends have set a trap under you –
there is no understanding of it. Will I not on that day, says the LORD, destroy the wise men out of Edom,
and understanding out of Mount Esau? And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, so that every
man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame
shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that
strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were
like one of them. But you should not have gloated over the day of your brother in the day of his
misfortune; you should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; you should not
have boasted in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of his
calamity; you should not have gloated over his disaster in the day of his calamity; you should not have
looted his goods in the day of his calamity. You should not have stood at the parting of the ways to cut off
his fugitives; you should not have delivered up his survivors in the day of distress.
For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you, your
deeds shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, all the nations
round about shall drink; they shall drink, and stagger, and shall be as though they had not been. But in
Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess
their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house
of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor to the house of
Esau; for the LORD has spoken. Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah
the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria and Benjamin
shall possess Gilead. The exiles in Halah who are of the people of Israel shall possess Phoenicia as far as
Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. Saviours
shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.
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DE CIVITATE DEI, 18.31; TR. BETTENSON (1972)
Obadiah is the shortest of all the Prophets in respect of his writings. He holds forth against Edom, that is
the race of Esau, the elder of the twin sons of Isaac, grandsons of Abraham, the one who was rejected.
Now if we take Edom as standing for the Gentiles, by the figure of speech called ‘the part for the whole’,
we can recognise a prophecy of Christ in the place where Obadiah says, among other things, Now on
Mount Sion there will be salvation and there will be a holy place. And a little later, at the end of this
prophecy, he adds, And those who have been saved will go up from Mount Sion, to defend Mount Esau;
and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
It is quite obvious that this was fulfilled when those saved from Mount Sion – that is, those from Judaea
who believed in Christ, and in particular those recognised as Apostles – went up to defend Mount Esau.
How were they to defend it, except by bringing salvation, through the preaching of the gospel, to those
who became believers, so that they should be rescued from the power of darkness and transferred to the
kingdom of God? This is expressed by the addition of the next words: And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
For Mount Sion signifies Judaea, where it was predicted that there would be salvation and a holy place,
which is Christ Jesus. Whereas Mount Esau is Edom, by which is signified the Church of the Gentiles; and,
as I have explained, the saved from Mount Sion defended it, so that it should be a kingdom for the Lord.
This was obscure before the event: but what believer could fail to recognise it after the event?
MONDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS, THE SIGN OF THE COMING OF THE DAY OF THE LORD GOD: JOEL 1:1, 13
– 2:11
The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: Gird on sackcloth and lament, O priests, wail,
O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because cereal offering
and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house
of the LORD your God; and cry to the LORD.
Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Is not
the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the
grain has failed. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for
them; even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.
Unto thee, O LORD, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all
the trees of the field. Even the wild beasts cry to thee because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has
devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land
tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and
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thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like
has never been from of old, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before
them, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of
chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the
stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.
Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale
the wall. They march each on his way, they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one
another, each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon
the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a
thief.
The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars
withdraw their shining. The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his host is exceedingly great; he
that executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it?

ORATION 16, 6.12-14; NPNF27 (1883) TR. BROWNE & SWALLOW
How terrible is an unfruitful season and the loss of the crops. It could not be otherwise, when men are
already rejoicing in their hopes and counting on their all but harvested stores. Terrible again is an
unseasonable harvest, when the farmers labour with heavy hearts, sitting as it were beside the grave of
their crops, which the gentle rain nourished, but the wild storm has rooted up. Wretched indeed is the
sight of the ground devastated, cleared, and shorn of its ornaments, over which the blessed Joel wails in
his most tragic description of the desolation of the land and the scourge of famine; while another Prophet
wails, as he contrasts with its former beauty its final disorder, and thus discourses on the anger of the
Lord when he strikes the land: before him is the garden of Eden, behind him a desolate wilderness.
You are angry, and we have sinned, says one of old, making confession; and it is now time for me to say
the opposite: We have sinned, and you are angry: therefore we have become a reproach to our
neighbours. You turned your face from us, and we were filled with dishonour. But we are your people, O
Lord, the rod of your inheritance; therefore correct us, but in goodness and not in your anger, lest you
bring us to nothingness and contempt among all that dwell on the earth. With these words I invoke
mercy: and if it were possible to propitiate his wrath with whole burnt offerings or sacrifices, I would not
even have spared these. You yourselves also imitate your trembling priest, my beloved children. Possess
your souls in tears, and stay his wrath by amending your way of life. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn
assembly, as blessed Joel with us charges you. I know also what he enjoins both upon me, the minister of
God, and upon you, that we should enter his house in sackcloth and lament night and day between the
porch and the altar, in piteous array, and with more piteous voices, crying aloud without ceasing on
behalf of ourselves and the people, sparing nothing, either toil or word, which may propitiate God: saying,
Spare, O Lord, Your people, and do not give Your heritage to reproach.
Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker;
let us appoint a public mourning, in our various ages and families, let us raise the voice of supplication;
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and let this, instead of the cry which he hates, enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts. Let us anticipate
his anger by confession; who knows if he will turn and repent, and leave a blessing
behind him? This I know certainly, I the sponsor of the loving-kindness of God, that when he has laid aside
that which is unnatural to him, his anger, he will turn to that which is natural, his mercy. To the one he is
forced by us, to the other he is inclined. And if he is forced to strike, surely he will refrain, according to his
nature. Only let us have mercy on ourselves, and open up a road for our Father’s righteous affections.
TUESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CONVERSION OF A PEOPLE PREPARING FOR PERFECT BLESSEDNESS: JOEL 2:12-27
“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with
mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. Who knows whether he
will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a drink offering for the
LORD, your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the
congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his
room, and the bride her chamber.
Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “"Spare thy
people, O LORD, and make not thy heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they
say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?”
Then the LORD became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to
his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more
make you a reproach among the nations.
“I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his front into
the eastern sea, and his rear into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has
done great things.
“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! Fear not, you beasts of the
field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their
full yield.
“Be glad, O sons of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD, your God; for he has given the early rain for your
vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.
“The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you
the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army,
which I sent among you.
“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt
wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the
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midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again
be put to shame.

COMM. IN JOELEM 2; FOC 115 (2007) TR. HILL
It is customary with the holy prophetic authors to give the text an overall and general meaning on the
basis of its details. This happens in the light of the coming of Christ. Here in this passage the sense
emerges before us in this way: when is the earth to have confidence, and when likewise has the Lord
increased productivity? Is it not when the Word, who is God, became man so as to shower the earth
under heaven with good things from on high and prove to be for those who believe in him like a river of
peace, like a torrent of enjoyment, like early and late rain, and a giver of complete spiritual fruitfulness?
Then it was, in fact, that even for the most uncomprehending, who are called cattle of the countryside, a
kind of spiritual fodder grew up, instruction by teachers; then it was that the countryside in the
wilderness blossomed. By wilderness he refers to the Church according to the Prophet’s words about the
Church: Rejoice, thirsty wilderness, that the wilderness exult and blossom like a lily. Countryside, on the
other hand, would be the leaders of peoples, skilled in guiding them, whose minds are, as it were,
teeming and beautifully blooming with divine charisms from heaven, producing sweet odours from the
flowers of teaching, and producing fresh fodder. They nourish the minds of those who have become like
cattle so that they may advance to the state of mind proper to men.
He said also that a tree bore its fruit, and vine and fig tree showed their vigour. In my view this means the
solid message of the teachers in which there is sweetness and, in addition, the means of making us glad,
just as in the case of the fruit of fig and vine. Now, it would be very fitting to offer to people of a more
materialistic attitude, those who share the sloth typical of cattle, an instruction that is more earthy, that is
in form and content a natural fodder. To the mature, however, there should be given an understanding
which has already received from on high, a fruit springing from lovely trees – namely, the doctrine of the
holy and consubstantial Trinity, or moral teaching of an elevated level. The former people the Prophet
refers to as cattle, but the more mature he calls children of Zion, whom he bids exalt in the Lord their
God. Our total satisfaction is Christ and from him and through him comes complete fullness of good
things and an abundant supply of heavenly graces to those who love him, which are understood as the
early and late fruit and as the grain filling the threshing floors, vats of wine brimming over, and oil
overflowing.
Now, it should be understood that the reality of this promise also comes in the form of sacramental
fulfilment; the living water of holy baptism is given to us as rain, the bread of life as grain, and the blood
as wine. The use of oil is also applied in bringing those justified in Christ to maturity through holy Baptism.
WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LAST JUDGEMENT: JOEL 3:1 – 4:8
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even
upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
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“And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun
shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.
And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors
shall be those whom the LORD calls.
“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will
gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment
with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them
among the nations, and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy
for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it.
“What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for
something? If you are paying me back, I will requite your deed upon your own head swiftly and speedily.
For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. You have
sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. But now
I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will requite your deed upon your
own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell
them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off; for the LORD has spoken.”

COMM. IN JOELEM 25 (PG 71:376-380); WORD IN SEASON VIII
And it will be after this that I shall pour out my Spirit on all people. Here God clearly promises to give the
grace of the Holy Spirit, that is, his abundant help, not to one or two perhaps chosen to be prophets, but
to absolutely all who are worthy to receive the Spirit. We say that this was indeed fulfilled after Christ had
risen from the dead and had destroyed the power of death.
For the Spirit was given to Adam originally but did not remain in human nature, because humanity turned
towards error and slipped into sin. But when God’s only Son, though rich, chose to become poor, and
being among us as a man received his own Spirit as if acquired, the Spirit remained in him. As the
evangelist John told us, this was so that the Spirit remained in him. As the evangelist John also told us,
this was so that the Spirit might dwell in us too from then on, since this time the Spirit remained in the
second first-fruit of our human race, that is, Christ, who for that reason was also called the second Adam.
Therefore we must reform to become incomparably better, and to gain complete regeneration through
the Spirit. This is not the same as our original birth, I mean by earthly descent, leading us to corruption
and sin (for the mind ruled by the body is death), but a second birth from above, from God through the
Spirit; since it is truly said: And they were born, not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of
God. Therefore those ranked among the children of God had to possess the grace of the Holy Spirit in
abundance. But Christ effected this also in us, as Peter’s words were to confirm: Being therefore exalted
at the right hand of the Father, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has
poured out this that you see and hear.
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For as man he receives from the Father what is in himself by nature. But he pours out the Spirit richly
upon us, because he is God by nature, and became man. But he also pours out the Spirit on all people.
And this means not only on the Jews but on absolutely everyone called by faith, whether small or great,
slave or free, non-Greek or Scythian. For the grace of salvation in Christ is set before people all over the
world, because he is the expectation of nations.
THURSDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AFTER JUDGEMENT, ETERNAL HAPPINESS: JOEL 4:9-21
Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war, stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near,
let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak
say, “I am a warrior.”
Hasten and come, all you nations round about, gather yourselves there. Bring down thy warriors, O LORD.
Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all
the nations round about.
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their
wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
And the LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.
“So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem
shall be holy and strangers shall never again pass through it.
“And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream
beds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and
water the valley of Shittim.
“Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of
Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and
Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty, for the LORD dwells in
Zion.”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JOEL BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ

COMM. IN JOELEM (PL 168:254-255); WORD IN SEASON VIII
And then there will be the heavenly Jerusalem, says St Paul, presented as a beautiful bride, free from
blemish, unmarred by any defect. It is that bride of whom St John writes in the Apocalypse: I saw a new
Jerusalem coming down from heaven, made ready by God, like a bride for her husband. In those days,
Scripture says, the mountains will give forth fragrance and the hills flow with milk, and water shall run
through all the rivers of Judah.
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The mountains of that country are the Prophets and the Apostles; the hills are the other Saints, whose
teaching ordinary people have humbly taken in and for that reason received a share of their glory,
drinking in at the sight of them the sweetness of the divine love with which they are imbued, and on
which indeed they draw by their daily contact; for they will behold God’s glory more fully in those people
from whom they have come to know God’s teaching. The psalmist conveys this thought succinctly when
he says: They will be taken aback – inebriated – by the largesse, the abundance, of your presence; and
you will give them to drink of the overwhelming bountifulness of your good cheer; for you are the very
source of life, and in your light they shall see the light. The mountains shall exude fragrance and the hills
flow with milk; and through all the rivers of Judah – that is to say, through the hearts of the faithful
confessing Christ – shall waters gush to life eternal; yet of the same fragrance, of the same milk, of the
same waters the one spring shall lead forth through the mountains and the hills, and through all the rivers
from the Lord’s house. So Scripture says. The house is rightly understood to be Christ’s body: for that in
itself is the house which wisdom has built for itself, or for herself. And so we read that: the spring shall
lead forth from the Lord’s house, and shall water a bed thick with thorns: the source of all life and the
torrent of joy welling up and leading forth from the Lord’s house shall indeed swell a river, a torrent
running over thorns: that really means, the realm of God’s chosen ones. There shall be what before there
was not, from East to West amongst the thorns of tribulation and sin; what is now a torrent of delights,
abounding with the plenty of eternal good cheer.
Of this, we read in the Apocalypse: And he showed me a river of running water, clear as crystal, flowing
from the seat of God and the Lamb, amidst a city plain. And from both sides of the river the tree of life,
bearing twelve fruits, each month yielding its own. We should note that this is the spring, the river, of the
Holy Spirit, who says, speaking through the Prophet: Behold, I flow down and run through them like a
river of peace and tranquillity, like a gushing torrent, for the glory of the people. This river of peace, I say,
this torrent of glory, this river of rejoicing, this torrent of pleasure, this abundance of God’s house – this is
the Holy Spirit. For he is the love of bride and groom, whereby what was a mass of thorns is irrigated,
enlivened, healed, and refreshed, to become a torrent of delights. That is our human condition: mortal
and wretched as it was, now become immortal and blessed.
FRIDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PROPHECIES ABOUT NEGLIGENT PRIESTS AND ABOUT REJECTION: MALACHI 1:1-14; 2:13-16
The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How hast thou loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?”
says the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau; I have laid waste his hill country and left his
heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins”, the
LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, till they are called the wicked country, the
people with whom the LORD is angry for ever.” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, 2Great is
the LORD, beyond the border of Israel!”
“A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am
a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say,
‘How have we despised thy name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. And you say, ‘How have we
polluted it?’ By thinking that the LORD’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice,
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is that no evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that no evil? Present that to your
governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favour? says the LORD of hosts. And now entreat the
favour of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favour to any
of you? says the LORD of hosts. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you
might not kindle fire upon my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will
not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great
among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is
great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. But you profane it when you say that the LORD’s table is
polluted, and the food for it may be despised. ‘What a weariness this is’, you say, and you sniff at me, says
the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your
offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his
flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the LORD of
hosts, and my name is feared among the nations.”

THE ORTHODOX FAITH, 4.13; FOC 37 (1958) TR. CHASE
The bread and wine are not a figure of the body and blood of Christ – God forbid! – But the actual deified
body of the Lord, because the Lord himself said: This is my body; not ‘a figure of my body’ but my body,
and not ‘a figure of my blood’ but my blood. Even before this he had said to the Jews: except you eat of
the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. For my flesh is food indeed;
and my blood is drink indeed. And again: He that eats me, shall live.
Therefore, in all fear and with a pure conscience and undoubting faith let us approach, and it will be to us
just as we believe and do not doubt. And let us honour it with all purity of body and soul, for it is twofold.
Let us approach it with burning desire, and with our hands folded in the form of a cross let us receive the
body of the Crucified.
It was with bread and wine that Melchisedech, the priest of the most high God, received from Abraham,
when he was returning from the slaughter of the foreign tribes. That altar prefigured this mystical altar,
even as that priest was a type and figure of the true Archpriest who is Christ. For you, he says, are a priest
for ever according to the order of Melchisedech. This bread was prefigured by the loaves of proposition.
This is quite plainly the pure and unbloody sacrifice which the Lord, through the mouth of the Prophet,
said was to be offered to him from the rising of the sun even to its going down.
It is Christ’s body and blood entering into the composition of our soul and body without being consumed,
without being corrupted, - but into our substance for our sustenance, a bulwark against every sort of
harm and a purifier from all uncleanliness.
It is called participation because through it we participate in the divinity of Jesus. It is also called
communion, and truly is so, because of our having communion through it with Christ and partaking both
of his flesh and his divinity, and because through it we have communion with and are united to one
another. For, since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one blood and
members of one another and are accounted of the same body with Christ.
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SATURDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DAY OF THE LORD: MALACHI 3:1 – 4:6)
“Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly
come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the
LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
“For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will
purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in
former years.
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the
adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the
widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD
of hosts.
“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your
fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return
to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are
robbing me. But you say, ‘How are we robbing thee?’ In your tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a
curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open
the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. I will rebuke the devourer
for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear,
says the LORD of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the
LORD of hosts.
“Your words have been stout against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, ‘How have we spoken against thee?’
You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the good of our keeping his charge or of walking as in
mourning before the LORD of hosts? Henceforth we deem the arrogant blessed; evildoers not only
prosper but when they put God to the test they escape.’”
Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another; the LORD heeded and heard them, and a book
of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and thought on his name. “They
shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them
as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous and
the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
“For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble;
the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor
branch. But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You
shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes
under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
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“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb
for all Israel.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. And he
will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and
smite the land with a curse.”

DE CIVITATE DEI, 18.35; TR. BETTENSON (1972)
Look, I am going to send my messenger, and he will survey the road in front of me; and the Lord you are
looking for will suddenly come into his temple, and the angel of the covenant whom you wish for. See, he
is coming, says the Lord Almighty; and who will withstand the day of his coming in? And who will stand
up to face his gaze?
In this passage the Prophet Malachi predicts both the first and the second coming of Christ: the first,
obviously, when he says, He will suddenly come into his temple, that is, into his physical body, to which
he referred in the Gospel when he said, Destroy this temple, and I shall raise it up again in three days; and
the second in saying, See, he is coming, says the Lord Almighty; and who will withstand the day of his
coming in? And who will stand up to face his gaze? While as for the words the Lord you are looking for,
and the angel of the covenant, whom you wish for, the Prophet here undoubtedly indicates that even the
Jews look for and wish for Christ – the Messiah – in accordance with the Scriptures which they read. But
many of them have not recognized that he whom they looked for and wished for has come, because they
are blinded in their hearts by their previous merits.
The Prophet is emphatic in his reference to a ‘covenant’. He says above, My covenant was with him, and
again, in this passage, he calls Christ the angel of the covenant. Now we must undoubtedly take this to be
the new covenant, in which eternal blessings are promised, not the old covenant which offered merely
temporal rewards. Now the majority of mankind put a high value on such goods, and in their weakness
they serve the true God for the sake of such temporal recompense; and so they are upset when they see
the irreligious enjoying them in abundance. It is for this reason that the Prophet is concerned to
distinguish the eternal blessedness of the new covenant, which will be bestowed only on the good, from
the worldly felicity of the old, which is often granted to the wicked also; and with that aim in view he says:
You have spoken harsh words about me, says the Lord. You ask: ‘What have we said in your
disparagement?’ You have said: ‘Anyone who serves God is wasting his time. What good have we got
from observing his instructions, and from walking as suppliants before the face of Almighty God? And
now we call the aliens happy, and all the evil-doers are restored; they have opposed God, and yet they
have been preserved.’ Such were the reproaches uttered by those who feared the Lord, each one to his
neighbour. And the Lord noticed it and listened; and he wrote a book of remembrance in his presence for
those who fear the Lord and reverence his name.
That ‘book of remembrance’ means the New Testament.
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SUNDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CALL OF JONAH, HIS FLIGHT AND SHIPWRECK: JONAH 1: - 2:1-2, 11
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid
the fare, and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the
ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god; and they threw
the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the
inner part of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What
do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we
do not perish.”
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has
come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us, on whose
account this evil has come upon us? What is your occupation? And whence do you come? What is your
country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the
God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to
him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the
LORD, because he had told them.
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew
more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will
quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew
more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried to the LORD, “We beseech thee, O
LORD, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood; for thou, O LORD, hast done
as it pleased thee.” So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.
Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights.
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called to the LORD, out of my
distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and thou didst hear my voice.” And the
LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 43 BY ST AMBROSE OF MILAN

IN PS. 43, 83-85 (PL 14:1183-1184, 1129-1139); WORD IN SEASON VIII
See for yourselves the differences there are between the gospel narrative and what we read about Jonah;
he lying asleep in the interior of the ship, in which he prefigured a type of the Lord in his passion. For just
as Jonah was plunged into a deep sleep within the ship, without a thought of being woken up, so did our
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Lord Jesus Christ, who in the mystery of his death provided the antitype of that Old Testament figure,
sleep soundly during his lifetime, as the gospel tells us, in a boat. And just as Jonah passed three days and
nights in the belly of a whale, so did the Son of Man spend three days in the heart of the earth after his
death. But after he had raised himself from the dead and roused his body from its sleep for the salvation
of all, he visited his disciples.
Christ, then, is the true Jonah, who gave his life for our redemption. For this reason he was taken up on
deck and cast overboard into the sea in order to be swallowed up by the whale. Job had this to say about
the whale: He holds in captivity a huge sea monster. And what kind of beast is this meant to be? You will
know when you read that our Lord Jesus Christ took captivity captive. Once our adversary and bitter
enemy had been subdued, we, who had been under his dominion, began to enjoy our liberty, thanks to
Christ.
The prayer itself of holy Jonah throws some light upon the mystery of the Lord’s passion, for he said, I
have cried out to the Lord in my affliction, and my voice has reached him from the depths of Sheol – not,
you will notice, from the depths of the whale’s belly. For it was into Hades that the Lord went down, not
in any whale, so that he might loose those who were detained there from their everlasting bonds.
Now, who was it that offered to the Lord God his sacrifice with praise and thanksgiving if not our great
High Priest himself, who made his vows and paid them on behalf of all of us? For he alone could make his
sacrifice effective. Just as Jonah, by being cast into the sea, was able to allay its fury, so did our Lord Jesus
Christ, by coming into the world, win it for himself, and through his blood he established it everywhere –
in heaven and on earth. By his coming he redeemed all men and women, and by his deeds he brought
them all to love and worship God; he raised the dead and healed the sick, implanting in people’s souls a
reverence for God. He it was who offered to the Father a sacrifice of atonement on our behalf, presenting
God with an oblation capable of justifying us. He it was who slept and woke again.
MONDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CONVERSION OF THE NINEVITES AND JONAH’S DEBATE WITH GOD: JONAH 3:1 – 4:11
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the
word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah
began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he cried, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth,
from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered
himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By
the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them
not feed, or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightily to
God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows,
God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?”
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When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he
had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “I pray thee,
LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish;
for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and
repentest of evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take my life from me, I beseech thee, for it is better for me to
die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and
sat to the east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should
see what would become of the city.
And the LORD God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his
head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when
dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered. When
the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he was
faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to
Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “I do well to be angry, angry enough to
die.” And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did you make it grow,
which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in
which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand
from their left, and also much cattle?”
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JONAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

IN IONAM 3.23; 4.29 (PG 71:631-638); WORD IN SEASON VIII
And God saw what they did, and how they abandoned their wicked ways. The Lord is quick to show mercy
and will save the penitent, immediately absolving them from their former guilt; so that if men give up
their sinful habits God ceases to be angry, and His attitude toward them changes to one of kindness.
Because he sees that they have turned their minds toward good, he is led to be gentle, and no longer
thinks of destroying them. His own words show the truth of this: Why should you die, you men of Israel?
said the Lord. I do not desire any man’s death, but his repentance and life. Do not think that the Lord’s
reproaches are spoken with malevolence or in hurtful anger; for our God who loves virtue is no worker of
evil.
What incomparable kindness, beyond our understanding! What words of ours could suffice to praise
him? What thanksgiving can we sing to celebrate his compassion and goodness? For he separates our
offences from us, as the psalmist says. See how, in the case of Jonah, God shows him plunged in grief at
the wrong time and for the wrong reason, just when as a holy man he ought to have been loud in praise
of the Lord. If you are sad, God said to him, or rather if you are in the depths of despair because you have
lost the shade of your gourd, a plant that grew up in a single night and perished in the same way, am I to
care nothing about a populous city, with more than a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants not of an
age to tell the difference between their right and left hands? By this
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he means they were still infants, and because they were innocent they above all naturally deserved
mercy. For how should a babe who cannot yet tell right hand from left be involved in sin? But the Lord
names even cattle as worthy of pity, and here too he shows his goodness of heart. For if a righteous man
has a humane regard for his animals, and this too is considered praiseworthy, it is no wonder that the
very God of all things should grant mercy and pity even to the beasts of the field.
So Christ saved all men, giving himself as a ransom for both small and great, wise and foolish, rich and
poor, Jew and Gentile.
TUESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SALVATION OF ZION IS PROMISED: ZECHARIAH 9:1 – 10:2
The word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. For to the LORD belong
the cities of Aram, even as all the tribes of Israel; Hamath also, which borders thereon, Tyre and Sidon,
though they are very wise. Tyre has built herself a rampart, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like
the dirt of the streets. But lo, the Lord will strip her of her possessions and hurl her wealth into the sea,
and she shall be devoured by fire.
Ashkelon shall see it, and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes
are confounded. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be uninhabited; a mongrel people shall
dwell in Ashdod; and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia. I will take away its blood from its mouth,
and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan
in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that none
shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again overrun them, for now I see with my own eyes.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass. I will cut off the
chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall
command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of
the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your captives free from the
waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you
double. For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will brandish your sons, O
Zion, over your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the
trumpet, and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts will protect them, and they
shall devour and tread down the slingers; and they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl,
drenched like the corners of the altar.
On that day the LORD their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a
crown they shall shine on his land. Yea, how good and how fair it shall be! Grain shall make the young
men flourish, and new wine the maidens.
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Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, who
gives men showers of rain, to every one the vegetation in the field. For the teraphim utter nonsense, and
the diviners see lies; the dreamers tell false dreams, and give empty consolation. Therefore the people
wander like sheep; they are afflicted for want of a shepherd.
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF ST ANDREW OF CRETE

ORATIO 9 IN PSALMOS; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Let us join in the words of the gospel and say to Christ: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
the King of Israel. Let us wave before him like palm branches his dying words on the cross. Let us greet
him, not with olive branches, but with the good deeds of mercy shown to one another. Let us strew
beneath his feet like garments the desires of our hearts, that he may walk in us and dwell wholly in us,
that he may reveal us whole in himself and himself in us. Let us greet Zion with the words of the Prophet:
Rejoice O daughter of Zion, do not fear: Lo, your king comes to you, gentle, and riding on an ass, the foal
of an ass.
He is coming, he who is present in every place and fills all things, that in you he may bring about the
salvation of all men. He is coming, who came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, that he
may recall those wandering in sin. Therefore do not be afraid, God is in the midst of you, you will not be
moved.
Receive in your upturned hands the God who adorned your walls and set them in his own hands. Receive
him who laid your foundations in the palms of his hands. Receive him who took upon himself all our
nature apart from sin to pay all our debts from his treasures. Rejoice, city of Zion, our mother, do not be
afraid. Keep your feasts. Glorify for his mercy him who has come to us in you. Rejoice very greatly,
daughter of Jerusalem, sing and dance. Arise, shine – we greet you with the sound of the sacred trumpet,
as Isaiah said – for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
What is that light? Was it not the light which enlightens every man who comes into the world, the eternal
light, I mean, the timeless light revealed in time, the light revealed in the flesh and hidden by nature, the
light which shone around the shepherds and led the wise men on their way? It was the light which was in
the world from the beginning, through which the world was made, and yet the world knew it not. It was
the light that came to its own home and its own people received it not.
What does the glory of the Lord mean? For sure it is the cross on which Christ was glorified, Christ the
brightness of the Father’s glory, as he himself said when he came to his passion. Now is the Son of man
glorified, and in him God is glorified and God will glorify him at once, meaning here by ‘glory’ his being
lifted up on the cross. The glory of Christ is the cross and his being lifted up, for he says: And I, when I am
lifted up, will draw all men to myself.
WEDNESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE LIBERATION AND RETURN OF ISRAEL: ZECHARIAH 10:3 – 11:3
“My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his
flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his proud steed in battle. 4 Out of them shall come the
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cornerstone, out of them the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out of them every ruler. Together
they shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight
because the LORD is with them, and they shall confound the riders on horses.
“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I
have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them; for I am the LORD their
God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be
glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and rejoice, their hearts shall exult in the LORD.
“I will signal for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as of old.
Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their
children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from
Assyria; and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. They
shall pass through the sea of Egypt, and the waves of the sea shall be smitten, and all the depths of the
Nile dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart. I will make them
strong in the LORD and they shall glory in his name,” says the LORD.
Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has
fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! Hark,
the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is despoiled! Hark, the roar of the lions, for the jungle of the
Jordan is laid waste!
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND

IN ZACH. 10; FOC 111 (2006) TR. HILL
After being angry, the Lord God, almighty as he is, will heal to their advantage those fallen victim to his
wrath. The Lord God, almighty as he is, will attend to his flock; of him it is said also in Micah, He shall
stand and see, and shall shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, who is Saviour. Now, the only-
begotten Son of God is the Lord God almighty since the Trinity is of one being, and the one who is
generated is of one being with the one who generated him, the Saviour is Lord God almighty from Lord
God almighty. After all, how is the one who was in the beginning with God not Lord God? And just as it
was through him that all things were made, so, too, he controls and reigns over them, and so is in this
respect almighty.
This person, recognized as God, therefore, came on earth to find and save the human race, the one sheep
that had gone astray from the hundred rational ones; as an excellent shepherd he laid down his life for
the sheep he came to save, and thus attended to his very own flock. They are the house of Judah, of
whom it is said, Judah, your brothers will praise you. And since the transformation of those given this
favour is swift, he will draw up those constituting his flock to be like a single handsome horse; this benefit
occurred when those with a longing for his coming sent a delegation and said, Mount the horses, and
your riding will be salvation.
From this house of Judah, from a flock turned into a handsome horse, he looked down and drew from it a
bow, from which he discharges arrows, the words of punishment and threat. In reference to them the
one who drew the bow said, I shall make my arrows drunk with blood, and again, My arrows will put paid
to them. After these achievements the Lord their God will be on their side to fight for them, and so they
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will say in gratitude, The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our protector, and again, With God
we shall exercise power, and he himself will reduce our oppressors to naught.
Having God with them, they will confidently be deployed against those on whom they wage battle and
war, so that each of them says in thanksgiving, The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the protector of my life: whom shall I dread? With the same boldness the singer of the third
psalm also had the confidence to say, I shall not fear countless numbers of people encircling me. To those
prepared for battle in this way Scripture says encouragingly, One of you will pursue thousands, and two
will put to flight myriads, not only human adversaries but unseen ones as well; in their contest with them
the soldiers of Christ are clad in his armour, and say, Our contest is not with flesh and blood, but with the
rulers, the authorities, the cosmic forces of this present darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil.
THURSDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PARABLE OF THE SHEPHERDS: ZECHARIAH 11:4 – 12:8
Thus said the LORD my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them
slay them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich’;
and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this
land, says the LORD. Lo, I will cause men to fall each into the hand of his shepherd, and each into the
hand of his king; and they shall crush the earth, and I will deliver none from their hand.”
So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slain for those who trafficked in the sheep. And I
took two staffs; one I named Grace, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I
destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said,
“I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let
those that are left devour the flesh of one another.”
And I took my staff Grace, and I broke it, annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So
it was annulled on that day, and the traffickers in the sheep, who were watching me, knew that it was the
word of the LORD. Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep
them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. Then the LORD said to me, “Cast it into
the treasury” – the lordly price at which I was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and
cast them into the treasury in the house of the LORD. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the
brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Then the LORD said to me, “Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. For lo, I am raising
up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the
maimed, or nourish the sound, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. Woe to
my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword smite his arm and his right eye! Let his arm
be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!”
The word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus says the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and
founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: “Lo, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of
reeling to all the peoples round about; it will be against Judah also in the siege against Jerusalem. On that
day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously hurt themselves.
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And all the nations of the earth will come together against it. On that day, says the LORD, I will strike
every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes,
when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves,
‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.’
“On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch
among sheaves; and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the peoples round about, while
Jerusalem shall still be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
“And the LORD will give victory to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the
glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over that of Judah. On that day the LORD will put
a shield about the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like
David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, at their head.”

IN CANT., 2; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Where do you pasture your flock, O good shepherd, you who take on your shoulders the whole flock, for
the whole of human nature which you take on your shoulders forms one sheep? Show me the place of
green pastures and the restful waters, lead me to the grass which nourishes, call me by name, so that I

who am your sheep may hear your voice. Give me by your voice eternal life. Speak to me, you whom my
soul loves.
This is how I name you, for your name is above every name and cannot be uttered or comprehended by
any rational nature. Your name which reveals your goodness is the love my soul has for you. How can I
not love you who loved me, even though I was black, so much that you laid down your life for the sheep
whose shepherd you are? Greater love than this cannot be conceived, that you should purchase my
salvation with your life.
Show me then, she says, where you pasture your flock that I may find the pasture of salvation and be
satisfied with heavenly food, that food which a man must eat to enter into eternal life. I shall run to you,
the fountain, I shall drink the heavenly draught which you pour forth for those who thirst, pouring water
out of your side like a fountain when the veins were opened with the spear. If any man tastes of this he
becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
If you feed me with these things you will make me lie down at noon, when, sleeping in peace, I shall rest
in light that knows no shade. For everywhere at noon there is no shade when the sun shines over the
peak upon which you make to lie down those whom you pasture, when you take your children with you
into bed. None is thought worthy of this noonday rest unless he has become the son of light and of the
day. He who has placed himself at an equal distance from the shadows of the dawn and of nightfall, that
is from the beginning and the conclusion of evil, that man is made to lie down to rest at midday by the
sun of righteousness.
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Show me then, she says, how I must sleep and what is the way to the noontide rest, that I may not lose
your good and guiding hand and be brought by ignorance of truth to join the flock of sheep who are
strangers to your flock.
This she said when she was anxious about the beauty which she had been given by God, when she wished
to learn how her loveliness might remain for ever.
FRIDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SALVATION IN JERUSALEM: ZECHARIAH 12:9 – 13: 9
“And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and
supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one
mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born. On that day the
mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The
land shall mourn, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by
themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the
house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shime-ites by itself, and their
wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to
cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
“And on that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they
shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit.
And if any one again appears as a prophet, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall
not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD’; and his father and mother who bore him shall pierce
him through when he prophesies. On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he
prophesies; he will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive, but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a
tiller of the soil; for the land has been my possession since my youth.’ And if one asks him, ‘What are
these wounds on your back?’ he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’”
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” says the LORD of hosts.
“Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In the
whole land, says the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I
will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They
will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD
is my God.’”
A READING FROM THE SERMONS OF BY ST AUGUSTINE

SERMON 277.16-17; WSA (1994) TR. HILL
While our Lord Jesus Christ can be seen, as far as his divinity is concerned, by the eyes of the heart that
are pure, perfect and full of God, he was, nonetheless, also seen in the body, according to what is written,
After this she appeared on earth and spent time among men. So how do I know in what sense it said, All
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flesh shall see the salvation of God? That it will see Christ has been said, nobody should have any doubts
about that.
But whether the Lord Christ in the body, or as he was in the beginning, the Word: and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God, that’s what we are enquiring about. Don’t just press one piece of evidence
on me; I’m quite ready to admit, All flesh shall see the salvation of God. They say this means, ‘All flesh
shall see the Christ of God.’ But Christ was also seen in the flesh; that indeed the mortal flesh, if that
spiritual transfiguration is still to be called flesh; because he did say himself after the resurrection, to
those who could see and touch him, Feel and see that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you can
see that I have. He will be seen like that too; not only has been seen but also will be.
And perhaps it is then that the words all flesh will be more perfectly fulfilled. Now, I mean to say, flesh
has seen him, but not all flesh. Then however, at the judgement, as he comes with his angels to judge the
living and the dead, when all who are in the tombs hear his voice and come forth, some to the
resurrection of life, others to the resurrection of the judgement, it is not only the just, but also the wicked
who shall see him. Then both those on the right and these on the left will see that form which he was
pleased to take on for us. Even those who killed him will look on the one whom they have pierced. So all
flesh shall see the salvation of God. Body will be seen by body; because he will come to judge in his real
body.
The just Simeon saw him with his heart, because he recognized the infant; and he saw him with his eyes,
because he took the infant in his arms. Seeing him in both ways, recognising the Son of God, and holding
the one begotten of the virgin, he said, Now, Lord, you are letting your servant go in peace, since my eyes
have seen your salvation. Notice what he said. You see, he was being kept until he should see with his
eyes what he already perceived with faith. How do you know that isn’t the way in which all flesh is going
to see the salvation of God?
When he was carried up to heaven before the very eyes of his disciples, and they were watching him,
they heard the angels say, Men of Galilee, why are you standing, gazing up into heaven? This Jesus who
has been taken from you, will come in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven. He will
come, visible, to judgement, because he departed, visible, into heaven. If he departed visible and comes
invisible, how will he come in the same way? But if he comes in the same way, he will come visible; and all
flesh shall see the salvation of God.
SATURDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE TRIBULATIONS AND GLORY OF JERUSALEM IN THE LAST TIME: ZECHARIAH 14:1-21
Behold, a day of the LORD is coming, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in the midst of you.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses
plundered and the women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not
be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a
day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the
east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half
of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. And the valley of my mountains
shall be stopped up, for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it; and you shall flee as you fled
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from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD your God will come, and all the
holy ones with him.
On that day there shall be neither cold nor frost. And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the
LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light.
On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them
to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.
And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one.
The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall
remain aloft upon its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate,
and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall be no
more curse; Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will smite all the peoples that wage war against
Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet, their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and
their tongues shall rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so
that each will lay hold on the hand of his fellow, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of
the other; even Judah will fight against Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the nations round about shall be
collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the
horses, the mules, the camels, the asses, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
Then every one that survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after
year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. And if any of the families of
the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon
them. And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then upon them shall come the
plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths. This shall
be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of
booths.
And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the pots in
the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar; and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall
be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the flesh of
the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

COMM. IN ZACHARIAM (PG 72:252-256); WORD IN SEASON VIII
On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western, in
summer as in winter. And the Lord will be king over the whole earth.
The Prophet again tells us symbolically that the most abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the
faithful will be assigned to that time above all at which they are restored to holy and everlasting life, I
mean, life as in the world to come. For now we are enriched by the first fruits of the Holy Spirit as by way
of a pledge through faith in Christ. But after the resurrection of the dead, when sin has been altogether
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destroyed, we shall possess the divine Spirit within us no longer in the likeness and measure of a pledge
but richly and abundantly, and then our delight in the gifts we receive through Christ will be complete.
So it is indeed the Spirit that the Prophet calls living water, when he tells us it will flow out even from the
Jerusalem above. For since holy Scripture has said that the God of the universe dwells in heaven, though
he is everywhere and fills the universe, it is in that way then that the Prophet says that the life-giving
Spirit will flow even from heaven. But the divine Spirit is often compared to water in holy Scripture, as the
giver of the Spirit, that is, the Son, will himself confirm, saying: Those who believe in me, as Scripture has
said: streams of living water will flow from their hearts. And the holy evangelist goes on to interpret these
words and make them clear, telling us: He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were
going to receive. For since the Spirit is life-giving it is quite rightly compared in this way to water, which is
life-giving to our bodies.
But to indicate how richly it is given to those considered worthy of holy life to share in the gift of the Holy
Spirit and be filled as with life-giving water, the Prophet tells us: of the water expected to flow from
Jerusalem at the appointed time, half will flow to the eastern sea and half to the western. But what
exactly does this mean? Holy Scripture often likens the many nations of humanity and their countless
multitudes to seas and waters. And through one of the holy Prophets we are told somewhere: For the
whole earth is full of knowledge of the Lord, as much water will cover the seas. Then it is the fact that God
will distribute the grace of the Spirit in equal measure to believers of both Jewish and Gentile origin that
the Prophet indicates when he tells us about the life-giving water. And we are not saying by any means
that the Holy Spirit is divided, and will be imperfect in both because of the word ‘half’. Far from it. Instead
we shall believe that the Prophet wishes to imply by this word that the distribution will be assigned with
equal grace to both. For the entire world will be full of the gifts that come through Christ, but the gift will
dwell wholly in those who have received it. Then indeed, the Lord will be king over the whole earth.
SUNDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VANITY OF ALL THINGS: ECCLESIASTES 1:1-18
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A
generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever. The sun rises and the sun goes
down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north;
round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the
sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been
is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. Is
there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already, in the ages before us. There is no
remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among
those who come after.
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my mind to seek and to search out
by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to the sons of men
to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving
after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.
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I said to myself, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and
my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my mind to know wisdom
and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom
is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
A READING FROM THE FOUR CENTURIES ON LOVE BY ST MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

CENTURIES ON LOVE 1.1, 4-5;16-17;23-24;26-28;39-40; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
Love is a good disposition of the soul, according to which one prefers no creature to the knowledge of
God. It is impossible to attain a lasting possession of this love if one has any attachment to earthly things.
He who loves God prefers knowledge of him to all things made by him; and by desire ceaselessly devotes
himself to it.
If all things have been made by God and for God, he is nobler than all the things made by him; he who
deserts God, the incomparably nobler, and devotes himself to inferior things shows that he prefers before
God the things made by him.
He that loves me, says the Lord, will keep my commandments; and this is my commandment that you
love one another. He therefore who does not love his neighbour does not keep the commandment. Nor is
he that does not keep the commandment able to love the Lord.
Happy the man who is able to love all men equally.
He that loves God most certainly also loves his neighbour. Such a man cannot keep money, but, God-like,
distributes it, giving to each one in need.
He that in imitation of God does almsdeeds knows no difference between evil and good, just and unjust,
in regard to the needs of the body, but distributes equally to all according to their need, even though for
his good intention he prefers the virtuous to the bad.
Not only by the distribution of money is a charitable intention made manifest; no, far rather by the
distribution of the word of God and physical service of others.
He that genuinely renounces worldly affairs and unfeignedly serves his neighbour out of love, quickly is
freed from every passion and is made partaker of divine love and knowledge.
He that has made divine love his possession has no labour in following after the Lord his God, as Jeremiah
says; rather, he bears nobly every hardship, every rebuke and insult, thinking no evil at all of anyone.
Do not say – so Jeremiah – that you are the Lord’s temple. Nor say: Mere faith in our lord Jesus Christ can
save me. For this is ineffective unless you also possess love for him through good works. As to mere
believing: the devils also believe and tremble.
The work of love is the intentional doing of good to one’s neighbour and long-suffering and patience; also
the use of things in due measure.
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MONDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VANITY OF PLEASURE AND OF HUMAN WISDOM: ECCLESIASTES 2:1-3, 12-26
I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was
vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad”, and of pleasure, “What use is it?”
So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the
king? Only what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The
wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness; and yet I perceived that one fate comes
to all of them. Then I said to myself, “What befalls the fool will befall me also; why then have I been so
very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity. For of the wise man as of the fool there is no
enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise
man dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all
is vanity and a striving after wind.
I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come
after me; and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I
toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to
despair over all the toil of my labours under the sun, because sometimes a man who has toiled with
wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is
vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This
also is vanity.
There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This
also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to
the man who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work
of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after
wind.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

IN ECCLES. 2, 5; ACC (2005) TR. HALL
Solomon condemns pleasures as futile. For he says, I said in my heart, ‘Come hither, I will test you in
pleasure and also in good, and this too is vanity. For he did not give himself to this kind of experience
straight away or slide into partaking of pleasures without having tasted the austere and more devout life.
Rather, after training himself in austerity and achieving in his character the severity and determination
through which the lessons of wisdom come most readily, he then descends to things considered
agreeable to the senses. He does this not because he is drawn down to them by passion but in order to
investigate whether sensual experience makes any contribution to our knowledge of the Good.
That is why he makes his own what he had originally regarded as alien, laughter. He calls laughter
dizziness, which is equivalent in meaning to ‘frenzy’ or ‘madness’: for what else would anyone properly
call laughter? It is neither speech nor activity directed to any end but an unseemly loss of bodily control.
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But I, he says, sought the true Good, which is equally good at any age and every time of life, and which
never reaches fullness. Appetite for it and enjoying it are exactly matched, and longing flourishes together
with enjoyment and is not limited by the attainment of what is desired. The more it delights in the Good,
the more desire flames up with delight: the delight matches the desire, and at each stage of life it is
always a delight to those who partake of it.
This, as I understand it, is the true Good, the thing Solomon sought to see, it is none other than the work
of faith. This is the good work, which I pray may be done in us too, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Solomon therefore teaches what human wisdom is, which you also calls counsel. But the real wisdom and
counsel, on my reckoning, is none other than the Wisdom that is conceived of as before the universe. It is
that wisdom by which God made all things, as the Prophet says, by wisdom you made all things and Christ
is the power of God and the wisdom of God, by which all things came to be and were set in order.
TUESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A DIVERSITY OF SEASONS: ECCLESIASTES 3:1-15
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time
to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to
break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to
dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to
refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time
to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil?
I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. He has made everything
beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God
has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy
and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and
drink and take pleasure in all his toil. I know that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be
added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has made it so, in order that men should fear before him.
That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been
driven away.
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of
righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the
wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work. I said in my heart with regard to
the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons
of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath,
and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and
all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes
down to the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should enjoy his work, for that is
his lot; who can bring him to see what will be after him?
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A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ECCLESIASTES OF ST GREGORY OF NYSSA
IN ECCL. 6 (PG 44:701-703); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Ecclesiastes says: There is a time to be born and a time to die. Right from the beginning he fittingly
compressed this necessary etymological relation, bringing together death and procreation. For death
necessarily follows upon birth and every birth ends in destruction.
There is a time, he says, to be born and a time to die. May we also receive the grace to be born at the
right time and die at the opportune moment. For no one could assert that Ecclesiastes is here presenting
this procreation as involuntary and death as spontaneous, as if such were the ordinary process of virtue.
Neither the act of giving birth takes place by the will of the woman, nor is death subject to the free choice
of those who must die. What does not depend on us cannot be reckoned as virtue or vice by anyone.
Hence, it is necessary to inquire about what is the birth that happens at a right time and what is the death
that comes at an opportune moment.
I believe that a birth is right and not out of its time when – as Isaiah says – someone has conceived out of
the fear of God and through the travails of the soul in birth generates his own salvation. For we are in a
certain sense our own parents, when through the good disposition of our soul and complete freedom of
our will we form and generate and bring ourselves to the light.
We do this by the fact that we bring God into ourselves, having become children of God, children of
virtue, and children of the Most High. On the other hand, we bring ourselves into the world out of due
time and form ourselves in an imperfect and immature manner when there has not been formed in us
the image of Christ, to use the words of the Apostle. For it is necessary that the man of God be without
reproach and perfect.
If the manner in which we are born at the right time is evident, equally clear to all is the way we die at the
opportune moment and the way every moment was in the eyes of Saint Paul opportune for a good death.
For he cries out in his writing, pronouncing in a certain way an oath when he says: For your sake we are
being slain all the day long. And we bear within our very selves the sentence of death.
Furthermore, the manner in which Paul dies each day is not obscure; he never lives in sin; he always
mortifies the members of the flesh and ever bears within him the mortification of the body of Christ, for
he is always crucified with Christ and never lives for himself but ever has Christ living in him. This in my
opinion was the favourable death which was leading to true life.
In fact, he says: I will put to death and give life; in order that he may persuade others that it is really a gift
of God to be dead to sin and to be alive in the Spirit. The divine word – precisely because he has put to
death – promises to give life.
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WEDNESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VANITY OF RICHES: ECCLESIASTES 5:9 – 6:8
In all, a king is an advantage to a land with cultivated fields.
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain: this also is
vanity.
When goods increase, they increase who eat them; and what gain has their owner but to see them with
his eyes?
Sweet is the sleep of a labourer, whether he eats little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let him
sleep.
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and
those riches were lost in a bad venture; and he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he
came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil,
which he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go; and what
gain has he that he toiled for the wind, and spent all his days in darkness and grief, in much vexation and
sickness and resentment?
Behold, what I have seen to be good and to be fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil
with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life which God has given him, for this is his lot.
Every man also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept
his lot and find enjoyment in his toil – this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of
his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon men: a man to whom God gives
wealth, possessions, and honour, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him
power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them; this is vanity; it is a sore affliction. If a man begets a
hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but he does not enjoy
life’s good things, and also has no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better off than
he. For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered; moreover it has
not seen the sun or known anything; yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a
thousand years twice told, yet enjoy no good – do not all go to the one place?
All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man
over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST JEROME

IN ECCL. (PL 23:1057-1059); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Any man to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that he
receives his lot and finds joy in the fruits of his toil, has a gift from God. For he will hardly dwell on the
shortness of his life, because God lets him busy himself with the joy of his heart. In comparison with the
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man who feeds himself on a diet of dark preoccupations and with notable tedium for life brings with him
wherever he goes things which will lead to ruin, Ecclesiastes affirms that that man is better who uses the
things before him. For the use of the latter will impart a little delight; whereas there is only great anguish
in the concern for the former. And he lists the reasons for which it is a gift of God to be able to enjoy
riches. For he will hardly dwell on the shortness of his life.
God will certainly distract him in the joy of his heart: he will not be in sadness, he will not be tormented
by apprehension, distracted as he is by present joy and pleasure. But according to the Apostle it is better
to understand the spiritual food and drink given by God to discern the good in every work of one’s own,
because it is by means of a very great labour and application that we can contemplate the true goods.
And our reward is to be able to rejoice in our study and our work. That which can also be good is not
completely good, however, until Christ has been manifested in our life.
All man’s toil is for his mouth, yet his desire is not fulfilled. For what advantage has a wise man over the
fool, or what advantage has the poor man in knowing how to conduct himself in life? Everything that men
produce by working in this world is consumed by the mouth and, after being chewed by the teeth, is
consigned to the stomach to be digested. And after giving delight to the throat for a while, it appears to
give greater pleasure to the extent that it is held in the jaws.
And after all this, the soul of the person who eats is not satisfied: either because he desires once again
what he has eaten, and without food neither the wise man nor the fool can live, and the poor man does
not seek anything else but how he can feed his little stomach so that he may not die of starvation; or
because the soul receives nothing useful from the restoration of the body, since food is common both to
the wise man and to the fool, and the poor man goes wherever he sees resources.
It is better instead to take this as the thought of Ecclesiastes, namely, that the person who is learned in
the heavenly Scriptures does every work for his mouth, yet his desire is not fulfilled insofar as he
continuously seeks to learn. And in this the wise man has an advantage over the fool: because when he
discovers that he is poor - that poor man who is declared blest by the gospel - he hastens to acquire those
goods that form part of life and to tread the straight and narrow path that leads to life, and he is poor in
evil deeds, and knows where Christ, who is life, resides.
THURSDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

“DO NOT MAKE YOURSELF OVER WISE” : ECCLESIASTES 7:1 – 8:1
A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death, than the day of birth. It is better to
go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of all men, and the
living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made
glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is
better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of
thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. Surely oppression makes the wise
man foolish, and a bribe corrupts the mind. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; and the patient
in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of
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wisdom is like the protection of money; and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life
of him who has it. Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as
the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
In my vain life I have seen everything; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and
there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil-doing. Be not righteous overmuch, and do not make
yourself over wise; why should you destroy yourself? Be not wicked overmuch, neither be a fool; why
should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not
your hand; for he who fears God shall come forth from them all.
Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers that are in a city.
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Do not give heed to all the things that men say, lest you hear your servant cursing you; your heart knows
that many times you have yourself cursed others.
All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise”; but it was far from me. That which is, is far off, and
deep, very deep; who can find it out? I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom
and the sum of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness which is madness. And I
found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters;
he who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the
Preacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have
not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. Behold,
this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.
Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face
shine, and the hardness of his countenance is changed.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY DIDYMUS THE BLIND

IN ECCL. 197.14 – 198.22, 209.26, 231.13; ACC (2005) TR. WRIGHT
Whoever does not focus attention on perishable goods and does not think highly of them but knows that
it is better to be with Christ after death thinks that the day of death is better than the day of birth. The
latter is the beginning of many evils; the former, however, the end and termination of evil.
Where there is mourning, there is no moral superficiality. Happiness and laughter are avoided; the
calamity prohibits it. Sometimes we refrain from appearing happy out of regard for those who mourn and
for those who experience harm. In the house of feasting, however, the opposite happens: Dances and
songs bring reproof, since they indicate a disorderly life. The ‘house’, however, signifies a condition or an
attitude, not a location. The one who goes to the house of mourning knows that everyone dies in the end.
Once he knows that he has to die, he will not think about and dedicate his effort to owning something if it
is a possession that is lost in death such as wealth, reputation and honour.
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One can understand ‘the living’ in the following way: one who lives according to God’s will. Those people
are Abraham and his descendants. God has created human beings straightforward, that is, morally
perfect without anything crooked or oblique. But they themselves produce many thoughts. Evil, thus, is
manifold. There is only one single human form that makes a person like God, but there are many into
which he can transform himself. If he is cunning, he has the face of a fox; if he shows a poisonous,
dangerous face, he has the face of a snake; if he looks wild, he has the face of a lion; if his face is
ungovernable, flattering and desiring pleasures, he has the face of a dog. Generally out of one human
being and one form emerge a whole plurality of characters and forms. Thus it is the goal to get rid of all
forms – even if some people do not share this opinion – in order to show that he has the face that God
created.
God knows the reasons for everything that came into being, and he knows why they are hidden. In no
way do you have sufficient knowledge of God’s creations. If you take offence at them, this is because you
are not reasonable. Watch God’s creatures! What for others is a reason for offence will be for you
knowledge of the Creator and of the created.
FRIDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE CONSOLATION OF WISDOM: ECCLESIASTES 8:5 – 9:10
He who obeys a command will meet no harm, and the mind of a wise man will know the time and way.
For every matter has its time and way, although man’s trouble lies heavy upon him. For he does not know
what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? No man has power to retain the spirit, or authority over
the day of death; there is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All
this I observed while applying my mind to all that is done under the sun, while man lords it over man to
his hurt.
Then I saw the wicked buried; they used to go in and out of the holy place, and were praised in the city
where they had done such things. This also is vanity. Because sentence against an evil deed is not
executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred
times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear
before him; but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because
he does not fear before God.
There is a vanity which takes place on earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according
to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the
righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I commend enjoyment, for man has no good thing under the
sun but to eat and drink, and enjoy himself, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of life
which God gives him under the sun.
When I applied my mind to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day
nor night one's eyes see sleep; then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is
done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out; even though a wise
man claims to know, he cannot find it out.
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But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand
of God; whether it is love or hate man does not know. Everything before them is vanity, since one fate
comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to
him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good man, so is the sinner; and he who
swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to
all; also the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that
they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead
lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward;
but the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and they
have no more for ever any share in all that is done under the sun.
Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already
approved what you do.
Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head.
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the
sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your
hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol,
to which you are going.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST GREGORY OF

AGRIGENTO
IN ECCLES. VIII, 6 (PG 98:1071-1074); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favours
your works.
If we want to explain this sentence in an obvious and ordinary way, we rightly assert that it appears as a
just exhortation by which the Preacher admonishes us to embrace a simple rule of life dedicated to
sincere faith in God and joyfully eat bread and drink wine in peace of mind; not to slip into evil
conversations, nor wander into roundabout paths; but rather to dwell always on good things and, insofar
as we can, benevolently and kindly come to the aid of the poor and needy. We must abandon ourselves
precisely to those sentiments and actions in which God himself takes delight.
However, the anagogical explanation brings us to a higher knowledge and teaches us to consider the
celestial and mystical bread which has come down from heaven and brought life to the world; and with a
right heart to drink the spiritual wine, namely, that which issued from the side of the true vine
immediately at the moment of his saving passion. Concerning these, the gospel of our salvation says:
Taking bread and giving thanks, Jesus said to his disciples and Apostles: Take this and eat it: this is my
body, which is sacrificed for you in remission of sins. Similarly, he took the cup and said: All of you must
drink from it, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out on behalf of many for the
forgiveness of sins. Hence, those who eat this bread and drink this mystical wine really rejoice and exult
and can exclaim in a loud voice: You put gladness into my heart.
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Furthermore, I believe that even in the Book of Proverbs the Wisdom of God subsisting in himself,
namely, Christ our Saviour, referred to this bread and wine when he said: Come, eat of my food, and drink
of the wine I have mixed, indicating the mystical participation in the Word. Indeed, those to whom these
words are to be applied, because of their merits, at all times present their vestments as works of light no
less resplendent than the light itself, as the Lord says in the gospels: Your light must shine before all so
that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father. In this way, oil may
perpetually be poured out over their heads, that is, the Spirit of truth, who protects and preserves them
from any sinful offence.
SATURDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ADVICE ABOUT OLD AGE: ECCLESIASTES 11:7 – 12:14
Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to
eight, for you know not what evil may happen on earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty
themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls,
there it will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not
know the work of God who makes everything.
In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will
prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun.
For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness
will be many. All that comes is vanity.
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the
ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into
judgment.
Remove vexation from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are
vanity.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw
nigh, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the
stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain; in the day when the keepers of the house
tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look
through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding
is low, and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; they are
afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags
itself along and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the
streets; before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the
fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit
returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
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Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging
proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find pleasing words, and uprightly he wrote words of
truth.
The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings which are given
by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and
much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole
duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES BY ST GREGORY

IN ECCLES. 10.2; THE DIVINE OFFICE I
Light, says the Preacher, is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun. For if the light were
taken away the world would be unadorned and life would be lifeless. Which is why Moses, who saw God,
said, And God saw the light and said it was good. Here it is fitting for us to think of that great, true, eternal
light that enlightens every man coming into this world, namely Christ our Saviour, the Redeemer of the
world, who was made man and came to the last extremity of the human condition. Of him the Prophet
David says, Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds; his
name is the Lord, exult before him.
He, too, called the light sweet and foretold that it would be good to see with the eyes the sun of glory, he
who in the time of his divine incarnation said, I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life. And again, This is judgement, that the light has come into the
world. In this way, by means of the light of the sun which we see with our bodily eyes, he foretold the
spiritual Sun of justice. That was indeed most sweet for those who were found worthy to be taught by
him and to see him with their own eyes as any man, living and dealing with men, even though he was not
just any man. He was indeed the true God and hence brought it about that the blind saw, the lame
walked, the deaf heard, he cleansed those afflicted with leprosy, and by a single command called the
dead back to life.
But now it is most sweet to gaze on him with the eyes of the spirit and to contemplate and ponder over
his divine beauty that it is not possible for man to see. Then, by means of this communion and mutual
sharing, to be enlightened and adorned; to be filled with the sweetness of the spirit and clothed in
sanctity; to attain to understanding and finally to be filled with divine exultation which lasts all the days of
this present life. The wise Preacher made this point when he said, For if a man live many years, let him
rejoice in them all. Clearly, for those who gaze on him, the Sun of justice is the source of all joy. Of him
David the Prophet said, Let them exult before God; let them be jubilant with joy!; and again, Rejoice in
the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
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SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MISSION OF TITUS; QUALITIES AND DUTIES OF ELDERS: TITUS 1:1-16
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect and their
knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies,
promised ages ago and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I
have been entrusted by command of God our Saviour;
To Titus, my true child in a common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.
This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint elders in every town
as I directed you, if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not
open to the charge of being profligate or insubordinate. For a bishop, as God's steward, must be
blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but
hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled; he must hold firm to
the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute
those who contradict it. For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially
the circumcision party; they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for
base gain what they have no right to teach. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are
always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they
may be sound in the faith, instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the
truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds
and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are
detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON TITUS BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

IN TITUM 2
The whole life of men in ancient times was one of action and contention; ours on the contrary is a life of
indolence. They knew that they were brought into the world for this purpose, that they might labour
according to the will of him will brought them into it; but we, as if we had been placed here but to eat
and drink, and lead a life of pleasure, we pay no regard to spiritual things. I speak not only of the Apostles,
but of those that followed them. You see them accordingly traversing all places, and pursuing this as their
only business, living altogether as in a foreign land, as those who had no city upon earth. Here therefore
what the blessed Apostle says, This is why I left you in Crete. As if the whole world had been one house,
they divided it among themselves, administering its affairs everywhere, each taking care of his several
portion of it.
Appoint elders in every city, here he is speaking of Bishops, as I directed you. If any man is blameless, the
husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of being profligate or
insubordinate. Why does he bring forward such a one? To stop the mouths of those heretics, who
condemned marriage, showing that it is not an unholy thing in itself, but so far honourable, that a
married man might ascend the holy throne; and at the same time reproving the wanton, and not
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permitting their admission into this high office who contracted a second marriage. For he who retains no
kind regard for her who is departed, how shall he be a good president? And what accusation would he
not incur? For you all know, that though it is not forbidden by the laws to enter into a second marriage,
yet it is a thing leading to many problems.
There is also the danger of love of power. How then shall we subdue it? By looking up to heaven, by
setting God before our eyes, by entertaining thoughts superior to earthly things. Lift up your thoughts to
the theatre above. When in doing any good you consider that it ought to be displayed to men, and you
seek for some spectators of the action, reflect that God beholds you, and all that desire will be
extinguished. Retire from the earth, and look to that theatre that is in Heaven.
Nothing is more worthless than the glory of men. It is for this reason called vainglory. Do you see the
masks worn by stage players? How beautiful and splendid they are, fashioned to the extreme height
of elegance. Can you show me any such real countenance? No. What then? Did you ever fall in love with
them? No. Why? Because they are empty, imitating beauty, but not being really beautiful. Thus human
glory is empty, and an imitation of glory: it is not true glory. The only true beauty is that which is natural,
which is within, is lasting. That which is put on externally often conceals deformity, conceals it from men
till the evening. But when the theatre breaks up, and the masks are taken off, each appears what he really
is.
Let us then pursue truth, and not be as if we were on the stage and acting a part.
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIRST OF ORDINARY TIME

EXHORTATIONS TO THE FAITHFUL: TITUS 2:1 – 3:2
But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine. Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible,
sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behaviour,
not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to
love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their
husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited. Likewise urge the younger men to control
themselves. Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity,
gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having
nothing evil to say of us. Bid slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every
respect; they are not to be refractory, nor to pilfer, but to show entire and true fidelity, so that in
everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.
For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and
worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us
from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
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Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work,
to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men.
A READING FROM THE EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS OF ST CLEMENT OF

ALEXANDRIA
COHORTATIO AD GENTES 1 (PG 8:59-63); WORD IN SEASON VIII
We should live reasonable, honest, and devout lives in this present age, as we wait for the manifestation
of the glory of our great God
The Lord has mercy on us, trains, exhorts and warns, preserves and guards us. He rewards us for our
learning more than we could deserve with his promise of the kingdom of heaven, his sole return from us
being our salvation. For while evil lives on the destruction of mankind, truth, like the bee, harms nothing
in nature, and glories only in the salvation of men.
So you have the Lord’s promise and his love for man; it is yours to partake of that grace. And you need
not imagine that my song of salvation is something new, like a new piece of furniture or a new house, for
as Scripture says: He was before the morning star; and: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.
Our own existence dates from before the foundation of the world; because of our future destiny our
being began in God himself. It is to the Word of God that we owe our creation as rational beings, and
through him that we belong to eternity, because: In the beginning was the Word. So in respect of his
eternal nature the Word was and is the divine beginning of all things; but because he has now taken the
name of Christ, a name consecrated long ago and worthy of his kingly power, for that reason I call my
song new.
This Word then, the Christ, is he to whom we owe our life from of old, and the goodness of that life, by
the fact that he appeared himself to men. This Word, who alone is both God and man, in teaching us to
live rightly on earth conveys us to eternal life. For in the words of that holy Apostle of the Lord: The saving
grace of God has appeared to all, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly desires, and to live
reasonable, honest, and devout lives in this present age, as we wait for our blessed hope, the
manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
This is the new song of the Word, who was in the beginning, and who has now appeared on earth, our
pre-existent Saviour. The Word who was with God, and by whom all things were made, has appeared as
our Teacher. The Word, who, as Creator, made us in the beginning and gave us life, taught us how to live
rightly when he came as our teacher, so that later as God he might grant us immortal life.
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TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE BATH OF REGENERATION: TITUS 3:3-15
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures,
passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and
loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in
righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy
Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified
by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. The saying is sure.
I desire you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply
themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies,
genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who
is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a
person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned.
When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to
spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they
lack nothing. And let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent
need, and not to be unfruitful.
All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all.

IN LEV. 4: 7, 3 - 8, 3; FOC 83 (1990) TR. BARKLEY
Everyone who touches the holy flesh will be sanctified. Let us suppose that now the whole of the Jews’
Temple was still standing, that offerings were being presented, sacrifices were being consumed. Imagine
someone wicked, unclean and impure entered the Temple, found the meat from the sacrifice, and
touched it. Will he immediately be pronounced sanctified? Certainly not. Therefore, we must return to
the evangelical and apostolic exposition to understand this teaching of the Law. For unless the gospel
takes the veil from the face of Moses, his face cannot be seen nor can his meaning be understood. See,
therefore how, in the Church of the Apostles, the disciples stand by these things which Moses wrote and
defend them because they are now fulfilled and were written according to the divine reason.
Therefore, the one and perfect sacrifice, which all these sacrifices had anticipated in type and figure, is
Christ sacrificed. If anyone should touch the flesh of this sacrifice, immediately, he is sanctified. If he is
unclean, he is healed. So we can say that she who was suffering from a flow of blood understood that
Christ was this flesh of the sacrifice, the flesh of the most holy. And indeed, she is not bold enough to
touch this holy flesh, for she had not yet been made pure and did not apprehend what is perfect, but she
touched the hem of his robe with which the holy flesh was covered; she drew out the power from the
flesh by the touch of faith which cleansed her from uncleanness and healed her of the injury that she was
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suffering. Does it not seem to you that it is better in this sense to be able to preserve the words of Moses,
in which he says Everyone who touches the holy flesh will be sanctified?
For, as we have taught, all of the Gentiles who believed touched this flesh. And the holy Apostle also
touched it who said, For we ourselves were once foolish, unbelievers, going astray, enslaved to various
desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating one another. But when the kindness and humanity
of God our Saviour illumined us, he saved us through the bath of regeneration and the renewal of the
Holy Spirit. For if anyone touches the flesh of Jesus in the way we explained above, with complete faith,
and comes to Jesus just as to the Word made flesh, with all obedience, he has touched the flesh of the
sacrifice and is sanctified.
Moreover, he also touches the flesh of the Word about whom the Apostle says, Solid food is for the
perfect, who, by their ability to receive it, have trained the senses for distinguishing good and evil.
Therefore, the one who examines the inner realities and can explain the secret mysteries of the Law also
touches the Word of God. If we could teach the Church in such a way that nothing which was read
remained ambiguous, nothing was left obscure, perhaps it could also be said about us that we had
touched the holy flesh of the Word of God and were sanctified.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MISSION OF TIMOTHY; PAUL THE PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL: 1 TIMOTHY 1:1-20
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,
To Timothy, my true child in the faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons
not to teach any different doctrine, nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which
promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith; whereas the aim of our charge is love
that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from
these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding
either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.
Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid
down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, immoral persons,
sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with
the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
I thank him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful by
appointing me to his service, though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him; but I
received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me
with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy
for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example
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to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,
be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed
to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By
rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, among them Hymenaeus and
Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

DE CATECHIZANDIS RUDIBUS I, 6-8 (CCL 46:124, 126-128); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Speak that by hearing those whom you address may believe, and that belief may give them hope, and
hope inspire them to love
In everything we say we should bear in mind that the purpose of our instruction is to arouse the love that
comes from a pure heart, and clear conscience, and a genuine faith. This is the end to which we should
relate all our words, and toward which we should also move and direct the thoughts of those for whose
instruction we are speaking.
The chief reason for Christ’s coming was so that we should know how much God loves us, and knowing
this be on fire with love for him who loved us first, and for our neighbour at the bidding and after the
example of him who became our neighbour by loving us when we were not his neighbours, but had
wandered far from him. Moreover, all inspired Scripture written before the Lord’s coming was written to
foretell that coming, and all that was later -committed to writing and ratified by divine authority speaks of
Christ and teaches us to love. It is clear therefore that upon these two commandments, love of God and
of our neighbour, depend not only the whole of the Law and the Prophets, which was all that made up
holy Scripture when the Lord spoke these words, but also all the divinely inspired books which were later
written for our salvation and handed down to us.
In the Old Testament, then, the New is concealed, and in the New the Old is revealed. Insofar as the New
Testament is concealed, worldly people, who interpret Scripture in a worldly way, are now as in the past
subject to the fear of punishment. But insofar as the Old Testament has been revealed, spiritual people,
who interpret Scripture spiritually, are set free by the gift of love; that is to say, both those of old to
whose devout knocking hidden things were made known, and those of today who seek without pride, for
fear that even what is manifest may be hidden from them.
And so, since nothing is more contrary to love than envy, and the mother of envy is pride, to cure our
boundless conceit by a more powerful antidote, the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, became both the
proof of God’s love for us, and the example of humility among us. Great is the misery of human pride, but
even greater is the mercy of divine humility.
With this love before you, then, you have something to which you may relate everything you say; so
speak that by hearing those whom you address may believe, and that belief may give them hope, and
hope inspire them to love.
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THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST PAUL TO TIMOTHY

AN INVITATION TO PRAYER: 1TIMOTHY 2:1 – 3:2
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men,
for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and
respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all
men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the
testimony to which was borne at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle (I am
telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling; also
that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or
gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. Let a woman
learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is
to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was
deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues
in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, LUMEN GENTIUM 16
Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related in various ways to the People of God. In the first
place we must recall the people to whom the Covenant and the promises were given and from whom
Christ was born according to the flesh. On account of their fathers this people remains most dear to God,
for God does not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls he issues.
But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst
these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, adore along with us the one
and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is God far distant from those who in
shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is he who gives to all men life and breath and all
things, and as Saviour wills that all men be saved.
Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or
his Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known
to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does divine Providence deny the helps necessary for
salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God
and with his grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon
by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel. She knows that it is given by him who enlightens all men so
that they may finally have life.
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But often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the
truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. Or some there are who, living and
dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair. Wherefore to promote the glory of God and
procure the salvation of all of these, and mindful of the command of the Lord, Preach the Gospel to every
creature, the Church fosters the missions with care and attention.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON THE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH: 1 TIMOTHY 3:1-16
The saying is sure: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. Now a bishop must
be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher,
no drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and no lover of money. He must manage his own
household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way; for if a man does not know
how to manage his own household, how can he care for Gods church? He must not be a recent convert,
or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil; moreover he must be
well thought of by outsiders, or he may fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for gain;
they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then if
they prove themselves blameless let them serve as deacons. The women likewise must be serious, no
slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them
manage their children and their households well; for those who serve well as deacons gain a good
standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may
know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar
and bulwark of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion:
He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE TRALLIANS BY ST IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

EP. AD TRALL. 1.1-3.2; 4.1-2; 6.1; 7.1-8.1 (FROM THE DIVINE OFFICE III)
From Ignatius, whose other name is Theophorus, to the Church at Tralles in Asia; beloved of God the
Father of Jesus Christ, elect and godly, endowed with peace of body and soul by the passion of Jesus
Christ, who, through our rising again to him, is our hope.
In apostolic fashion, I send the Church my greeting in all the fullness of God, and wish her every
happiness.
They tell me that your character is beyond all praise, and never falters in its endurance; and that this is
not just a habit you have acquired, but your own natural disposition. I had that from your bishop Polybius,
when the will of God and Jesus Christ brought him here to me in Smyrna. He was so full of joy with me in
my bonds in Christ Jesus, that in him I had a vision of your whole congregation; and when I received from
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his hands the token of your goodwill under God for me, I gave glory for finding that you were as truly
imitators of God as I had been assured.
Your obedience to your bishop, as though he were Jesus Christ, shows me plainly enough that yours is no
worldly manner of life, but that of Jesus Christ himself, who gave his life for us that faith in his death
might save you from death. At the same time, however, essential as it is that you should never act
independently of the bishop – as evidently you do not - you must also be no less submissive to your
clergy, and regard them as apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, in whom we shall one day be found, if our
lives are lived in him. The deacons too, who serve the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must be men universally
approved in every way; since they are not mere dispensers of meat and drink, but servants of the Church
of God, and therefore under obligation to guard themselves against any slur or imputation as strictly as
they would against fire itself.
Equally, it is for the rest of you to hold the deacons in as great respect as Jesus Christ; just as you should
also look on the bishop as a type of the Father, and the clergy as the apostolic circle forming his council;
for without these three orders no Church has any right to the name. I am sure these are your own
feelings too, for I have had with me, and still have, an example of your affection and the person of your
bishop himself, whose grave demeanour is a notable lesson in itself, and whose very gentleness is power.
And so I entreat you (not I, though, but the love of Jesus Christ) not to nourish yourselves on anything but
Christian fare, and have no truck with the alien herbs of heresy. You will be safe enough so long as you do
not let pride go to your head and break away from Jesus Christ and your bishop and the apostolic
institutions. To be inside the sanctuary is to be clean; to be outside it, unclean. In other words, nobody’s
conscience can be clean if he is acting without the authority of his bishop, clergy, and deacons.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON THE TEACHERS OF ERROR: 1TIMOTHY 4:1 – 5:2
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful
spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who
forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by
those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be
rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
If you put these instructions before the brethren, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on
the words of the faith and of the good doctrine which you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless
and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value
in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is sure and
worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living
God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in
speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to
preaching, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance
when the council of elders laid their hands upon you. Practise these duties, devote yourself to them, so
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that all may see your progress. Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by so doing
you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as you would a father; treat younger men like brothers, older
women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity.

ENNAR. IN PS. 39, 6 (CCL 38:428-429); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The just shall see and be afraid, and hope in the Lord.
Those who already have their feet firmly fixed on the rock should be a model for the faithful: As St Paul
says, become a model for the faithful. The faithful themselves are just. They take notice of those who
outstrip them in goodness, they imitate and follow them. How do they follow them? The just shall see,
and be afraid. They shall see, and be afraid to follow the wicked ways when they see that some better
people have already chosen good ways. They say in their heart, in the same way as travellers are
accustomed to, when they notice others walking on the road with supreme confidence while they
themselves are still unsure of the road, and in two minds about which way they should go. They are not
going this way without good reason, when they are going to the place where they want to go. And why
are they going this way with such confidence other than because it is dangerous to go that way?
Therefore the just shall see, and be afraid. They see a narrow road on the one side, they see a wide road
on the other. On the one they see only a handful, on the other quite a crowd. But if you are just, do not
simply count them, but weigh them up. Bring a well-balanced pair of scales, not one you have adjusted,
because the name you yourself bear is ‘the just one’.
The just shall see, and be afraid – this refers to you. Do not spend your time, then, counting the hordes of
men and women who take the wide roads, filling tomorrow’s circus, celebrating the city’s birthday with
their shouting, while at the same time befouling the city with their evil living. Do not follow them, then!
There are many of them, and who could possibly count them? But there are only a few who take the
narrow road. I am telling you, produce a pair of scales, weigh them. Compare the amount of chaff it takes
to balance a few grains. This is what the faithful just who are following should do.
The just shall see, and be afraid, and hope in the Lord. It is like what there is in another psalm: I have
lifted up my eyes to the hills. By hills we understand the spiritual elite of the Church, significant and
outstanding figures, outstanding for their solidity rather than by their pride. It is through them that all
Scripture has been dispensed to us. These are the Prophets, the evangelists, the sound teachers. That is
the place to which I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from which help will come to me. And in
case you think that this help is human, the psalmist goes on to say: My help is from the Lord who has
made heaven and earth. The just shall see, and be afraid, and hope in the Lord.
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SUNDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON WIDOWS AND ELDERS: 1 TIMOTHY 5:3-25
Honour widows who are real widows. If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn their
religious duty to their own family and make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the
sight of God. She who is a real widow, and is left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in
supplications and prayers night and day; whereas she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.
Command this, so that they may be without reproach. If any one does not provide for his relatives, and
especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband;
and she must be well attested for her good deeds, as one who has brought up children, shown
hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, relieved the afflicted, and devoted herself to doing good in
every way. But refuse to enrol younger widows; for when they grow wanton against Christ they desire to
marry, and so they incur condemnation for having violated their first pledge. Besides that, they learn to
be idlers, gadding about from house to house, and not only idlers but gossips and busybodies, saying
what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, rule their households, and
give the enemy no occasion to revile us. For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing
woman has relatives who are widows, let her assist them; let the church not be burdened, so that it may
assist those who are real widows.
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in
preaching and teaching; for the scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the
grain”, and, “The labourer deserves his wages.” Never admit any charge against an elder except on the
evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so
that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge
you to keep these rules without favour, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of
hands, nor participate in another mans sins; keep yourself pure.
No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
The sins of some men are conspicuous, pointing to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also
good deeds are conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden.
A READING FROM THE APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELICA TESTIFICATIO OF POPE

PAUL VI
EVANGELICA TESTIFICATIO 3, 8, 53 (FROM WORD IN SEASON VIII)
From the beginning, the tradition of the Church presents us with the privileged witness of a constant
seeking for God, of an undivided love for Christ alone, and of an absolute dedication to the growth of his
kingdom. Without this concrete sign there would be a danger that the charity which animates the entire
Church would grow cold, that the salvific paradox of the gospel would be blunted, and that the ‘salt’ of
faith would lose its savour in a world undergoing secularisation.
From the first centuries, the Holy Spirit has stirred up, side by side with the heroic confession of the
martyrs, the wonderful strength of disciples and virgins, of hermits and anchorites. Religious life already
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existed in germ, and progressively it felt the growing need of developing and of taking on different forms
of community or solitary life, in order to respond to the pressing invitation of Christ: There is no one who
has left house, wife, brothers, parents, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not be
given repayment many times over in this present time, and in the world to come, eternal life.
Some of you have been called to the life which is termed ‘contemplative’. An irresistible attraction draws
you to the Lord. Held in God’s grasp, you abandon yourselves to his sovereign action, which draws you
toward him and transforms you into him, as it prepares you for that eternal contemplation which is the
common vocation of us all. How could you advance along this road and be faithful to the grace which
animates you if you did not respond with all your being, through a dynamism whose driving force is love,
to that call which directs you unswervingly toward God? Consider, therefore, every other immediate
activity to which you must devote yourselves – fraternal relationships, disinterested or remunerative
work, necessary recreation – as a witness rendered to the Lord of your intimate communion with him, so
that he may grant you that unifying purity of intention which is so necessary for encountering him in
prayer itself. In this way you will contribute to the building up of the kingdom of God by the witness of
your lives and with a ‘hidden apostolic fruitfulness’.
Today more than ever, in you the world needs to see men and women who have believed in the Word of
the Lord, in his resurrection and in eternal life, even to the point of dedicating their lives to witnessing to
the reality of that love, which is offered to all men. Is not this grace, for the individual of today, a
refreshing breeze coming from infinity itself, and foreshadowing man’s liberation in eternal and absolute
joy? Open yourselves to this divine joy, live generously the demands of your vocation, renewing the
affirmation of the realities of faith and in its light interpreting in a Christian way the needs of the world.
MONDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON SLAVES AND ON FALSE TEACHERS: 1 TIMOTHY 6:1-10
Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honour, so that the name
of God and the teaching may not be defamed. Those who have believing masters must not be
disrespectful on the ground that they are brethren; rather they must serve all the better since those who
benefit by their service are believers and beloved.
Teach and urge these duties. If any one teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit, he
knows nothing; he has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words, which produce
envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind and
bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. There is great gain in godliness with
contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world; but if
we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into
temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and
destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have
wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.
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A READING FROM THE COMMONITORIUM OF ST VINCENT OF LERINS
COMMONITORIUM, 1, 23; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Is there to be no development of doctrine in Christ’s Church? Certainly there should be great
development. Who could be so grudging towards his fellow men and so hostile to God as to try to
prevent it? But care should be taken to ensure that it really is development of the faith and not alteration.
Development implies that each point of doctrine is expanded within itself, while alteration suggests that a
thing has been changed from what it was into something different.
It is desirable then that development should take place, and that there should be a great and vigorous
growth in the understanding, knowledge and wisdom of every individual as well as of all the people, on
the part of each member as well as of the whole Church, gradually over the generations and ages. But it
must be growth within the limits of its own nature, that is to say within the framework of the same
dogma and of the same meaning.
Let religion, which is of the spirit, imitate the processes of the body. For, although bodies develop over
the years and their individual parts evolve, they do not change into something different. It is true that
there is a great gap between the prime of youth and the maturity of later years, but the people who
reach these later years are the same people who once were adolescents. So, although the size and
outward appearance of any individual may change, it is still the same person, and the nature remains the
same.
The limbs of infants are tiny, while those of young men are large, but they are the same limbs. The man
has no more parts to his body than the little child; and if there are parts that appear with age and greater
maturity they are already present earlier in embryo. As a result, it can be said that nothing new is
produced in old men that was not already present in an undeveloped form when they were boys.
There is no doubt, then, that this is the correct and legitimate rule for development and the best and
most striking order of growth, if the passage of years sees those parts evolve in the adult, which the
Creator in his wisdom had prepared in him beforehand when he was a child.
But if the human form is changed into some shape that is not of its own kind, or at least if something is
added or taken away from the full compliment of its members, than the whole body must perish or
become a monster or at least be weakened in some way. It is fitting, then, that Christian doctrine too
should follow these laws of development, so that with the passage of years it may be strengthened, with
time it may make progress and with age it may achieve greater profundity.
Long ago our ancestors sowed the seeds of the faith in the field of the Church. It would be quite
incongruous and wrong if their descendants were to reap the weeds of error in place of the harvest of
truth.
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TUESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FINAL EXHORTATION: 1TIMOTHY 6:11-21
For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away
from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness,
gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when
you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God who gives life
to all things, and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I
charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ; and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the
King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no
man has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.
As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches but
on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds,
liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may
take hold of the life which is life indeed.
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is
falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.
Grace be with you.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS BY ST GREGORY THE GREAT

HOM. IN EV. 17, 3, 14; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
Let us listen to what our Lord has to say when he sends his disciples out to preach the gospel: The harvest
is great, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his
harvest. It grieves us to have to say that the labourers for this great harvest are few, because there are
not enough people to preach the good news, although there are people waiting to hear it. We see around
us a world full of priests, but it is very rare to find a labourer in God’s harvest, because we are not doing
the work demanded by our priesthood, although we accepted this office.
Consider carefully, my dear brethren, what our Lord says: Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send
out labourers into his harvest. You should pray for us to be given the strength to do the work that you
deserve, that we should not be slow to exhort. If we do this, then we shall not find that we have accepted
the office of preachers only to stand condemned in the sight of the just judge by our own reluctance to
speak. For preachers are often prevented from speaking because of their own wickedness; on the other
hand it is also often the fault of those in their care that leaders are deprived of the opportunity to preach.
It is not easy, then, to judge whose fault it is that the preacher is reduced to silence. But we do know for
certain that the silence of the preacher, while sometimes damaging to himself, is always damaging to
those in his care.
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There is another thing, my dear brethren, that causes me great grief and it concerns the sort of life led by
some pastors. But, for fear that what I have to say should seem to give offence to anybody, I accuse
myself at the same time. Compelled as I am by the necessity of this barbaric age, it is with great
reluctance that I find myself in this position. The fact is that we have allowed ourselves to become
involved in external affairs, and the contrast between the honour we have received and the way in which
we carry out the duties of our office is very great. We give up the ministry of preaching, and, to our
discredit, as I see it, we are called bishops but enjoy this honour in name only, and not in practice. For the
people entrusted to our care are abandoning God and we remain silent. They have fallen into wicked
ways and we do not utter a word of reproach.
But we shall never be in a position to correct the lives of others as long as we neglect our own. We are
wrapped up in the cares of this world, and the more we seem to busy ourselves with external affairs the
more spiritually insensitive we become. Holy Church, then, expresses it well when she says of her weak
members: They have placed me on guard in the vineyards and I have not guarded my own vineyard. We
have been put in charge of the vineyards and we are not even looking after our own, because we are
neglecting our own proper ministry, as long as we remain wrapped up in external affairs.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL URGES TIMOTHY TO BE STRONG IN THE GIFT HE HAS RECEIVED: 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-18
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life which is in Christ
Jesus,
To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, as did my fathers, when I remember you constantly in
my prayers. As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am
reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice
and now, I am sure, dwells in you. Hence I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you
through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and
love and self-control.
Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the
gospel in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but
in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and now has
manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and
teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am
sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the
sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the
truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
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You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelus and Hermogenes.
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not
ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me – may the
Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day – and you well know all the service he rendered
at Ephesus.

EP. AD COR. 40-42; (1968) TR. STANIFORTH
All these things are plain to us who have scanned the depths of Sacred Scripture. It is clear that there
ought to be a strict order and method in our performance of the acts prescribed by the Master for certain
times and seasons. Now, it was his command that the offering of gifts and liturgies should not be
haphazard or irregular, but should take place at fixed times and hours. Moreover, in the exercise of his
supreme will he has himself declared in what place and by what persons he desires this to be done, if it is
all to be devoutly performed in accordance with his wishes. Consequently, those who present their
offerings at such appointed times are accepted and blessed, since the care with which they observe the
Master’s laws clears them of all offence. The High Priest, for example, has his own proper liturgies
assigned to him, the priesthood has its own place, there are particular ministries laid down for the
Levites, and the layman is bound by regulations affecting the laity.
In the same way, my brothers, when we offer our own Eucharist to God, each one of us should keep to
his own degree. His conscience must be clear, he must not infringe the rules prescribed for his
ministering, and he is to bear himself with reverence. The continual daily sacrifices, peace-offerings, sin-
offerings and trespass-offerings are by no means offered in every place, brothers, but at the altar in front
of the Temple; and then only after a careful scrutiny of the offering by the High Priest and the other
ministers aforesaid. Anything done otherwise than in conformity with God’s will is punishable with death.
Take note from this, my brothers, that since we ourselves have been given so much fuller knowledge, the
peril that we incur is correspondingly graver.
Now, the Gospel was given to the Apostles for us by the Lord Jesus Christ; and Jesus the Christ was sent
from God. That is to say, Christ received his commission from God, and the Apostles theirs from Christ.
The order of these two events was in accordance with the will of God. So thereafter, when the Apostles
had been given their instructions, and all their doubts had been set at rest by the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead, they set out in the full assurance of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the coming of
God’s kingdom. And as they went through the territories and towns preaching, they appointed their first
converts – after testing them by the Spirit – to be bishops and deacons for the believers of the future.
This was in no way an innovation, for bishops and deacons had already been spoken of in Scripture long
before that; there is a text that says, I will confirm their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in
faith.
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THURSDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AN EXHORTATION TO CONSTANCY IN HARDSHIP AND PERSECUTION: 2 TIMOTHY 2:1-21
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me before
many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good
soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy
the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the
hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord
will grant you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel, the gospel
for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the word of God is not fettered. Therefore
I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with its
eternal glory. The saying is sure:
If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we deny
him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.
Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no
good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman
who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Avoid such godless chatter, for it will
lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will eat its way like gangrene. Among them
are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is past
already. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The
Lord knows those who are his”, and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from
iniquity.”
In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some
for noble use, some for ignoble. If any one purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel
for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work.
A READING FROM THE IMITATION OF CHRIST BY ST THOMAS À KEMPIS

DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI, II, 12; WORD IN SEASON VIII
To many this seems a hard saying: ‘Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.’ But to hear these
last words of all will be much harder: Go away from me, you accursed people, into eternal fire. For those
who are willing to hear the message of the cross, and to follow it now, will not be afraid of hearing their
eternal damnation at the end. This sign of the cross will be in heaven when the Lord comes to judge. Then
all the servants of the cross, who modelled their lives on that of the crucified Lord, will approach Christ
the judge with great confidence.
So why are you afraid to take up the cross, which gains you entry to the kingdom? In the cross is
salvation, in the cross life, in the cross protection from our enemies: in the cross is an instilling of celestial
sweetness, in the cross strength of mind, in the cross the joy of the spirit: in the cross is supreme virtue,
in the cross perfect sanctity. There is no salvation for the soul nor hope of eternal life except in the cross.
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So take up the cross and follow Jesus to go towards eternal life. If you die on the cross together with him,
you will also live together with him, and if you share his suffering you will also share his glory.
So you see that everything rests on the cross, and there is no other way to life and true spiritual peace
except the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go wherever you like, look for whatever you
want, you will find no higher way above or safer below, except the way of the holy cross. You may arrange
and order all things according to your wish and what seems right to you, but whether you want to or
not you will find there is always something you have to suffer, and so you will always find the
cross. For you will either have physical pain, or spiritual torment in your soul.
Sometimes God will abandon you, sometimes you will be troubled by your neighbour, and what is worse
you will often be weighed down by your own sorrows. Yet no remedy or consolation be able to free or
help you; on the contrary you will have to bear with your situation as long as God wishes it. For God
wants you to learn to suffer torment without consolation, and subject yourself totally to him and become
more humble through torment. No one feels Christ’s passion so profoundly as one to whose lot falls to
suffer something similar. Therefore the cross is always ready, and waits for you everywhere. Wherever
you run you cannot escape it, because wherever you go you take yourself with you, and will always find
yourself. Run away above or below, outside or inside, and at every point you will find the cross, and
everywhere you must be patient if you want to have spiritual peace and be worthy of an everlasting
crown. For it is through many torments that we have to enter the kingdom of God. Amen.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DANGEROUS TIMES THREATEN: 2 TIMOTHY 2:22 – 3:17
So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call
upon the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that
they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt
teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will
repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being
captured by him to do his will.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman,
implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.
Avoid such people. For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak
women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never
arrive at a knowledge of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the
truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith; but they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain
to all, as was that of those two men.
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my
steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what
persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in
Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and
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deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from
whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which
are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God
may be complete, equipped for every good work.
A READING FROM THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION OF THE

SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, DEI VERBUM 11-12 (ABRIDGED)
Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been
committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For holy mother Church, relying on the
belief of the Apostles, holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all
their parts, are sacred and canonical because, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have
God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself. In composing the sacred
books, God chose men and while employed by him they made use of their powers and abilities, so that
with him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and
only those things which he wanted.
Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be
asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching
solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of
salvation. Therefore, all Scripture is divinely inspired and has its use for teaching the truth and refuting
error, for reformation of manners and discipline in right living, so that the man who belongs to God may
be efficient and equipped for good work of every kind.
However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, the interpreter of Sacred
Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate
what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their
words.
To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to
‘literary forms’. For the correct understanding of what the sacred author wanted to assert, due attention
must be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed
at the time of the sacred writer and to the patterns men normally employed at that period in their
everyday dealings with one another.
But since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the same spirit in which it was written, no less
serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the
sacred texts is to be correctly worked out. The living Tradition of the whole Church must be taken into
account along with the harmony which exists between elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes to
work according to these rules toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred
Scripture, so that through preparatory study the judgment of the Church may mature. For all of what has
been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which
carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the Word of God.
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SATURDAY, TWENTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PAUL’S FINAL EXHORTATION: 2 TIMOTHY 4:1-22
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his
appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke,
and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure
sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own
likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady,
endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but
also to all who have loved his appearing.
Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone
to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and
bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come,
bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander
the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will requite him for his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for
he strongly opposed our message. At my first defence no one took my part; all deserted me. May it not
be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the message fully,
that all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from
every evil and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. ‘Erastus remained at Corinth; Trophimus I left
ill at Miletus. ‘Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and
Linus and Claudia and all the brethren.
The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF ST BASIL THE GREAT

EPIST. 161.1-2 (PG 32:630-631); WORD IN SEASON VIII
May God be blessed, for in every generation he singles out those who are acceptable to him, and makes
his chosen instruments known so that he can use them in the service of the saints. So now he has caught
you in the inescapable nets of his grace, even though you were fleeing, as you admit, not from me but
from the vocation you suspected would come through me. And he is bringing you to central Pisidia, so
that you may capture men alive for the Lord, drawing from the depths into the light people whom the
devil has trapped into doing his will.
Since all who have put their hope in Christ form a single people, and all who belong to him are one
Church, even though he be invoked from different places, your homeland delightedly rejoices in the
Lord’s dispensations, deeming herself not to have been impoverished by the loss of one man but rather
through one man to have made a profit of the whole Church. May the Lord grant me to see if I am
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present, and hear about if absent, the progress you make in the preaching of the gospel and the
administration of the Churches.
Play the man, then, be strong, and lead the people whom the Most High has entrusted to your guiding
hand. Take care that your ship does not sink in the briny and bitter waves of error; like a skilful pilot
assuming command you must ride out every storm raised by the winds of heresy, and wait for the calm
which the Lord will create when a voice is found worthy to arouse him for the rebuking of the winds and
the sea.
The weight of your burden? Do not complain of its being beyond your strength. For if you yourself were
the one who is to carry this load, it would not be merely heavy: it would be quite unbearable. But if the
Lord is carrying it with you to the end, then Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will take charge. Only
heed my advice to watch carefully in all circumstances that you be not yourself involved in reprehensible
conduct, but through the wisdom God has granted you turn evil tendencies into something useful. For
Christ has sent you not to fall in with other people, but to lead those who are on the way to salvation.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AN EXHORTATION CONCERNING THE WAY OF SALVATION: 2 PETER 1:1-11
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing
with ours in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of
him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very
great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of
passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. For this very reason make every effort to supplement
your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with
steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly
affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these things is blind and short-
sighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be the more
zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly
provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER BY ST BEDE

IN 2 PET. 1:20-1:21; CS82 (1985), TR. HURST
First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter for private interpretation.
This verse follows from what he had previously said, You do well to pay attention to this. For those who
pay attention to the words of the Prophets certainly do well, that by means of these words they may be
able to have the light of knowledge. They ought to understand this first of all, that none of the holy
Prophets preached the teachings of life to the people using his own interpretation, but they handed on
what they had learned from the Lord to their hearers to be put into practice by them. And they passed on
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the hidden heavenly mysteries which they had comprehended in secret to the people of God simply,
either by speaking or by writing and not like the diviners of the gentiles who gave to the crowds they
deceived what they pretended to be decisions of the divine oracle but had in fact fabricated in their own
heart. Therefore, just as the Prophets wrote not their own but God’s words, so also the reader of them
cannot use his own private interpretation, lest he deviate from the true meaning. The reader ought to pay
careful attention to how the writer wished his words to be understood.
Never at any time was a prophecy brought forth by the will of man, but the holy men of God spoke when
inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just as it was not in the power of those who prophesied always to have the
Holy Spirit, always to be able to predict the future, because the Spirit filled their hearts when he willed; so
also it was not within their power to teach whatever they wished, but they spoke only those things which
they had learned when enlightened by the Spirit. These things are said for this reason, that no one may
dare to expound the Scriptures according to his own wishes.
A certain person has interpreted these words of blessed Peter absurdly, saying that just as a reed-pipe
receives the breadth of the human mouth to make a sound but nonetheless cannot itself understand the
sound which it provides because by nature it is insensible, so the Prophets, inspired by the Spirit of God,
might bring forward in speech those things which the same Spirit wished but they themselves could not
understand them. This is according to Virgil’s words, It gives forth a sound without meaning. It is clearly
evident that this is a most ridiculous error, for how could they give their hearers such wise counsels about
living if they themselves did not know what they were saying? Why are the Prophets called seers? For
what reason was it written, The word which Isaiah or some other Prophet saw, except that they perceived
in secret with the clearest grasp of the mind the hidden mysteries of heavenly visions. They then made
known these mysteries outwardly and clearly to their hearers and in whatever words they wished.
MONDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS: 2 PETER 1:12-21
Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in
the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to arouse you by way of reminder,
since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. And I will
see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from
God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased”, we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy
mountain. And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as
to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all
you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because
no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
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A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ST JOHN BY ST AUGUSTINE
TRACT. IN JOH. 35, 8 (CCL 36:321-322); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Notice that lamps can be witnesses to the day because of our weakness, since we cannot bear to look at
the pure light of the day. For even we Christians are already light in comparison with unbelievers. Hence
the Apostle says: Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, and you must live like
children of the light. And elsewhere he said: Night has passed and now day is near, so we must cast off
the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. We must live properly, as in the daylight. Yet
because, in comparison with that light toward which we must go, even the day in which we live is still
night, listen to the Apostle Peter telling us of the words which came to the Lord Christ from the supreme
power: You are my beloved Son, with whom I am pleased. We ourselves, he adds, heard those words that
came from heaven, as we were with him on the holy mountain.
But because we were not there and did not hear the words that came from heaven then, Peter tells us:
We also have the more certain words of the Prophets. You did not hear the words that came from
heaven, but you have the more certain words of the Prophets. For the Lord Jesus Christ foresaw that
there would be some wicked people who would slander his miracles, ascribing them to magic arts, and so
he sent the Prophets first. For if he was a magician and used magic arts to ensure that he was worshiped
even after his death, would he not have been a magician before he was born? Listen to the Prophets, you
dead people, with your slanderous raging, listen to the Prophets; listen, as I read, to those who came
before the Lord. We have, says the Apostle Peter, more certain prophetic words, which you will do well to
pay attention to. They shine like a lamp in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your
hearts.
So when our Lord Jesus Christ comes and, as the Apostle Paul also says, brings to light what is hidden in
darkness and reveals our inward motives, so that God may give each one of us our due, then in the
presence of such daylight, lamps will no longer be necessary. We shall no longer read the Prophets, nor
open the Apostle's book, nor require John’s witness, nor even need the gospel. Therefore all the
Scriptures will be put away, which shone for us like lanterns in the night of this world, to prevent us being
left in darkness. With all these withdrawn from us, what shall we see? How will our minds be fed? What
will give us that joy which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has felt? I seriously ask
you to love with me, to hurry and believe with me; let us long for our celestial home, sigh for our celestial
fatherland, and realise that here on earth we are pilgrims. What shall we see then? Let the gospel now
speak out: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

FALSE TEACHERS: 2 PETER 2:1-9
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will
secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon
themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of
truth will be reviled. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their
condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.
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For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits
of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah,
a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the
ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and
made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly
distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived
among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord
knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of
judgment.

MACARIAN HOMILIES, 28; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
As once God was angry with the Jews and gave Jerusalem over for a spectacle to its enemies, and as
those who hated them ruled over them and there was no longer there any feast or sacrifice, so, being
angry with the soul for its transgression of his command, God handed it over to its enemies, who seduced
it and utterly deformed it.
Just as a house which has no master dwelling in it is dark, neglected and despised, and is filled with dirt
and filth, so a soul which does not have its Lord feasting in it with his angels is filled with the darkness of
sin, the shame of passions and every sort of disgrace.
Alas for the street in which no one walks, in which the voice of man is not heard; it is a lurking place for
wild beasts. Alas for the soul in which the Lord does not walk and put to flight by his voice the spiritual
beasts of wickedness. Alas for the house in which its master does not dwell. Alas for the land which has
no farmer to till it. Alas for the ship which has been abandoned by its steersman: it is tossed about by the
winds and waves of the ocean, and perishes. Alas for the soul which does not have its true steersman
Christ in it: it lives in the bitter darkness of the sea and is tossed by the waves of passions. It is buffeted by
the wicked spirits as by winter tempests, and finally comes to destruction.
Alas for the soul which is without Christ to cultivate it so that it will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit.
When it is deserted it becomes full of thorns and thistles, and finally, its harvest is not one of fruit but of
destruction by fire. Alas for the soul which has not Christ for its Lord dwelling in it, for when it is deserted
and filled with the stench of passions it becomes a den of vice.
When a farmer sets out to till the ground he has to take proper tools and clothing for work in the fields;
so when Christ, the heavenly king and the true husbandman, came to humanity laid waste by sin, he
clothed himself in a body and carried the cross as his implement and cultivated the deserted soul. He
pulled up the thorns and thistles of evil spirits and tore up the weeds of sin. With fire he burnt up all the
harvest of its sins. When thus he had tilled the ground of the soul with the wooden plough of his cross, he
planted in it a lovely garden of the Spirit; a garden which brings forth for God as its master the sweetest
and most delightful fruits of every sort.
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WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A DENUNCIATION OF SINNERS: 2 PETER 2:9-22
The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until
the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise
authority.
Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might
and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord. But these, like irrational
animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant,
will be destroyed in the same destruction with them, suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. They count it
pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their dissipation, carousing
with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts
trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way they have gone astray; they have followed
the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own
transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been
reserved. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have
barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves
of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the
defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it
would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to
turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true
proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.
A READING FROM THE HOMILIES ON ST MATTHEW’S GOSPEL BY ST JOHN

CHRYSOSTOM
IN MATT. 33, 1-2; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
So long as we continue to behave as sheep, we are victorious. Even if ten thousand wolves surround us,
we conquer and are victorious. But the moment we become wolves, we are conquered, for we lose the
help of the shepherd. He is the shepherd of sheep, not of wolves. If he leaves you and goes away, it is
because you do not allow him to show his power.
These are his words: Do not be troubled that I send you out in the midst of wolves and tell you to be like
sheep and like doves. I could have done just the opposite, and not have allowed you to suffer any hurt. I
could have prevented you being the victims of wolves and made you fiercer than lions. But I chose a
better way. My way makes you more glorious and proclaims my power. These were his words to Paul: My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. That is the way I made you. When
he says: I send you out as sheep, he implies: Do not despair, for I know very well that in this way you will
be invincible against all your enemies.
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Next he wants them too to make some contribution of their own, so that everything will not seem to
come from grace. He does not want it thought that their crown was not earned, and so he says: So be as
wise as serpents and innocent as doves. What power, he asks, does our wisdom have in such perils? How
can we have wisdom at all when we are deluged by such billows? However wise the sheep may be when
in the midst of wolves, and the wolves are as numerous as they are, what more will wisdom be able to
achieve? However innocent the dove may be, what advantage will its innocence be when it is beset by so
many hawks? So long as you are talking about irrational beasts, of course, the answer is none, but when
you are dealing with men like you, the answer is, the greatest possible advantage.
But let us see what sort of wisdom he then demands. The serpent abandons everything, even if its body
has to be cut off, and does not resist much, provided only it can save its head. In the same way, he says,
abandon everything except your faith, even if it means giving up your wealth, your body, your life itself.
Your faith is your head and your roots. If you preserve that, you will get everything back again with
greater glory. Therefore he commanded that a man should be not only simple and honest, not only wise,
but he combined the two qualities to form together virtue. The man should have the wisdom of the
serpent, so as not to receive mortal wounds. He should have the innocence of a dove, so as not to take
vengeance on those who do him injury, nor bear a grudge against those who plot against him. Wisdom is
no use by itself unless there is innocence as well.
No one should think that these commands are impossible to fulfil. More than anyone else he knows the
nature of things. Violence he knows is not overcome by violence, but by forbearance.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD IS FAITHFUL TO HIS PROMISES: 2 PETER 3:1-10
This is now the second letter that I have written to you, beloved, and in both of them I have aroused your
sincere mind by way of reminder; that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that
scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the
promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from
the beginning of creation.” They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed
long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then
existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now
exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is
forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the
day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the
elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.
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A READING FROM THE SERMON ON MORTALITY BY ST CYPRIAN
ON MORTALITY 18.24.26; THE DIVINE OFFICE III
We must remember that we ought to do what God wills, not what we will, in accordance with the prayer
that the Lord ordered us to use daily. Since we pray that God’s will be done, how foolish and how
perverse it is not to obey immediately the command of his will when he calls us and summons us from
this world. We struggle and fight, and, like obstinate slaves, we are brought before the Lord grieving and
sad, and we leave this world in the chains of necessity, rather than in willing obedience. We want to be
honoured with the rewards of heaven by the God to whom we come against our will. Why then do we
pray and ask that the kingdom of heaven should come, if captivity on earth delights us? Why do we pray,
and pray continually, that the day of that kingdom should come quickly, if our longings and desires are
stronger and greater for bondage to the devil here than for reigning with Christ?
Since the world hates the Christian, why do you love that which hates you, and why do not rather follow
Christ who redeemed you and loved you? In his Epistle John cries out and exhorts us not to pursue the
lusts of the flesh and love the world. Do not love the world, he says, or the things in the world. If anyone
loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And the world will pass away and the lust of it, but he who does the
will of God abides for ever. Rather, my dear brothers, let us be ready for all that God’s will may bring, with
an undivided heart, firm faith and rugged strength. Let us shut out any fear of death, and keep our mind
on the immortality that follows death. Let us show that this is what we believe.
My dear brothers, we must consider and ponder again and again how we have renounced the world and
now live here in the meantime as strangers and aliens. Let us welcome that day which allots to each man
his final home, which snatches us from the world, frees us from the bonds which bind us to this age, and
restores us to paradise and to God’s kingdom. What man who lives in a foreign country would not hurry
to return home? We reckon paradise to be our home. A great throng awaits us there of those dear to us;
parents, brothers, sons. A packed and numerous throng longs for us, of those already free from anxiety
for their own salvation, who are still concerned for our salvation. There is the glorious company of the
Apostles, there the fellowship of the prophets rejoicing. There is the innumerable army of martyrs,
crowned for their glorious victory in their suffering and strife. There in triumphant procession are the
virgins who have subdued the lusts of the flesh with the strength of chastity. My dear brothers, let us
hurry forward to meet these with eager longing. Let God see these thoughts in us, that Christ may discern
in us this intention of our mind and faith, Christ who will give greater rewards to those whose longing for
him has been greater.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AN EXHORTATION ON WAITING FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD: 2 PETER 3:11-18
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness
and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will
be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for
new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and
at peace. And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to
you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some
things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as
they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be
carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen.
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD OF

THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, GAUDIUM ET SPES 38-39 (ABRIDGED)
God's Word, through whom all things were made, was himself made flesh and dwelt on the earth of men.
Thus he entered the world’s history as a perfect man, taking that history up into himself and summarizing
it. He himself revealed to us that God is love and at the same time taught us that the new command of
love was the basic law of human perfection and hence of the world’s transformation. Undergoing death
itself for all of us sinners, he taught us by example that we too must shoulder that cross which the world
and the flesh inflict upon those who search after peace and justice. Appointed Lord by his resurrection
and given plenary power in heaven and on earth, Christ is now at work in the hearts of men through the
energy of his Holy Spirit, arousing not only a desire for the age to come, but by that very fact animating,
purifying and strengthening those noble longings too by which the human family makes its life more
human and strives to render the whole earth submissive to this goal.
Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse; while he calls some to give clear witness to the desire for a
heavenly home and to keep that desire green among the human family, he summons others to dedicate
themselves to the earthly service of men and to make ready the material of the celestial realm by this
ministry of theirs. Yet he frees all of them so that by putting aside love of self and bringing all earthly
resources into the service of human life, they can devote themselves to that future when humanity itself
will become an offering accepted by God .
The Lord left behind a pledge of this hope and strength for life’s journey in that sacrament of faith where
natural elements refined by man are changed into his glorified Body and Blood, providing a meal of
brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.
We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of humanity, nor do we know how all
things will be transformed. As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away; but we are taught
that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide and whose
blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart. Then,
with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and what was sown in weakness and
corruption will be invested with incorruptibility. Enduring with charity and its fruits, all that creation which
God made on man’s account will be unchained from the bondage of vanity. Therefore, while we are
warned that it profits a man nothing if he gain the whole world and lose himself, the expectation of a new
earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For here grows the body
of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new
age.
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SATURDAY, TWENTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE LETTER OF ST JUDE

A DENUNCIATION OF THE WICKED AND AN EXHORTATION TO THE FAITHFUL: JUDE 1-8, 12-13,
17-25
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father
and kept for Jesus Christ:
May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write
appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For admission has
been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons
who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that he who saved a people out
of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep
their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether
gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities,
which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a
punishment of eternal fire.
Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious
ones. These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves;
waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves
of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of
darkness has been reserved for ever.
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to
you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who set up
divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy
faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on
some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence
of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty,
dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON JUDE BY ST BEDE

IN IUDAM 5, 20-24; CS 82 (1985), TR. HURST
But I wish to remind you who once knew all things, namely, knew all the hidden mysteries of faith, and
had no need to hear novelties from new teachers as if they were more holy, that Jesus saved the people
from the land of Egypt and afterward destroyed those who did not believe. He is referring not to Jesus
the son of Nun but to our Lord, showing first that he did not have his beginning at his birth from the holy
virgin, as the heretics have wished to assert, but existed as the eternal God for the salvation of all
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believers, according to the mystery of his name. For in Egypt he first so saved the humble who cried out
to him from their affliction that he might afterward bring low the proud who murmured against him in
the desert. He stresses this so much that we may remember even now that he so saves believers through
the waters of baptism, which the Red Sea foreshadowed, that he demands a humble life of us even after
baptism. He demands from us a life separated from the filth of vices, as was rightly foreshadowed by the
hidden way of life of the desert. If anyone actually profane this life either by departing from the faith or
by acting evilly, being turned away in heart to Egypt, he will deserve not to reach the promised fatherland
of the kingdom but to perish among the ungodly.
But you, dearly beloved, build yourselves on your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves
in the love of God. We pray in the Holy Spirit when pierced by divine inspiration we request help from on
high to receive the good things which we are unable to acquire of ourselves. Blessed Jude, therefore,
advises us so to build ourselves up on the foundation of our holy faith, so as to join ourselves as living
stones to the house of God which is the Church. We must never presume on our own strength but must
hope in the help of divine protection, lest anyone, according to the teaching of Pelagius, declare that he
can be saved on his own.
Hating even that stained garment which is fleshly. He calls our body our fleshly garment. We ought not,
however, to hate our body but we ought to hate it in every way it is stained and see to it, as far as we are
able, that we render it stainless, so that from being fleshly it may deserve to be made spiritual.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

REPUDIATION OF VASHTI AND CHOOSING OF ESTHER: ESTHER 1:1-3, 9-13, 15-16, 19; 2:5-10, 16-
17
In the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over one hundred and
twenty-seven provinces, in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa the capital, in
the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his princes and servants, the army chiefs of Persia and
Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces being before him. Queen Vashti also gave a
banquet for the women in the palace which belonged to King Ahasuerus.
On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha,
Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served King Ahasuerus as
chamberlains, to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples
and the princes her beauty; for she was fair to behold. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s
command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.
Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times – for this was the king’s procedure toward all
who were versed in law and judgment. According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti, because
she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed by the eunuchs? Then Memucan said
in presence of the king and the princes, Not only to the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also to all
the princes and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. If it please the king, let a
royal order go forth from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that
it may not be altered, that Vashti is to come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her
royal position to another who is better than she.
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Now there was a Jew in Susa the capital whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shime-i, son of
Kish, a Benjaminite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with
Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. He had brought up
Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother; the maiden
was beautiful and lovely, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own
daughter. So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many maidens were
gathered in Susa the capital in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in
custody of Hegai who had charge of the women. And the maiden pleased him and won his favour; and he
quickly provided her with her ointments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the
king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. Esther had not made
known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to make it known.
And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the
month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she
found grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head
and made her queen instead of Vashti.

A RETREAT FOR PRIESTS, 169-170, 174-175; WORD IN SEASON VIII
From other incidents in the Old Testament, however crude their atmosphere, however primitive their
setting, it may be possible for us to derive moral exhortation. But these intrigues of the harem, these
tales of plot and counterplot in the corrupt politics of an oriental despotism –what message have they for
us, what instruction can they convey? I am only choosing this story out of a dozen others I might have
chosen, to illustrate the principle, familiar to Christian piety, that there is a mystical significance in the Old
Testament everywhere, and that, above all, the history of the Jewish people foreshadows and typifies the
glories of Our Blessed Lady.
The Old Testament is, largely, the record of barbarian times; blood flows freely in its chronicles, and there
is treachery, and violence, and lust, and crafty revenge; there are dull passages, too, long lists of names,
and prescriptions about ceremonial ordinances which have ceased to have any interest for us; there are
interminable moral precepts, and prophecies baffling in their obscurity. But through this tangled skein
runs a single golden thread; between these soiled pages lies, now and again, a pressed flower that has
lost neither its colour nor its sweetness. That thread, that flower, is the mention, by type and analogue, of
her whom all generations of Christendom have called blessed, the Virgin of Virgins, the Queen of Heaven,
the holy Mother of God.
We value, then, this story of Mordecai and Esther because we find in it a type of Our Lady's position in
the economy of grace. How often a face or a scene arrests us, only because it bears some resemblance to
a face or a scene we love! So it is with these Old Testament figures; they borrow their interest from the
future. Like the people of the Jews, the Church of God has its enemies and its detractors; its peace is
continually threatened by the world’s hatred for its strictness of principle. And, when times of trouble
come upon us, we, too, would win a royal audience; we would ask redress from our grievances from the
King of kings. As the Jews could plead on their own behalf the loyal act of Mordecai, so we would plead
before God, our one hope of pardon, the all-sufficient sacrifice of his Son. But who will plead it for us? It is
not that we distrust his goodness; but, conscious of our need and of our own unworthiness, we would
find some advocate who has a better claim on his attention than ourselves. Who has a better right to
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stand in God’s royal presence than Our Blessed Lady? The law which included us all under the curse of
original sin was a law made for all others, but not for her. Who else dare touch the sceptre that sways a
universe? We say to her, as Mordecai said to Esther, Remember the days of your low estate; and speak to
the king for us, and deliver us from death.
MONDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE JEWS IN DANGER: ESTHER 3:1-15
After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, and advanced
him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And all the king’s servants who were at the
kings gate bowed down and did obeisance to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him.
But Mordecai did not bow down or do obeisance. Then the king’s servants who were at the king’ gate said
to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?”And when they spoke to him day after day
and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s words would avail;
for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or do
obeisance to him, Haman was filled with fury. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as
they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people
of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.
In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that
is the lot, before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is
the month of Adar. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “here is a certain people scattered abroad and
dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of
every other people, and they do not keep the kings laws, so that it is not for the king’s profit to tolerate
them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of
silver into the hands of those who have charge of the kings business, that they may put it into the king’s
treasuries.” So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of
Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, The money is given to you, the people
also, to do with them as it seems good to you.
Then the king’s secretaries were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict,
according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all
the provinces and to the princes of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in
its own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the kings ring. Letters
were sent by couriers to all the kings provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all Jews, young and
old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of
Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province
by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went in haste by order of the
king, and the decree was issued in Susa the capital. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the
city of Susa was perplexed.
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A READING FROM THE DECLARATION OF THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-
CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, NOSTRA AETATE 4-5; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Christ’s Church acknowledges that all Christian believers, as children of Abraham in faith, are included in
the patriarch’s invitation, and the salvation of the Church is prefigured mystically in the exodus of the
chosen people from the land of bondage. Wherefore the Church cannot forget that she received the Old
Testament through the chosen people, with whom in his unspeakable mercy God made the old covenant;
and that she is nourished from the root of the good olive, to which the branches of the wild olive were
grafted. For the Church believes that Christ our peace has reconciled by his cross Jew with Gentile,
Gentile with Jew, and made of the two olives one single tree in himself.
As sacred Scripture bears witness, Jerusalem failed to perceive the time of his visitation, and in great part
the Jews did not accept the gospel: indeed, not a few of them opposed its spread. Nevertheless the
Apostle tells us that because of the patriarchs the Jews still remain most dear to God, who does not
repent of his gifts or of his calling. Together with the Prophets and the Apostle himself, the Church awaits
the day known only to God when all people will call upon the Lord with one voice and will serve him with
one common effort.
Although the Jewish authorities with their followers encompassed Christ’s death, the misdeeds
perpetrated during his sacred passion cannot even so be imputed to all Jews then alive, indifferently, nor
yet to modern Jewry at all. And though the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews themselves
should not be deemed as cast off or accursed by God, as if this were something which can be drawn from
sacred Scripture. Let all be mindful, therefore, lest they teach anything, through their catechetics or their
preaching of God’s word, which is not in harmony with evangelical truth and the spirit of Christ.
Moreover, the Church condemns all persecution, no matter of whom, being mindful of its common
patrimony with the Jews. It deplores all the hatred, persecution, and demonstrative anti-semitism there
has ever been at any time, from any quarter, against the Jews: and this is not said out of political
motivations, but those merely of evangelical charity.
Again, the Church has always held, and still holds even now, that Christ underwent his passion and death
with immeasurable love, willingly and for the sins of all men, that all might come to be saved. It is
therefore for the preaching Church to declare Christ's cross to be the sign of God’s universal love and the
source of all grace.
We cannot call on God the Father of all if we refuse to behave in a brotherly way towards people created
in God's image. Man's attitudes to God the Father and to his brethren and fellow human beings are so
conjoined that Scripture says: he who does not love does not know God.
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TUESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HAMAN SEEKS THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL THE JEWS: ESTHER 4:1-16
When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and
ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the
entrance of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every
province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews,
with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent
garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then
Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered
him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open
square of the city in front of the kings gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the
exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the
Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he
might show it to Esther and explain it to her and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him
and entreat him for her people. “Remembering the days of your lowliness, when you were cared for by
me, because Haman, who is next to the king, spoke against us for our destruction. Beseech the Lord and
speak to the king concerning us and deliver us from death.” And Hathach went and told Esther what
Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, “All the
king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king
inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law; all alike are to be put to death, except
the one to whom the king holds out the golden sceptre that he may live. And I have not been called to
come in to the king these thirty days.” And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told
them to return answer to Esther, “Think not that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the
other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from
another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come
to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the
Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or
day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I
perish, I perish.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

EXPOSITIO IN LIB. ESTHER 7 (PL 109:654); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Mordecai, hearing that the death of the Jews was planned by imperial decree, put on mourning and, in
bitterness of soul and cries of anguish, went to the entrance of the palace. When the leaders of the
Church hear of the persecution which the rulers of this world plan to bring upon the innocent servants of
Christ, they display to heaven with tears and compunction of heart their pressing needs, that is, they
spread them before the divine judge – so that, by the worth and prayers of the true queen, that is holy
Church, which is partly still wandering in this world, and partly already reigning with the Lord in heaven,
they may be found worthy to be heard by the king of all ages.
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Now, should someone ask how it can be reconciled with being the most just of kings that he should inflict
trials upon the innocent, let him know that this is not out of a wish to do evil, but the consequence of
some supreme purpose. For the wisdom of God which overcomes all evil, and reaches mightily from one
end of the earth to the other and orders all things well, does all that it wills in heaven and on earth, in the
sea and in the deep. By a just decision it comes about that his faithful servants are given into the hands of
their persecutors, either to expiate their sins, or reform their way of living, or even to increase their
merits and double their reward. For, as the Prophet bears witness: The Lord is just in all his ways and kind
in all his doings. He is near to all who call upon him. In truth, he fulfils the desire of those who fear him,
and he hears their cry and saves them. For, when Satan asked it, the Lord did not give Job into his hands
that he might perish but that, with his help, he might conquer this most wicked enemy, and so win for
himself the palm of victory, and leave a just punishment to his enemy for his malice. The Apostle Paul was
given a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him, that power might be made perfect in
weakness. Nor should we pass over in silence the fact that it is said that Mordecai could not enter the
king’s palace wearing sackcloth, but merely came to the entrance to the palace. For no one can enter the
palace of the heavenly kingdom in the corruption of this present life. But, in the meanwhile, everyone
before the actual day of his death should knock at the gate of the kingdom by bodily mortification and
compunction of heart, and thus at the hour of death enter the Lord’s paradise in joy.
Mordecai with the Jews prayed for Esther, the queen, and the queen herself prayed for Mordecai and the
Jews. For the master ought to pour forth his prayers to God for his disciples, and the disciples for their
master, that the entire body of the faithful, that is, the members of the whole body, may be preserved
from harm by the kindness of heaven. Hence too, in the Acts of the Apostles, it is written that, when
Peter was in prison, ceaseless prayer was made to God for him by the Church.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SPEECH OF QUEEN ESTHER: ESTHER 14:1-19
And Esther the queen, seized with deathly anxiety, fled to the Lord; she took off her splendid apparel and
put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with
ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body, and every part that she loved to adorn she covered
with her tangled hair. And she prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said:
“O my Lord, thou only art our King; help me, who am alone and have no helper but thee, 4 for my danger
is in my hand. Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that thou, O Lord, didst take
Israel out of all the nations, and our fathers from among all their ancestors, for an everlasting inheritance,
and that thou didst do for them all that thou didst promise. And now we have sinned before thee, and
thou hast given us into the hands of our enemies, because we glorified their gods. Thou art righteous, O
Lord! And now they are not satisfied that we are in bitter slavery, but they have covenanted with their
idols to abolish what thy mouth has ordained and to destroy thy inheritance, to stop the mouths of those
who praise thee and to quench thy altar and the glory of thy house, to open the mouths of the nations for
the praise of vain idols, and to magnify for ever a mortal king. O Lord, do not surrender thy sceptre to
what has no being; and do not let them mock at our downfall; but turn their plan against themselves, and
make an example of the man who began this against us. Remember, O Lord; make thyself known in this
time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! Put eloquent
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speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that
there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. But save us by thy hand, and help me, who
am alone and have no helper but thee, O Lord. Thou hast knowledge of all things; and thou knowest that I
hate the splendour of the wicked and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of any alien. Thou knowest
my necessity that I abhor the sign of my proud position, which is upon my head on the days when I
appear in public. I abhor it like a menstruous rag, and I do not wear it on the days when I am at leisure.
And thy servant has not eaten at Haman’s table, and I have not honoured the king’s feast or drunk the
wine of the libations. Thy servant has had no joy since the day that I was brought here until now, except
in thee, O Lord God of Abraham. O God, whose might is over all, hear the voice of the despairing, and
save us from the hands of evildoers. And save me from my fear!”
A READING FROM AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS BY ST AUGUSTINE

CONTRA DUAS EPS. PELAGIANORUM, 1.19-20 (PL 44:168-169); WORD IN SEASON VIII
How many enemies of Christ are today suddenly and secretly drawn to Christ by grace? Our Lord cries
out: None can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. He did not, after all, say ‘guides’ so
that we might by it somehow understand that the will goes first. Are any people drawn, if they are
already willing? And yet, none come unless they are willing. They are drawn, then, in marvellous ways to
will by the one who knows how to work interiorly in the hearts of men, not so that men believe
unwillingly – that is impossible – but so that they become men willing to believe from men who were
unwilling.
It is not by some human conjecture that we come to suspect that this is true; rather, we discover that it is
true by the perfectly clear authority of the divine Scriptures. Why did Queen Esther pray, Place in my
mouth a pleasing speech, and make my words glorious in the sight of the lion, and turn his heart to
hatred of the one who is attacking us? Why does she say this prayer to God if God does not produce the
will in the hearts of human beings? But perhaps this woman prayed in a foolish way. Let us, then, see
whether she foolishly expressed her desire in prayer without obtaining results from the one who heard
her prayer.
See, Esther enters the presence of the king and, because she was not entering in her proper turn, since
she was driven by great need, he looked at her, as Scripture says, like a bull in the heat of his wrath. The
queen was frightened, and she turned pale out of consternation and leaned upon the hand of the maid
who preceded her. And God turned and transformed his wrath into gentleness. What need is there to
recall the rest of the passage? In it the divine Scripture testifies that God fulfilled her request by
producing in the king’s heart nothing other than the will by which he gave the command and the queen's
request was carried out. In order for this to come about, God had already heard her. Before the king had
heard the woman's words of petition, God changed and transformed the heart of the king by his most
hidden and efficacious power from wrath to gentleness, that is, from the will to do harm to the will to
grant favours. As the Apostle says: God produces in you even the will.
Did the men of God who wrote these things, or rather did the very Spirit of God under whose authorship
they wrote these things, attack the free choice of human beings? Heaven forbid! If we belong among the
vessels of honour because of grace, let us not be ungrateful and attribute to ourselves what we have
received. For what do we have that we have not received?
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THURSDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE KING AND HAMAN AT ESTHER’S BANQUET. HAMAN IS HANGED: ESTHER 5:1-5; 7:1-10
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the kings palace, opposite
the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the
palace; and when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favour in his sight and he
held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top
of the sceptre. And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given
you, even to the half of my kingdom.” And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come
this day to a dinner that I have prepared for the king.” Then said the king, “Bring Haman quickly, that we
may do as Esther desires.” So the king and Haman came to the dinner that Esther had prepared.
The king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking
wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And
what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered,
“If I have found favour in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my
petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and
to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; for
our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther,
“Who is he, and where is he, that would presume to do this?” And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This
wicked Haman!” Then Haman was in terror before the king and the queen. And the king rose from the
feast in wrath and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for
he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to
the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was; and the
king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the
mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face. Then said Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on
the king, Moreover, the gallows which Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is
standing in Haman’s house, fifty cubits high. And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged
Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

EXPOSITIO IN LIB. ESTHER 13.14 (PL 109:662.670); WORD IN SEASON VIII
What does it mean that Esther falls at the king’s feet, and begs him to spare her people, but that holy
Church humbly begs almighty God daily for the deliverance of her children, through her faith in the
incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, since by the grace of that mystery the boldness of her
enemies is restrained, and the innocence of the faithful is delivered from their hands? The heavenly king
extends his golden sceptre over the prostrate queen, for he powerfully bestows the mercy of his faithful
love upon her. She begs that the former letters of the most wicked Haman may be exchanged for newly-
written ones. For it is the preoccupation of the true queen that every pocket of error and all the
destructive devices which the ancient enemy, through his servants, contrives for the annihilation of the
people of God shall be thrown back and destroyed by the saving witness of the gospel. These letters, writ-
ten in the king’s name, are sealed with his signet ring, for the gospel teaching which is fully proclaimed
throughout the world is everywhere confirmed by the seal of the Holy Spirit. By his gift, the preachers
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themselves, filled with abiding strength, seem to everyone to be unanswerable, and stand as glorious
victors over their enemies.
How does it come to be said that Ahasuerus is king over the whole earth and makes all the islands in the
sea his tributaries? For the historical king of the Medes and Persians did not have the whole world in his
gift, nor could he have made all the islands in the sea his tributaries. For even the knowledge of his name
could not have reached those islands or many parts of the earth. But this belief more genuinely refers to
Christ, our king and lord, whose power is in heaven and earth, in the sea and in all the depths. In the
gospel he calls himself the door, for through him we gain entrance to eternal life, as the psalmist bears
witness: And all kings bow down before him, all nations serve him! The kings of Tarshish and of the isles
render him tribute, the kings of Arabia and Seba bring him gifts. How the true Mordacai – that is to say,
the company of the holy teachers of the Church – exalts the power of this king and his authority, dignity,
and sublimity is testified to the whole Christian people by the words and writings not only of the one
people of Judea, but of every nation in the world. For, from the beginning, he has exalted his chosen ones
by the gift of his grace, and made them renowned and honoured before all peoples.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PRAYER OF A PENITENT PEOPLE: BARUCH 1:14 – 2:5; 3:1-8
“And you shall read this book which we are sending you, to make your confession in the house of the Lord
on the days of the feasts and at appointed seasons.
“And you shall say: ‘Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but confusion of face, as at this day, to
us, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to our kings and our princes and our priests
and our prophets and our fathers, because we have sinned before the Lord, and have disobeyed him, and
have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes of the Lord which he set before us.
From the day when the Lord brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, we have been
disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent, in not heeding his voice. So to this day
there have clung to us the calamities and the curse which the Lord declared through Moses his servant at
the time when he brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt to give to us a land flowing with milk and
honey. We did not heed the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of the prophets whom he sent to
us, but we each followed the intent of his own wicked heart by serving other gods and doing what is evil
in the sight of the Lord our God.
“ ‘So the Lord confirmed his word, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged Israel,
and against our kings and against our princes and against the men of Israel and Judah. Under the whole
heaven there has not been done the like of what he has done in Jerusalem, in accordance with what is
written in the law of Moses, that we should eat, one the flesh of his son and another the flesh of his
daughter. And he gave them into subjection to all the kingdoms around us, to be a reproach and a
desolation among all the surrounding peoples, where the Lord has scattered them. They were brought
low and not raised up, because we sinned against the Lord our God, in not heeding his voice.
“ ‘O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cry out to thee. Hear, O Lord,
and have mercy, for we have sinned before thee. For thou art enthroned for ever, and we are perishing
for ever. O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel and of the sons of those
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who sinned before thee, who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God, so that calamities have clung
to us. Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but in this crisis remember thy power and thy name.
For thou art the Lord our God, and thee, O Lord, will we praise. For thou hast put the fear of thee in our
hearts in order that we should call upon thy name; and we will praise thee in our exile, for we have put
away from our hearts all the iniquity of our fathers who sinned before thee. Behold, we are today in our
exile where thou hast scattered us, to be reproached and cursed and punished for all the iniquities of our
fathers who forsook the Lord our God.’”
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE

SERMO 10.2-3 (CCL 91A:938-939); WORD IN SEASON VIII
I shall show you, mortal man, what is good and what it is that the Lord requires of you. But for now, use
your judgement and act righteously; love mercy and be careful as you conduct your life in the Lord’s
sight.
First, then, as to what it might mean, to use one’s judgement, at the blessed Prophet’s first injunction.
Judgement is said to be an agreement, or decision, reached over the accusation against and defence of
some person; so what is required is for the accused to be sent down when guilty, or else victoriously
acquitted. So turn your thoughts to yourself, to your own state, mortal man. Look for the accusation
against you yourself: then for the defence; and then, what about the judgement itself? For now, you
alone are accuser, defender, and judge. Enter the secret recesses of your mind and heart, where the eyes
of the Lord alone can see you. Accuse yourself there, that you may be defended of the charge. Try your-
self there, that you may carry off the victory. Condemn yourself there, in your own mind, that you may
merit absolution. Do not treat yourself as a special case when criticising your own conduct. Instead, take
apart and analyse your misdeeds with rigour; be strict in condemning the sins you acknowledge as yours;
and in condemning them as your own, do them to death as well.
Do them to death: that means, not to yield in the slightest, ever after, to sinful urges. Not being one who
commits sin, you will then be one who has killed it off. And if you are a sound judge of your own sin you
will go free of God’s just judgement. But that you may rejoice in a just judgement delivered on yourself,
take note of St Paul’s counsel, teaching what actions of ours we need to mortify so as to arrive at the true
life. For he says this: Mortify your own bodies as they walk the earth; as for fornication and all impurity,
evil desires and prurience, avarice and slavery to the idols of materialism, all these call down the wrath of
God on the children of disbelief. That tells us, then, what is objectionable in ourselves, what we should
condemn there, what needs mortifying. Make the judgement on yourself – and you will not be judged. So
condemn – and you will not be condemned. Mortify yourself – and you will not be finally mortified, with
the death of the soul. Here and now be the strictest judge, a veritable butcher in cutting out defects in
the flesh. Take careful thought and be abject in mortification. For if you have properly weighed your sins
you have made the judgement; then by casting them off, you have killed them. To defend yourself, then,
self-accusation has to come first; to secure your pardon, judgement and self-criticism; so as to conduct
your cause victoriously, examination of conscience. Acknowledge your iniquity, mortify your base desires,
mend your ways – and so by judging aright you shall set free your mind and heart, your very soul.
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SATURDAY, TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL RESTS ON WISDOM: BARUCH 3:9-15, 24 – 4:4
Hear the commandments of life, O Israel; give ear, and learn wisdom! Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you
are in the land of your enemies, that you are growing old in a foreign country, that you are defiled with
the dead, that you are counted among those in Hades? You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. If you
had walked in the way of God, you would be dwelling in peace for ever. Learn where there is wisdom,
where there is strength, where there is understanding, that you may at the same time discern where
there is length of days, and life, where there is light for the eyes, and peace.
Who has found her place? And who has entered her storehouses?
O Israel, how great is the house of God! And how vast the territory that he possesses! It is great and has
no bounds; it is high and immeasurable. The giants were born there, who were famous of old, great in
stature, expert in war. God did not choose them, nor give them the way to knowledge; so they perished
because they had no wisdom, they perished through their folly.
Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who has gone
over the sea, and found her, and will buy her for pure gold? No one knows the way to her, or is
concerned about the path to her. But he who knows all things knows her, he found her by his
understanding. He who prepared the earth for all time filled it with four-footed creatures; he who sends
forth the light, and it goes, called it, and it obeyed him in fear; the stars shone in their watches, and were
glad; he called them, and they said, “Here we are!” They shone with gladness for him who made them.
This is our God; no other can be compared to him! He found the whole way to knowledge, and gave her
to Jacob his servant and to Israel whom he loved. Afterward she appeared upon earth and lived among
men.
She is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that endures for ever. All who hold her fast
will live, and those who forsake her will die. Turn, O Jacob, and take her; walk toward the shining of her
light. Do not give your glory to another, or your advantages to an alien people. Happy are we, O Israel, for
we know what is pleasing to God.
A READING FROM AGAINST THOSE UNWILLING TO CONFESS THE THEOTOKOS BY ST

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
AGAINST THOSE UNWILLING TO CONFESS THE THEOTOKOS 7
Jeremiah expressly cries out, this is our God, and no other shall be compared with him; he found in every
way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob this child and to Israel his beloved; and after these things, he
appeared on earth and lived among men. David the hymn-writer also sings, Mother Zion will say: and a
man was born in her, and the Most High himself established her.
What else could this mean but that he exists as God and man? For David confessed the same one to be
man and the Most High and the Founder. And in another psalm, we find him preserving no less the
principle of the indivisibility of the union and attributing again the things, which are proper to the
humanity of the very Logos of God. This is not the result of confusion of their essences, but rather of
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clearly perceiving the reason of the union of the essences. For he speaks in this way in the forty-fourth
psalm, ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of
righteousness; you have loved righteousness and hated injustice; therefore, God, your God, has anointed
you with the oil of gladness beyond your fellows.’ Do you see how he spoke of the Logos as God,
confessed him to be God and King, but did not divide him, nor introduce another person in addition to
him? Do you see how he spoke of the anointing? Let them then explain this saying. How was the Logos,
being God, anointed except by virtue of the fact that he put on the form of the servant, which would be
appropriate to the reception of anointing? But, if they say that the anointing is spoken of the person of
the Logos because of his indwelling in the man, as they are deceived into saying, let them learn that
indwelling is not said with reference to Christ, but with reference to the prophets and the saints, and so,
the saying in the psalm greatly surpasses the terms of the indwelling. For, while God dwells in all the
saints, and they are consequently sanctified and anointed, he is not himself said to be sanctified and
anointed. If, then, they apply the indwelling to him in a similar manner as in the saints, their blasphemy
will be obvious to everyone, and it will be clear that their teaching is entirely alien to the apostolic
teaching.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PIETY, SPOLIATION AND FLIGHT OF TOBIT: TOBIT 1:1-22
The book of the acts of Tobit the son of Tobiel, son of Ananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gabael, of the
descendants of Asiel and the tribe of Naphtali, who in the days of Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, was
taken into captivity from Thisbe, which is to the south of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee above Asher.
I, Tobit, walked in the ways of truth and righteousness all the days of my life, and I performed many acts
of charity to my brethren and countrymen who went with me into the land of the Assyrians, to Nineveh.
Now when I was in my own country, in the land of Israel, while I was still a young man, the whole tribe of
Naphtali my forefather deserted the house of Jerusalem. This was the place which had been chosen from
among all the tribes of Israel, where all the tribes should sacrifice and where the temple of the dwelling of
the Most High was consecrated and established for all generations for ever.
All the tribes that joined in apostasy used to sacrifice to the calf Baal, and so did the house of Naphtali my
forefather. But I alone went often to Jerusalem for the feasts, as it is ordained for all Israel by an
everlasting decree. Taking the first fruits and the tithes of my produce and the first shearings, I would give
these to the priests, the sons of Aaron, at the altar. Of all my produce I would give a tenth to the sons of
Levi who ministered at Jerusalem; a second tenth I would sell, and I would go and spend the proceeds
each year at Jerusalem; the third tenth I would give to those to whom it was my duty, as Deborah my
father’s mother had commanded me, for I was left an orphan by my father. When I became a man I
married Anna, a member of our family, and by her I became the father of Tobias.
Now when I was carried away captive to Nineveh, all my brethren and my relatives ate the food of the
Gentiles; but I kept myself from eating it, because I remembered God with all my heart. Then the Most
High gave me favour and good appearance in the sight of Shalmaneser, and I was his buyer of provisions.
So I used to go into Media, and once at Rages in Media I left ten talents of silver in trust with Gabael, the
brother of Gabrias. But when Shalmaneser died, Sennacherib his son reigned in his place; and under him
the highways were unsafe, so that I could no longer go into Media.
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In the days of Shalmaneser I performed many acts of charity to my brethren. I would give my bread to the
hungry and my clothing to the naked; and if I saw any one of my people dead and thrown out behind the
wall of Nineveh, I would bury him. And if Sennacherib the king put to death any who came fleeing from
Judea, I buried them secretly. For in his anger he put many to death. When the bodies were sought by the
king, they were not found. Then one of the men of Nineveh went and informed the king about me, that I
was burying them; so I hid myself. When I learned that I was being searched for, to be put to death, I left
home in fear. Then all my property was confiscated and nothing was left to me except my wife Anna and
my son Tobias.
But not fifty days passed before two of Sennacherib’s sons killed him, and they fled to the mountains of
Ararat. Then Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place; and he appointed Ahikar, the son of my brother
Anael, over all the accounts of his kingdom and over the entire administration. Ahikar interceded for me,
and I returned to Nineveh. Now Ahikar was cupbearer, keeper of the signet, and in charge of
administration of the accounts, for Esarhaddon had appointed him second to himself. He was my
nephew.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON TOBIT BY ST BEDE

COMM. IN TOB. 1-3; (1997), TR. S. CONNOLLY
The book of the holy father Tobit is clearly of saving benefit to its readers even in its superficial meaning
inasmuch as it abounds in both the noblest examples and the noblest counsels for moral conduct, and
anyone who knows how to interpret it historically and allegorically can see that its inner meaning excels
the mere letter as much as the fruit excels the leaves. For if it is understood in the spiritual sense it is
found to contain within it the greatest mysteries of Christ and the Church.
Indeed Tobit was taken captive in the days of Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians but when he was in
captivity he did not forsake the way of truth. This captivity of the hands of the king of the Assyrians
denotes the captivity of the human race whereby, through the king of all the perverse, that is, the devil, it
was banished from the abode of its heavenly homeland and deported to its sojourn in this exile.
When Tobit became a man he took as his wife Anna from his own tribe. And this people, after they had
grown up and increased in Egypt, espoused the Synagogue which had been established by Moses with
legal ceremonies. By her he begot a son and gave him his own name because he learnt that Christ was to
be born of his own kin as Moses had said: Your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among
your brethren; to him you shall listen; and the Lord said to David: One of the fruit of your womb I will set
upon my throne. Then he gave him his own name believing and confessing what the Father says of him:
And I will make him the first-born, as he says of the people themselves, Israel is my first-born son.
He taught him from his infancy to fear God and refrain from all sin, believing and confessing that he
would commit no sin and that no deceit would be found on his lips but that the spirit of the fear of the
Lord would fill him. To Gabael his fellow-kinsman who was in need, Tobit gave ten silver talents in trust.
And the people of God entrusted to the Gentiles through the seventy translators the knowledge of the
divine law which is contained in the decalogue in order thereby to free them from the indigence of
unbelief; but they gave it in trust, that is, on condition that it be repaid after the themselves got wealthy
or the one who had given it asked it back.
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On the other hand, the Gentiles received the word of God from the people of Israel through the medium
of translation because now after the Lord’s incarnation they also understand it spiritually and work at
acquiring the riches of the virtues; but they pay back the creditor when they receive into the unity of the
Church Jews who believe at the end of the world; and, as well as entrusting to them the mysteries of
Christ for their salvation, the also unlock for them the secrets of the Scriptures.
MONDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE TROUBLES OF TOBIT THE RIGHTEOUS AND HIS SPEECH: TOBIT 2:1 – 3:6
When I arrived home and my wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me, at the feast of
Pentecost, which is the sacred festival of the seven weeks, a good dinner was prepared for me and I sat
down to eat. Upon seeing the abundance of food I said to my son, “Go and bring whatever poor man of
our brethren you may find who is mindful of the Lord, and I will wait for you.” But he came back and said,
“Father, one of our people has been strangled and thrown into the market place.” So before I tasted
anything I sprang up and removed the body to a place of shelter until sunset. And when I returned I
washed myself and ate my food in sorrow. Then I remembered the prophecy of Amos, how he said, “Your
feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your festivities into lamentation.” And I wept.
When the sun had set I went and dug a grave and buried the body. And my neighbours laughed at me and
said, “He is no longer afraid that he will be put to death for doing this; he once ran away, and here he is
burying the dead again!” On the same night I returned from burying him, and because I was defiled I slept
by the wall of the courtyard, and my face was uncovered. I did not know that there were sparrows on the
wall and their fresh droppings fell into my open eyes and white films formed on my eyes. I went to
physicians, but they did not help me. Ahikar, however, took care of me until he went to Elymais.
Then my wife Anna earned money at women’s work. She used to send the product to the owners. Once
when they paid her wages, they also gave her a kid; and when she returned to me it began to bleat. So I
said to her, “Where did you get the kid? It is not stolen, is it? Return it to the owners; for it is not right to
eat what is stolen.” And she said, “It was given to me as a gift in addition to my wages.” But I did not
believe her, and told her to return it to the owners; and I blushed for her. Then she replied to me, “Where
are your charities and your righteous deeds? You seem to know everything!”
Then in my grief I wept, and I prayed in anguish, saying, “Righteous art thou, O Lord; all thy deeds and all
they ways are mercy and truth, and thou dost render true and righteous judgment for ever. Remember
me and look favourably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offences and those
which my fathers committed before thee. For they disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us
over to plunder, captivity, and death; thou madest us a byword of reproach in all the nations among
which we have been dispersed. And now thy many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for
my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep thy commandments. For we did not walk in
truth before thee. And now deal with me according to thy pleasure; command my spirit to be taken up,
that I may depart and become dust. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false
reproaches, and great is the sorrow within me. Command that I now be released from my distress to go
to the eternal abode; do not turn thy face away from me.”
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SERMON 41, 1-2; ACW 50 (1989) TR. RAMSEY
If you paid close attention to the section of the Gospel that was read, that section would have moved
your feelings deeply. For the Lord, as Scripture says, upon having been told by someone that he would
follow him wherever he went for the sake of religious service, says instead to another person: Follow me.
And, having spurned and disdained the one, he chooses the other in his place – a person who expected
nothing and was silent, although a voluntary offering is usually more acceptable, and service is more
pleasing when it is spontaneously rendered and not commanded.
Why is the one rejected, then? Why is he refused as if he were unworthy? For the Lord says to him: The
foxes have holes and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
This is the first thing that we must consider, therefore – that the Lord is not an accepter of persons, for he
is a just and even-handed judge, but that he gives love in repayment of virtuous deeds and does not
choose the one who is quick with words and slow in devotion but the one whose tongue is silent and
whose mind is devout. About such a one the Prophet says: If you practise silence you will appear to be
wise, but with regard to the one who speaks at every occasion Scripture has it: not everyone who says to
me: Lord, Lord, but the one who does my will. From this we learn, then, that the Lord ought not to be
cried out to so much from the mouth as from the heart.
Therefore he takes the one who is silent and who expects nothing. His tongue was silent, to be sure, but
he spoke in spirit. For we understand how devoted he was who, as he himself maintained, left his dead
father so as to lay hold of the Lord of life. For he says: First permit me to go and bury my father. The one
who he had left behind as dead he begs that he might return and bury. Sorrow did not hold him nor
death detain him, because he was hastening to life. He had not yet closed the eyes of the dead man, nor
yet buried the stiff limbs, But as soon as he learned that the Lord had come he forgot the feeling of filial
piety, believing that there was a greater piety in loving Christ more than one’s parents. Perhaps he had
read the prophetic passage that says: Forget your people and your father’s house. So he forgot his father
and remembered his Saviour. Perhaps he had also heard the Lord’s Gospel words: The one loves his
father or mother more is not worthy of me. Thus, as Tobit is justified because he abandons his meal for
the sake of a burial, this man is approved because he abandons the burial of his father for the sake of
Christ. For the one is not afraid to pass over his meal because some earthly work intervenes, while the
other fears lest some delay cause him to omit the eating of heavenly bread. Hence, although in
consideration of Christ we owe burial to everyone, this man forsook his father’s burial out of love for
Christ.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

SARAH’S MISERY AND HER PRAYERS: TOBIT 3:7-25
On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was
reproached by her father’s maids, because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon
Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his wife. So the maids said to her, “Do
you not know that you strangle your husbands? You already have had seven and have had no benefit
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from any of them. Why do you beat us? If they are dead, go with them! May we never see a son or
daughter of yours!”
When she heard these things she was deeply grieved, even to the thought of hanging herself. But she
said, “I am the only child of my father; if I do this, it will be a disgrace to him, and I shall bring his old age
down in sorrow to the grave. So she prayed by her window and said, “Blessed art thou, O Lord my God,
and blessed is thy holy and honoured name for ever. May all thy works praise thee for ever. And now, O
Lord, I have turned my eyes and my face toward thee. Command that I be released from the earth and
that I hear reproach no more. Thou knowest, O Lord, that I am innocent of any sin with man, and that I
did not stain my name or the name of my father in the land of my captivity. I am my father’s only child,
and he has no child to be his heir, no near kinsman or kinsman’s son for whom I should keep myself as
wife. Already seven husbands of mine are dead. Why should I live? But if it be not pleasing to thee to take
my life, command that respect be shown to me and pity be taken upon me, and that I hear reproach no
more.”
The prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great God. And Raphael was sent to heal
the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit’s eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in
marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled
to possess her. At that very moment Tobit returned and entered his house and Sarah the daughter of
Raguel came down from her upper room.

DE ORATIONE, 8-11 (PG 11:442-448); WORD IN SEASON VIII
In prayer you must not repeat meaningless words, nor ask for what is unimportant, nor pray for earthly
things, nor come to your prayers in an angry mood or a state of mental confusion. But you cannot achieve
the peace of mind which prayer requires without purity; nor when you pray can you obtain remission of
your sins unless you have wholeheartedly forgiven whoever asks forgiveness from you for some offence.
I can think of many things that will help you when you pray correctly or try to do so to the best of your
ability. The most helpful of all is to pray with intensity, and by means of that same intensity imagine
yourselves to be in the presence of God, speaking directly to him as if he were there in person observing
you.
For when we recall an object to mind it sometimes happens that certain other impressions linked with
that object in memory reappear with it in our recollection corrupting our thoughts. In the same way we
must believe that the remembrance of God’s presence is beneficial to us. God perceives the inmost
emotions of the soul; and the soul composes itself to please him who examines our hearts and searches
our thoughts as if he were really there watching over us, coming to every mind. For even if you received
no further help after preparing your minds for prayer, you must realise you obtain no ordinary result from
having so devoutly composed yourselves during your time of prayer. And if this happens often, those who
devote themselves to unceasing prayer know by experience how many sins it preserves them from, and
how many good deeds it leads them towards.
For they know how the memory and recollection of a good and wise man can rouse our admiration and
often hinder our impulse to evil. Then how much greater is the help we receive from the memory of God
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the Father of all, joined with our prayers to him; for we believe ourselves to be in his presence, speaking
to God who is there in person and hears us.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TOBIAS UNDERTAKES A JOURNEY: TOBIT 4:1-6, 16, 20-21; 5:1-14, 17-21
On that day Tobit remembered the money which he had left in trust with Gabael at Rages in Media, and
he said to himself; “I have asked for death. Why do I not call my son Tobias so that I may explain to him
about the money before I die?” So he called him and said, “”My son, when I die, bury me, and do not
neglect your mother. Honour her all the days of your life; do what is pleasing to her, and do not grieve
her. Remember, my son, that she faced many dangers for you while you were yet unborn. When she dies
bury her beside me in the same grave.
“Remember the Lord our God all your days, my son, and refuse to sin or to transgress his
commandments. Live uprightly all the days of your life, and do not walk in the ways of wrongdoing. For if
you do what is true, your ways will prosper through your deeds.
“Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your clothing to the naked. Give all your surplus to charity, and
do not let your eye begrudge the gift when you made it.
“And now let me explain to you about the ten talents of silver which I left in trust with Gabael the son of
Gabrias at Rages in Media. Do not be afraid, my son, because we have become poor. You have great
wealth if you fear God and refrain from every sin and do what is pleasing in his sight.”
Then Tobias answered him, “Father, I will do everything that you have commanded me; but how can I
obtain the money when I do not know the man?” Then Tobit gave him the receipt, and said to him, “Find
a man to go with you and I will pay him wages as long as I live; and go and get the money.” So he went to
look for a man; and he found Raphael, who was an angel, but Tobias did not know it. Tobias said to him,
“Can you go with me to Rages in Media? Are you acquainted with that region?” The angel replied, “I will
go with you; I am familiar with the way, and I have stayed with our brother Gabael.” Then Tobias said to
him, “Wait for me, and I shall tell my father.” And he said to him, “Go, and do not delay.” So he went in
and said to his father, “I have found some one to go with me.” He said, “Call him to me, so that I may
learn to what tribe he belongs, and whether he is a reliable man to go with you.”
So Tobias invited him in; he entered and they greeted each other. Then Tobit said to him, “My brother, to
what tribe and family do you belong? Tell me.” But he answered, “Are you looking for a tribe and a family
or for a man whom you will pay to go with your son?” And Tobit said to him, “I should like to know, my
brother, your people and your name.” He replied, “I am Azarias the son of the great Ananias, one of your
relatives.” Then Tobit said to him, “You are welcome, my brother. Do not be angry with me because I
tried to learn your tribe and family. You are a relative of mine, of a good and noble lineage. For I used to
know Ananias and Jathan, the sons of the great Shemaiah, when we went together to Jerusalem to
worship and offered the first-born of our flocks and the tithes of our produce. They did not go astray in
the error of our brethren. My brother, you come of good stock. But tell me, what wages am I to pay you –
a drachma a day, and expenses for yourself as for my son?” So they agreed to these terms.
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But Anna, his mother, began to weep, and said to Tobit, “Why have you sent our child away? Is he not the
staff of our hands as he goes in and out before us? Do not add money to money, but consider it as
rubbish as compared to our child. For the life that is given to us by the Lord is enough for us.” And Tobit
said to her, “Do not worry, my sister; he will return safe and sound, and your eyes will see him. For a good
angel will go with him; his journey will be successful, and he will come back safe and sound.” So she
stopped weeping.

CONFESSIONES, 10.34 (CSEL 34:265-267); WORD IN SEASON VIII
O Light, Tobit saw you when despite the blindness of his carnal eyes he pointed out the path of life to his
son, and strode unerringly ahead, borne by the feet of charity. Isaac saw you, though his bodily eyes were
dimmed and closed by age, when true insight was granted him in blessing his sons, notwithstanding his
inability to tell one from the other as he uttered his blessing. Jacob saw you when, likewise blinded by
advanced age, he beheld by the radiant vision of his heart the tribes of the people that were to be,
prefigured in his sons; and when, stretching out crossed hands in a gesture full of mystery, he laid them
on his grandsons, Joseph’s children, not in the way indicated by their father, who saw only the externals,
but as he himself judged to be right by the vision that guided him within. All these enjoyed the same
Light, the Light that is one in itself and unites all who see and love it.
The case is different with earthly light, of which I was speaking. This imparts to the life of this world a
seductive zest, dangerous to those whose love for it is blind. Yet once they have learned to praise you for
light as well as for your other gifts, Creator God, O Lord of all, they take it up in a hymn to your glory,
instead of being sapped by it in somnolence of spirit, and this is how I would wish to act. I resist alluring
sights lest my feet, those feet with which I walk in your way, become entangled, and to you I lift the
invisible eyes of my spirit that you may pluck my feet from the snare. I know that you will pluck them free
again and again, for enmeshed they often are. I am repeatedly caught in the traps scattered on every
side, but you will never fail to free me, for you neither grow drowsy nor fall asleep, who guard Israel.
How many things craftsmen have made, things without number, employing their manifold skills and
ingenuity on apparel, footwear, pottery, and artefacts of every conceivable kind, on pictures too, and
various images; and how far they have in these matters exceeded what is reasonably necessary or useful,
or serves some pious purpose! All of them increase the temptations to which our eyes are subject. People
pursue outside themselves what they are making, but forsake the One within by whom they were made,
and so destroy what they were made to be by driving it out of doors.
O my God, for me you are loveliness itself; yet for all these things too I sing a hymn and offer a sacrifice of
praise to you who sanctify me, because the beautiful designs that are born in our minds and find
expression through clever hands derive from that Beauty which transcends all minds, the Beauty to which
my own mind aspires day and night.
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THURSDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL MAKE THE JOURNEY; TOBIT 6:1-17
Now as they proceeded on their way they came at evening to the Tigris river and camped there. Then the
young man went down to wash himself. A fish leaped up from the river and would have swallowed the
young man; and the angel said to him, “Catch the fish.” So the young man seized the fish and threw it up
on the land. Then the angel said to him, “Cut open the fish and take the heart and liver and gall and put
them away safely.” So the young man did as the angel told him; and they roasted and ate the fish.
And they both continued on their way until they came near to Ecbatana. Then the young man said to the
angel, “Brother Azarias, of what use is the liver and heart and gall of the fish? He replied, “As for the heart
and liver, if a demon or evil spirit gives trouble to any one, you make a smoke from these before the man
or woman, and that person will never be troubled again. And as for the gall, anoint with it a man who has
white films in his eyes, and he will be cured.”
When they approached Ecbatana, the angel said to the young man, “Brother, today we shall stay with
Raguel. He is your relative, and he has an only daughter named Sarah. I will suggest that she be given to
you in marriage, because you are entitled to her and to her inheritance, for you are her only eligible
kinsman. The girl is also beautiful and sensible. Now listen to my plan. I will speak to her father, and as
soon as we return from Rages we will celebrate the marriage. For I know that Raguel, according to the law
of Moses, cannot give her to another man without incurring the penalty of death, because you rather
than any other man are entitled to the inheritance.”
Then the young man said to the angel, “Brother Azarias, I have heard that the girl has been given to seven
husbands and that each died in the bridal chamber. Now I am the only son my father has, and I am afraid
that if I go in I will die as those before me did, for a demon is in love with her, and he harms no one
except those who approach her. So now I fear that I may die and bring the lives of my father and mother
to the grave in sorrow on my account. And they have no other son to bury them.”
But the angel said to him, “Do you not remember the words with which your father commanded you to
take a wife from among your own people? Now listen to me, brother, for she will become your wife; and
do not worry about the demon, for this very night she will be given to you in marriage. When you enter
the bridal chamber, you shall take live ashes of incense and lay upon them some of the heart and liver of
the fish so as to make a smoke. Then the demon will smell it and flee away, and will never again return.
And when you approach her, rise up, both of you, and cry out to the merciful God, and he will save you
and have mercy on you. Do not be afraid, for she was destined for you from eternity. You will save her,
and she will go with you, and I suppose that you will have children by her.” When Tobias heard these
things, he fell in love with her and yearned deeply for her.
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ORATIO 37, 19.1-12 (PG 36:286-291); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The fortunes of this world are uncertain and transient; they are tossed from hand to hand, as in a game
with pebbles, and are always changing. Not one of this world’s blessings belongs to its owner securely
enough to prevent time destroying it, or envy transferring it elsewhere. But the rewards of heaven are
fixed and abiding; they neither disappear nor change, and can never deceive the hopes of those who trust
in them.
Now in my opinion there is a very good reason why people can find nothing reliable or lasting in the good
things of this world. The Word, who is the architect of our destiny in this as in all things, and the Wisdom
that transcends all mortal thought, have together well contrived it that we should be misled by everything
we see in the constantly shifting world around us, where in the midst of this whirling to and fro we are
always in pursuit of something that is forever flying from our grasp. Once we have observed the
restlessness and distortion of this mortal life, we shall hasten to change our course toward the life to
come. Indeed what should we have done if our prosperity here have been secure, when even in all its
uncertainty we are so bound to this world, and its pleasures and allurements have so enslaved us, that we
cannot imagine anything better or higher than our present life? And this, despite the fact that we are told
and believe that we are created in the image of God, that image which is above and draws us to itself.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TOBIAS MARRIES SARAH: TOBIT 7:1 – 8:14
When they reached Ecbatana and arrived at the house of Raguel, Sarah met them and greeted them.
They returned her greeting, and she brought them into the house. Then Raguel said to his wife Edna,
“How much the young man resembles my cousin Tobit!” And Raguel asked them, “Where are you from,
brethren?” They answered him, “We belong to the sons of Naphtali, who are captives in Nineveh.” So he
said to them, “Do you know our brother Tobit?” And they said, “Yes, we do.” And he asked them, “Is he in
good health?” They replied, “He is alive and in good health.” And Tobias said, “He is my father.” Then
Raguel sprang up and kissed him and wept. And he blessed him and exclaimed, “Son of that good and
noble man!” When he heard that Tobit had lost his sight, he was stricken with grief and wept. And his
wife Edna and his daughter Sarah wept. They received them very warmly; and they killed a ram from the
flock and set large servings of food before them.
Then Tobias said to Raphael, “Brother Azarias, speak of those things which you talked about on the
journey, and let the matter be settled.” So he communicated the proposal to Raguel. And Raguel said to
Tobias, “Eat, drink, and be merry; for it is your right to take my child. But let me explain the true situation
to you. I have given my daughter to seven husbands, and when each came to her he died in the night. But
for the present be merry.” And Tobias said, “I will eat nothing here until you make a binding agreement
with me.” So Raguel said, “Take her right now, in accordance with the law. You are her relative, and she is
yours. The merciful God will guide you both for the best.” Then he called his daughter Sarah, and taking
her by the hand he gave her to Tobias to be his wife, saying, “Here she is; take her according to the law of
Moses, and take her with you to your father.” And he blessed them. Next he called his wife Edna, and
took a scroll and wrote out the contract; and they set their seals to it. Then they began to eat.
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And Raguel called his wife Edna and said to her, “Sister, make up the other room, and take her into it.” so
she did as he said, and took her there; and the girl began to weep. But the mother comforted her
daughter in her tears, and said to her, “Be brave, my child; the Lord of heaven and earth grant you joy in
place of this sorrow of yours. Be brave, my daughter.”
When they had finished eating, they escorted Tobias in to her. As he went he remembered the words of
Raphael, and he took the live ashes of incense and put the heart and liver of the fish upon them and
made a smoke. And when the demon smelled the odour he fled to the remotest parts of Egypt, and the
angel bound him. When the door was shut and the two were alone, Tobias got up from the bed and said,
“Sister, get up, and let us pray that the Lord may have mercy upon us.” And Tobias began to pray,
“Blessed art thou, O God of our fathers, and blessed by thy holy and glorious name for ever. Let the
heavens and all thy creatures bless thee. Thou madest Adam and gavest him Eve his wife as a helper and
support. From them the race of mankind has sprung. Thou didst say, ‘It is not good that the man should
be alone; let us make a helper for him like himself.’ And now, O Lord, I am not taking this sister of mine
because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that I may find mercy and may grow old together with her.” And
she said with him, “Amen.” Then they both went to sleep for the night.
But Raguel arose and went and dug a grave, with the thought, “Perhaps he too will die.” Then Raguel
went into his house and said to his wife Edna, “Send one of the maids to see whether he is alive; and if he
is not, let us bury him without any one knowing about it.” So the maid opened the door and went in, and
found them both asleep. And she came out and told them that he was alive.
A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BEDE

HOMILY 14 (CCL 122:95-96); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The fact that our Lord and Saviour when invited to a wedding reception not only agreed to attend it but
also condescended to work a miracle at it in order to give pleasure to the assembled guests confirms the
faith of any genuine believer even if understood in its literal sense alone, and without searching it for
deeper spiritual meanings.
But perhaps we may experience a more sublime joy from contemplating the deeper spiritual meaning of
this event. It was as he was about to begin his miracle-working on earth that the Son of God attended a
wedding, to make it clear to all that it was really he whom the psalmist had symbolised in the Sun, of
which he sang: He came out like a bridegroom from his bridal chamber, exulting like a strong man to run
his course; his rising is at one end of the heavens, and his course takes him to the other end.
Somewhere in the gospel Christ says of himself and his disciples, Can the wedding guests be sad while the
bridegroom is with them? A time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they
will fast.
Now from the moment our Saviour’s incarnation was first promised to the patriarchs, its realisation was
awaited with sighs and tears by generation after generation of holy people. In much the same way, ever
since his ascension to heaven after his resurrection all the hopes of the faithful have been centred on him
in return. It was only during the short period of his sojourn among men that they were excepted from the
need to weep and mourn, for then they had him among them also in the flesh whom they loved
spiritually. Christ, then, is the bridegroom and the Church his bride; the wedding guests are the individual
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believers. The wedding celebrations celebrate the time when Christ united the holy Church to himself
through the mystery of the Incarnation.
So it was not by chance but in order to reveal a definite mystery that the Lord came to that wedding
breakfast. It was held to celebrate the physical union of a couple in everyday life on earth; but Christ had
come down from heaven to earth to join his Church to himself in a bond of spiritual love. His bridal
chamber was the womb of his Virgin Mother, in which our human nature was wedded to its God, and
from which he came out like a bridegroom to unite with himself his Church. It was in Judea that this
wedding first took place, for it was there that the Son of God assumed human nature, and later deigned
to hallow the Church by allowing it to partake of his body, and where too he graciously confirmed it in
faith by the pledge of his Spirit; but after he had called all nations to embrace that faith, the rejoicing
attendant on his wedding celebrations spread abroad to every corner of the globe.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE RETURN OF TOBIAS TO HIS FATHER: TOBIT 10:7B – 11:17
At that time Tobias said to Raguel, “Send me back, for my father and mother have given up hope of ever
seeing me again.” But his father-in-law said to him, “Stay with me, and I will send messengers to your
father, and they will inform him how things are with you.” Tobias replied, “No, send me back to my
father.” So Raguel arose and gave him his wife Sarah and half of his property in slaves, cattle, and money.
And when he had blessed them he sent them away, saying, “The God of heaven will prosper you, my
children, before I die.” He said also to his daughter, “Honour your father-in-law and your mother-in-law;
they are now your parents. Let me hear a good report of you.” And he kissed her. And Edna said to
Tobias, “The Lord of heaven bring you back safely, dear brother, and grant me to see your children by my
daughter Sarah, that I may rejoice before the Lord. See, I am entrusting my daughter to you; do nothing
to grieve her.”
After this Tobias went on his way, praising God because he had made his journey a success. And he
blessed Raguel and his wife Edna.
So he continued on his way until they came near to Nineveh. Then Raphael said to Tobias, “Are you not
aware, brother, of how you left your father? Let us run ahead of your wife and prepare the house. And
take the gall of the fish with you.” So they went their way, and the dog went along behind them.
Now Anna sat looking intently down the road for her son. And she caught sight of him coming, and said
to his father, “Behold, your son is coming, and so is the man who went with him!”
Raphael said, “I know, Tobias, that your father will open his eyes. You therefore must anoint his eyes with
the gall; and when they smart he will rub them, and will cause the white films to fall away, and he will see
you.”
Then Anna ran to meet them, and embraced her son, and said to him, “I have seen you, my child; now I
am ready to die.” And they both wept. Tobit started toward the door, and stumbled. But his son ran to
him and took hold of his father, and he sprinkled the gall upon his father’s eyes, saying, “Be of good
cheer, father.” And when his eyes began to smart he rubbed them, and the white films scaled off from
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the corners of his eyes. Then he saw his son and embraced him, and he wept and said, “Blessed art thou,
O God, and blessed is thy name for ever, and blessed are all thy holy angels. For thou hast afflicted me,
but thou hast had mercy upon me; here I see my son Tobias!” And his son went in rejoicing, and he
reported to his father the great things that had happened to him in Media.
Then Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gate of Nineveh, rejoicing and praising God.
Those who saw him as he went were amazed because he could see. And Tobit gave thanks before them
that God had been merciful to him. When Tobit came near to Sarah his daughter-in-law, he blessed her,
saying, “Welcome, daughter! Blessed is God who has brought you to us, and blessed are your father and
your mother.”

SERMO 73.3-5 (CCL 23:305-307); WORD IN SEASON VIII
A Christian worthy of the name will be intent on praising his Lord and Father throughout the whole day
and on doing all things to his greater glory, in accordance with these words of the Apostle, Whether you
eat or drink, in fact whatever you do, let all of it be offered for God’s glory. This gives you some idea
of what St Paul thought a Christian's meal should be like: Christian faith ought to be served up at it rather
than a profusion of food; a man’s spirit should be nourished at it by frequent invocations of the Lord’s
name rather than his body by a sequence of elaborate and over-laden dishes; piety rather than satiety
should appease his hunger. Above all, says the Apostle, let all be done for the sake of God’s glory. Christ
wants our every act to be carried out in his own presence as companion and witness, and for this reason:
that his personal inspiration may influence us for good, while his constant partnership may cause us to
refrain from evil.
Let us, then, give thanks to Christ on rising, and throughout the day let us begin our every deed with the
Saviour’s sign. Why, even as Gentiles, you used to look for signs, and with scrupulous care you searched
for such as might portend a profitable outcome to whatever business you had in hand! But now let us
make no mistake as to the number of these signs. For you must realize that Christ's one sign alone will
guarantee the total success of every enterprise. And whoever makes that sign at the sowing of his seed
will reap the harvest of eternal life, whilst he who makes it at the outset of his journey will travel all the
way to heaven. Thus in Christ’s sign and name must all our actions be performed, and to it all life’s ups
and downs must be referred, for has not the Apostle told us, in him we live and move and have our
being?
But when evening’s shadows lengthen, we must sing to him in the psalmist’s words and declare his
praises in melodious chants, for in having overcome our labours and our struggles we, like conquerors,
have deserved our rest and the oblivion of sleep as the reward of our toil. Who, then, possessing human
intelligence, would not be ashamed to end the day with no repetition of the psalms, when even the birds
pour out their own sweet psalms in gratitude and with no exultant hymns sung to the glory of him whom
the birds praise in melodious song? Therefore, my brothers and sisters, imitate the tiniest birds by giving
thanks to the Creator in the early morning and at evening; and if you are specially devout imitate the
nightingale, for whom the day alone is not enough to fill with praise, and so it sings the whole night
through as well! You also, then, as you vanquish the day with your songs of praise, must add a nightly
round to your office, and with a sequence of psalms console your sleepless diligence in the work which
you have undertaken!
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SUNDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PEOPLE PRAY TO GOD TO REMOVE THEIR DANGER: JUDITH 2:1-12; 4:1-2, 9-15
In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there was talk in the palace of
Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians about carrying out his revenge on the whole region, just as he said.
He called together all his officers and all his nobles and set forth to them his secret plan and recounted
fully, with his own lips, all the wickedness of the region; and it was decided that every one who had not
obeyed his command should be destroyed. When he had finished setting forth his plan, Nebuchadnezzar
king of the Assyrians called Holofernes, the chief general of his army, second only to himself, and said to
him,
“Thus says the Great King, the lord of the whole earth: When you leave my presence, take with you men
confident in their strength, to the number of one hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twelve
thousand cavalry. Go and attack the whole west country, because they disobeyed my orders. Tell them to
prepare earth and water, for I am coming against them in my anger, and will cover the whole face of the
earth with the feet of my armies, and will hand them over to be plundered by my troops, till their
wounded shall fill their valleys, and every brook and river shall be filled with their dead, and overflow; and
I will lead them away captive to the ends of the whole earth. You shall go and seize all their territory for
me in advance. They will yield themselves to you, and you shall hold them for me till the day of their
punishment. But if they refuse, your eye shall not spare and you shall hand them over to slaughter and
plunder throughout your whole region. For as I live, and by the power of my kingdom, what I have spoken
my hand will execute.
By this time the people of Israel living in Judea heard of everything that Holofernes, the general of
Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had plundered and
destroyed all their temples; they were therefore very greatly terrified at his approach, and were alarmed
both for Jerusalem and for the temple of the Lord their God.
And every man of Israel cried out to God with great fervour, and they humbled themselves with much
fasting. They and their wives and their children and their cattle and every resident alien and hired
labourer and purchased slave – they all girded themselves with sackcloth. And all the men and women of
Israel, and their children, living at Jerusalem, prostrated themselves before the temple and put ashes on
their heads and spread out their sackcloth before the Lord. They even surrounded the altar with sackcloth
and cried out in unison, praying earnestly to the God of Israel not to give up their infants as prey and their
wives as booty, and the cities they had inherited to be destroyed, and the sanctuary to be profaned and
desecrated to the malicious joy of the Gentiles. So the Lord heard their prayers and looked upon their
affliction; for the people fasted many days throughout Judea and in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the
Lord Almighty. And Joakim the high priest and all the priests who stood before the Lord and ministered to
the Lord, with their loins girded with sackcloth, offered the continual burnt offerings and the vows and
freewill offerings of the people. With ashes upon their turbans, they cried out to the Lord with all their
might to look with favour upon the whole house of Israel.
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A READING FROM ON PRAYER BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
DE PRECATIONE 6 (PG 64:462.466); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Prayer is the height of our blessings and communion with God; for it is both companionship and unity
with God. Just as the eyes of the body are enlightened when they look upon light, so a soul intent on God
is illumined and enlightened by his inexpressible light. It is not indeed formal prayer that I refer to, but
prayer offered from the heart, and so not confined to suitable times and fixed intervals, but continuing in
action without cease day and night. For we do not only have to withdraw to pray, and suddenly turn our
minds towards God. No, even while we are busy among the needy, either with the care of the poor or
with other concerns, or useful good works – into their very midst we should also bring our desire for and
remembrance of God, so that seasoned, as it were, with the love of God they may provide a most
acceptable offering for the Lord of all men. If we devote most of our time to prayer, the delight we can
gain from it will last us the whole of our lives.
Prayer is illumination of the soul and true knowledge of God. It mediates between God and men; it heals
suffering and counteracts disease. It calms the soul and guides it to heaven, for prayer has no earthly life,
but follows a path leading to the very heights of heaven. It transcends the created world, and in the spirit
cuts through and soars above the air; it passes beyond the circle of stars, opens the gates of heaven, and
taking precedence over the angels enters the very presence of the unapproachable Trinity. There it
worships the deity, and is held worthy to be the companion of the king of heaven. The soul, raised by it
high into heaven, embraces the Lord in an ineffable embrace, and cries out tearfully like a child to its
mother, begging for the heavenly milk. It seeks its own desires, and receives gifts surpassing all that
belongs to the world of nature.
Now in speaking of prayer, you must not imagine that I mean words. I mean desire for God, unutterable
love, which men cannot offer of themselves but by the inspiration of divine grace. Of this the Apostle
says: We do not know how we ought to pray, but in our wordless sighs the Spirit himself intercedes for
us. If the Lord grants to anyone prayer of this kind; it is wealth that will never be taken away, and
heavenly food that satisfies the soul; he who tastes it is possessed with an eternal longing for the Lord,
which sets his heart ablaze as with a mighty fire.
MONDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ACHIOR TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL IN HOLOFERNES’ PRESENCE: JUDITH 5:1-24
When Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, heard that the people of Israel had prepared for war
and had closed the passes in the hills and fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains,
he was very angry. So he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all
the governors of the coastland, and said to them, “Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives
in the hill country? What cities do they inhabit? How large is their army, and in what does their power or
strength consist? Who rules over them as king, leading their army? And why have they alone, of all who
live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?”
Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, “Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth
of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district.
No falsehood shall come from your servant’s mouth. This people is descended from the Chaldeans. At
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one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers who were in
Chaldea. For they had left the ways of their ancestors, and they worshiped the God of heaven, the God
they had come to know; hence they drove them out from the presence of their gods; and they fled to
Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time. Then their God commanded them to leave the place where
they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and prospered, with much gold and
silver and very many cattle. When a famine spread over Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there
as long as they had food; and there they became a great multitude – so great that they could not be
counted.
“So the king of Egypt became hostile to them; he took advantage of them and set them to making bricks,
and humbled them and made slaves of them. Then they cried out to their God, and he afflicted the whole
land of Egypt with incurable plagues; and so the Egyptians drove them out of their sight. Then God dried
up the Red Sea before them, and he led them by the way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea, and drove out all
the people of the wilderness. So they lived in the land of the Amorites, and by their might destroyed all
the inhabitants of Heshbon; and crossing over the Jordan they took possession of all the hill country. And
they drove out before them the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites and the Shechemites and
all the Gergesites, and lived there a long time. As long as they did not sin against their God they
prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. But when they departed from the way which he
had appointed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a
foreign country; the temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were captured by their
enemies. But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places to which they
were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill
country, because it was uninhabited. Now therefore, my master and lord, if there is any unwitting error in
this people and they sin against their God and we find out their offence, then we will go up and defeat
them. But if there is no transgression in their nation, then let my lord pass them by; for their Lord will
defend them, and their God will protect them, and we shall be put to shame before the whole world.”
When Achior had finished saying this, all the men standing around the tent began to complain;
Holofernes’ officers and all the men from the seacoast and from Moab insisted that he must be put to
death. “For,” they said, “we will not be afraid of the Israelites; they are a people with no strength or
power for making war. Therefore let us go up, Lord Holofernes, and they will be devoured by your vast
army.”
A READING FROM THE ORATIONS ON EASTER BY ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN

2ND ORATION ON EASTER 15-16; NPNF2 7 (1893) TR. BROWNE & SWALLOW
Then comes the sacred night, the anniversary of the confused darkness of the present life, into which the
primeval darkness is dissolved, and all things come in to life and rank and form, and that which was chaos
is reduced to order. Then we flee from Egypt, that is from sullen persecuting sin; and from Pharaoh the
unseen tyrant, and the bitter taskmasters, changing our quarters to the world above. We are delivered
from the clay and from making bricks, and from the husks and dangers of this fleshly condition.
Then the Lamb is slain, and act and word are sealed with the Precious Blood; that is, habit and action, the
side-posts of our doors; I mean, of course, of the movements of mind and opinion, which are rightly
opened and closed by contemplation, since there is a limit even to thoughts. Then comes the last and
gravest plague upon the persecutors, truly worthy of the night; and Egypt mourns the first-born of her
own thoughts and actions, which are also called in the Scripture the children of Babylon
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who are dashed against the rocks and destroyed. The whole air is full of the cry and clamour of the
Egyptians, and then the Destroyer of them shall withdraw from us in reverence for the anointing. Then
comes the removal of leaven; that is, of the old and sour wickedness, not of that which is quickening and
makes bread. This happens for seven days, a number which is of all the most mystical and is that of this
present world, that we may not lay in provision of any Egyptian dough, or relic of Pharisaic or ungodly
teaching.
So, let them lament - we will feed on the Lamb toward evening – for Christ’s Passion was at the
completion of the ages. We will do so because too he communicated his disciples in the evening with his
Sacrament, destroying the darkness of sin. And let us be aided by the good coals, kindling and purifying
our minds from him who comes to send fire on the earth, the fire that shall destroy all evil habits.
Everything that is solid and nourishing in the Word shall be eaten with the inward parts and hidden things
of the mind, and shall be consumed and given up to spiritual digestion; yes, from head to foot, that is,
from the first contemplations of Godhead to the very last thoughts about the Incarnation. Neither let us
carry any of it abroad, nor leave it till the morning; because most of our Mysteries may not be carried out
to them that are outside, nor is there beyond this night any further purification. For just as it is good and
well-pleasing to God not to let anger last through the day, but to get rid of it before sunset, whether you
take this of time or in a mystical sense, so too we ought not to let such food remain all night, nor to put it
off till tomorrow.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ACHIOR IS HANDED OVER TO THE MEN OF ISRAEL: JUDITH 6:1-7, 10 – 7:1, 4-5
When the disturbance made by the men outside the council died down, Holofernes, the commander of
the Assyrian army, said to Achior and all the Moabites in the presence of all the foreign contingents:
“And who are you, Achior, and you hirelings of Ephraim, to prophesy among us as you have done today
and tell us not to make war against the people of Israel because their God will defend them? Who is God
except Nebuchadnezzar? He will send his forces and will destroy them from the face of the earth, and
their God will not deliver them – we the king’s servants will destroy them as one man. They cannot resist
the might of our cavalry. We will burn them up, and their mountains will be drunk with their blood, and
their fields will be full of their dead. They cannot withstand us, but will utterly perish. So says King
Nebuchadnezzar, the lord of the whole earth. For he has spoken; none of his words shall be in vain.
“But you, Achior, you Ammonite hireling, who have said these words on the day of your iniquity, you shall
not see my face again from this day until I take revenge on this race that came out of Egypt. Then the
sword of my army and the spear of my servants shall pierce your sides, and you shall fall among their
wounded, when I return. Now my slaves are going to take you back into the hill country and put you in
one of the cities beside the passes.”
Then Holofernes ordered his slaves, who waited on him in his tent, to seize Achior and take him to
Bethulia and hand him over to the men of Israel. So the slaves took him and led him out of the camp into
the plain, and from the plain they went up into the hill country and came to the springs below Bethulia.
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When the men of the city saw them, they caught up their weapons and ran out of the city to the top of
the hill, and all the slingers kept them from coming up by casting stones at them. However, they got
under the shelter of the hill and they bound Achior and left him lying at the foot of the hill, and returned
to their master.
Then the men of Israel came down from their city and found him; and they untied him and brought him
into Bethulia and placed him before the magistrates of their city, who in those days were Uzziah the son
of Micah, of the tribe of Simeon, and Chabris the son of Gothoniel, and Charmis the son of Melchiel. They
called together all the elders of the city, and all their young men and their women ran to the assembly;
and they set Achior in the midst of all their people, and Uzziah asked him what had happened. He
answered and told them what had taken place at the council of Holofernes, and all that he had said in the
presence of the Assyrian leaders, and all that Holofernes had said so boastfully against the house of Israel.
Then the people fell down and worshiped God, and cried out to him, and said,
O Lord God of heaven, behold their arrogance, and have pity on the humiliation of our people, and look
this day upon the faces of those who are consecrated to thee.”
Then they consoled Achior, and praised him greatly. And Uzziah took him from the assembly to his own
house and gave a banquet for the elders; and all that night they called on the God of Israel for help.
The next day Holofernes ordered his whole army, and all the allies who had joined him, to break camp
and move against Bethulia, and to seize the passes up into the hill country and make war on the Israelites.
When the Israelites saw their vast numbers they were greatly terrified, and every one said to his
neighbour, “These men will now lick up the face of the whole land; neither the high mountains nor the
valleys nor the hills will bear their weight.” Then each man took up his weapons, and when they had
kindled fires on their towers they remained on guard all that night.

SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, GAUDIUM ET SPES, 78
Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of
power between enemies, nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately
called an enterprise of justice. Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine
Founder, and actualised by men as they thirst after ever greater justice. The common good of humanity
finds its ultimate meaning in the eternal law. But since the concrete demands of this common good are
constantly changing as time goes on, peace is never attained once and for all, but must be built up
ceaselessly. Moreover, since the human will is unsteady and wounded by sin, the achievement of peace
requires a constant mastering of passions and the vigilance of lawful authority.
But this is not enough. This peace on earth cannot be obtained unless personal well-being is safeguarded
and men freely and trustingly share with one another the riches of their inner spirits and their talents. A
firm determination to respect other men and peoples and their dignity, as well as the studied practice of
brotherhood, are absolutely necessary for the establishment of peace. Hence, peace is likewise the fruit
of love, which goes beyond what justice can provide.
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That earthly peace which arises from love of neighbour symbolises and results from the peace of Christ
which radiates from God the Father. For by the cross the incarnate Son, the prince of peace, reconciled all
men with God. By thus restoring all men to the unity of one people and one body, he slew hatred in his
own flesh, and after being lifted on high by his resurrection, he poured forth the spirit of love into the
hearts of men.
For this reason, all Christians are urgently summoned to do in love what the truth requires, and to join
with all true peacemakers in pleading for peace and bringing it about.
Motivated by this same spirit, we cannot fail to praise those who renounce the use of violence in the
vindication of their rights and who resort to methods of defence which are otherwise available to weaker
parties too, provided this can be done without injury to the rights and duties of others or of the
community itself.
Insofar as men are sinful, the threat of war hangs over them, and hang over them it will until the return of
Christ. But insofar as men vanquish sin by a union of love, they will vanquish violence as well and make
these words come true: They shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JUDITH IS CONCERNED FOR THE SAFETY OF HER PEOPLE: JUDITH 8:1A, 9-14, 28-32; 9:1-6, 11-14
At that time Judith heard about these things: she was the daughter of Merari the son of Ox. When she
heard the wicked words spoken by the people against the ruler, because they were faint for lack of water,
and when she heard all that Uzziah said to them, and how he promised them under oath to surrender the
city to the Assyrians after five days, she sent her maid, who was in charge of all she possessed, to
summon Chabris and Charmis, the elders of her city. They came to her, and she said to them,
“Listen to me, rulers of the people of Bethulia! What you have said to the people today is not right; you
have even sworn and pronounced this oath between God and you, promising to surrender the city to our
enemies unless the Lord turns and helps us within so many days. Who are you, that have put God to the
test this day, and are setting yourselves up in the place of God among the sons of men? You are putting
the Lord Almighty to the test – but you will never know anything! You cannot plumb the depths of the
human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God, who made all
these things, and find out his mind or comprehend his thought? No, my brethren, do not provoke the
Lord our God to anger.”
Then Uzziah said to her, “All that you have said has been spoken out of a true heart, and there is no one
who can deny your words. Today is not the first time your wisdom has been shown, but from the
beginning of your life all the people have recognized your understanding, for your heart's disposition is
right. But the people were very thirsty, and they compelled us to do for them what we have promised,
and made us take an oath which we cannot break. So pray for us, since you are a devout woman, and the
Lord will send us rain to fill our cisterns and we will no longer be faint.”
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Judith said to them, “Listen to me. I am about to do a thing which will go down through all generations of
our descendants.” Then Judith fell upon her face, and put ashes on her head, and uncovered the
sackcloth she was wearing; and at the very time when that evening’s incense was being offered in the
house of God in Jerusalem, Judith cried out to the Lord with a loud voice, and said,
“O Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom thou gavest a sword to take revenge on the strangers who
had loosed the girdle of a virgin to defile her, and uncovered her thigh to put her to shame, and polluted
her womb to disgrace her; for thou hast said, ‘It shall not be done’ – yet they did it. So thou gavest up
their rulers to be slain, and their bed, which was ashamed of the deceit they had practiced, to be stained
with blood, and thou didst strike down slaves along with princes, and princes on their thrones; and thou
gavest their wives for a prey and their daughters to captivity, and all their booty to be divided among thy
beloved sons, who were zealous for thee, and abhorred the pollution of their blood, and called on thee
for help – O God, my God, hear me also, a widow.
“For thou hast done these things and those that went before and those that followed; thou hast designed
the things that are now, and those that are to come. Yea, the things thou didst intend came to pass, and
the things thou didst will presented themselves and said, ‘Lo, we are here’; for all thy ways are prepared
in advance, and thy judgment is with foreknowledge.
“For thy power depends not upon numbers, nor thy might upon men of strength; for thou art God of the
lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, protector of the forlorn, saviour of those without
hope. Hear, O hear me, God of my father, God of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of heaven and earth,
Creator of the waters, King of all thy creation, hear my prayer! Make my deceitful words to be their
wound and stripe, for they have planned cruel things against thy covenant, and against thy consecrated
house, and against the top of Zion, and against the house possessed by thy children. And cause thy whole
nation and every tribe to know and understand that thou art God, the God of all power and might, and
that there is no other who protects the people of Israel but thou alone!”
A READING FROM ON THE HOLY SPIRIT BY ST BASIL THE GREAT

DE SPIRITU SANCTO, 18-19; (1980) TR. ANDERSON
Every kind of help comes to our souls through Christ, and an appropriate title has been devised for each
particular kind of care. When he presents a blameless soul to himself, a soul which like a pure virgin has
neither spot nor wrinkle, he is called Bridegroom, but when he receives someone paralysed by the devil’s
evil strokes, and heals the heavy burden of his sins, he is called Physician. Because he cares for us, will this
make us think less of him? Or will we not be struck with amazement at our Saviour’s mighty power and
love for mankind, who patiently endured to suffer our infirmities with us, and condescended to our
weakness?
No heaven, or earth, or the great oceans, or all creatures living in the waters and on dry land, or plants,
stars, air, and seasons, or the vast expanse of the universe, can illustrate the surpassing greatness of
God’s might so well as he has himself. The infinite God, remaining changeless, assumed flesh and fought
with death, freeing us from suffering by his own suffering! Even when the Apostle says that in all these
things (tribulations and sufferings) we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, in a phrase
of this kind there is no suggestion of any lowly and subordinate ministry, but rather it speaks of the good
he has accomplished in the strength of his might. He himself has bound the strong man and plundered his
goods – that is, us, who had been abased in every manner of evil – and made us into vessels fit for the
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Master’s use, the use of our free will being made ready for any good work. Thus through him we have our
approach to the Father, who has transferred us from the dominion of darkness to share in the inheritance
of the saints in light.
Our next task is to discuss the treasury of blessings which come from the Father through the Son to us. All
created nature, whether visible or spiritual, is held together by God’s care: he who is the creating Word,
the only-begotten God. He bestows help on every creature according to its need. He shepherds, he
enlightens, he nourishes, he leads, he heals, he raises up. He calls all things from non-existence into
being; once things are created he keeps them in existence. Thus God’s blessings reach us through the
Son, who works in each case with greater speed than words can describe. Neither lightning, or the speed
of light racing through the air, or a blink of the eyes, for the movement of our thoughts, is as swift as the
Son’s working. Divine energy surpasses everything in speed; it is faster than birds, or the wind, or the
revolution of the heavenly bodies, or our very thoughts. It makes living creatures appear sluggish. What
passage of time is needed by him who upholds the universe by his word of power? He does not work by
bodily strength, nor does he need the use of hands in order to fashion things, but all created things follow
him, offering him their willing cooperation. As Judith says, The things you have foreordained present
themselves and say, ‘We are here!’
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

JUDITH IN THE PRESENCE OF HOLOFERNES: JUDITH 10:1-5, 11-16; 11:1-6, 18-21
When Judith had ceased crying out to the God of Israel, and had ended all these words, she rose from
where she lay prostrate and called her maid and went down into the house where she lived on Sabbaths
and on her feast days; and she removed the sackcloth which she had been wearing, and took off her
widow's garments, and bathed her body with water, and anointed herself with precious ointment, and
combed her hair and put on a tiara, and arrayed herself in her gayest apparel, which she used to wear
while her husband Manasseh was living. And she put sandals on her feet, and put on her anklets and
bracelets and rings, and her earrings and all her ornaments, and made herself very beautiful, to entice the
eyes of all men who might see her. And she gave her maid a bottle of wine and a flask of oil, and filled a
bag with parched grain and a cake of dried fruit and fine bread; and she wrapped up all her vessels and
gave them to her to carry.
Then they went out to the city gate of Bethulia, and found Uzziah standing there with the elders of the
city, Chabris and Charmis
The women went straight on through the valley; and an Assyrian patrol met her and took her into
custody, and asked her, “To what people do you belong, and where are you coming from, and where are
you going?” She replied, “I am a daughter of the Hebrews, but I am fleeing from them, for they are about
to be handed over to you to be devoured. I am on my way to the presence of Holofernes the commander
of your army, to give him a true report; and I will show him a way by which he can go and capture all the
hill country without losing one of his men, captured or slain.”
When the men heard her words, and observed her face – she was in their eyes marvellously beautiful –
they said to her, “You have saved your life by hurrying down to the presence of our lord. Go at once to his
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tent; some of us will escort you and hand you over to him. And when you stand before him, do not be
afraid in your heart, but tell him just what you have said, and he will treat you well.”
Then Holofernes said to her, “Take courage, woman, and do not be afraid in your heart, for I have never
hurt any one who chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all the earth. And even now, if your people
who live in the hill country had not slighted me, I would never have lifted my spear against them; but they
have brought all this on themselves. And now tell me why you have fled from them and have come over
to us – since you have come to safety. Have courage; you will live, tonight and from now on. No one will
hurt you, but all will treat you well, as they do the servants of my lord King Nebuchadnezzar.”
Judith replied to him, “Accept the words of your servant, and let your maidservant speak in your
presence, and I will tell nothing false to my lord this night. 6 And if you follow out the words of your
maidservant, God will accomplish something through you, and my lord will not fail to achieve his
purposes.”
“And I will come and tell you, and then you shall go out with your whole army, and not one of them will
withstand you. Then I will lead you through the middle of Judea, till you come to Jerusalem; and I will set
your throne in the midst of it; and you will lead them like sheep that have no shepherd, and not a dog will
so much as open its mouth to growl at you. For this has been told me, by my foreknowledge; it was
announced to me, and I was sent to tell you.”
Her words pleased Holofernes and all his servants, and they marvelled at her wisdom and said, “There is
not such a woman from one end of the earth to the other, either for beauty of face or wisdom of
speech!”

EP. II AD GALLAMI, 29-20 (CCL 91:207-208); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Behold a wisdom, famous in family, wealthy in goods, young in age, marvellous in appearance, who
despised riches, repudiated delights, trampled on the attractions of the flesh, and, putting on virtue from
on high, did not seek to be entangled in a second marriage. So, by the witness of so brilliant a deed, it is
apparent how beloved of God is a widow's continence. Then when Holofernes besieged Bethulia in force
with an army and all the power of the Israelites, shaken, grew weak, chastity went forth to assault
lasciviousness and holy humility proceeded to the destruction of pride. He fought with armies, she with
fasts; he with drunkenness, she with prayer. Therefore, what the entire people of the Israelites was
unable to do, the holy widow accomplished by the virtue of chastity. For one woman cut off the head of
the leader of so great an army and restored to the people of God an unhoped for freedom.
Let us also see in the New Testament how the way of life of Saint Anna is revealed to us. Concerning her,
Saint Luke speaks as follows: There was also a Prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of
Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage and then
as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day with fasting
and prayer.
These two widows, although they lived in different periods, still both served the mystery of the one faith;
because Christ, whom Anna knew as born in the flesh, Judith had known as one who was going to be
born. How God showed in each widow that continence pleases him greatly! For Judith, girded with
spiritual weapons, cut off the head of the lustful brigand. But Anna, filled with the Holy Spirit, knew the
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very head of the Church. The death of Holofernes was given to Judith; to Anna was revealed the coming
of the Saviour. To the former, God gave it to drive away a plague from the people; to the latter, he gave it
to recognise the remedy of the human race. And because the continence of the widow follows after
virginal holiness as a lower degree, therefore, after the Son of God was born of a virgin, he deigned to be
proclaimed by the office of the widow’s tongue. Still it was not a widow given over to pleasure who spoke
about him, one who is dead while she lives, but one who never left the temple but worshipped night and
day with fasting and prayer.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HOLOFERNES’ BANQUET: JUDITH 12:1 – 13:5
Then Holofernes commanded them to bring her in where his silver dishes were kept, and ordered them
to set a table for her with some of his own food and to serve her with his own wine. But Judith said, “I
cannot eat it, lest it be an offence; but I will be provided from the things I have brought with me.”
Holofernes said to her, “If your supply runs out, where can we get more like it for you? For none of your
people is here with us.” Judith replied, “As your soul lives, my lord, your servant will not use up the things
I have with me before the Lord carries out by my hand what he has determined to do.”
Then the servants of Holofernes brought her into the tent, and she slept until midnight. Along toward the
morning watch she arose and sent to Holofernes and said, “Let my lord now command that your servant
be permitted to go out and pray.” So Holofernes commanded his guards not to hinder her. And she
remained in the camp for three days, and went out each night to the valley of Bethulia, and bathed at the
spring in the camp. When she came up from the spring she prayed the Lord God of Israel to direct her
way for the raising up of her people. So she returned clean and stayed in the tent until she ate her food
toward evening.
On the fourth day Holofernes held a banquet for his slave only, and did not invite any of his officers. And
he said to Bagoas, the eunuch who had charge of his personal affairs, “Go now and persuade the Hebrew
woman who is in your care to join us and eat and drink with us. For it will be a disgrace if we let such a
woman go without enjoying her company, for if we do not embrace her she will laugh at us.” So Bagoas
went out from the presence of Holofernes, and approached her and said, “This beautiful maidservant will
please come to my lord and be honoured in his presence, and drink wine and be merry with us, and
become today like one of the daughters of the Assyrians who serve in the house of Nebuchadnezzar.”
And Judith said, “Who am I, to refuse my lord? Surely whatever pleases him I will do at once, and it will be
a joy to me until the day of my death!” So she got up and arrayed herself in all her woman’s finery, and
her maid went and spread on the ground for her before Holofernes the soft fleeces which she had
received from Bagoas for her daily use, so that she might recline on them when she ate.
Then Judith came in and lay down, and Holofernes’ heart was ravished with her and he was moved with
great desire to possess her; for he had been waiting for an opportunity to deceive her, ever since the day
he first saw her. So Holofernes said to her. “Drink now, and be merry with us!” Judith said, “I will drink
now, my lord, because my life means more to me today than in all the days since I was born.” Then she
took and ate and drank before him what her maid had prepared. And Holofernes was greatly pleased with
her, and drank a great quantity of wine, much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was
born.
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When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew, and Bagoas closed the tent from outside and shut out
the attendants from his master's presence; and they went to bed, for they all were weary because the
banquet had lasted long. So Judith was left alone in the tent , with Holofernes stretched out on his bed,
for he was overcome with wine.
Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she
did every day; for she said she would be going out for her prayers. And she had said the same thing to
Bagoas. So every one went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then
Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour upon the
work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time to help thy inheritance, and to carry
out my undertaking for the destruction of the enemies who have risen up against us.”
A READING FROM CONCERNING WIDOWS BY ST AMBROSE

CONCERNING WIDOWS, 7; NPNF210 (1989) TR. DE ROMESTY
Bravery is usually not wanting to a good widow. For true bravery can pass the bound of nature and the
weakness of the sex by the devotion of the mind. Such bravery was found in her who was named Judith,
who of herself alone was able to rouse up her nation from utter prostration and defend from the enemy
men broken down by the siege, smitten with fear, and pining with hunger.
From the time when her husband died she laid aside the garments of mirth, and took those of mourning.
Every day she was intent on fasting except on the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day and the times of holy days,
not as yielding to desire of refreshment, but out of respect for religion, as it is said: Whether you eat or
drink, all is to be done in the name of Jesus Christ. But in order to accomplish her stratagem she put on
that robe of mirth, with which in her husband’s life time she was accustomed to be clothed, as though
she would give pleasure to her husband if she freed her country. But she also saw another man whom she
was seeking to please, even him, of whom it is said: After me comes a man who is preferred before me.
Why relate the sequel? How she, amongst thousands of enemies, remained chaste. Why speak of her
wisdom, in that she designed such a scheme? She reserved the merit of abstinence and the grace of
chastity. For unpolluted, as we read, either by foot or by adultery, she gained no less a triumph over the
enemy by preserving her chastity than by delivering her country.
And this was not so much a work of her hands, as much more a trophy of her wisdom. For having
overcome Holofernes by her hand alone, she overcame the whole army of the enemies by her wisdom.
For hanging up the head of Holofernes, a deed which the wisdom of the men had been unable to plan,
she raised the courage of their countrymen and broke down that of the enemy. She stirred up her own
friends by her modesty, and struck terror into the enemy so that they were put to flight and slain. And so
the temperance and sobriety of one widow not only subdued her own nature, but, which is far more,
even made men more brave.
And yet she was not so elated by this success, though she might well rejoice and exult by right of her
victory, as to give up the exercises of her widowhood, but refusing all who desired to wed her she laid
aside her garments of mirth and took again those of her widowhood, not caring for the adornments of
her triumph, thinking those things better whereby vices of the body are subdued than those whereby the
weapons of an enemy are overcome.
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SATURDAY, TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DEATH OF HOLOFERNES AND THE THANKSGIVING: JUDITH 13:4-31
So every one went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith,
standing beside his bed, said in her heart, “O Lord God of all might, look in this hour upon the work of my
hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time to help thy inheritance, and to carry out my
undertaking for the destruction of the enemies who have risen up against us.” She went up to the post at
the end of the bed, above Holofernes’ head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to
his bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, “Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!”
And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed it from his body. Then she tumbled his body
off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts; after a moment she went out, and gave
Holofernes’ head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag.
Then the two of them went out together, as they were accustomed to go for prayer; and they passed
through the camp and circled around the valley and went up the mountain to Bethulia and came to its
gates. Judith called out from afar to the watchmen at the gates, “Open, open the gate! God, our God, is
still with us, to show his power in Israel, and his strength against our enemies, even as he has done this
day!”
When the men of her city heard her voice, they hurried down to the city gate and called together the
elders of the city. They all ran together, both small and great, for it was unbelievable that she had
returned; they opened the gate and admitted them, and they kindled a fire for light, and gathered around
them. Then she said to them with a loud voice, “Praise God, O praise him! Praise God, who has not
withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very
night!”
Then she took the head out of the bag and showed it to them, and said, “See, here is the head of
Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his
drunken stupor. The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman. As the Lord lives, who has
protected me in the way I went, it was my face that tricked him to his destruction, and yet he committed
no act of sin with me, to defile and shame me.”
All the people were greatly astonished, and bowed down and worshipped God, and said with one accord,
“Blessed art thou, our God, who hast brought into contempt this day the enemies of thy people.”
And Uzziah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all women on earth;
and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the
head of the leader of our enemies. Your hope will never depart from the hearts of men, as they
remember the power of God. May God grant this to be a perpetual honour to you, and may he visit you
with blessings, because you did not spare your own life when our nation was brought low, but have
avenged our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God.2 And all the people said, “So be it, so be
it!”
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A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST ANDREW OF CRETE
HOM. IN ANNUNCIATIONE B. MARIAE (PG 97:893.897-901); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Rejoice, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. May you rejoice, instrument of joy, through whom the
condemnation of a curse has been annulled and replaced by the justification of joy.
Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And you are rightly blessed.
For God blessed you as his own dwelling, when in a way beyond our understanding you bore within you
one supremely filled with the glory of the Father, the human Christ Jesus and the same God, in the
perfection of the two natures of and in which he was formed. Most blessed are you among women, who
without constriction received that heavenly treasure in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
are hidden within the inviolate inner room of your virginity. You are truly blessed whose womb gathered a
sheaf for the threshing floor, because without seed or husbandry you brought Christ to perfection, the
fruit of blessing, the ear of corn of immortality, and led an abundant harvest, ten-thousand fold,
thousands of joyful people to the husbandman of our salvation.
You are really blessed, since you alone without human husband bore within you one who expanded the
heavens and, in a marvellous way, made the earth of your virginity heaven. Most blessed are you among
women, since you alone inherited the blessing which God promised to the Gentiles through Abraham.
You are truly blessed, since you alone were the mother of the blessed child Jesus Christ and our Saviour.
It was because of you that the Gentiles cried out: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; and:
Blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, Amen.
Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Blessed is the fruit which
blossomed like a marvellously ripened dark grape from the undefiled shoot of your virgin womb. Blessed
is the fruit from which flows streams of water welling up for eternal life. It is from this fruit that the bread
of life, the Lord’s body is offered, and the chalice of immortality, the drink bringing salvation is presented.
Blessed is the fruit which every tongue glorifies in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, thus including
the Lord, as being of the same essence, in the threefold formation of the sanctifying Deity in the Trinity,
but as a person assigning him individuality in the basic unity of the subsistent entities. Most blessed are
you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MYSTERY OF DIVINE WISDOM: SIRACH 1:1-29
All wisdom comes from the Lord and is with him for ever. The sand of the sea, the drops of rain, and the
days of eternity--who can count them? The height of heaven, the breadth of the earth, the abyss, and
wisdom--who can search them out? Wisdom was created before all things, and prudent understanding
from eternity. The root of wisdom--to whom has it been revealed? Her clever devices – who knows them?
There is One who is wise, greatly to be feared, sitting upon his throne. The Lord himself created wisdom;
he saw her and apportioned her, he poured her out upon all his works. She dwells with all flesh according
to his gift, and he supplied her to those who love him.
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The fear of the Lord is glory and exultation, and gladness and a crown of rejoicing. The fear of the Lord
delights the heart, and gives gladness and joy and long life. With him who fears the Lord it will go well at
the end; on the day of his death he will be blessed.
To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom she is created with the faithful in the womb. She made
among men an eternal foundation, and among their descendants she will be trusted. To fear the Lord is
wisdom’s full measure; she satisfies men with her fruits; she fills their whole house with desirable goods,
and their storehouses with her produce. The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom, making peace and
perfect health to flourish. He saw her and apportioned her; he rained down knowledge and discerning
comprehension, and he exalted the glory of those who held her fast. To fear the Lord is the root of
wisdom, and her branches are long life.
Unrighteous anger cannot be justified, for a man’s anger tips the scale to his ruin. A patient man will
endure until the right moment, and then joy will burst forth for him. He will hide his words until the right
moment, and the lips of many will tell of his good sense. In the treasuries of wisdom are wise sayings, but
godliness is an abomination to a sinner.
If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will supply it for you. For the fear of the
Lord is wisdom and instruction, and he delights in fidelity and meekness. Do not disobey the fear of the
Lord; do not approach him with a divided mind. Be not a hypocrite in men's sight, and keep watch over
your lips.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTICUS BY BLESSED RABANUS

MAURUS
COMM. IN ECCLESIASTICUM, 1, 1-2 (PL 109:765-766); WORD IN SEASON VIII
All wisdom is from the Lord and it is his own forever. The beginning of this book, then, speaks of the
eternal Wisdom of God which was with the Father before all ages. So also St John’s Gospel which opens
thus: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All wisdom is from the Lord because Christ, who is the source of life and the light
which illumines every man coming into this world, was born of God the Father; and all things were made
through him and without him was made nothing that was made. But whoever lacks the light of this
wisdom is walking in the dark, not knowing where he is going because the darkness has dimmed his sight.
Whatever opposes this wisdom should be dubbed ‘folly’. So St Paul says, The wisdom of this world is folly
with God. And again, To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and
peace. For the wisdom of the flesh is at enmity with God since it is not subject to the law of God, nor can
it be.
The sand of the sea and the raindrops and the days of eternity, who can assess them? The height of the
sky and the breadth of the earth and the depth of the abyss, who has measured them? Before all other
things wisdom was created; who can probe her? Ecclesiasticus draws the comparison between material
and spiritual things, so that by reference to what is most difficult in nature such a comparison might be
justly assessed -but this is altogether impossible. If nobody can count the sand of the sea or the raindrops
or the days of eternity, or measure the height of the sky or the breadth of the earth or the depth of the
abyss – and yet these were established by their Creator according to number, measure, and weight – how
can anyone probe the wisdom of God which exists without beginning and without end and abides
forever, at once indescribable and immeasurable? For the power of God and the wisdom of God – Christ,
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that is – was always with the Father and, as the Father is without beginning, so is the Son without
beginning.
Before all things wisdom was created and shrewd understanding is everlasting. The Fathers understand
this text, as well as the one from Proverbs, The Lord created me at the beginning of his ways, as
referring to the Lord’s incarnation. Just as the Son in his divine nature was born of the Father before all
ages, so before all ages he was predestined in the plan of the Father to become incarnate in time for the
salvation of the human race. The word ‘created’ refers to his human not his divine nature, although,
because of the unity of person, the Son is sometimes said to be generated, sometimes created. He is
therefore the beginning of God’s ways (he himself said, I am the way) who rose from the dead and made
a pathway for the Church to the kingdom of God and eternal life.
MONDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PATIENCE IN TEMPTATION: SIRACH 2:1-18
My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation. Set your heart right and
be steadfast, and do not be hasty in time of calamity. Cleave to him and do not depart, that you may be
honoured at the end of your life. Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you
be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him,
and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.
You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; and turn not aside, lest you fall. You who fear the Lord, trust in
him, and your reward will not fail; you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, for everlasting joy and
mercy. Consider the ancient generations and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or
who ever persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken? Or who ever called upon him and was
overlooked? For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of affliction.
Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands, and to the sinner who walks along two ways! Woe to the faint
heart, for it has no trust! Therefore it will not be sheltered. Woe to you who have lost your endurance!
What will you do when the Lord punishes you? Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words, and
those who love him will keep his ways. Those who fear the Lord will seek his approval, and those who love
him will be filled with the law. Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and will humble
themselves before him. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, but not into the hands of men; for as his
majesty is, so also is his mercy.

SERMON 38, 5.11 (CCL 41:5-6.11); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Let us put our trust in God, my brethren. This is the first commandment, the first principle of religion and
of our life: to have our heart anchored in faith and thus to live uprightly, to hold ourselves aloof from
mere pleasure, to endure temporal misfortune. What is it that we hear in the canticle? My son, if you
aspire to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal. Be sincere of heart, be steadfast. Cling to him and
do not leave him, so that your life may abound at the latter day. How ‘abound’? That you may abound
eternally, I think. Certainly not now! Our human life is on the wane now, rather than otherwise. A man is
born into the world. God allots him seventy years, say. As he grows up, we say that life is before him. But
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is it? Is his life increasing or decreasing? When he has lived sixty of his seventy years, ten years only
remain. His span is diminished, and the longer he lives the less remains to him. While we live, then, life is
not increasing but rather ebbing away. So hold fast to what God has promised you, that you may abound
at the latter day.
Whatever happens to you, accept it, and in changes that humble you be patient, for gold is tested in the
fire, and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation. The way may seem hard, but would you not lose an
indefectible good by defecting from it? There are many who endure great hardship in order to acquire
perishable wealth, and would you not suffer for the sake of an imperishable life? You have taken on the
yoke of wisdom. Is it going to be difficult? Yes, surely, but look up towards your goal, towards your
reward. He who has promised is faithful. He has not shown it to you, because it is not yet time.
Nevertheless, he has already shown you a great deal. He promised the Messiah, and he sent him; he
promised he would rise again, and he did; he promised the gospel, and he gave it; he promised that the
Church would spread throughout the world, and it has. Why do you not believe that he will keep his other
promises?
Beloved brethren, let us cleanse our hearts and not lose the will to endure. Let us keep wisdom before us
and hold fast to self-discipline. Our striving lasts for but an instant, rest awaits us. Empty enjoyments pass
away, but the good, longed for by the man of faith, the good to which every pilgrim in the world aspires,
is at hand: the good country, the heavenly country, the country where we shall see the angels, where no
citizen dies, no enemy finds admittance, where you shall fear no foe but have God forever as your friend.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DUTIFULNESS TOWARDS PARENTS: SIRACH 3:1-16
Listen to me your father, O children; and act accordingly, that you may be kept in safety. For the Lord
honoured the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the mother over her sons.
Whoever honours his father atones for sins, and whoever glorifies his mother is like one who lays up
treasure. Whoever honours his father will be gladdened by his own children, and when he prays he will
be heard. Whoever glorifies his father will have long life, and whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his
mother; he will serve his parents as his masters. Honour your father by word and deed, that a blessing
from him may come upon you. For a father’s blessing strengthens the houses of the children, but a
mother’s curse uproots their foundations.
Do not glorify yourself by dishonouring your father, for your father’s dishonour is no glory to you. For a
man’s glory comes from honouring his father, and it is a disgrace for children not to respect their mother.
O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if he is lacking in
understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise him. For kindness to a father will
not be forgotten, and against your sins it will be credited to you; in the day of your affliction it will be
remembered in your favour; as frost in fair weather, your sins will melt away. Whoever forsakes his father
is like a blasphemer, and whoever angers his mother is cursed by the Lord.
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A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
SERMO IN EPIPHANIA 7 (OPERA OMNIA VI, 1. 26-27); WORD IN SEASON VIII
How precious is the wisdom by which we know God and despise the world! The one who has found it is
indeed blessed, if he holds fast to it. What will he give to possess it? Give obedience as its price, and you
will receive wisdom in return. Scripture tells us: Do you desire wisdom? Keep the commandments and
God will give it to you. If you want to be wise, be obedient. Obedience has no will of its own: it is at the
service of another's will, subject to another's command. Embrace it, then, with all the yearning of your
heart, with all the effort of your body. Embrace, I repeat, the blessing of obedience, drawing near by
obedience to the light of wisdom. Scripture says: Draw near to him and be enlightened. Draw near, that
is, by means of obedience, for there is no approach more direct or secure, and be enlightened by wisdom.
The man who does not know God does not know where he is going, but walks in darkness and dashes his
foot against a stone. Wisdom is light, the true light that shines on every person coming into this world,
not the one who is wise with the wisdom of this world, but the one who is not of the world though in the
world. This is the new self of one who has turned away from the sinful and slothful ways of his former
self, and strives to walk in newness of life, knowing that damnation is not for those who walk in the way
of the Spirit, but in the way of sinful nature.
As long as you follow your own will, you cannot escape turmoil within you, even though at times you
seem to escape turmoil outside you. This turmoil of self-will cannot end until the desires of your sinful
nature are changed, and God becomes for you a source of delight. Sinners enlightened by wisdom are
said to be freed from turmoil because, once they taste the goodness of the Lord, they are freed from
their sin: from that time they worship the Creator, not the creature, and when they leave self-will behind
they are freed from their feverish turmoil.
While at last they get rid of the turmoil of desires and the discord of thoughts, they experience peace in
their inmost heart, and God takes up his dwelling within them: his dwelling-place is in peace. Where God
is, there is joy; where God is, there is calm; where God is, there is happiness.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HUMILITY AND PRIDE: SIRACH 3:17 – 4:10
My son, perform your tasks in meekness; then you will be loved by those whom God accepts. The greater
you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favour in the sight of the Lord. For great is
the might of the Lord; he is glorified by the humble. Seek not what is too difficult for you, nor investigate
what is beyond your power. Reflect upon what has been assigned to you, for you do not need what is
hidden. Do not meddle in what is beyond your tasks, for matters too great for human understanding have
been shown you. For their hasty judgment has led many astray, and wrong opinion has caused their
thoughts to slip.
A stubborn mind will be afflicted at the end, and whoever loves danger will perish by it. A stubborn mind
will be burdened by troubles, and the sinner will heap sin upon sin. The affliction of the proud has no
healing, for a plant of wickedness has taken root in him. The mind of the intelligent man will ponder a
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parable, and an attentive ear is the wise man’s desire. Water extinguishes a blazing fire: so almsgiving
atones for sin. Whoever requites favours gives thought to the future; at the moment of his falling he will
find support.
My son, deprive not the poor of his living, and do not keep needy eyes waiting. Do not grieve the one who
is hungry, nor anger a man in want. Do not add to the troubles of an angry mind, nor delay your gift to a
beggar. Do not reject an afflicted suppliant, nor turn your face away from the poor. Do not avert your eye
from the needy, nor give a man occasion to curse you; for if in bitterness of soul he calls down a curse
upon you, his Creator will hear his prayer.
Make yourself beloved in the congregation; bow your head low to a great man. Incline your ear to the
poor, and answer him peaceably and gently. Deliver him who is wronged from the hand of the
wrongdoer; and do not be fainthearted in judging a case. Be like a father to orphans, and instead of a
husband to their mother; you will then be like a son of the Most High, and he will love you more than
does your mother.
A READING FROM THE EXHORTATION TO HUMILITY OF MARTIN OF BRAGA

EXHORTATIO AD HUMILITATEM, 4-7 (PL 72:40-42); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The greater you are, so Solomon said, humble yourself that much more. Though you govern many, you
have not perfection if – and this is most important – you alone resist the person whom you cannot
govern. You will truly be in charge of others when you are first in charge of yourself. I am not now saying
this to wicked people, but most especially to the good. For if you consider God’s teaching, God’s precepts
are not only for sinners, but also for the holy. The word of truth is spoken to them also, not to make them
good, which they are, but to prevent them from becoming wicked, which they are not. In fact, I believe
the good are more pleased with what is pure and what is free from blame. For our God is placated not so
much by the pleasant prayers of those who praise him as by innocence and simplicity; God inclines his ear
more to those who offer him a mind pure and free from guilt than to those who bring him the sweet
blandishments of their prayers.
When I speak of vainglory or pride, there is none to whom I could more suitably address my words than
to you who are in charge of many; for, even though you do not pay attention, they all heap compliments
upon you, they all flatter, they all extol; and there is not one who offers something which is pleasant and,
at the same time, far removed from danger. I am not surprised that they are all eager to do this, for just
as there is not much work in praising a ruler, so is there not much cause for fear.
I had to offer you these methods of obtaining humility and even to add something on how to moderate
your regimen, even though it may be unnecessary, since you may possess it already: for the wind of
vanity is always stronger when the position of honour is stronger. Accordingly, I desire you to walk always
with a humble heart in the sight of God, ‘to whom’, as Augustine says, ‘the depths of human
consciousness are fully revealed’. For it is written: Upon whom does my Spirit rest, says the Lord, but on
the lowly one who trembles at my words?
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It is only humility of the heart, therefore, that by declaring itself weak can do all things, that achieves
everything good by ascribing it always to God, not to itself. If one ascends in humility, he does not have
room to fall. All the other virtues can summon us to perfection through high and difficult courses.
Humility alone is on the level ground and, even though it seems lowly to others, it is actually higher than
heaven, for it brings a person to its kingdom by descending rather than ascending.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DIVINE RETRIBUTION: SIRACH 5:1 – 6:4
Do not set your heart on your wealth, nor say, “I have enough.” Do not follow your inclination and
strength, walking according to the desires of your heart. Do not say, “Who will have power over me?” for
the Lord will surely punish you. Do not say, “I sinned, and what happened to me?” for the Lord is slow to
anger. Do not be so confident of atonement that you add sin to sin. Do not say, “His mercy is great, he
will forgive the multitude of my sins”, for both mercy and wrath are with him, and his anger rests on
sinners. Do not delay to turn to the Lord, nor postpone it from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the
Lord will go forth, and at the time of punishment you will perish.
Do not depend on dishonest wealth, for it will not benefit you in the day of calamity. Do not winnow with
every wind, nor follow every path: the double-tongued sinner does that. Be steadfast in your
understanding, and let your speech be consistent. Be quick to hear, and be deliberate in answering. If you
have understanding, answer your neighbour; but if not, put your hand on your mouth. Glory and
dishonour come from speaking, and a man’s tongue is his downfall.
Do not be called a slanderer, and do not lie in ambush with your tongue; for shame comes to the thief,
and severe condemnation to the double-tongued. In great and small matters do not act amiss, and do not
become an enemy instead of a friend for a bad name incurs shame and reproach: so fares the double-
tongued sinner. Do not exalt yourself through your soul’s counsel, lest your soul be torn in pieces like a
bull. You will devour your leaves and destroy your fruit, and will be left like a withered tree. An evil soul
will destroy him who has it, and make him the laughingstock of his enemies.
A READING FROM ON PERFECTION OF LIFE BY ST BONAVENTURE

DE PERFECTIONE VITAE AD SORORES (UNPUBL. MS); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Two motives may be suggested capable of impelling not merely a religious, but even a lay person, to a
love of poverty. The first is the irreproachable example of our Divine Lord. The second is the priceless
divine promise.
Let us take the first motive. The love and the example of our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, ought to excite in
you a love of poverty. Christ was born poor, lived poor, and died poor. Realise and bear in mind that
Christ gave you this wonderful example of poverty in order to induce you to become a friend of poverty.
It was meditation on this poverty of Christ that roused the heart of St Paul and caused him to
exclaim: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that being rich he became poor for our sakes, that
through his poverty we might be rich. St Bernard, speaking of this same poverty, says: ‘An eternal and
copious abundance of riches existed in heaven. Poverty, however, was not to be found there. It
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abounded and was superabundant on earth. Alas! human beings did not know its worth. The Son of
God, though, loved poverty, and desired it, and came down from heaven and took it as his own
possession in order to make it precious in our eyes.’
All his life long, Jesus Christ our Lord was an example of poverty. Let me tell you how poor the Son of God
and King of Angels was while he lived in this world. He was so poor that oftentimes he did not know which
way to turn for a lodging. St Matthew writes: The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests; but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
O blessed servant of God, recall the poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ, poor for our sake! Cleave to poverty
and practice it zealously and courageously. Keep your heart free from love of honours, temporal things,
and riches. The advantage, the security, the delight of life and the act of perfect virtue is neither to
possess riches nor to have any fondness for riches. Therefore, our Lord’s example and counsel ought to
prompt and excite every Christian to love poverty.
O blessed poverty, which makes those who love it beloved of God and secure even in this world! ‘For
those who have nothing in the world on which their heart is set, there exists nothing of the world to fear,’
St Gregory says.
The second motive to inspire a love of poverty is the promise, the priceless promise of Christ. Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven, O my Lord Jesus Christ, is
nothing else than you yourself, who are ‘the King of kings and Lord of lords’. As reward, as the price of
their labour, as a complete and perfect joy, you will give to your voluntary poor even the possession of
yourself. They will rejoice in possessing you. They will find delight in you. They will, at last, find complete
satiety in you. For the poor shall eat and shall be filled; and they shall praise the Lord that seek him; their
hearts shall live forever and ever. Amen.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TRUE FRIENDSHIP. THE SWEET YOKE OF WISDOM: SIRACH 6:5-37
Let those that are at peace with you be many, but let your advisers be one in a thousand. When you gain
a friend, gain him through testing, and do not trust him hastily. For there is a friend who is such at his
own convenience, but will not stand by you in your day of trouble. And there is a friend who changes into
an enemy, and will disclose a quarrel to your disgrace. And there is a friend who is a table companion, but
will not stand by you in your day of trouble. In prosperity he will make himself your equal, and be bold
with your servants; but if you are brought low he will turn against you, and will hide himself from your
presence. Keep yourself far from your enemies, and be on guard toward your friends.
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter: he that has found one has found a treasure. There is nothing so
precious as a faithful friend, and no scales can measure his excellence. A faithful friend is an elixir of life;
and those who fear the Lord will find him. Whoever fears the Lord directs his friendship aright, for as he
is, so is his neighbour also.
My son, from your youth up choose instruction, and until you are old you will keep finding wisdom. Come
to her like one who ploughs and sows, and wait for her good harvest. For in her service you will toil a little
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while, and soon you will eat of her produce. She seems very harsh to the uninstructed; a weakling will not
remain with her. She will weigh him down like a heavy testing stone, and he will not be slow to cast her
off. For wisdom is like her name, and is not manifest to many.
Listen, my son, and accept my judgment; do not reject my counsel. Put your feet into her fetters, and
your neck into her collar. Put your shoulder under her and carry her, and do not fret under her bonds.
Come to her with all your soul, and keep her ways with all your might. Search out and seek, and she will
become known to you; and when you get hold of her, do not let her go. For at last you will find the rest
she gives, and she will be changed into joy for you. Then her fetters will become for you a strong
protection, and her collar a glorious robe. Her yoke is a golden ornament, and her bonds are a cord of
blue. You will wear her like a glorious robe, and put her on like a crown of gladness.
If you are willing, my son, you will be taught, and if you apply yourself you will become clever. If you love
to listen you will gain knowledge, and if you incline your ear you will become wise. Stand in the assembly
of the elders. Who is wise? Cleave to him. Be ready to listen to every narrative, and do not let wise
proverbs escape you. If you see an intelligent man, visit him early; let your foot wear out his doorstep.
Reflect on the statutes of the Lord, and meditate at all times on his commandments. It is he who will give
insight to your mind, and your desire for wisdom will be granted.
A READING FROM ON SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

DE SPIRITALI AMICITIA, II, 9-14 (CCCM I:303-305); WORD IN SEASON VIII
I do not presume the power to explain the dignity of so great a matter; for in all the affairs of mankind
nothing more sacred is aimed at, nothing more profitable is sought, nothing is more difficult to find,
nothing is sweeter to experience, nothing is more fruitful to retain than friendship, for it bears fruit both
in this life and in the next. It flowers all the virtues with its sweetness; it chokes the vices by its power; it
tempers adversity and brings settled prosperity; indeed without a friend almost nothing can be pleasant
among humans. A man should be likened to an animal if he has no one to rejoice with him in prosperity
and to lament with him in sadness; no one to whom he can relieve his mind if it is filled with some
unpleasant thought and with whom he can share any unusually lofty or brilliant idea. Woe to him who is
alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. He is indeed alone who has no friend.
But what happiness it is, what freedom from care, what pleasure to have one to whom you dare to speak
as freely as to yourself; to whom you are not afraid to confess if you have done any wrong; to whom you
do not hesitate to reveal any advance you may have made in spiritual things; to whom you may entrust all
the secrets of your heart and commit your plans!
What then is more pleasant than to write mind to mind in such a way that the two become one, no
boasting need be feared, no suspicion dreaded, so that no rebuke of the one by the other cause pain, nor
praise be taken as the ground for a charge of flattery? A friend, says the wise man, is an elixir of life. That
indeed is a very great truth. For there is no healing treatment that is stronger, more effective, or more
remarkable for our wounds in all temporal affairs than to have someone to come to our help in every
misfortune, to congratulate us at any good fortune, as the Apostle says, Bear one another's burdens,
shoulder to shoulder, unless perhaps each man finds his own burden lighter to bear than that of his
friend. Friendship then makes prosperity even more brilliant, dividing adversity and sharing the lighter
burdens. The best elixir of life then is a friend; just as it was the pleasure even of pagans, we do not make
as universal use of water or fire as of a friend. In every action, in every pursuit, whether we are in doubt
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or certain, in any event, in any fortune, publicly or privately, in every discussion, at home or away from
home, friendship is everywhere welcome, a friend is needful, kindness is always found useful.
Moreover, what is more important than all these, friendship is a sort of step closely approaching to
perfection, which consists of the love and recognition of God; so that a man from being a man's friend
may become a friend of God, as our Saviour says in the Gospel. No longer do I call you servants, but my
friends.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DUTIES TOWARDS CHILDREN, PARENTS, PRIESTS, THE POOR: SIRACH 7:18-36
Do not exchange a friend for money, or a real brother for the gold of Ophir. Do not deprive yourself of a
wise and good wife, for her charm is worth more than gold. Do not abuse a servant who performs his
work faithfully, or a hired labourer who devotes himself to you. Let your soul love an intelligent servant;
do not withhold from him his freedom.
Do you have cattle? Look after them; if they are profitable to you, keep them. Do you have children?
Discipline them, and make them obedient from their youth. Do you have daughters? Be concerned for
their chastity, and do not show yourself too indulgent with them. Give a daughter in marriage; you will
have finished a great task. But give her to a man of understanding.
If you have a wife who pleases you, do not cast her out; but do not trust yourself to one whom you
detest. With all your heart honour your father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother.
Remember that through your parents you were born; and what can you give back to them that equals
their gift to
With all your soul fear the Lord, and honour his priests. With all your might love your Maker, and do not
forsake his ministers. Fear the Lord and honour the priest, and give him his portion, as is commanded
you: the first fruits, the guilt offering, the gift of the shoulders, the sacrifice of sanctification, and the first
fruits of the holy things. Stretch forth your hand to the poor, so that your blessing may be complete. Give
graciously to all the living, and withhold not kindness from the dead. Do not fail those who weep, but
mourn with those who mourn. Do not shrink from visiting a sick man, because for such deeds you will be
loved. In all you do, remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin.

ORATIO, 14, 20-22, DE PAUPERUM AMORE (PG 35: 882-886); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The fortunes of this world are uncertain and transient; they are tossed from hand to hand, as in a game
with pebbles, and are always changing. Not one of this world's blessings belongs to its owner securely
enough to prevent time destroying it, or envy transferring it elsewhere. But the rewards of heaven are
fixed and abiding; they neither disappear nor change, and can never deceive the hopes of those who trust
in them.
Now in my opinion there is a very good reason why people can find nothing reliable or lasting in the good
things of this world. The Word, who is the architect of our destiny in this as in all things, and the Wisdom
that transcends all mortal thought, have together well contrived it that we should be misled by
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everything we see in the constantly shifting world around us, where in the midst of this whirling to and
fro we are always in pursuit of something that is forever flying from our grasp. Once we have observed
the restlessness and disorder of this mortal life, we shall hasten to change our course toward the life to
come. Indeed what should we have done if our prosperity here had been secure, when even in all its
uncertainty we are so bound to this world, and its pleasures and allurements have so enslaved us, that we
cannot imagine anything better or higher that our present life? And this, despite the fact that we are told
and believe that we are created in the image of God, that image which is above and draws us to itself.
Who is wise enough to understand these things? Who will abandon the things that pass away, and devote
himself to those that last? Who will think of the present as something that is always moving away? Happy
indeed is he who has such powers of discernment, and who uses the keen edge of the Word to separate
the better from the worse. His heart is set on the journey upward, as holy David was inspired to say in one
of the psalms; and so he flies with all speed from this valley of weeping, and seeks the realms above.
Crucified to the world with Christ, he takes his stand beside Christ and ascends in the company of Christ,
an heir to a life that henceforth is neither changing nor deceptive, and where he will no longer find a
serpent waiting on the road to bite his heel, while he watches out for its head.
Therefore without delay let us follow the Word, seek our rest in the world beyond, and throw away the
riches of this world. Let us profit by them in the only good way we can, that is, let us gain possession of
our souls by giving alms, and share our earthly goods with the poor so as to enrich ourselves with the
wealth of heaven.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

AGAINST PRIDE: SIRACH 10:6-18
Do not be angry with your neighbour for any injury, and do not attempt anything by acts of insolence.
Arrogance is hateful before the Lord and before men, and injustice is outrageous to both. Sovereignty
passes from nation to nation on account of injustice and insolence and wealth. How can he who is dust
and ashes be proud? For even in life his bowels decay. A long illness baffles the physician; the king of
today will die tomorrow. For when a man is dead he will inherit creeping things, and wild beasts, and
worms. The beginning of man's pride is to depart from the Lord; his heart has forsaken his Maker. For the
beginning of pride is sin, and the man who clings to it pours out abominations. Therefore the Lord
brought upon them extraordinary afflictions, and destroyed them utterly. The Lord has cast down the
thrones of rulers, and has seated the lowly in their place. The Lord has plucked up the roots of the
nations, and has planted the humble in their place. The Lord has overthrown the lands of the nations, and
has destroyed them to the foundations of the earth. He has removed some of them and destroyed them,
and has extinguished the memory of them from the earth. Pride was not created for men, nor fierce
anger for those born of women.

THE CHRISTIAN WAY OF LIFE (JAEGER VIII, 72-74); WORD IN SEASON VIII
If a man refuses to love God with his whole heart and his whole mind, how can he honestly and faithfully
care about loving his brethren, since he withholds love from him for whose sake he is concerned to love
them? A man in this state, who has neither given his whole soul to God nor has any fellowship in the love
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of God, is defenceless in the face of the expert in evil, who easily trips him up and subdues him with his
dangerous arguments. At one moment he makes the commandments of Scripture seem harsh and service
of the brethren a grievous burden, at another he incites a man to arrogance and pride on account of that
very service to his fellow servants, persuading him that he has fulfilled the Lord’s commands and will be
great in heaven.
There is no small offence here. For the good and zealous servant must leave it to his master to judge his
service, and not take his master’s place in judging and applauding his own behaviour. For if he usurps the
office of the true judge, he will get no reward from his own self-satisfied praise with which he presumes
to replace his master’s judgement. For it is necessary, according to the saying of Paul, for the Spirit of
Good to unite with our spirit in bearing witness, but we ourselves must not judge our actions to be good.
For Paul says: It is not the one who commends himself that is accepted, but the one whom the Lord com-
mends. He who cannot wait for the Lord’s praise, but anticipates his judgement, is forced to take refuge
in the glory of his fellow men.
In thus seeking to win honour from his brethren by his own labours he behaves like an unbeliever, for it is
only an unbeliever who would rather pursue the honours of this world than those of heaven. As the Lord
himself says: How can you have faith, who take praise from one another but do not seek the praise which
comes from God alone?
Such people seem to me like those who clean the outside of the cup and the dish, while inside they are
full of every kind of evil. Take care then not to be like that yourselves. Offer your souls to God, with the
one thought of pleasing the Lord, and never lose your awareness of heavenly things. Do not accept the
honours of this life; run in such a way as to hide, but keep silent about your struggles for virtue, so as to
give no opportunities to the one who tempts you with earthly honours and who, having distracted your
minds from thinking of what is real, might lead into vanity and error. But if he finds no such chance, or
opportunity, and his way securely barred to the enticement of those whose souls are devoted to the
things of heaven, he is destroyed and lies dead; for it is death to the devil when his efforts to use his evil
power are unsuccessful. So with the love of God present among you, all other good is bound to follow:
brotherly love, gentleness, guilelessness, zeal, and perseverance in prayer, and indeed every virtue.
MONDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TRUST IN GOD ALONE: SIRACH 11:12-28
There is another who is slow and needs help, who lacks strength and abounds in poverty; but the eyes of
the Lord look upon him for his good; he lifts him out of his low estate and raises up his head, so that many
are amazed at him.
Good things and bad, life and death, poverty and wealth, come from the Lord. The gift of the Lord
endures for those who are godly, and what he approves will have lasting success. There is a man who is
rich through his diligence and self-denial, and this is the reward allotted to him: when he says, “I have
found rest, and now I shall enjoy my goods!” he does not know how much time will pass until he leaves
them to others and dies. Stand by your covenant and attend to it, and grow old in your work.
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Do not wonder at the works of a sinner, but trust in the Lord and keep at your toil; for it is easy in the
sight of the Lord to enrich a poor man quickly and suddenly. The blessing of the Lord is the reward of the
godly, and quickly God causes his blessing to flourish. Do not say, “What do I need, and what prosperity
could be mine in the future?” Do not say, “I have enough, and what calamity could happen to me in the
future?” In the day of prosperity, adversity is forgotten, and in the day of adversity, prosperity is not
remembered. For it is easy in the sight of the Lord to reward a man on the day of death according to his
conduct. The misery of an hour makes one forget luxury, and at the close of a man’s life his deeds will be
revealed. Call no one happy before his death; a man will be known through his children.

CONFERENCES 6, 13-16; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
Germanus asked Abba Theodore, “Is our mind able to hold on to one state constantly and to remain
always in the same condition?”
He replied, “As the Apostle says, it is necessary for one who is renewed in the spirit of his mind to make
progress every day, always reaching out to what is ahead. The alternative is that the neglectful person
reverses himself and falls back into a worse state. We confess that God alone is unchanging. Him alone
does the prayer of the holy Prophet address in this way: You yourself are the same. And he says of
himself: I am God, and I do not change. For only he to whom nothing can ever be added and from whom
nothing can ever be taken away is by nature always good, always complete, and always perfect. Therefore
we must always push ourselves with unceasing care and concern to attain the virtues, lest our progress
suddenly cease and regression occur. For, as we have said, the mind cannot remain in one and the same
condition – that is, so that it does not either increase or decrease in virtue. Not to have gained is to have
lost, because when the desire of making progress ceases, the danger of falling back will appear.
“Therefore one must abide constantly in one’s cell. For as often as a person has wandered out of it and
has returned to it like a novice who is only starting to live there, he will waver and be disturbed. The
person who stays in his cell has acquired an intensity of mind that, once let go slack, he will not be able to
recover again without effort and pain.
“But that even the heavenly powers, as we have said, are subject to change is proclaimed by those of
their number who fell because of the sinfulness of their corrupt will. Therefore we should not think of
those who have persevered in the blessedness in which they were created as possessing an unchanging
nature because they did not likewise behave wickedly. For it is one thing to possess an unchanging nature
and another not to be changed because of zeal for virtue and perseverance in the good, which is due to
the grace of an immutable God. Whatever is acquired and maintained through diligence can also be lost
through negligence. Consequently it is said: You should not call a person blessed before his death,
because whoever is still involved in this struggle, even though he usually overcomes and obtains the palm
of victory, still cannot be free of fear and of concern about an uncertain result.
“God alone, then, is said to be unchangeable and good – he who possesses goodness not because of
laborious effort but by nature, and who cannot be anything other than good. Therefore no virtue can be
possessed unwaveringly by a man, but for it to be firmly maintained once it has been acquired it must
always be preserved with the same concern and effort with which it was obtained.”
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TUESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE HAPPINESS OF WISDOM: SIRACH 14:20 – 15:10
Blessed is the man who meditates on wisdom and who reasons intelligently. He who reflects in his mind
on her ways will also ponder her secrets. Pursue wisdom like a hunter, and lie in wait on her paths. He
who peers through her windows will also listen at her doors; he who encamps near her house will also
fasten his tent peg to her walls; he will pitch his tent near her, and will lodge in an excellent lodging place;
he will place his children under her shelter, and will camp under her boughs he will be sheltered by her
from the heat, and will dwell in the midst of her glory.
The man who fears the Lord will do this, and he who holds to the law will obtain wisdom. She will come to
meet him like a mother, and like the wife of his youth she will welcome him. She will feed him with the
bread of understanding, and give him the water of wisdom to drink. He will lean on her and will not fall,
and he will rely on her and will not be put to shame. She will exalt him above his neighbours, and will
open his mouth in the midst of the assembly. He will find gladness and a crown of rejoicing, and will
acquire an everlasting name. Foolish men will not obtain her, and sinful men will not see her. She is far
from men of pride, and liars will never think of her.
A hymn of praise is not fitting on the lips of a sinner, for it has not been sent from the Lord. For a hymn of
praise should be uttered in wisdom, and the Lord will prosper it.

THE CHRISTIAN WAY OF LIFE (JAEGER VIII:75-77); WORD IN SEASON VIII
For those who love God, practising his commandments is an easy and enjoyable task, since our love for
him lightens the struggle and makes it welcome. It is for that reason that the devil strives by every means
to drive out the fear of the Lord from our souls, and to destroy our love for him with unlawful pleasure
and treacherous delights. It is why he does his best to catch the soul off its guard and without its spiritual
armour, and so to destroy our labours, offering us earthly in place of heavenly glory, and confusing our
vision of true beauty with its deceptive image. For if he finds the guards careless, he is quick to seize the
opportunity to appear to the field of virtue, and amidst the growing corn to sow his own weeds, that is,
slander, arrogance, vainglory, desire for honour, quarrelling, and all the other products of evil. Therefore
we must be vigilant and keep watch for our enemy on all sides, so that whatever shameless device he
uses against us we may drive him off before he lays hands on our souls.
You must often remember that story of how Abel and Cain offered sacrifice to the Lord, Abel with some
of his firstborn sheep and their fat, Cain with fruits of the earth, but no first fruits. And God observed
Abel’s sacrifice, as Scripture tells us, but the gifts of Cain he ignored. What then is the moral of the story?
It teaches us that God accepts whatever we offer him in fear and faith, but has no use for the costliest gift
offered without love. The very reason why Abraham received Melchizedek’s blessing is that he offered
the priest of God the first fruits and the richest spoils. Now the richest spoils and the first fruits that we
ourselves possess are our souls and minds; and thus we are commanded to make no trivial sacrifice of
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praise and prayer to God, nor to offer the Lord any chance gift but what is best in our souls, or rather to
dedicate to God our entire souls with all possible love and desire. So continually nourished by the grace of
the Spirit and taking to ourselves the power that comes from Christ, we shall run with ease the race of
salvation and make the struggle for righteousness carefree and joyous. For God himself will help us to toil
with zeal, and will accomplish his righteous works through us.
WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

MAN’S FREEDOM: SIRACH 15:11-20
Do not say, “Because of the Lord I left the right way”; for he will not do what he hates. Do not say, “It was
he who led me astray”; for he had no need of a sinful man. The Lord hates all abominations, and they are
not loved by those who fear him. It was he who created man in the beginning, and he left him in the
power of his own inclination. If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a
matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever
you wish. Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him. For great is the
wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything; his eyes are on those who fear him, and
he knows every deed of man. He has not commanded any one to be ungodly, and he has not given any
one permission to sin.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW BY ST PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS

EXPOSITIO IN MATT. IV, VI: PL 120, 286-287 (FROM WORD IN SEASON VIII)
Your will be done. – There is no one who can obstruct or frustrate the fulfilment of God’s will. Especially
as it is written that The Lord accomplished in heaven and on earth all the things that he wills. But we
make this prayer in order to unite our free will, by his grace, with his will also, so that he who lives, lives
no longer to himself, but that God's free will may be fulfilled in all things. And to that will indeed St Paul
testifies when he says: God’s will is your sanctification, that you distance yourselves from sensual desire.
And elsewhere the Lord himself says: This is the will of my Father who sent me – that everyone who sees
the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. Hence it is that we devoutly make this prayer, not for
the Lord's advantage but for our own.
When, therefore, we say Your will be done we need to think about the faith and the charity which is ours,
in speaking the words: for no one who hesitates about the Father’s will is praying aright. Whence our
great faith, great devotion, and our feeling of entire security, which come from knowing about his never-
ending kindness, his wishing no evil. As St Paul says: His will is that all should be saved and come to
recognise the truth. And so no one could have said those things with all his heart unless he believed for
sure that all things visible and invisible, whether for our temporal prosperity or otherwise, are ordained
by God for our profit and advantage. For one must believe with unquestioning faith that he is more
shrewd a judge and caring a provider than we ourselves ever could be, ceaselessly watching for what can
work our salvation. For his will is the salvation of all. This indeed was known to the one and only Son of
God, teacher of the truth, who said: Father, that this chalice might pass from me, but – but not my will
but yours be done. And, in another passage: I have not come to do my will, but the will of him that sent
me, the Father.
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For the humanity of God-made-man took on more of the Father than of himself, so as to show us all how
much trust and what kind of trust we should place in his will. No one need be in doubt, according to what
St John writes: May he who does God’s will live for all eternity. On this thought let our minds expand and
our hearts enlarge, as we realise what we are praying; for whatever the heavenly teacher has taught by
word or example, it is the will of the Father that it should all be accomplished. It is for this purpose that
those things are written or done, that we work out our salvation faithfully through our deeds. So let each
of us look to what he is about, what he intends, what he encompasses in his heart. But if he should see
his will to differ in aught from God’s will, let him correct his error, lest what he pray with his words he
frustrate with his outward behaviour.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

MAN, THE SUMMIT OF ALL CREATION: SIRACH 16:24 – 17:14
Listen to me, my son, and acquire knowledge, and pay close attention to my words. I will impart
instruction by weight, and declare knowledge accurately. The works of the Lord have existed from the
beginning by his creation, and when he made them, he determined their divisions. He arranged his works
in an eternal order, and their dominion for all generations; they neither hunger nor grow weary, and they
do not cease from their labours. They do not crowd one another aside, and they will never disobey his
word. After this the Lord looked upon the earth, and filled it with his good things; with all kinds of living
beings he covered its surface, and to it they return.
The Lord created man out of earth, and turned him back to it again. He gave to men few days, a limited
time, but granted them authority over the things upon the earth. He endowed them with strength like his
own, and made them in his own image. He placed the fear of them in all living beings, and granted them
dominion over beasts and birds. He made for them tongue and eyes; he gave them ears and a mind for
thinking. He filled them with knowledge and understanding, and showed them good and evil. He set his
eye upon their hearts to show them the majesty of his works. And they will praise his holy name, to
proclaim the grandeur of his works. He bestowed knowledge upon them, and allotted to them the law of
life. He established with them an eternal covenant, and showed them his judgments. Their eyes saw his
glorious majesty, and their ears heard the glory of his voice. And he said to them, “Beware of all
unrighteousness.” And he gave commandment to each of them concerning his neighbour.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON GENESIS BY ORIGEN

IN GEN., 1, 13 (SC 7BIS, 60-64); WORD IN SEASON VIII
God made man; he made him in his own image. We must understand what this image of God means and
ask in whose likeness it is that man is made. For it is not said that ‘God made man in his image or
likeness’, but that he made him in the image of God. So what is the other, this distinct image of God, in
whose likeness man is made, except our Saviour who is the firstborn of all creatures, he of whom it is said
that he is the splendour of the eternal light and the imprint of God’s substance, he who said of himself: I
am in the Father, and the Father in me, and he who has seen me has seen the Father? For just as he who
has seen someone’s picture has seen him also whose picture it is, so likewise through the incarnate Word
of God, which is the picture, the image of God, one sees God himself. And so we can see the truth of what
was said: He who has seen me has seen the Father.
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In the likeness of this image, then, was man made and for that very reason our Saviour, who is himself the
image of God, was moved by pity for man. For man had been made in his likeness; and yet he was seen to
put off that likeness and put on instead the image of evil. And so, moved by pity, our Saviour came to him,
assuming the likeness of man, as the Apostle testifies, saying: When he was still in the likeness of God he
was not possessive or self-assertive about being equal to God, but emptied himself out, taking the form
of a servant, made in the likeness of man; and man he was found to be, through and through, as he
humbled himself even unto death.
We who come to him, then, and strive to be made sharers in his image as we can understand it, are by
our endeavour and our progress renewed inwardly each day in the image of him who made us; so that we
may be made like the body of his radiance, his glory, each of us according to his capacity. The Apostles
remade themselves in his likeness; so much so, that he said of them: I am going to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God. For he had prayed to the Father for his disciples, that the original
likeness might be restored to them, when he said: Father, grant that just as you and I are one, so they
also may be one in us.
Let us therefore contemplate this likeness of God, that we may be remade on that pattern. For if man,
having been made in God’s image, can be made, against his nature, to resemble the devil merely by
looking on him, how much more, by looking on the likeness of God, in whose image he is made, will he
receive through the incarnate Word both the virtue and the likeness, already given him by his nature. Let
no one despair on seeing that he is more like the devil than God: for he is yet able to recover even so his
likeness to God. Our Saviour came to call, not the just, but sinners to repentance. Matthew was a
publican and indeed resembled the devil; but by coming as he did to the incarnate image of God, our Lord
and Saviour, and following him, he has been transformed in the likeness of God.
FRIDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD IS JUDGE; AN EXHORTATION TO CONVERSION: SIRACH 17:15-32
Their ways are always before him, they will not be hid from his eyes. He appointed a ruler for every
nation, but Israel is the Lord’s own portion. All their works are as the sun before him, and his eyes are
continually upon their ways. Their iniquities are not hidden from him, and all their sins are before the
Lord. A man’s almsgiving is like a signet with the Lord and he will keep a person’s kindness like the apple
of his eye. Afterward he will arise and requite them, and he will bring their recompense on their heads.
Yet to those who repent he grants a return, and he encourages those whose endurance is failing.
Turn to the Lord and forsake your sins; pray in his presence and lessen your offences. Return to the Most
High and turn away from iniquity, and hate abominations intensely. Who will sing praises to the Most
High in Hades, as do those who are alive and give thanks? From the dead, as from one who does not exist,
thanksgiving has ceased; he who is alive and well sings the Lord’s praises. How great is the mercy of the
Lord, and his forgiveness for those who turn to him! For all things cannot be in men, since a son of man is
not immortal. What is brighter than the sun? Yet its light fails. So flesh and blood devise evil. He marshals
the host of the height of heaven; but all men are dust and ashes.
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REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE, 77; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Our good Lord showed me the enmity of the fiend, from which I gathered that everything opposed to
love and peace comes from the fiend and his set. Inevitably we fall because of our weakness and stupidity
– and just as surely we get up with even greater joy because of the mercy and grace of the Holy Spirit.
Even if our enemy gains something from us when we fall (this is what he likes!), he loses very much more
because of our love and humility when we get up again. This glorious rising up gives him such sorrow and
pain (he hates our soul so much) that he burns and burns with envy. The very sorrow he would impose on
us turns back upon himself. Which was the reason why our Lord spurned him – and the reason, too, why I
laughed so much.
The remedy is to be aware of our wretchedness, and to fly to our Lord. The greater our need, the more
important it is to draw near to him. Let our meaning be, ‘I am well aware that my suffering is deserved.
Our Lord is almighty, and may punish me mightily; he is all-wise, and can punish me wisely; and he is all-
good, and loves me most tenderly.’ And with the sight of this we have got to stay. The humility of a sinful
soul is a lovely thing, and is a work of the Spirit’s mercy and grace, when we consciously and gladly accept
the scourge and punishment given by our Lord himself. It even becomes gentle and bearable when we
are really content with him and with what he does. What penance a man should impose upon himself
was not revealed to me - not specifically at any rate. But this was shown, with particular and loving
emphasis, that we are to accept and endure humbly whatever penance God himself gives us, with his
blessed passion ever in mind. When in pitying love we recall his blessed passion we suffer with him, as did
his friends who actually saw it.
Our Lord is with us, protecting us and leading us into fullness of joy. For it is an unending source of joy to
us that our Lord should intend that he, our protector here, is to be our bliss there – our way and our
heaven is true love and sure trust! This is the message of all the revelations, and particularly in that of his
passion where he made me wholeheartedly choose him to be my heaven.
Flee to our Lord, and we shall be strengthened. Touch him, and we shall be cleansed. Cling to him, and we
shall be safe and sound from every danger. For it is the will of our courteous Lord that we should be as
much at home with him as heart may think or soul desire. But we must be careful not to accept this
privilege so casually that we forget our own courtesy. For our Lord himself is supremely friendly, and he is
as courteous as he is friendly: he is very courteous.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM IN CREATION AND IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL: 24:1-22
Wisdom will praise herself, and will glory in the midst of her people. In the assembly of the Most High she
will open her mouth, and in the presence of his host she will glory: “I came forth from the mouth of the
Most High, and covered the earth like a mist. I dwelt in high places, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud.
Alone I have made the circuit of the vault of heaven and have walked in the depths of the abyss. In the
waves of the sea, in the whole earth, and in every people and nation I have gotten a possession. Among
all these I sought a resting place; I sought in whose territory I might lodge.
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“Then the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and the one who created me assigned a place
for my tent. And he said, ‘Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance.’ From
eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. In the holy tabernacle
I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion. In the beloved city likewise he gave me a resting
place, and in Jerusalem was my dominion. So I took root in an honoured people, in the portion of the
Lord, who is their inheritance.
“I grew tall like a cedar in Lebanon, and like a cypress on the heights of Hermon. I grew tall like a palm
tree in En-ge’di, and like rose plants in Jericho; like a beautiful olive tree in the field, and like a plane tree I
grew tall. Like cassia and camel’s thorn I gave forth the aroma of spices, and like choice myrrh I spread a
pleasant odour, like galbanum, onycha, and stacte, and like the fragrance of frankincense in the
tabernacle. Like a terebinth I spread out my branches, and my branches are glorious and graceful. Like a
vine I caused loveliness to bud, and my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit.
“Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my produce. For the remembrance of me is sweeter
than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb. Those who eat me will hunger for more,
and those who drink me will thirst for more. Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame, and those who
work with my help will not sin.”

DE TRINITATE, 7.3; FOC 45 (1963) TR. MCKENNA
Why is it that Scripture hardly ever mentions wisdom, except to point out that it has been either begotten
or made by God? That is to say, it was begotten, through which all things were made; but it was created
or made, as in men, when they turn to and are enlightened by that wisdom, which was not created or
made but begotten. Then something is brought about in them which may be called their wisdom, which
the Scriptures foretell and describe when they say: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. For
Christ became our wisdom in this way when he became man.
Is it for this reason, then, that wisdom does not speak in those books, or say anything about itself, except
to show that it was born or made by God, although the Father himself is also wisdom, because wisdom
was to be commended to and indicated by us, since we ourselves were to be formed by imitating it?
The Son, who is wisdom, is from the Father, who is wisdom, light from light and God from God. And the
Father singly is light and the Son singly is light; the Father singly is God and the Son singly is God.
Consequently, the Father singly is wisdom and the Son singly is wisdom. And as both together are one
light and one God, so both together are one wisdom. But the Son has been made for us wisdom from
God, and justice and sanctification, because we turn ourselves to him temporally, that is, from some
particular time, in order to remain with him eternally. For he himself at a certain moment of time was the
Word made flesh that dwelt among us.
Therefore, when anything concerning wisdom is said or recorded in the Scriptures, whether wisdom itself
speaks or anything is said of it, then the Son is particularly meant. And with the example of this image
before us, let us also not depart from God. For we are, likewise, the image of God, not indeed an equal
image, since it was made by the Father through the Son, not born of the Father as that is. And we are so,
because we are enlightened by the light, but he is the light that enlightens. And, therefore, this image is
an example for us without itself having an example. For he does not imitate anyone who comes before
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him in respect to the Father, from whom he is wholly inseparable, since he has the same essence with
him from whom he is. But by our striving we imitate him who remains and follow him who stands; when
we walk in him, we tend towards him, because by his humility he has been made a road for us in time, in
order that by his divinity he might be for us a mansion in eternity.
SUNDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A GOOD WIFE AND A BAD WIFE: SIRACH 26:1-4, 9-18
Happy is the husband of a good wife; the number of his days will be doubled. A loyal wife rejoices her
husband, and he will complete his years in peace. A good wife is a great blessing; she will be granted
among the blessings of the man who fears the Lord. Whether rich or poor, his heart is glad, and at all
times his face is cheerful.
A wife’s harlotry shows in her lustful eyes, and she is known by her eyelids. Keep strict watch over a
headstrong daughter, lest, when she finds liberty, she use it to her hurt. Be on guard against her
impudent eye, and do not wonder if she sins against you. As a thirsty wayfarer opens his mouth and
drinks from any water near him, so will she sit in front of every post and open her quiver to the arrow.
A wife’s charm delights her husband, and her skill puts fat on his bones. A silent wife is a gift of the Lord,
and there is nothing so precious as a disciplined soul. A modest wife adds charm to charm, and no
balance can weigh the value of a chaste soul. Like the sun rising in the heights of the Lord, so is the
beauty of a good wife in her well-ordered home. Like the shining lamp on the holy lampstand, is a
beautiful face on a stately figure. Like pillars of gold on a base of silver, so are beautiful feet with a
steadfast heart.
A READING FROM THE APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION FAMILARIS CONSORTIO OF POPE

JOHN PAUL II
FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO, 11-13.
God created man in his own image and likeness: calling him to existence through love, he called him at
the same time for love. God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion.
Creating the human race in his own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the
humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and
communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.
As an incarnate spirit, that is a soul which expresses itself in a body and a body informed by an immortal
spirit, man is called to love in his unified totality. Love includes the human body, and the body is made a
sharer in spiritual love. Christian revelation recognizes two specific ways of realising the vocation of the
human person in its entirety, to love: marriage and virginity or celibacy. Either one is, in its own proper
form, an actuation of the most profound truth of man, of his being created in the image of God.
The communion of love between God and people, a fundamental part of the revelation and faith
experience of Israel, finds a meaningful expression in the marriage covenant which is established
between a man and a woman. For this reason the central word of revelation, ‘God loves his people’, is
likewise proclaimed through the living and concrete word whereby a man and a woman express their
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conjugal love. Their bond of love becomes the image and the symbol of the covenant which unites God
and his people. And the same sin which can harm the conjugal covenant becomes an image of the
infidelity of the people to their God: idolatry is prostitution, infidelity is adultery, disobedience to the law
is abandonment of the spousal love of the Lord. But the infidelity of Israel does not destroy the eternal
fidelity of the Lord, and therefore the ever faithful love of God is put forward as the model of the
relations of faithful love which should exist between spouses.
The communion between God and his people finds its definitive fulfilment in Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom
who loves and gives himself as the Saviour of humanity, uniting it to himself as his body. he reveals the
original truth of marriage, the truth of the ‘beginning’, and, freeing man from his hardness of heart, he
makes man capable of realising this truth in its entirety. This revelation reaches its definitive fullness in
the gift of love which the Word of God makes to humanity in assuming a human nature, and in the
sacrifice which Jesus Christ makes of himself on the Cross for his bride, the Church. In this sacrifice there
is entirely revealed that plan which God has imprinted on the humanity of man and woman since their
creation; the marriage of baptized persons thus becomes a real symbol of that new and eternal covenant
sanctioned in the blood of Christ.
MONDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

Against anger and vengeance: Sirach 27:22 – 28:7
Whoever winks his eye plans evil deeds, and no one can keep him from them. In your presence his mouth
is all sweetness, and he admires your words; but later he will twist his speech and with your own words
he will give offence. I have hated many things, but none to be compared to him; even the Lord will hate
him. Whoever throws a stone straight up throws it on his own head; and a treacherous blow opens up
wounds. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who sets a snare will be caught in it. If a man does evil, it
will roll back upon him, and he will not know where it came from. Mockery and abuse issue from the
proud man, but vengeance lies in wait for him like a lion. Those who rejoice in the fall of the godly will be
caught in a snare, and pain will consume them before their death.
Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, and the sinful man will possess them. He that takes
vengeance will suffer vengeance from the Lord, and he will firmly establish his sins. Forgive your
neighbour the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. Does a man
harbour anger against another, and yet seek for healing from the Lord? Does he have no mercy toward a
man like himself, and yet pray for his own sins? If he himself, being flesh, maintains wrath, who will make
expiation for his sins? Remember the end of your life, and cease from enmity, remember destruction and
death, and be true to the commandments. Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with
your neighbour; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook ignorance.

HOM. LXI IN MATTH. (BAREILLE XII, 506-509); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Two things are required of us, here and now: to acknowledge our sins and to forgive others; the first, so
that the second may become easier. For someone properly aware of his own behaviour and its
shortcomings will be the more forgiving to his fellow humans. And that does not mean, forgiveness in
words merely, but from the heart, lest in our resentment we turn the sword on ourselves. For is the harm
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done to you comparable to that which you do yourself when you renew your anger and draw down on
yourself God’s condemnation? If you are vigilant and wise the misdeed will fall to his account and he will
suffer for it; but if you persevere in your resentment and anger it will be you who gets hurt – and not
from him but from yourself. Do not say: He has insulted me and slandered me, he has done me great
wrong; for the more you protest, the more you put him in the right. For he has given you an opportunity
for casting off your sinful character. So the more he has injured you, the greater the forgiveness of your
own sin, in consequence.
Let us take care that we hate no one, so that God may still love us; so that even though we may be owing
him a thousand talents he may yet be generous and merciful to us. Has someone offended you? Be
merciful to him, then; do not hate him. Weep and lament for him, but do not show aversion. For it is not
you who have offended God, but he; you will do well to put up with it. Recall how Christ was content to
be crucified – and yet shed tears over those who did it. That must be your disposition also: the more you
are wronged, the more you must lament for the wrongdoers. For it is we who profit from this – and
greatly – but not they.
Or is it that you have received injury from those you treated kindly? For that very reason you should wail
and lament over them, being content that therein you resemble the Lord himself, who makes the sun to
rise on the unjust as also on the just. If it seems beyond you so to imitate God, be assured otherwise: it is
not a difficult task to a man of vigilance. But if it still seems a greater burden than you can bear, think of
others we could mention: Joseph, who endured so much from his brethren and was kind to them
nevertheless; Moses, praying for those who had vexed him so much; the blessed Paul, whose sufferings
were beyond his reckoning, and yet he would still have been anathema on account of those who had
caused them; or Stephen, praying for the forgiveness of his very malefactors, even as they stoned him.
With all that in mind, cast off your anger so that God may forgive you all your transgressions, by the grace
and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honour,
now and always, forever and ever. Amen.
TUESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON LENDING, ALMS AND RICHES: SIRACH 29:1-13; 31:1-4
He that shows mercy will lend to his neighbour, and he that strengthens him with his hand keeps the
commandments. Lend to your neighbour in the time of his need; and in turn, repay your neighbour
promptly. Confirm your word and keep faith with him, and on every occasion you will find what you need.
Many persons regard a loan as a windfall, and cause trouble to those who help them. A man will kiss
another’s hands until he gets a loan, and will lower his voice in speaking of his neighbour’s money; but at
the time for repayment he will delay, and will pay in words of unconcern, and will find fault with the time.
If the lender exert pressure, he will hardly get back half, and will regard that as a windfall. If he does not,
the borrower has robbed him of his money, and he has needlessly made him his enemy; he will repay him
with curses and reproaches, and instead of glory will repay him with dishonour. Because of such
wickedness, therefore, many have refused to lend; they have been afraid of being defrauded needlessly.
Nevertheless, be patient with a man in humble circumstances, and do not make him wait for your alms.
Help a poor man for the commandment's sake, and because of his need do not send him away empty.
Lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend, and do not let it rust under a stone and be lost. Lay
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up your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will profit you more than gold.
Store up almsgiving in your treasury, and it will rescue you from all affliction; more than a mighty shield
and more than a heavy spear, it will fight on your behalf against your enemy.
Wakefulness over wealth wastes away one’s flesh, and anxiety about it removes sleep. Wakeful anxiety
prevents slumber, and a severe illness carries off sleep. The rich man toils as his wealth accumulates, and
when he rests he fills himself with his dainties. The poor man toils as his livelihood diminishes, and when
he rests he becomes needy.
A READING FROM ON WORKS AND ALMSGIVING BY ST CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

DE OPERA ET ELEEMOSYNIS, 23-24, 26 (PL 4:643-646); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Truly I tell you, that whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers or sisters, you did for me.
What greater command could Christ have given us? How could he have given us greater incitement
toward works of our own mercy and justice, than by saying that anything we gave to the poor and needy
we gave to him, and that we offended him if we gave them nothing? It was in the hope that one who is
unmoved by the thought of his brother in the Church would at least be moved at the thought of Christ,
and one who has no consideration for the distress and poverty of his fellow servant would at least have
consideration for the Lord in the person of the one he despises.
And therefore, dearest brothers, you who are prepared to fear the Lord, and have already rejected and
spurned the world, raised your minds to celestial and divine matters, and made yourselves deserving
through complete faith, a devout mind, and continuous good works, let us offer our worship to God. Let
us give Christ earthly clothes to receive celestial ones; let us give him earthly food and drink, to join
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the heavenly feast. Let us sow abundantly so that our harvest will not be
small. Let us look to our eternal safety and well-being while there is time, as the Apostle Paul urges us to
do, saying: Therefore while we have time let us do whatever is for the good of all, but especially for the
members of the faith. But let us not grow weary of doing good; for in its own time we shall reap our
reward.
And the glory and the joy of those who do good works, dearest brothers, will be very great, when the
Lord begins to examine his people, and gives us the promised rewards for our merits and our good works,
celestial rewards for earthly efforts, eternal for temporal, great for small. He will offer us to the Father to
whom he has returned us by his own sanctification, and give us the eternity and immortality to which he
returned us by his life-giving blood. He will bring us back to paradise again, and true to his promise he will
open the kingdom of heaven to us!
To win this palm for good works, let us enter the contest gladly and promptly, and all run in the fight for
justice, with God and Christ as spectators. And when we are already well ahead of the world, let no
worldly desires slow us down. If the day of retribution or of persecution falls upon us while we are
running freely and swiftly in this context of good works, the Lord will in no way fail to reward us for our
merits. In time of peace he will give the victorious a white crown for their good works; in time of persecu-
tion it will be a double purple one for their suffering.
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WEDNESDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A DEMAND FOR SINCERITY IN THE WORSHIP OF GOD: SIRACH 35:1-18
He who keeps the law makes many offerings; he who heeds the commandments sacrifices a peace
offering. He who returns a kindness offers fine flour, and he who gives alms sacrifices a thank offering. To
keep from wickedness is pleasing to the Lord, and to forsake unrighteousness is atonement. Do not
appear before the Lord empty-handed, for all these things are to be done because of the commandment.
The offering of a righteous man anoints the altar, and its pleasing odour rises before the Most High. The
sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable, and the memory of it will not be forgotten. Glorify the Lord
generously, and do not stint the first fruits of your hands. With every gift show a cheerful face, and
dedicate your tithe with gladness. Give to the Most High as he has given, and as generously as your hand
has found. For the Lord is the one who repays, and he will repay you sevenfold.
Do not offer him a bribe, for he will not accept it; and do not trust to an unrighteous sacrifice; for the Lord
is the judge, and with him is no partiality. He will not show partiality in the case of a poor man; and he will
listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. He will not ignore the supplication of the fatherless, nor the
widow when she pours out her story. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek as she cries out
against him who has caused them to fall? He whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and
his prayer will reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and he will not be
consoled until it reaches the Lord; he will not desist until the Most High visits him, and does justice for the
righteous, and executes judgment. And the Lord will not delay, neither will he be patient with them, till he
crushes the loins of the unmerciful and repays vengeance on the nations; till he takes away the multitude
of the insolent, and breaks the sceptres of the unrighteous

THE CHRISTIAN WAY OF LIFE, II (JAEGER VIII, 77-79); WORD IN SEASON VIII
In speaking about the different virtues, we cannot say that one is better than the rest, or that we should
pursue them in order of merit. For in fact they are of equal importance with one another, and linked
together they lead those who practice them to the height of perfection. Sincerity leads to obedience,
obedience in turn to faith, and faith to hope, hope to righteousness, righteousness to service, and service
to humility. From humility we learn gentleness which leads to joy, as joy leads to love, and love to prayer.
Thus bound to one another and binding their zealous follower, the virtues lead him to the very height of
his desires, just as the various forms of wickedness lead those attached to them down the opposite way
to the utmost depths of evil.
But we must above all devote ourselves to prayer; for prayer is like a choir-leader in the choir of virtues,
by means of which we ask God for the virtues we still lack. Devotion to prayer unites the Christian to God
in the communion of a mystic sanctity, in a spiritual possession and a disposition of the soul that no
words can describe. With the Spirit then to guide and help him, his love for the Lord like a bright flame, he
prays unceasingly in ardent desire, always burning with love for the divine good and refreshing his soul
with renewed zeal. As Scripture says: Those who eat me will hunger for more, and those who drink me
will thirst for more; and elsewhere: You have filled my heart with gladness; so too the Lord says: The
kingdom of heaven is within you.
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By the kingdom within us he certainly means that joy which the Spirit instils into our souls from above, as
an image and a pledge, reflecting the eternal joy which the souls of the faithful possess in the life to
come. So the Lord comforts us in all our afflictions through the working of the Spirit, to keep us safe and
to grant us a share of spiritual gifts and of his own special grace. He comforts us in all our troubles, says
the Apostle, so that we may be able to comfort others in their distress. And the psalmist says: My whole
being cries out with joy to the living God; and: My soul is richly feasted, indicating in all such symbolic
sayings the joy and comfort that come from the Spirit.
THURSDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

KNOWLEDGE OF CRAFTS IS COMPARED WITH WISDOM OF THE SCRIBE: SIRACH 38:24 – 39:11
The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure; and he who has little business may
become wise. How can he become wise who handles the plough, and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work, and whose talk is about bulls? He sets his heart on
ploughing furrows, and he is careful about fodder for the heifers. So too is every craftsman and master
workman who labours by night as well as by day; those who cut the signets of seals, each is diligent in
making a great variety; he sets his heart on painting a lifelike image, and he is careful to finish his work. So
too is the smith sitting by the anvil, intent upon his handiwork in iron; the breath of the fire melts his
flesh, and he wastes away in the heat of the furnace; he inclines his ear to the sound of the hammer, and
his eyes are on the pattern of the object. He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork, and he is careful to
complete its decoration. So too is the potter sitting at his work and turning the wheel with his feet; he is
always deeply concerned over his work, and all his output is by number. He moulds the clay with his arm
and makes it pliable with his feet; he sets his heart to finish the glazing, and he is careful to clean the
furnace. All these rely upon their hands, and each is skilful in his own work. Without them a city cannot
be established, and men can neither sojourn nor live there. Yet they are not sought out for the council of
the people, nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly. They do not sit in the judge’s seat, nor do
they understand the sentence of judgment; they cannot expound discipline or judgment, and they are not
found using proverbs. But they keep stable the fabric of the world, and their prayer is in the practice of
their trade.
On the other hand he who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High will seek out the
wisdom of all the ancients, and will be concerned with prophecies; he will preserve the discourse of
notable men and penetrate the subtleties of parables; he will seek out the hidden meanings of proverbs
and be at home with the obscurities of parables. He will serve among great men and appear before
rulers; he will travel through the lands of foreign nations, for he tests the good and the evil among men.
He will set his heart to rise early to seek the Lord who made him, and will make supplication before the
Most High; he will open his mouth in prayer and make supplication for his sins.
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If the great Lord is willing, he will be filled with the spirit of understanding; he will pour forth words of
wisdom and give thanks to the Lord in prayer. He will direct his counsel and knowledge aright, and
meditate on his secrets. He will reveal instruction in his teaching, and will glory in the law of the Lord’s
covenant. Many will praise his understanding, and it will never be blotted out; his memory will not
disappear, and his name will live through all generations. Nations will declare his wisdom, and the
congregation will proclaim his praise; if he lives long, he will leave a name greater than a thousand, and if
he goes to rest, it is enough for him.

EP. LIII AD PAULINUM (PL 22:544-549); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Scripture says: I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise, and condemn the intelligence of the intelligent.
True wisdom will destroy the false; and although preaching about the cross is foolishness, yet Paul
speaks wisdom among the mature. Not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who
pass away; but he speaks the wisdom of God which was hidden in a mystery, and which God predestined
from the beginning. The wisdom of God is Christ. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of
God. This wisdom was hidden in a mystery, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were
hidden, and he who was hidden in the mystery was predestined from the beginning. He was predestined
and prefigured in the Law and the Prophets. That is why the Prophets were also called seers: for they saw
him whom the rest did not see. Abraham saw his day and rejoiced. The heavens were opened to Ezekiel
on behalf of a sinful people. Open my eyes, said David, so that 1 may gaze at the wonders of your law.
For the law is spiritual and needs to be revealed to be understood, and so that we may contemplate the
glory of God when his face is revealed.
In the Apocalypse there is shown a book sealed with seven seals. If you give it to a literate man to read,
he will tell you: I cannot, because it is sealed. How many people today think they are literate, and are in
possession of a sealed book which they cannot open unless he unlocks it who holds the key of David, and
when he opens it no one can shut it, and when he shuts it no one can open it.
In the Acts of the Apostles there is a holy eunuch who was reading Isaiah, and when Philip asked him: Do
you really understand what you are reading? he answered: How can I without a teacher? To speak of
myself for a moment, I am neither holier nor more zealous than that eunuch, who came to the temple
from Ethiopia, that is, from the ends of the earth, setting out from the royal palace. He loved the law and
divine knowledge so much that even while sitting in his chariot he read the sacred writings. And yet all
the time that he was holding the book, ruminating on the Lord's words, reading them fluently and out
loud, he did not know whom he was unwittingly revering in the book. Then Philip came and showed him
Jesus, who lay enclosed in the text in secret. The marvellous power of a teacher! In that same hour the
eunuch believed, was baptized, was faithful and holy, and turned from a pupil into a master.
I have touched briefly on these matters, to make you understand that you cannot enter upon the holy
Scriptures without someone to go before you and show you the way. I beg you, dearest brother, to live in
the midst of these things, meditate on them, know nothing else, look for nothing – does that not seem to
you to be a dwelling-place in the heavenly kingdom already here on earth?
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FRIDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DIVINE PRAISE IN CREATION: SIRACH 42:15-25; 43:27-33
I will now call to mind the works of the Lord, and will declare what I have seen. By the words of the Lord
his works are done. The sun looks down on everything with its light, and the work of the Lord is full of his
glory. The Lord has not enabled his holy ones to recount all his marvellous works, which the Lord the
Almighty has established that the universe may stand firm in his glory. He searches out the abyss, and the
hearts of men, and considers their crafty devices. For the Most High knows all that may be known, and he
looks into the signs of the age. He declares what has been and what is to be, and he reveals the tracks of
hidden things. No thought escapes him, and not one word is hidden from him. He has ordained the
splendours of his wisdom, and he is from everlasting and to everlasting. Nothing can be added or taken
away, and he needs no one to be his counsellor. How greatly to be desired are all his works, and how
sparkling they are to see! All these things live and remain for ever for every need, and are all obedient. All
things are twofold, one opposite the other, and he has made nothing incomplete. One confirms the good
things of the other, and who can have enough of beholding his glory?
Though we speak much we cannot reach the end, and the sum of our words is: “He is the all.” Where
shall we find strength to praise him? For he is greater than all his works. Terrible is the Lord and very
great, and marvellous is his power. When you praise the Lord, exalt him as much as you can; for he will
surpass even that. When you exalt him, put forth all your strength, and do not grow weary, for you
cannot praise him enough. Who has seen him and can describe him? Or who can extol him as he is? Many
things greater than these lie hidden, for we have seen but few of his works. For the Lord has made all
things, and to the godly he has granted wisdom.

ENARR. IN PS. 144, 13.15 (CCL 40:2098-2100); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The same God who has put everything in order is the God who made it. To some, he has given awareness
and understanding and immortality, as he did to the angels; to others, awareness and understanding and
mortality, as to us humans; to yet others, he gave bodily sense but not understanding nor immortality,
like the beasts of the field; and to yet others still, neither awareness nor understanding nor immortality,
like the plants, the trees, like stones. But even these, on their level, cannot fall short: so he has ordained
creation at each step, from earth to sky, from visible to invisible, from mortal to immortal. This
interweaving of creation, this most well-proportioned beauty and elegance, sealing the heights from the
depths, plumbing the depths from the heights, never breaking off or going short indeed, yet ever
harmonising the variety. Everything there is gives praise to God.
And yet, what do we mean when we say that? It really means this: when you consider it all and see how
beautiful it all is, in so doing you yourself are praising God in it, or through it. For the speechless earth has
yet a voice of its own, its eloquent beauty. Take stock of its beauty, its abundance and strength, the way
the seed germinates, so much commonly being brought forth that never was planted. You examine it all,
marvelling as you do so at the great strength, the great beauty of it, the potency you find in it, realising
that all this could not have come of itself. And it strikes you, therefore, that it could only have got there
from the Creator. What you have found there is the voice, just alluded to: this manifestation presenting
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itself in praise of the Creator. Does not the thought of all the beauty there is in the world lead you on to
the point where the very beauty itself seems to proclaim with one voice: It was not I who made me, who
put me here, but God?
Observe, then, the beauty of the world: the earth, the sea, the air, the sky, the stars! Does not all this
overawe the beholder? Does not the beauty itself strike the gaze as if to suggest that naught else could
be devised more beautiful? And yet, here amidst all this beauty and elegance well nigh unutterable, you
have worms and mice and reptiles for company. How beautiful, then, that kingdom which you share but
with the angels! It was little indeed to sing the praises of visual elegance, the beauty we can see. All that
would apply to anything there is, in this world, the earth resplendent with forest and glade, or the sky
aflame with celestial light. But those words, the great beauty of your kingdom, tell us of a sight which we
have not seen and yet believe; not having seen, yet desire because we believe, bearing all things in the
meantime for that desire. That is the measure of a beauty (one which does not fade): may it be loved
before it can be seen, so that once seen it may be securely possessed.
SATURDAY, TWENTY-NINTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A HYMN OF THANKSGIVING: SIRACH 51:1-12
I will give thanks to thee, O Lord and King, and will praise thee as God my Saviour. I give thanks to thy
name, for thou hast been my protector and helper and hast delivered my body from destruction and from
the snare of a slanderous tongue, from lips that utter lies. Before those who stood by thou wast my
helper and didst deliver me, in the greatness of thy mercy and of thy name, from the gnashings of teeth
about to devour me, from the hand of those who sought my life, from the many afflictions that I endured,
from choking fire on every side and from the midst of fire which I did not kindle, from the depths of the
belly of Hades, from an unclean tongue and lying words – the slander of an unrighteous tongue to the
king. My soul drew near to death, and my life was very near to Hades beneath. They surrounded me on
every side, and there was no one to help me; I looked for the assistance of men, and there was none.
Then I remembered thy mercy, O Lord, and thy work from of old, that thou dost deliver those who wait
for thee and dost save them from the hand of their enemies. And I sent up my supplication from the
earth, and prayed for deliverance from death. I appealed to the Lord, the Father of my lord, not to
forsake me in the days of affliction, at the time when there is no help against the proud. I will praise thy
name continually, and will sing praise with thanksgiving. My prayer was heard, for thou didst save me
from destruction and rescue me from an evil plight. Therefore I will give thanks to thee and praise thee,
and I will bless the name of the Lord.

ENARR. IN PS. 90, II.2 (CCL 39:1267); WORD IN SEASON VIII
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the protection of the Almighty. I commend
these lines to you, so that none may place their hope in themselves, but put all their hope in him in whom
our strength lies. We conquer by virtue of his shelter, not of our own presumption. Therefore the
Almighty protects us if we say the next words to the Lord: He will say to the Lord: You are my helper and
my refuge, my God, in whom 1 shall trust; for he will save me from the hunter’s trap and from the harsh
word. I emphasise this; for in their fear of the harsh word many people fall into the hunter’s trap.
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You are taunted for being a Christian, and are sorry you became a Christian, and because of a harsh word
you fall into the devil’s trap. You are even taunted for living a better life than most Christians, and
because you are afraid of the taunters and their harsh words you fall into the devil’s snares, so as not to
be wheat on the threshing-floor but to follow the chaff. But one who trusts in God is saved from the
hunter’s trap and the harsh word.
But how does God protect you? He will cover you between his shoulders; that is, he will hold you to his
heart, to protect you with his wings; provided only that you acknowledge your weakness, so that you flee
like a weak little chicken under the wings of your mother, to avoid being snatched away by the kite. For
the powers of the air, the devil and his angels, are kites; they are bent on seizing our weakness. Let us flee
under the wings of our mother Wisdom, for even Wisdom herself became weak for our sake; for the
Word became flesh. Just as the hen becomes weak with her chickens, to protect them with her wings, so
our Lord Jesus Christ, who, since he was in the form of God, did not think equality with God was
something to be seized, to become weak with us and protect us with his wings, emptied himself, taking
the form of a servant, made in human likeness and found in human appearance. And you will find refuge
under his wings.
SUNDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PRAISE OF THE WISDOM OF GOD: WISDOM 1:1-15
Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth, think of the Lord with uprightness, and seek him with
sincerity of heart; because he is found by those who do not put him to the test, and manifests himself to
those who do not distrust him. For perverse thoughts separate men from God, and when his power is
tested, it convicts the foolish; because wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul, nor dwell in a body enslaved
to sin. For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit, and will rise and depart from foolish thoughts,
and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.
For wisdom is a kindly spirit and will not free a blasphemer from the guilt of his words; because God is
witness of his inmost feelings, and a true observer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. Because the
Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said;
therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will escape notice, and justice, when it punishes, will not
pass him by. For inquiry will be made into the counsels of an ungodly man, and a report of his words will
come to the Lord, to convict him of his lawless deeds; because a jealous ear hears all things, and the
sound of murmurings does not go unheard.
Beware then of useless murmuring, and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret word is
without result, and a lying mouth destroys the soul.
Do not invite death by the error of your life, nor bring on destruction by the works of your hands; because
God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that
they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive
poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.
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SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, GAUDIUM ET SPES 14-15, 18 (ABRIDGED)
Though made of body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily composition he gathers to himself the
elements of the material world; thus they reach their crown through him and through him raise their
voice in free praise of the Creator. For this reason man is not allowed to despise his bodily life; rather, he
is obliged to regard his body as good and honourable since God has created it and will raise it up on the
last day. Nevertheless, wounded by sin, man experiences rebellious stirrings in his body. But the very
dignity of man postulates that man glorify God in his body and forbid it to serve the evil inclinations of his
heart.
Now, man is not wrong when he regards himself as superior to bodily concerns, and as more than a speck
of nature or a nameless constituent of the city of man. For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole
sum of mere things. He plunges into the depths of reality whenever he enters into his own heart; God,
who probes the heart awaits him there; there he discerns his proper destiny beneath the eyes of God.
Thus, when he recognises in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is not being mocked by a fantasy
born only of physical or social influences, but is rather laying hold of the proper truth of the matter.
It is in the face of death that the riddle of human existence grows most acute. Not only is man tormented
by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual
extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the utter ruin and
total disappearance of his own person. He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal
seed which cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavours of technology, though useful in the
extreme, cannot calm his anxiety, for prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for
higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast.
Although the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the Church has been taught by divine
revelation and firmly teaches that man has been created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach
of earthly misery. In addition, that bodily death from which man would have been immune had he not
sinned will be vanquished, according to the Christian faith, when man who was ruined by his own doing is
restored to wholeness by an almighty and merciful Saviour. For God has called man and still calls him so
that with his entire being he might be joined to him in an endless sharing of a divine life beyond all
corruption. Christ won this victory when he rose to life, for by his death he freed man from death.
MONDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE FOOLISH THOUGHTS OF THE UNGODLY AGAINST THE RIGHTEOUS: WISDOM 1:16 – 2:24
But ungodly men by their words and deeds summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away,
and they made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his party. For they reasoned
unsoundly, saying to themselves, “Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man
comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades. Because we were born by mere
chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is
smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts. When it is extinguished, the body will
turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air. Our name will be forgotten in time and no one will
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remember our works; our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and be scattered like mist that is
chased by the rays of the sun and overcome by its heat. For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death, because it is sealed up and no one turns back.
“Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in
youth. Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass by us. Let us crown
ourselves with rosebuds before they wither. Let none of us fail to share in our revelry, everywhere let us
leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot. Let us oppress the righteous poor
man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged. But let our might be our law of
right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.
“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he
reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have
knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the
very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are
strange. We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the
last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. Let us see if his words are true, and let
us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him, and
will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find
out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for,
according to what he says, he will be protected.”
Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know
the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;
for God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the
devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.

TRACT. IN JOH. 12, 10-11 (CCL 36:126-127); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Scripture says that death was not God’s doing, and that he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the
living. To be – for this he created everything. How then does it continue? It was through the devil’s envy
that death entered the world. The devil could not force upon man the death he held before his eyes; he
had no power to determine the human will. All he had was his own cunning and persuasive skills. Without
your consent, the devil could have done nothing to harm you; it was that consent which brought death
upon you. Though born mortal of mortal flesh, it was from an immortal state that we were brought to
mortality. Since Adam all human beings have been subject to death. Even Jesus, Son of God, Word of God
through whom all things were made, the only Son equal to the Father, was made subject to death; for the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Because he accepted death, death itself was hung on the
cross, while humankind was freed from death.
What took place symbolically in times of old was recalled by the Lord when he said: As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life. A great mystery is here, as those who have read the Scriptures know.
When the Israelites were in the desert, they were struck down by bites they received from serpents, and
death claimed countless victims. This was the stroke of God, scourging and correcting them for their
instruction. A great mystery, prefiguring something yet to come, was thus revealed, as the Lord himself
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testifies in this passage, ensuring that it should bear no interpretation other than the one he, the Truth,
gives about himself. For the Lord had bidden Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, lift it up on a pole in the
desert, and tell the Israelites that all who were bitten by a serpent should fix their eyes on the serpent
raised up on the pole. What does this serpent lifted on high signify? The Lord’s death on the cross. Death
came into being through a serpent, and so the figure of a serpent is its symbol. But whereas the serpent's
bite was deadly, our Lord’s death is life-giving. Is not Christ life itself? And yet Christ died. But in the death
of Christ, it was death that met its end: life by dying slew death, the fullness of life swallowed up death, in
the body of Christ death was destroyed. This is what we shall proclaim at the resurrection when we sing
in triumph, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? But in the meantime, to find
healing for our sins, let us fix our eyes on Christ crucified.
TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE RIGHTEOUS WILL POSSESS THE KINGDOM: WISDOM 3:1-19
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be an affliction,
and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in the sight of men they
were punished, their hope is full of immortality. Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great
good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,
and will run like sparks through the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord
will reign over them for ever. Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with
him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and he watches over his holy ones. But the
ungodly will be punished as their reasoning deserves, who disregarded the righteous man and rebelled
against the Lord; for whoever despises wisdom and instruction is miserable. Their hope is vain, their
labours are unprofitable, and their works are useless. Their wives are foolish, and their children evil; their
offspring are accursed. For blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not entered into a
sinful union; she will have fruit when God examines souls. Blessed also is the eunuch whose hands have
done no lawless deed, and who has not devised wicked things against the Lord; for special favour will be
shown him for his faithfulness, and a place of great delight in the temple of the Lord. For the fruit of good
labours is renowned, and the root of understanding does not fail. But children of adulterers will not come
to maturity, and the offspring of an unlawful union will perish. Even if they live long they will be held of no
account, and finally their old age will be without honour. If they die young, they will have no hope and no
consolation in the day of decision. For the end of an unrighteous generation is grievous.

THE ORTHODOX FAITH 4.15; FOC 37 (1958) TR. CHASE
The saints must be honoured as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the Theologian
and Evangelist says: But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God.
Furthermore, if the Creator and Lord of all is called both King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods,
then most certainly the saints, too, are both gods and lords and kings. However, I say that they are gods,
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lords, and kings not by nature, but because they have ruled over and dominated sufferings, and because
they have kept undebased the likeness of the divine image to which they were made – for the image of
the king is also called a king, and, finally, because they have really been united to God and receiving him
as a dweller within themselves have through association with him become by grace what he is by nature.
How, then, should these not be honoured to have been accounted servants, friends, and sons of God?
For the honour shown the more sensible of one’s fellow servants gives proof of one’s love for the
common Master.
These are become repositories and pure dwelling places of God, for I will dwell in them and walk among
them, says God, and I will be their God. So, indeed, sacred Scripture says that the souls of the just are in
the hand of God: and death shall not touch them. For the death of the saints is rather sleep than death,
since they have laboured unto eternity and shall live unto the end’, and ‘precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints. What then is more precious than to be in the hand of God? For God is life and
light, and they that are in the hand of God abide in life and light.
Moreover, because through their mind God has also dwelt in their bodies, the Apostle says: Know you not
that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you? Now the Lord is in the Spirit; and
again: If any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. How, then, should they not be
honoured, who are the living temples of God, the living tabernacles of God. These in life openly took their
stand with God.
In the relics of the saints the Lord Christ has provided us with saving fountains which in many ways pour
out benefactions and gush with fragrant ointment. And let no one disbelieve. For, if by the will of God
water poured out of the precipitous living rock in the desert, and for the thirsty Sampson from the
jawbone of an ass, is it unbelievable that fragrant ointment should flow from the relics of the martyrs?
Certainly not, at least for such as know the power of God and the honour which the saints have from him.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

TRUE AND FALSE HAPPINESS: WISDOM 4:1-20
Better than this is childlessness with virtue, for in the memory of virtue is immortality, because it is known
both by God and by men. When it is present, men imitate it, and they long for it when it has gone; and
throughout all time it marches crowned in triumph, victor in the contest for prizes that are undefiled. But
the prolific brood of the ungodly will be of no use, and none of their illegitimate seedlings will strike a
deep root or take a firm hold. For even if they put forth boughs for a while, standing insecurely they will
be shaken by the wind, and by the violence of the winds they will be uprooted. The branches will be
broken off before they come to maturity, and their fruit will be useless, not ripe enough to eat, and good
for nothing. For children born of unlawful unions are witnesses of evil against their parents when God
examines them.
But the righteous man, though he die early, will be at rest. For old age is not honoured for length of time,
nor measured by number of years; but understanding is grey hair for men, and a blameless life is ripe old
age.
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There was one who pleased God and was loved by him, and while living among sinners he was taken up.
He was caught up lest evil change his understanding or guile deceive his soul. For the fascination of
wickedness obscures what is good, and roving desire perverts the innocent mind. Being perfected in a
short time, he fulfilled long years; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took him quickly
from the midst of wickedness. Yet the peoples saw and did not understand, nor take such a thing to
heart, that God’s grace and mercy are with his elect, and he watches over his holy ones.
The righteous man who had died will condemn the ungodly who are living, and youth that is quickly
perfected will condemn the prolonged old age of the unrighteous man. For they will see the end of the
wise man, and will not understand what the Lord purposed for him, and for what he kept him safe. They
will see, and will have contempt for him, but the Lord will laugh them to scorn. After this they will become
dishonoured corpses, and an outrage among the dead for ever; because he will dash them speechless to
the ground, and shake them from the foundations; they will be left utterly dry and barren, and they will
suffer anguish, and the memory of them will perish.
They will come with dread when their sins are reckoned up, and their lawless deeds will convict them to
their face.

ENARR. IN PS. 24, II, 17-19 (CCL 38:164-165); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Be my helper, do not abandon me; and do not despise me, God, my Saviour. For you help those you have
created; you do not forsake them.
For my father and my mother have abandoned me. The psalmist made himself God’s child, he made God
his father and God his mother. God is his father because he created him, because he calls, commands,
and directs him; God is his mother because she cherishes, feeds, takes care of him, and keeps him safe.
My father and my mother have abandoned me; but the Lord has taken me to himself, both to direct and
nourish him. Mortal parents produce children, their children succeed them, mortal from mortal; and they
were born to succeed them so that their parents might pass away. He who has created me will not pass
away, nor shall I leave him. My father and my mother have abandoned me; but the Lord has taken me to
himself. Even apart from those two parents to whom we owe our birth in the flesh, a male father and a
female mother, Adam and Eve as it were, apart from those two parents we have another father and
another mother on earth, or rather we have had. Our worldly father is the devil, and he was our father
when we were unbelievers; for it was to unbelievers that the Lord said: Your father is the devil.
If he who is at work in the children of unbelief is the father of all the godless, who is their mother? It is a
city called Babylon; that city is a community of all the lost from east to west; it has an earthly kingdom.
There is a city like this one, called a republic, which you now see growing old and declining; this was our
first mother, here we were born. We know a different father, God; we have left the devil. For does he
ever dare to come near those whom he who surpasses all things has taken to himself? We know a
different mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the holy Church, part of which sojourns on earth; we
have left Babylon. My father and my mother have abandoned me. They have nothing now to give me; for
even when they seemed to give me a gift, it was yours, and I ascribed it to them.
For who, even in this world, gives us anything, if not God? Or who takes anything away from us, without
the command or permission of him who gave it? So let our father and our mother abandon us, let the
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devil and the city of Babylon abandon us; let the Lord take us to himself, to comfort us with temporal
things and bless us with eternal ones. For my father and my mother have abandoned me; but the Lord
has taken me to himself.
THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

CORRUPT MEN ARE CONDEMNED BY GOD: WISDOM 5:1-23
Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have afflicted him,
and those who make light of his labours. When they see him, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and
they will be amazed at his unexpected salvation. They will speak to one another in repentance, and in
anguish of spirit they will groan, and say, “This is the man whom we once held in derision and made a
byword of reproach – we fools! We thought that his life was madness and that his end was without
honour. Why has he been numbered among the sons of God? And why is his lot among the saints? So it
was we who strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine on us, and the sun
did not rise upon us. We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and we journeyed
through trackless deserts, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What has our arrogance profited
us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?
“All those things have vanished like a shadow, and like a rumour that passes by; like a ship that sails
through the billowy water, and when it has passed no trace can be found, nor track of its keel in the
waves; or as, when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found; the light air, lashed by
the beat of its pinions and pierced by the force of its rushing flight, is traversed by the movement of its
wings, and afterward no sign of its coming is found there; or as, when an arrow is shot at a target, the air,
thus divided, comes together at once, so that no one knows its pathway. So we also, as soon as we were
born, ceased to be, and we had no sign of virtue to show, but were consumed in our wickedness.”
Because the hope of the ungodly man is like chaff carried by the wind, and like a light hoarfrost driven
away by a storm; it is dispersed like smoke before the wind, and it passes like the remembrance of a guest
who stays but a day.
But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them.
Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord, because
with his right hand he will cover them, and with his arm he will shield them. The Lord will take his zeal as
his whole armour, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies; he will put on righteousness as a
breastplate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet; he will take holiness as an invincible shield, and
sharpen stern wrath for a sword, and creation will join with him to fight against the madmen. Shafts of
lightning will fly with true aim, and will leap to the target as from a well-drawn bow of clouds, and
hailstones full of wrath will be hurled as from a catapult; the water of the sea will rage against them, and
rivers will relentlessly overwhelm them; a mighty wind will rise against them, and like a tempest it will
winnow them away. Lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth, and evil-doing will overturn the thrones
of rulers.
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SERMO 198.43; WSA (1997) TR. HILL
Your Saviour took flesh to himself, your Mediator took flesh to himself, and by taking flesh he took the
Church to himself. He was the first to make a libation, as coming from the head, of what he would offer to
God, a high priest for ever, and the propitiation for our sins. The Word took human nature to himself, and
the two became one, as it is written, They shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, he says, but
I mean in Christ and in the Church. The bridal chamber of this marriage was the womb of the virgin. And
he, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, exulted like a giant to run the way. A giant because
strong, overcoming weakness with weakness, annihilating death with death.
He was running the way himself in order to fulfil what had been foretold about him: He drinks from the
torrent on the way; therefore he shall lift up the head. The torrent, you see, is this world. Waters which
flow as a result of sudden storms or winter floods are called torrents – which are, of course, going to stop
flowing just as quickly. That’s what all these affairs of time are like – a transient torrent, soon going to
cease.
Today, New Year’s Day, those who are enjoying the excesses and vanities of the world don’t see that they
are being swept along by the rushing force of the torrent. Let them summon back, if they can, this same
day last year; let them at least call back yesterday. They don’t see that their enjoyments too pass like a
torrent, so that they will find themselves saying later on, These are the ones whom at one time we held in
derision and in the likeness of a reproach. We, fools that we were, reckoned their life madness and their
end without honour. Now they are counted among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints! So
we strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice did not shine on us, and the sun did not rise for
us.
Which sun? Not this visible one, surely? This one rises for them daily. It is about this one, after all, that
the Lord says, Who makes his sun rise up on the good and the bad. There is another sun who made this
one, invisible and intelligible, the sun of justice, about which it says in another place, The sun of justice
has risen for me. This is the sun that did not rise for them. And listen to their lament: What use to us was
pride, and what did the boastfulness of riches confer upon us? All those things have passed like a shadow.
It has all flowed away already like that torrent; but yet that other one who was born, who suffered, was
crucified, was buried, has risen again. He drinks from this torrent on the way; that is why he has lifted up
the head, which is to say, himself.
FRIDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM IS TO BE LOVED: WISDOM 6:1-25
Listen therefore, O kings, and understand; learn, O judges of the ends of the earth. Give ear, you that rule
over multitudes, and boast of many nations. For your dominion was given you from the Lord, and
your sovereignty from the Most High, who will search out your works and inquire into your plans.
Because as servants of his kingdom you did not rule rightly, nor keep the law, nor walk according to the
purpose of God, he will come upon you terribly and swiftly, because severe judgment falls on those in
high places. For the lowliest man may be pardoned in mercy, but mighty men will be mightily tested. For
the Lord of all will not stand in awe of any one, nor show deference to greatness; because he himself
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made both small and great, and he takes thought for all alike. But a strict inquiry is in store for the mighty.
To you then, O monarchs, my words are directed, that you may learn wisdom and not transgress. For they
will be made holy who observe holy things in holiness, and those who have been taught them will find a
defence. Therefore set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed.
Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those
who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. He who rises early to seek her
will have no difficulty, for he will find her sitting at his gates. To fix one’s thought on her is perfect
understanding, and he who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, because she goes about
seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets them in every
thought.
The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction, and concern for instruction is love of
her, and love of her is the keeping of her laws, and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality,
and immortality brings one near to God; so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom.
Therefore if you delight in thrones and sceptres, O monarchs over the peoples, honour wisdom, that you
may reign for ever. I will tell you what wisdom is and how she came to be, and I will hide no secrets from
you, but I will trace her course from the beginning of creation, and make knowledge of her clear, and I
will not pass by the truth; neither will I travel in the company of sickly envy, for envy does not associate
with wisdom. A multitude of wise men is the salvation of the world, and a sensible king is the stability of
his people. Therefore be instructed by my words, and you will profit.

THE DIVINE NAMES (PG 3:865-868); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Let us praise the good and eternal life as also wise and as absolute wisdom, or rather as essential to all
wisdom, and surpassing all wisdom and understanding. For God is not only supremely full of wisdom, and
his understanding is infinite, but he transcends all reason, mind, and wisdom. And this was marvellously
understood by that truly holy man, that bright sun shared in common by ourselves and our teacher, who
said: God’s foolishness is wiser than men. Not only because every human thought is astray compared with
the firmness and constancy of the perfect thoughts of God, but because theologians are accustomed to
speak of the nature of God in a contrary sense, in terms of privation. So they describe all-shining light as
invisible; they call him who is praised for many qualities and under many names indescribable and not to
be named; and they call him who is present to all and can be found by all infinite and unsearchable. Even
in his time the holy Apostle is said to have praised the foolishness of God in the same way, making what
seems to be unexpected and out of place in this a symbol of the ineffable truth which is beyond all
understanding.
But, as I have said elsewhere, if in our familiar fashion we light on matters far above us, gripped by
commonplace feelings and viewing the divine from our own angle, we cannot fail to go astray, since we
pursue divine and ineffable reason with our eyes fixed on the world of appearances. We must recognise
that our mind has the power to think, which enables it to examine mental objects, but the union by which
it is united to what transcends it surpasses the nature of the human mind. Therefore, in accordance with
this, we must think of God not in our own way but by abandoning ourselves completely and becoming
wholly attached to God. It is better to belong to God than to ourselves, for knowledge of God can only be
given to those who are with God.
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So let us praise transcendentally this irrational, mindless, and foolish wisdom, declaring it to be the origin
of all mind, reason, wisdom, and understanding, and that all counsel is in its power, all knowledge and
understanding come from it, and that in it are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For also
in accordance with what has been said before, the supremely wise and all-wise origin is even the
foundation of absolute wisdom, both universal and singular.
SATURDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM, AN IMAGE OF GOD: WISDOM 7:15-30
May God grant that I speak with judgement and have thought worthy of what I have received, for he is
the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise. For both we and our words are in his hand, as
are all understanding and skill in crafts. For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to
know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements; the beginning and end and middle of
times, the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons, the cycles of the year and the
constellations of the stars, the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts, the powers of spirits
and the reasonings of men, the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots; I learned both what is secret
and what is manifest, for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.
For in her there is a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted,
distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from
anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent and pure and
most subtle. For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and
penetrates all things. For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the
Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a
spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. Though she is but one, she can do
all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy
souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives
with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom
evil does not prevail.
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUES OF ANSELM OF HAVELBERG

DIALOGUES 1, 2 (SC 118:41-44); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Let us consider how God’s Church is one in itself and by its own nature, and how it is manifold by the
nature of its children, whom it has generated and continues to generate in different ways and ages, and
has instructed and continues to instruct by different laws and institutions, from the descendants of
righteous Abel to the last of the chosen. For in the words of the Bridegroom: My dove is one; she is her
mother’s only child, her mother’s darling. The Church is one, with one faith, one love; one of one without
stain of wicked faithlessness or wrinkly of perverse duplicity; and there is one generation of the good, of
which it is written: The generation of the good will be blessed. And the body of the Church is one, which
is given life and is ruled and governed by the Holy Spirit, to which the Holy Spirit is united, manifold,
subtle, mobile, eloquent, undefiled, true, kind, loving the good, sagacious, whom nothing prevents from
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doing good, compassionate, gracious, steadfast, untroubled, all-powerful, taking care of everything, and
permeating every spirit, wise and pure.
In other words, as the Apostle explains: In the Holy Spirit there are varieties of gifts, but the Spirit is
the same. And: to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one, that is,
words of wisdom are given by the Spirit; to another, words of learning according to the same Spirit; to
one, faith by the same Spirit; to another, prophecy; to one the ability to distinguish between spirits; to
another various kinds of language; to yet another the interpretation of languages. So all these gifts
originate from one and the same Spirit, allotting them to each individually at will.
Thus it is manifestly clear that the one body of the Church is given life by the one Holy Spirit, which is
both single in itself and manifold in the multiform distribution of its gifts. Yes, this body of the Church,
given life by the Holy Spirit, divided and separated through the diversity of its members in different times
and ages, began with the righteous Abel and will end with the last of the chosen, ever one with one faith,
but distinguished by the manifold variety of its life.
SUNDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

WISDOM IS DESIRED BY GOD: WISDOM 8:1-21
She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well.
I loved her and sought her from my youth, and I desired to take her for my bride, and I became
enamoured of her beauty. She glorifies her noble birth by living with God, and the Lord of all loves her.
For she is an initiate in the knowledge of God, and an associate in his works. If riches are a desirable
possession in life, what is richer than wisdom who effects all things? And if understanding is effective,
who more than she is fashioner of what exists? And if any one loves righteousness, her labours are
virtues; for she teaches self-control and prudence, justice and courage; nothing in life is more profitable
for men than these. And if any one longs for wide experience, she knows the things of old, and infers the
things to come; she understands turns of speech and the solutions of riddles; she has foreknowledge of
signs and wonders and of the outcome of seasons and times. Therefore I determined to take her to live
with me, knowing that she would give me good counsel and encouragement in cares and grief. Because
of her I shall have glory among the multitudes and honour in the presence of the elders, though I am
young. I shall be found keen in judgment, and in the sight of rulers I shall be admired. When I am silent
they will wait for me, and when I speak they will give heed; and when I speak at greater length they will
put their hands on their mouths. Because of her I shall have immortality, and leave an everlasting
remembrance to those who come after me. I shall govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me;
dread monarchs will be afraid of me when they hear of me; among the people I shall show myself
capable, and courageous in war. When I enter my house, I shall find rest with her for companionship with
her has no bitterness, and life with her has no pain, but gladness and joy. When I considered these things
inwardly, and thought upon them in my mind, that in kinship with wisdom there is immortality, and in
friendship with her, pure delight, and in the labours of her hands, unfailing wealth, and in the experience
of her company, understanding, and renown in sharing her words, I went about seeking how to get her
for myself. As a child I was by nature well endowed, and a good soul fell to my lot; or rather, being good, I
entered an undefiled body. But I perceived that I would not possess wisdom unless God gave her to me
and it was a mark of insight to know whose gift she was so I appealed to the Lord and besought him.
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A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ABBOT WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
MEDITATIVAE ORATIONES X (PL 180:235); WORD IN SEASON VIII
It is to my crucified one that I turn. His cross is my glory: its mark is on my brow; it gives joy to my mind,
direction to my life, love even for death itself. May they not despise me for this, O Lord, they who are
worthy to behold you, seated as you are on your throne, the exaltation of your godhead, filling all the
earth with your majesty. The mysteries of your dealings with men here and now fill the temple of every
mind, great and small. May your holy angels have the honour that is their due in heaven: but may they
sometimes also share their grace and favours with us here on earth. For he loves us to make progress in
our lives: and their blessed perfection is sweet to him. As the Apostle says: God’s many-splendoured
wisdom has been manifested to principalities and powers in heaven through his dealings with the Church.
Wherefore may they pardon us, Lord, even if your love should sometimes so captivate us that we desire
to see, with them, what with them we already love: with a full heart we felicitate them, as they behold
what we are not yet worthy to behold.
May they blissfully contemplate your divine majesty residing in your eternal wisdom: those things to be,
seen before this our mortal wayfaring and after it, everything that is, past and future, enfolding it all
within his eternal present: it reaches in its power and strength from one extremity to another. But our
temporal passage, belonging to your dealings with men as a whole, he has strewn with his charity,
disposing all things in sweetness, for the sake of the daughters of Jerusalem, the devout but as yet infirm
souls. They who have not thus far their elevated gaze fixed on contemplating the sublime would fain
undergo hardship for your servants and be transformed so as to belong among their fellows. Among
these, O Lord, may my spirit some day be taught to adore you, spirit as you are, in spirit and in truth, flesh
no longer desiring what is contrary to the spirit, nor yet holding it back. But now that for the moment you
are kept from boldly taking possession of what is to be yours, make a proper disposition of what is his,
with what grace and harmony you best can, as befits him, the true owner. I have not yet risen above the
rough-hewn figures of my earthly imagination: but may you indulge and be gracious to my feeble spirit, as
it expresses its true nature in letting its fancy play on your more humble creatures. Behold! the meagre
enfolding the newly born, the holy child being adored; the footprints of the crucified one being licked, as
he hangs on the cross; his feet being held and kissed now that he is risen; the hand, put in the place
where the nails went; and then the exclamation – My Lord and my God!
MONDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

A DISCOURSE ON ACQUIRING WISDOM: WISDOM 8:21 – 9:18
I perceived that I would not possess wisdom unless God gave her to me and it was a mark of insight to
know whose gift she was so I appealed to the Lord and besought him,. and with my whole heart I said:
“O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things by thy word, and by thy wisdom hast
formed man, to have dominion over the creatures thou hast made, and rule the world in holiness and
righteousness, and pronounce judgment in uprightness of soul, give me the wisdom that sits by thy
throne, and do not reject me from among thy servants. For I am thy slave and the son of thy maidservant,
a man who is weak and short-lived, with little understanding of judgment and laws; for even if one is
perfect among the sons of men, yet without the wisdom that comes from thee he will be regarded as
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nothing. Thou hast chosen me to be king of thy people and to be judge over thy sons and daughters. Thou
hast given command to build a temple on thy holy mountain, and an altar in the city of thy habitation, a
copy of the holy tent which thou didst prepare from the beginning. With thee is wisdom, who knows thy
works and was present when thou didst make the world, and who understand what is pleasing in thy
sight and what is right according to thy commandments. Send her forth from the holy heavens, and from
the throne of thy glory send her, that she may be with me and toil, and that I may learn what is pleasing
to thee. For she knows and understands all things, and she will guide me wisely in my actions and guard
me with her glory. Then my works will be acceptable, and I shall judge thy people justly, and shall be
worthy of the throne of my father. For what man can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what
the Lord wills? For the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail, for a perishable
body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind. We can hardly guess at
what is on earth, and what is at hand we find with labour; but who has traced out what is in the heavens?
Who has learned thy counsel, unless thou hast given wisdom and sent thy holy Spirit from on high? And
thus the paths of those on earth were set right, and men were taught what pleases thee, and were saved
by wisdom.”

SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, GAUDIUM ET SPES 22
The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For
Adam, the first man, was a figure of him who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam,
by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes
his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in him all the aforementioned truths find their
root and attain their crown.
He who is the image of the invisible God, is himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam he restores the
divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as he assumed it
was not annulled, by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect, too. For by his
Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human
hands, he thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the
Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.
As an innocent lamb he merited life for us by the free shedding of his own blood. In him God reconciled
us to himself and among ourselves; from bondage to the devil and sin he delivered us, so that each one of
us can say with the Apostle: The Son of God loved me and gave himself up for me. By suffering for us he
not only provided us with an example for our imitation, he blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death
are made holy and take on a new meaning.
The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son who is the firstborn of many brothers, received
the first-fruits of the Spirit by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of love. Through this
Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance, the whole man is renewed from within, even to the
achievement of the redemption of the body: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the death dwells in
you, then he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your mortal bodies because of
his Spirit who dwells in you. Pressing upon the Christian, to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle
against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked with the Paschal Mystery
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and patterned on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes
from hope.
All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an
unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one and
divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the
possibility of being associated with this Paschal Mystery.
Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers in the light of Christian revelation.
Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from his Gospel,
they overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by his death; he has lavished life upon us so that, as
sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit: Abba, Father.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

OUR FATHERS WERE SAVED THROUGH WISDOM: WISDOM: 10:1 – 11:4
Wisdom protected the first-formed father of the world, when he alone had been created; she delivered
him from his transgression, and gave him strength to rule all things. But when an unrighteous man
departed from her in his anger, he perished because in rage he slew his brother. When the earth was
flooded because of him, wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood.
Wisdom also, when the nations in wicked agreement had been confounded, recognized the righteous
man and preserved him blameless before God, and kept him strong in the face of his compassion for his
child. Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing; he escaped the fire that
descended on the Five Cities. Evidence of their wickedness still remains: a continually smoking wasteland,
plants bearing fruit that does not ripen, and a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving
soul. For because they passed wisdom by, they not only were hindered from recognizing the good, but
also left for mankind a reminder of their folly, so that their failures could never go unnoticed.
Wisdom rescued from troubles those who served her. When a righteous man fled from his brother’s
wrath, she guided him on straight paths; she showed him the kingdom of God, and gave him knowledge
of angels; she prospered him in his labours, and increased the fruit of his toil. When his oppressors were
covetous, she stood by him and made him rich. She protected him from his enemies, and kept him safe
from those who lay in wait for him; in his arduous contest she gave him the victory, so that he might learn
that godliness is more powerful than anything.
When a righteous man was sold, wisdom did not desert him, but delivered him from sin. She descended
with him into the dungeon, and when he was in prison she did not leave him, until she brought him the
sceptre of a kingdom and authority over his masters. Those who accused him she showed to be false, and
she gave him everlasting honour.
A holy people and blameless race wisdom delivered from a nation of oppressors. She entered the soul of
a servant of the Lord, and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs. She gave holy men the reward
of their labours; she guided them along a marvellous way, and became a shelter to them by day, and a
starry flame through the night. She brought them over the Red Sea, and led them through deep waters;
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but she drowned their enemies, and cast them up from the depth of the sea. Therefore the righteous
plundered the ungodly; they sang hymns, O Lord, to thy holy name, and praised with one accord thy
defending hand, because wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of babes speak
clearly.
Wisdom prospered their works by the hand of a holy prophet. They journeyed through an uninhabited
wilderness, and pitched their tents in untrodden places. They withstood their enemies and fought off
their foes. When they thirsted they called upon thee, and water was given them out of flinty rock.
A READING FROM THE COMMENTARY ON WISDOM BY BLESSED RABANUS MAURUS

COMM. IN LIB. SAPIENTIAE, 2.7 (PL 109:718-719); WORD IN SEASON VIII
God calls the Israelites an upright people, a race without reproach, descended from the seed of the
patriarchs and ever a worshipper of the one true God, whether oppressed by the Egyptians and other
nations, or freed from them by the leadership of Moses and Aaron; and raised aloft by the wonders of
God, at the crossing of the Red Sea, a cloud covering them by day and a pillar of fire shining over them by
night; and other miracles abundantly worked for them in the desert besides. The Lord mysteriously frees
his chosen ones from the hands of their persecutors, terrifying their enemies by a blinding flash of
miracles. He gives his servants wisdom of a kind not to be resisted or gainsaid by any adversary.
Wherefore they stand fearless in the presence of the kings and potentates of this world, speaking the
word of God with confidence; and through the sufferings of martyrs they attain to the rewards of the
kingdom of heaven, where they sing praises forever to their king and saviour.
His wisdom has opened the mouths of the dumb and made eloquent tongues of babes. Clear it is that,
apart from God’s gift of wisdom, the mind of man cannot think anything out aright, or speak to any great
purpose. Wherefore from him alone is sound understanding to be sought, or the faculty of talking good
sense; for from him, through him, and in him are all things.
He entrusted their concerns to the hands of his holy Prophet. They made their journey through the desert
places where no man dwelt; and in the secret places did they find their lodging. The ancient people set
out from Egypt led by Moses and went through the desert, pitching their tents in uninhabitable places, as
the Pentateuch relates. So also nowadays the people follow – the Christians follow, that is to say – the
lead of the prophecy, to make their way in the desert of this world, whereby they are to reach their
homeland, in the heavenly kingdom, where Christ reigns. This is what Saint Peter the Apostle revealed,
when he said: We have a surer prophetic utterance which you would do well to heed, as it were a lantern
lit in a dark place till the day shall dawn and the morning star rise in your hearts.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ON THE LOVING-KINDNESS AND PATIENCE OF GOD: WISDOM 11:20B – 12:2, 11B-19
Thou hast arranged all things by measure and number and weight.
For it is always in thy power to show great strength, and who can withstand the might of thy arm?
Because the whole world before thee is like a speck that tips the scales, and like a drop of morning dew
that falls upon the ground. But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost
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overlook men’s sins, that they may repent. For thou lovest all things that exist, and hast loathing for none
of the things which thou hast made, for thou wouldst not have made anything if thou hadst hated it. How
would anything have endured if thou hadst not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by thee
have been preserved? Thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living. Therefore
thou dost correct little by little those who trespass, and dost remind and warn them of the things wherein
they sin, that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in thee, O Lord.
It was not through fear of any one that thou didst leave them unpunished for their sins.
For who will say, “What hast thou done?” Or will resist thy judgment? Who will accuse thee for the
destruction of nations which thou didst make? Or who will come before thee to plead as an advocate for
unrighteous men? For neither is there any god besides thee, whose care is for all men, to whom thou
shouldst prove that thou hast not judged unjustly; nor can any king or monarch confront thee about
those whom thou hast punished. Thou art righteous and rulest all things righteously, deeming it alien to
thy power to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished. For thy strength is the source of
righteousness, and thy sovereignty over all causes thee to spare all. For thou dost show thy strength
when men doubt the completeness of thy power, and dost rebuke any insolence among those who know
it. Thou who art sovereign in strength dost judge with mildness, and with great forbearance thou dost
govern us; for thou hast power to act whenever thou dost choose. Through such works thou has taught
thy people that the righteous man must be kind, and thou hast filled thy sons with good hope, because
thou givest repentance for sins.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY SEVERIAN OF GABALA

HOMILY: REVUE DES ÉTUDES BYZANTINES 25 (1967) 230-232; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Creation, in its entirety and in its arrangement, proclaims the merciful love of God. For there is no visible
reality that does not proclaim his goodness: heaven, earth, and sea, the visible world and the invisible
universe. Everything owes its becoming, its being, and its conservation to the mercy of God. The heavens
were produced by God’s goodness and not for his advantage. But before the heavens and before those
endless centuries that had no beginning, God exists and existed. The word ‘existed’ must be understood
as transcending every moment conceived by thought. The heavens, therefore, were not created for God’s
use but are a work of his goodness. Thus the heavens proclaim not God’s neediness but his glory.
The heavens were undoubtedly created for the glory of God, but they were also created for our use, in
order that the sun, along with the moon and stars, might give us its brightness. God did not need the sun;
the creator of light had no need of a sensible light. For he, who alone is immortal, dwells in light
inaccessible.
Everything, then, has been created both for God’s glory and for our advantage: the sun to give us light,
the clouds to bring us rain, the earth for its abundant fruits, the sea for the convenience of trade.
Everything is thus at the service of human beings or, rather, at the service of the images of God which
human beings are. Creation does not honour the earthly vessel but reveres the heavenly image in us.
Everything, then, has been created not to meet a divine need but for our use and in order that we may
glorify the goodness of God. Thus the wisdom of God bears witness to the divine mercy, saying: You have
mercy on all, Lord, because you can do all things. In the beginning, it was God's love that created us, and
now it is God’s goodness that governs us. If God were inspired by hatred, God would not have made the
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world; if God had hated human beings, God would not have created them; if God hated them now, God
would not govern them by his providence. This is why Scripture says: you do not hate anything that you
have made. If you had hated anything, you would not have made it.
THURSDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE WISE MAN DISAPPROVES OF IDOLS: WISDOM 13:1-10; 14:15-21; 15:1-6
For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature; and they were unable from the good things
that are seen to know him who exists, nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his
works; but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,
of the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world. If through delight in the beauty of these
things men assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the
author of beauty created them. And if men were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive
from them how much more powerful is he who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of
created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator. Yet these men are little to be blamed,
for perhaps they go astray while seeking God and desiring to find him. For as they live among his works
they keep searching, and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful. Yet
again, not even they are to be excused; for if they had the power to know so much that they could
investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?
But miserable, with their hopes set on dead things, are the men who give the name ‘gods’ to the works of
men’s hands, gold and silver fashioned with skill, and likenesses of animals, or a useless stone, the work
of an ancient hand.
Will you not leave the fruit of your labours to another, and what you acquired by toil to be divided by lot?
Give, and take, and beguile yourself, because in Hades one cannot look for luxury. All living beings
become old like a garment, for the decree from of old is, “You must surely die!” Like flourishing leaves on
a spreading tree which sheds some and puts forth others, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one
dies and another is born. Every product decays and ceases to exist, and the man who made it will pass
away with it. Blessed is the man who meditates on wisdom and who reasons intelligently. He who reflects
in his mind on her ways will also ponder her secrets.
The man who fears the Lord will do this, and he who holds to the law will obtain wisdom. She will come to
meet him like a mother, and like the wife of his youth she will welcome him. She will feed him with the
bread of understanding, and give him the water of wisdom to drink. He will lean on her and will not fall,
and he will rely on her and will not be put to shame. She will exalt him above his neighbours, and will
open his mouth in the midst of the assembly. He will find gladness and a crown of rejoicing, and will
acquire an everlasting name.

THE DIVINE NAMES (PG 3:867-872); WORD IN SEASON VIII
We must ask how we can know God, since he cannot be understood by our minds or perceived by our
senses, and belongs in no way to the category of existent things. Perhaps it is true to say, then, that we
do not know God from his own nature (for this is unknown and surpasses all our powers of thought and
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perception); but from the regulation of all existent things, since this emanates from himself and contains
images and likenesses of the patterns of his own divine reality. Thus step by step to the best of our ability
we rise to what surpasses all in the negation of all things and the supremacy over all things, and by the
cause of all things.
Therefore God is known both in everything and apart from everything; and God is known through
knowledge and through ignorance, and although there is thought and speech of him, and there is
knowledge, contact, sense, opinion, imagination, naming and all the rest, he is also neither thought
nor spoken of or named; nor is he anything existent, or known in anything existent; but he is all in all,
and nothing in nothing, and known by all things to all people, and by nothing to no one; for indeed we say
this rightly about God, and he is praised because of all existent things and the resemblance of all to their
creator.
And again the most divine knowledge of God is that which is known through ignorance, by a union which
transcends the mind, when the mind withdraws from all existent things and then lets go even of itself,
and is made one with rays of transcendent light, where it is illuminated in the unfathomable depth of
wisdom.
Yet, as I said, wisdom must also be known from all things; for according to Scripture wisdom is productive
of all things and constantly joining all, and is the cause of the indestructible union and order of all things,
and eternally uniting the ends of earlier things to the beginnings of later, and making a single beautiful
concord and harmony of the whole.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE KINDNESSES OF GOD TOWARDS HIS PEOPLE: WISDOM 16:2B-13, 20-26
Thou didst show kindness to thy people, and thou didst prepare quails to eat, a delicacy to satisfy the
desire of appetite; in order that those men, when they desired food, might lose the least remnant of
appetite because of the odious creatures sent to them, while thy people, after suffering want a short
time, might partake of delicacies. For it was necessary that upon those oppressors inexorable want should
come, while to these it was merely shown how their enemies were being tormented.
For when the terrible rage of wild beasts came upon thy people and they were being destroyed by the
bites of writhing serpents, thy wrath did not continue to the end; they were troubled for a little while as a
warning, and received a token of deliverance to remind them of thy law’s command. For he who turned
toward it was saved, not by what he saw, but by thee, the Saviour of all. And by this also thou didst
convince our enemies that it is thou who deliverest from every evil. For they were killed by the bites of
locusts and flies, and no healing was found for them, because they deserved to be punished by such
things; but thy sons were not conquered even by the teeth of venomous serpents, for thy mercy came to
their help and healed them. To remind them of thy oracles they were bitten, and then were quickly
delivered, lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to thy kindness. For
neither herb nor poultice cured them, but it was thy word, O Lord, which heals all men. For thou hast
power over life and death; thou dost lead men down to the gates of Hades and back again.
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Instead of these things thou didst give thy people food of angels, and without their toil thou didst supply
them from heaven with bread ready to eat, providing every pleasure and suited to every taste. For thy
sustenance manifested thy sweetness toward thy children; and the bread, ministering to the desire of the
one who took it, was changed to suit every one’s liking. Snow and ice withstood fire without melting, so
that they might know that the crops of their enemies were being destroyed by the fire that blazed in the
hail and flashed in the showers of rain; whereas the fire, in order that the righteous might be fed, even
forgot its native power.
For creation, serving thee who hast made it, exerts itself to punish the unrighteous, and in kindness
relaxes on behalf of those who trust in thee. Therefore at that time also, changed into all forms, it served
thy all-nourishing bounty, according to the desire of those who had need, so that thy sons, whom thou
didst love, O Lord, might learn that it is not the production of crops that feeds man, but that thy word
preserves those who trust in thee.

TRACT. IN JOH. 26.12; FOC 79 (1988) TR. RETTIG
This is the bread which comes down from heaven. Manna signified this bread; the altar of God signified
this bread. Those were mysteries; in signs they are different, in the thing which is signified they are alike.
Hear the Apostle: He says, For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under
the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses, into the cloud and in the sea.
And all ate the same spiritual food. The same spiritual food, of course; for corporeally it was another
thing, because they ate manna, we something else, but they ate the spiritual food which we eat. But our
fathers, not those men’s fathers, those to whom we are like, not those to whom they were like.
I am the living bread, who have come down from heaven. Living for the reason that I have come down
from heaven. The manna also came down from heaven; but the manna was shadow, he is truth. If anyone
eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.
When would flesh comprehend flesh – that which he said was bread? It is called flesh, that which flesh
does not comprehend; and flesh does not comprehend it, therefore, all the more because it is called
flesh. For they were horrified at this; they said that this was too much for them, they thought this could
not be. It is my flesh, he said, for the life of the world. The faithful know the body of Christ if they should
not neglect to be the body of Christ. Let them become the body of Christ, if they want to live from the
Spirit of Christ. No thing lives from the Spirit of Christ except the body of Christ.
O mystery of true faith! O sign of unity! O bond of love! He who wishes to live has the place to live, has
the means to live. Let him approach, let him believe, let him be embodied, that he may be given life. Let
him not shrink back from the coalition of members, let him not be a rotten limb which deserves to be cut
off, let him not be a deformed one on account of which there is embarrassment. Let him be a beautiful
limb, let him be a fitting one, let him be a healthy one, let him adhere to the body, let him live for God
from God. Let him now labour on earth that afterwards he may reign in heaven.
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SATURDAY, THIRTY-FIRST WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

PASSOVER NIGHT AND THE CROSSING OF THE RED SEA: WISDOM 18:1-15; 19:4-9
But for thy holy ones there was very great light. Their enemies heard their voices but did not see their
forms, and counted them happy for not having suffered, and were thankful that thy holy ones, though
previously wronged, were doing them no injury; and they begged their pardon for having been at
variance with them. Therefore thou didst provide a flaming pillar of fire as a guide for thy people’s
unknown journey, and a harmless sun for their glorious wandering. For their enemies deserved to be
deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, those who had kept thy sons imprisoned, through whom
the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.
When they had resolved to kill the babes of thy holy ones, and one child had been exposed and rescued,
thou didst in punishment take away a multitude of their children; and thou didst destroy them all
together by a mighty flood. That night was made known beforehand to our fathers, so that they might
rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted. The deliverance of the righteous and the
destruction of their enemies were expected by thy people. For by the same means by which thou didst
punish our enemies thou didst call us to thyself and glorify us. For in secret the holy children of good men
offered sacrifices, and with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the
same things, both blessings and dangers; and already they were singing the praises of the fathers. But the
discordant cry of their enemies echoed back, and their piteous lament for their children was spread
abroad. The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master, and the common man suffered the
same loss as the king; and they all together, by the one form of death, had corpses too many to count.
For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, since in one instant their most valued children had
been destroyed. For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts, yet, when their
first-born were destroyed, they acknowledged thy people to be God’s son. For while gentle silence
enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, thy all-powerful word leaped from
heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed.
For the fate they deserved drew them on to this end, and made them forget what had happened, in order
that they might fill up the punishment which their torments still lacked, and that thy people might
experience an incredible journey, but they themselves might meet a strange death.
For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew, complying with thy commands, that thy children
might be kept unharmed. The cloud was seen overshadowing the camp, and dry land emerging where
water had stood before, an unhindered way out of the Red Sea, and a grassy plain out of the raging
waves, where those protected by thy hand passed through as one nation, after gazing on marvellous
wonders. For they ranged like horses, and leaped like lambs, praising thee, O Lord, who didst deliver
them.
A READING FROM ON CONTEMPLATING GOD BY BLESSED WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY

ON CONTEMPLATING GOD, 10; CF 3 (1970) TR. SR PENELOPE
How is it we are saved by you, O Lord, from whom salvation comes and whose blessing is upon your
people, if it is not to receive from you the gift of loving you and being loved by you? That, Lord, is why you
willed that the Son of your right hand, the man whom you made strong for your own self, should be
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called Jesus, that is to say, Saviour, for he will save his people from their sins. There is no other in whom is
salvation except him who taught us to love himself when he first loved us, even to death on the cross. By
loving us and holding us so dear he stirred us up to love himself, who first had loved us to the end. This is
the righteousness of the sons of men: ‘Love me, for I love you.’ One seldom meets a person who can say:
‘I love you, in order that you may love me!’ But, as the servant of your love proclaims and preaches, you
who first loved us did this, precisely this. And that was not because you needed to be loved by us, but
because we could not be what you created as to be, except by loving you.
Having then in many ways and on various occasions spoken to the fathers by the Prophets, now in these
last days you have spoken to us in the Son, your Word, by whom the heavens were established, and all
the power of them by the breath of his mouth. For you to speak thus in your Son was an open
declaration, a ‘setting in the sun’, as it were, of how much and in what sort of way you loved us, in that
you spared not your own Son, but delivered him up for us all. Yes, and he himself loved us and gave
himself for us.
This, Lord, is your word to us this is your all-powerful message: he who, while all things kept silence (that
is, were in the depths of error), came from the royal throne, the stern opponent of error and the gentle
Apostle of love. And everything he did and everything he said on earth, even the insults, the spitting, the
buffeting, the cross and the grave, all that was nothing but yourself speaking in the Son, appealing to us
by your love, and stirring up our love for you.
For you, O God, our souls’ Creator, knew that this affection cannot be forced in the souls of the sons of
men, but has to be evoked. And this is for the obvious reason that there is no freedom where there is
compulsion, and, where freedom is lacking, so too is righteousness. But you, O righteous Lord, you who
wish to save us, you never save or condemn anyone otherwise than justly. You are both the author of our
judgement and the advocate of our cause. Sitting upon your throne and judging righteous judgement,
you judge the righteousness that you yourself have made. Thus will every mouth be shut, and the whole
world be made subject to God, when you have pity on him on whom you will have pity, and extend mercy
to him to whom you will be merciful. We could not with justice have been saved, had we not loved you,
nor could we have loved you, save by your gift.
SUNDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VICTORY AND PRIDE OF THE GREEKS: 1 MACCABEES 1:1-25
After Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came from the land of Kittim, had defeated Darius,
king of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as king. (He had previously become king of
Greece.) He fought many battles, conquered strongholds, and put to death the kings of the earth. He
advanced to the ends of the earth, and plundered many nations. When the earth became quiet before
him, he was exalted, and his heart was lifted up. He gathered a very strong army and ruled over countries,
nations, and princes, and they became tributary to him.
After this he fell sick and perceived that he was dying. So he summoned his most honoured officers, who
had been brought up with him from youth, and divided his kingdom among them while he was still alive.
And after Alexander had reigned twelve years, he died.
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Then his officers began to rule, each in his own place. They all put on crowns after his death, and so did
their sons after them for many years; and they caused many evils on the earth.
From them came forth a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king; he had been a
hostage in Rome. He began to reign in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the
Greeks.
In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, “Let us go and make a
covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come
upon us.” This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king. He authorized
them to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to
Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined
with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.
When Antiochus saw that his kingdom was established, he determined to become king of the land of
Egypt, that he might reign over both kingdoms. So he invaded Egypt with a strong force, with chariots and
elephants and cavalry and with a large fleet. He engaged Ptolemy king of Egypt in battle, and Ptolemy
turned and fled before him, and many were wounded and fell. And they captured the fortified cities in
the land of Egypt, and he plundered the land of Egypt.
After subduing Egypt, Antiochus returned in the one hundred and forty-third year. He went up against
Israel and came to Jerusalem with a strong force. He arrogantly entered the sanctuary and took the
golden altar, the lampstand for the light, and all its utensils. He took also the table for the bread of the
Presence, the cups for drink offerings, the bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, the crowns, and the
gold decoration on the front of the temple; he stripped it all off. He took the silver and the gold, and the
costly vessels; he took also the hidden treasures which he found. Taking them all, he departed to his own
land.
He committed deeds of murder, and spoke with great arrogance. Israel mourned deeply in every
community.

PAROCHIAL & PLAIN SERMONS VIII, 141-142.150-152; WORD IN SEASON VIII
This world is a scene of conflict between good and evil. The evil not only avoids, but persecutes the good;
the good cannot conquer, except by suffering. Good men seem to fail; their cause triumphs, but their
own overthrow is the price paid for the success of their cause. When was it that this conflict, and this
character and issue of it, have not been fulfilled? So it was in the beginning.
And from the way in which St Paul speaks on the subject we may infer that it is ever so to be: All that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution: or, as he says, after referring to the history of Isaac and
Ishmael, As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it
is now: and indeed we see this fulfilled in its measure before our eyes even at this day. Hence our Saviour,
to console all who suffer for his sake, graciously says, Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In many, very many ways you may be called upon to bear the ill-usage of the world, or to withstand its
attempts to draw you from God; but you must be firm, and you must not be surprised that they should be
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made. You must consider that it is your very calling to bear and to withstand. This is what you offer to
God, as a sort of return for his great mercies to you. Did not Christ go through much more for you than
you can possibly be called upon to undergo for him? Did he bear the bitter cross who was sinless, and do
you, who are at best so sinful, scruple to bear such poor trials and petty inconveniences?
When we are brought into temptation of any kind, we should lift up our hearts to God. We should say to
him, ‘Good Lord, deliver us.’ Our Lord, when he was going away, promised to his disciples a comforter
instead of himself; that was God the Holy Ghost, who is still among us (though we see him not), as Christ
was with the Apostles. He has come in order to enlighten us, to guide us in the right way, and in the end
to bring us to Christ in heaven. And he came down, as his name ‘comforter’ shows, especially to stand by,
and comfort, and strengthen those who are in any trouble, particularly trouble from irreligious men. The
disciples, when Christ went, had to go through much trouble, and therefore he comforted them by the
coming of the holy and eternal Spirit, the third person in the Blessed Trinity. These things I have spoken
to you, he says, that in me you might have peace; in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world.
MONDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PERSECUTION OF ANTIOCHUS: 1 MACCABEES 1:41-63
Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that each should give up his
customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his
religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to
Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt
offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and feasts, to defile the
sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and
unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by
everything unclean and profane, so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances. “And
whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.”
In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. And he appointed inspectors over all the people and
commanded the cities of Judah to offer sacrifice, city by city. Many of the people, every one who forsook
the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge
they had.
Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating
sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah, and
burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. The books of the law which they found they
tore to pieces and burned with fire. Where the book of the covenant was found in the possession of any
one, or if any one adhered to the law, the decree of the king condemned him to death. They kept using
violence against Israel, against those found month after month in the cities. And on the twenty-fifth day
of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar which was upon the altar of burnt offering. According to
the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and
those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers’ necks.
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But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die
rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. And very great wrath
came upon Israel.
A READING FROM THE DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATIONS OF ST

THOMAS MORE
DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATIONS; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Our Saviour was himself taken prisoner for our sake, and prisoner was he carried, and prisoner was he
kept to the end of his passion. The time of his imprisonment, I grant, was not long, but as for hard
handling which our hearts most abhor, he had as much in that short time, as many men in a much longer
time. And surely then if we consider of what estate he was, and therewith that he was prisoner in such
wise for our sake, we shall I hope never shamefully play the unkind coward as for fear of imprisonment
sinfully to forsake him, neither let us be so foolish as by forsaking him to give him the occasion to forsake
us.
How can any faithful wise man dread death so sore out of fear of shame when his reason and his faith
together may shortly make him perceive that herein there is no shame at all? For how can that death be
shameful that is glorious? Or how can it be but glorious to die for the faith of Christ, if we die both for the
faith and in the faith, joined with hope and charity, when Scripture so plainly says, Precious in the sight of
God is the death of his saints? Now if the death of his saints be glorious in the sight of God, it can never
be shameful in fact, however shameful it may seem here in the sight of men. For here we may see and be
sure, that not at the death of Saint Stephen only, to whom he showed himself with heaven open over his
head, but at the death also over every man that so dies for the faith, God with his heavenly company
beholds his whole passion and verily looks on him.
This same short and momentary tribulation of ours that is in this present time works within us the weight
of glory above measure on high. Now to this great glory can no man come headless. Our head is Christ
and therefore to him must we be joined and as members of his must we follow him if he will come in
before us, and he therefore that will enter in after, the same way that Christ walked, the same way must
he walk too. And what was the way by which he walked into heaven? He himself shows what way it was
that his Father had provided for him, when he said to the two disciples going toward Emmaus: Knew you
not that Christ must suffer passion and by that way enter into his kingdom? Who can for very shame
desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven with ease when Christ himself entered not into his own
without pain?
TUESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MARTYRDOM OF ELEAZAR: 2 MACCABEES 6:12-31
Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these
punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people. In fact, not to let the impious
alone for long, but to punish them immediately, is a sign of great kindness. For in the case of the other
nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but
he does not deal in this way with us, in order that he may not take vengeance on us afterward when our
sins have reached their height. Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Though he disciplines us
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with calamities, he does not forsake his own people. Let what we have said serve as a reminder; we must
go on briefly with the story.
Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being
forced to open his mouth to eat swine’s flesh. But he, welcoming death with honour rather than life with
pollution, went up to the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh, as men ought to go who have the
courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.
Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside, because of their long
acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use,
and pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal which had been commanded by the king,
so that by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship
with them. But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the grey hairs
which he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover
according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.
“Such pretence is not worthy of our time of life,” he said, “lest many of the young should suppose that
Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to an alien religion, and through my pretence, for the sake of
living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old
age. For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not
escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy
of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for
the revered and holy laws.”
When he had said this, he went at once to the rack. And those who a little before had acted toward him
with good will now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer
madness. When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: “It is clear to the Lord
in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings
in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.”
So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to
the young but to the great body of his nation.
A READING FROM THE LETTERS OF SAINT AMMONAS

ST AMMONAS THE HERMIT, EPIST. 9.2-5 (PO 10:590-593); WORD IN SEASON VIII
I, your father, have endured temptations both openly and in secret; I proved strong in waiting and prayer,
and my Lord has set me free. Now it is your turn, dearly beloved. You have experienced God’s blessing
and now you must experience temptations too, until you have surmounted them. Then you will grow in
stature; your dignity will increase and great joy will be given to you from heaven, a joy beyond your
understanding.
What does it mean to surmount temptations, and what is the cure for them? The answer is this: you must
never grow weary but pray to God with your whole heart, praising him and being patient in all
circumstances; and then the temptation will leave you. Thus was Abraham tested, and he emerged
victorious from the struggle. That is why Scripture says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but
from them all the Lord delivers them. Again, James says in his letter, If anyone among you is sad, let him
pray. You see then how all the righteous, on falling into temptation, have cried to God. It also stands
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written: God is faithful, and he does not allow you to be tried beyond your strength. So now God is at
work in you because of the integrity of your hearts. If he did not love you, he would not bring temptations
upon you; Scripture tells us that God disciplines those he loves, and chastises the children he accepts. Ac-
cordingly the faithful need temptations, for those who have not been through them are not of the elect.
They wear a habit indeed, but fail to show the fortitude it demands. Our father Antony used to say to us,
Without trials a person cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, and blessed Peter too wrote in his letter:
Rejoice now, though you seem to be saddened by various temptations, that your faith may be tested and
proved excellent, more so than gold which passes through fire.
With this in mind, then, you understand how it is in the spiritual life that the first fruits of the Holy Spirit
give joy to those whose hearts he sees to be pure, and yet after bestowing this joy and sweetness on
them the Spirit holds aloof and forsakes them. The explanation is this: he deals thus with those that seek
him and fear God, withdrawing to a distance and leaving them to themselves until he knows whether
they will seek him or not. There are some people who after he has abandoned them and gone away sit
down overwhelmed by disgust, and remain immovably fixed in it. They do not pray to God, asking him to
remove the disgust from them and cause the joy and sweetness they knew earlier to return, but through
carelessness and self-will they become strangers to God's sweetness. If, however, they become aware of
this disgust, so unaccustomed and alien to
their former joy, they ought to pray to God with tears and fasting. Then he of his graciousness, seeing
their heartfelt sincerity and knowing that they are praying to him with all their hearts and entirely
renouncing their own will, would give them joy greater than they had before and make them even
stronger. This is a sign of God’s work in any soul that seeks him.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MARTYRDOM OF THE SEVEN BROTHERS: 2 MACCABEES 7:1-19
It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the
king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine’s flesh. One of them, acting as
their spokesman, said, “What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than
transgress the laws of our fathers.”
The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and cauldrons be heated. These were heated
immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him
and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was
utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The
smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die
nobly, saying, “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in
his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, ‘And he will have compassion
on his servants.’”
After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off
the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, “Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb
by limb?” He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, “No.” Therefore he in turn
underwent tortures as the first brother had done. And when he was at his last breath, he said, “You
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accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an
everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.”
After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue
and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, “I got these from Heaven, and because of his
laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again.” As a result the king himself and those
with him were astonished at the young man’s spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.
When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. And when he was near
death, he said, “”One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God
gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!”
Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. But he looked at the king, and said, “Because
you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that
God has forsaken our people. Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your
descendants!”
After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, “Do not deceive
yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our
own God. Therefore astounding things have happened. But do not think that you will go unpunished for
having tried to fight against God!”

SERMON 300, 1-3.5-6 (PL 38:1377-1379); WORD IN SEASON VIII
When the astonishing martyrdom of the Maccabees is related, not merely do we hear the tale told, but
we see it enacted, as it were, before us. It all happened before the incarnation, before the passion of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In that ancient nation, where the Prophets lived their lives, there had been
those who foretold what was now happening. Let no one think that before there was a Christian people
there was no people dedicated to God either. For indeed, if one may speak as the truth dictates, rather
than as ordinary language dictates, the people we are thinking about were even then a Christian people.
For not even Christ himself began to have a people of his own until after his passion: but yet these people
of his were descended from Abraham. Abraham longed to see my days; he saw them and rejoiced. This
then is to be commended to your charity: that in your admiration for those martyrs you might think that
they were not Christians; but Christians indeed they were, though the word ‘Christians’, current only
later, must here be understood as preceding what was to happen later.
A Jew might object and say: How do you reckon these people of ours to be martyrs of yours? What an
outrage for you to celebrate their memory! Take what they actually said and just see whether they
confessed Christ! Well, what can we say to that? No, indeed, they did not confess Christ openly, or
explicitly: for the mystery of Christ was still under a veil. The Old Testament is a veiled version of the New
and the New Testament is the unveiled Old Testament. From it, Christ began to be preached most openly
of all only after the resurrection. The prophetic sayings contained in it then began to be most manifestly
fulfilled.
The Christian martyrs overtly confessed him whom the Maccabees have confessed covertly. Some
martyrs died for the Christ revealed and unveiled in the gospels; but the Maccabees died for the name of
the Christ still veiled in the old law. Christ has both kinds in his service, like some great general making a
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conquest with his army of subjects, some far ahead and some following on behind. And that you may
clearly understand how it is that those who die for the law of Moses die for Christ,
here are Christ’s own words: If you had believed Moses you would believe me also. The Maccabees,
then, are martyrs for Christ. We venerate their memory, we keep hold of it: their sufferings have been
imitated by thousands of holy martyrs throughout the world. So let no one hesitate, dear brethren, to
imitate the Maccabees, thinking that he would not thereby be imitating Christians. Let the will to imitate
them be fervent and strong in our hearts. Let husbands learn to die for the truth. Let wives learn from
that mother's heroic patience, from that virtue beyond telling; for she knew well how she could have
saved her sons. She knew how to keep them but feared not to lose them.
THURSDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE MARTYRDOM OF THE SEVEN BROTHERS: THE MOTHER AND THE LAST SON: 2 MACCABEES
7:20-41
The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honourable memory. Though she saw her seven sons
perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged
each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman’s reasoning
with a man’s courage, and said to them, “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not
I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the
Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his
mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”
Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone.
The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with
oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he
would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs. Since the young man would not listen to
him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. After
much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son. But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their
native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: “My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in
my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your
life, and have taken care of you. I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see
everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also
mankind comes into being. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so
that in God’s mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.”
While she was still speaking, the young man said, “What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king’s
command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. But you, who
have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God. For we are
suffering because of our own sins. And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline
us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants. But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all men,
do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children
of heaven. You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God. For our brothers after
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enduring a brief suffering have drunk of ever-flowing life under God’s covenant; but you, by the judgment
of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance. I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the
laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to
make you confess that he alone is God, and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of
the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation.”
The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn. So he
died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.
Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.
A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ST VALERIAN OF CIMIEZ

HOM. 18, 1.5 (PL 52:746.747-748); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Dearly beloved, our yearning for eternal life is fired with great hope if from time to time we recall the
deeds of individual martyrs. As often as the mother of the Maccabees occurs to our memory, our soul
bestirs itself with a joy somehow far greater to love God and win his favour. By the encouragement she
gave, she on one day put the crown of martyrdom on seven sons. She was just as strong in faith as she
was fruitful in offspring.
In her case there are as many proofs of her virtues as she had sons. For, on one day she gave to the
almighty God as many martyrs as she had gained sons on separate occasions of motherhood. Blessed is
she among mothers, and more fortunate still in her bereavement! Her faith brought her this great
blessing: to migrate on one day with all her offspring to the glory of the heavenly kingdom.
Turn your attention from her to that passage in the Gospel which tells that we should prefer neither
parents nor children to Christ. Let it be, perhaps, with some a glorious thing, to be explained with salutary
examples, that they have offered one son as a victim to God. This mother has exceeded all the power and
wishes of souls - so much so that in the grief of her fierce sufferings she did not let the affections of her
motherly love keep back even one of her sons.
Furthermore, notice through how many degrees of virtue her precious faith grew. It is enough to
acquiesce once. Yet, because of her love of the Lord, through her willing bereavement she did violence to
her motherly love seven times. She was well aware of what she was about, since she knew that all her
offspring were taking their place in that eternity of life, according to the scriptural statement: He who
loves his life will lose it; and he who hates his life, keeps it to everlasting life.
O new and admirable example of virtue! A mother rejoices in her own bereavement, and her love gains
profit from the same source which brought it loss. After she has sent ahead her youngest son whom she
loved so tenderly, she herself enters the way of glorious death. Pained for a short while by innumerable
tortures, she followed her sons in triumph. Despising this short-lived light, she extended her grasp toward
heavenly and eternal goods. Therefore, dearly beloved, if any mother has loving anxiety for the children
of her womb, let her imitate the numerous and brave examples this mother has left. Furthermore, let
those who serve Christ imitate the struggles of those brave men. Proof that she loves her sons is given by
that mother who has banished the error on which this world relies, and from the fruit of her womb she
has given a victim to God, and offered willingly herself and those dear ones whom she was every day to
immolate.
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FRIDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE REBELLION AND DEATH OF MATATHIAS: 1 MACCABEES 2:1, 15-28, 42-50, 65-70
In those days Mattathias the son of John, son of Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joarib, moved from
Jerusalem and settled in Modein.
Then the king’s officers who were enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Modein to make them offer
sacrifice. Many from Israel came to them; and Mattathias and his sons were assembled. Then the king’s
officers spoke to Mattathias as follows: “You are a leader, honoured and great in this city, and supported
by sons and brothers. Now be the first to come and do what the king commands, as all the Gentiles and
the men of Judah and those that are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons will be
numbered among the friends of the king, and you and your sons will be honoured with silver and gold
and many gifts.”
But Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice: “Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the
king obey him, and have chosen to do his commandments, departing each one from the religion of his
fathers, yet I and my sons and my brothers will live by the covenant of our fathers. Far be it from us to
desert the law and the ordinances. We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to
the right hand or to the left.”
When he had finished speaking these words, a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice upon
the altar in Modein, according to the king’s command. When Mattathias saw it, be burned with zeal and
his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him upon the altar. At the same
time he killed the king’s officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. Thus he
burned with zeal for the law, as Phinehas did against Zimri the son of Salu.
Then Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: “Let every one who is zealous for the law
and supports the covenant come out with me!” And he and his sons fled to the hills and left all that they
had in the city.
Then there united with them a company of Hasideans, mighty warriors of Israel, every one who offered
himself willingly for the law. And all who became fugitives to escape their troubles joined them and
reinforced them. They organized an army, and struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their
wrath; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. And Mattathias and his friends went about and tore
down the altars; they forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders
of Israel. They hunted down the arrogant men, and the work prospered in their hands. They rescued the
law out of the hands of the Gentiles and kings, and they never let the sinner gain the upper hand.
Now the days drew near for Mattathias to die, and he said to his sons: “Arrogance and reproach have
now become strong; it is a time of ruin and furious anger. Now, my children, show zeal for the law, and
give your lives for the covenant of our fathers.
“Now behold, I know that Simeon your brother is wise in counsel; always listen to him; he shall be your
father. Judas Maccabeus has been a mighty warrior from his youth; he shall command the army
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for you and fight the battle against the peoples. You shall rally about you all who observe the law, and
avenge the wrong done to your people. Pay back the Gentiles in full, and heed what the law commands.”
Then he blessed them, and was gathered to his fathers. He died in the one hundred and forty-sixth year
and was buried in the tomb of his fathers at Modein. And all Israel mourned for him with great
lamentation.
A READING FROM THE ADMONITION TO ENGLISH CATHOLICS BY WILLIAM CARDINAL

ALLEN
ADMONITION TO ENGLISH CATHOLICS; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Our days cannot be many, because we are human: neither can it be either godly or worldly wisdom, for a
remnant of three or four years and perchance not so many months, to hazard the loss of all eternity.
No martyrdoms of what length or torment whatsoever can be more grievous than a long sickness and a
languishing death; and he that departs upon the pillow has as little ease as he that dies upon the gallows,
or block, or under the butcher's knife. And our Master's death, both for pains and ignominy, passed both
sorts, and all other kinds either of martyrs or malefactors. Let no tribulation then, no peril, no prison, no
persecution, no life, no death separate us from the charity of God, and the society of our sweet Saviour’s
passion, by and for whose love we shall have the victory in all these conflicts. Nevertheless, if God
permits, for causes hidden unto us, any to shrink (which Christ forbid) for fear of
death, torments, or tribulations, from the fellowship of your happy confession and crown prepared for
the same, as in the time of St Cyprian, be not scandalized or troubled thereat, but use such with all lenity,
taking compassion on their infirmity, considering that yourselves also, or any of us all, may be tempted
and overthrown with Peter, and by God’s grace afterward repent and rise with him again, though it be
perilous to presume thereon, many more following him in his fall and misery, than attaining to his
martyrdom and mercy.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

ABOUT JUDAS MACCABEUS: 1 MACCABEES 3:1-26
Then Judas his son, who was called Maccabeus, took command in his place. All his brothers and all who
had joined his father helped him; they gladly fought for Israel. He extended the glory of his people. Like a
giant he put on his breastplate; he girded on his armour of war and waged battles, protecting the host by
his sword.
He was like a lion in his deeds, like a lion's cub roaring for prey. He searched out and pursued the lawless;
he burned those who troubled his people. Lawless men shrank back for fear of him; all the evildoers were
confounded; and deliverance prospered by his hand. He embittered many kings, but he made Jacob glad
by his deeds, and his memory is blessed for ever. He went through the cities of Judah; he destroyed the
ungodly out of the land; thus he turned away wrath from Israel. He was renowned to the ends of the
earth; he gathered in those who were perishing.
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But Apollonius gathered together Gentiles and a large force from Samaria to fight against Israel. When
Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him, and he defeated and killed him. Many were wounded and
fell, and the rest fled. Then they seized their spoils; and Judas took the sword of Apollonius, and used it in
battle the rest of his life.
Now when Seron, the commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had gathered a large company,
including a body of faithful men who stayed with him and went out to battle, he said, “I will make a name
for myself and win honour in the kingdom. I will make war on Judas and his companions, who scorn the
king’s command.” And again a strong army of ungodly men went up with him to help him, to take
vengeance on the sons of Israel.
When he approached the ascent of Beth-horon, Judas went out to meet him with a small company. But
when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, “How can we, few as we are, fight
against so great and strong a multitude? And we are faint, for we have eaten nothing today.” Judas
replied, “It is easy for many to be hemmed in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there is no difference
between saving by many or by few. It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but
strength comes from Heaven. They come against us in great pride and lawlessness to destroy us and our
wives and our children, and to despoil us; but we fight for our lives and our laws. He himself will crush
them before us; as for you, do not be afraid of them.”
When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly against Seron and his army, and they were crushed
before him. They pursued them down the descent of Beth-horon to the plain; eight hundred of them fell,
and the rest fled into the land of the Philistines. Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and
terror fell upon the Gentiles round about them. His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked of the
battles of Judas.
A READING FROM A SERMON ON PSALM 123 BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

IN PS. 123 (BAREILLE IX, 483-485); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Blessed be the Lord for not having given us up as a prey to their teeth. Our life has escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowler. Do you see how the psalmist describes the weakness of the Jews and
the strength of their enemies? The latter, armed with native strength and fury, rush on their
prey like wild beasts, ready to devour their flesh, while the Jews are weaker than any bird. For
then are the wonders of God most plainly seen, when the weak overpower the strong.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Consider the strength, the power
of their champion, who has frustrated the schemes and brought to nothing the machinations of their
enemies. These words could be taken in a spiritual sense as referring to the devil and the human race.
The psalmist shows how the Lord has delivered us, how he has released us from the snares of the devil.
This has been happening ever since Christ said to his disciples: You shall tread underfoot snakes and
scorpions, and all the power of the enemy. It is no longer open warfare, then, no longer equal combat.
The enemy has fallen headlong, whereas you are standing upright and can thrash him from above. He is
exhausted, while you are fighting fit.
How then can we explain his frequent victories? They are due to our indolence, to the indifference of
people who are half asleep. Anyone, however weak, can overpower someone who is sleeping. Disarmed
and bound, the strong man has been rendered powerless, his dwelling broken into, his weapons taken
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away. Besides, are you not aware of the help you have at hand? Recall not only the weakness of your
enemy but also the great assistance you are given. God has enabled you to rule your body; for arms he
has given you the breastplate of integrity, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith,
and the sword of the Spirit. He has given you the pledge of your inheritance, he feeds you with his body
and gives you his blood to drink. He has put his cross into your hands to use as a spear, a spear that will
never bend; finally, he has bound your enemy and hurled him to the ground. You would have no excuse,
then, if you were defeated; you would have thrown away all chance of pardon, for you have many ways
of winning the victory. The snare has been broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of
the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
SUNDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PURIFICATION AND DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE: 1 MACCABEES 4:36-59
Then said Judas and his brothers, “Behold, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary
and dedicate it.” So all the army assembled and they went up to Mount Zion. And they saw the sanctuary
desolate, the altar profaned, and the gates burned. In the courts they saw bushes sprung up as in a
thicket, or as on one of the mountains. They saw also the chambers of the priests in ruins. Then they rent
their clothes, and mourned with great lamentation, and sprinkled themselves with ashes. They fell face
down on the ground, and sounded the signal on the trumpets, and cried out to Heaven. Then Judas
detailed men to fight against those in the citadel until he had cleansed the sanctuary.
He chose blameless priests devoted to the law, and they cleansed the sanctuary and removed the defiled
stones to an unclean place. They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been
profaned. And they thought it best to tear it down, lest it bring reproach upon them, for the Gentiles had
defiled it. So they tore down the altar, and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until
there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them. Then they took unhewn stones, as the law
directs, and built a new altar like the former one. They also rebuilt the sanctuary and the interior of the
temple, and consecrated the courts. They made new holy vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of
incense, and the table into the temple. Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on
the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple. They placed the bread on the table and hung up the
curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken.
Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one
hundred and forty-eighth year, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of
burnt offering which they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had
profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell on their faces
and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. So they celebrated the dedication of the
altar for eight days, and offered burnt offerings with gladness; they offered a sacrifice of deliverance and
praise. They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the
gates and the chambers for the priests, and furnished them with doors. There was very great gladness
among the people, and the reproach of the Gentiles was removed.
Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the
days of dedication of the altar should be observed with gladness and joy for eight days, beginning with
the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.
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A READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE PRELATES OF MAINZ BY ST HILDEGARD OF
BINGEN
TO THE PRELATES OF MAINZ; WORD IN SEASON VIII
I heard a voice from the living light tell of the diverse kinds of praises, of which David says in the psalms:
Praise him in the call of the trumpet, praise him on psaltery and lute, praise him on the tambour and in
dancing, praise him on strings and on organ, praise him on resonant cymbals, praise him on cymbals of
jubilation – let every spirit praise the Lord!
In these words outer realities teach us about inner ones – namely how, in accordance with the material
composition and quality of instruments, we can best transform and shape the performance of our inner
being toward praises of the Creator. If we strive for this lovingly, we recall how man sought the voice of
the living spirit, which Adam lost through disobedience – he who, still innocent before his fault, had no
little kinship with the sounds of the angels’ praises.
But in order that mankind should recall that divine sweetness and praise by which, with the angels, Adam
was made jubilant in God before he fell, instead of recalling Adam in his banishment, and that mankind
too might be stirred to that sweet praise, the holy Prophets - taught by the same spirit, which they had
received - not only composed psalms and canticles, to be sung to kindle the devotion of listeners, but also
they invented musical instruments of diverse kinds with this in view, by which the song could be
expressed in multitudinous sounds, so that listeners, aroused and made adept outwardly, might be
nurtured within by the forms and qualities of the instruments, as by the meaning of the words performed
with them.
Eager and wise men imitated the holy Prophets, inventing human kinds of harmonised melody by their
art, so that they could sing in the delight of their soul; and they adapted their singing to the notation
indicated by the bending of the finger joints, as it were, recalling that Adam was formed by the finger of
God, which is the Holy Spirit, and that in Adam’s voice before he fell there was the sound of every
harmony and the sweetness of the whole art of music. And if Adam had remained in the condition in
which he was formed, human frailty could never endure the power and the resonance of that voice. But
when his deceiver, the devil, heard that man had begun to sing through divine inspiration, and that he
would be transformed through this to remembering the sweetness of the songs in the heavenly land,
seeing the machinations of his cunning going awry, he became so terrified that he has not ceased to
trouble or destroy the affirmation and beauty and sweetness of divine praise and of the hymns of the
spirit.
And because at times, when hearing some melody, a human being often sighs and moans, recalling the
nature of the heavenly harmony, the Prophet David, subtly contemplating the profound nature of the
spirit, and knowing that the human soul is symphonic, exhorts us in his psalm to proclaim the Lord on the
lute and play for him on the ten-stringed psaltery.
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MONDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
A READING FROM THE SECOND BOOK OF MACCABEES

SACRIFICE FOR THE DEAD: 2 MACCABEES 12:32-45
After the feast called Pentecost, they hastened against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea. And he came out
with three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. When they joined battle, it happened that a few
of the Jews fell. But a certain Dositheus, one of Bacenor’s men, who was on horseback and was a strong
man, caught hold of Gorgias, and grasping his cloak was dragging him off by main strength, wishing to
take the accursed man alive, when one of the Thracian horsemen bore down upon him and cut off his
arm; so Gorgias escaped and reached Marisa.
As Esdris and his men had been fighting for a long time and were weary, Judas called upon the Lord to
show himself their ally and leader in the battle. In the language of their fathers he raised the battle cry,
with hymns; then he charged against Gorgias’ men when they were not expecting it, and put them to
flight.
Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the seventh day was coming on, they
purified themselves according to the custom, and they kept the Sabbath there.
On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies
of the fallen and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchres of their fathers. Then
under the tunic of every one of the dead they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law
forbids the Jews to wear. And it became clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. So they all
blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who reveals the things that are hidden; and they
turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And
the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own
eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by
man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin
offering. In doing this he acted very well and honourably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he
were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and
foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall
asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that
they might be delivered from their sin.
A READING FROM THE CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND VATICAN

COUNCIL
SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, LUMEN GENTIUM, 49-50, 51; WORD IN SEASON VIII
When the Lord comes in his majesty, and all the angels with him, death will be destroyed and all things
will be subject to him. Meanwhile, some of his disciples are exiles on earth. Some have finished with this
life and are being purified. Others are in glory, beholding clearly God himself, triune and one, as he is.
But in various ways and degrees we all partake in the same love of God and neighbour, and all sing the
same hymn of glory to our God. For all who belong to Christ, having his Spirit, form one Church and
cleave together in him. Therefore the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who have gone to sleep in
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the peace of Christ is not in the least interrupted. On the contrary, according to the perpetual faith of the
Church it is strengthened through the exchange of spiritual goods.
For by reason of the fact that those in heaven are more closely united with Christ, they establish the
whole Church more firmly in holiness, lend nobility to the worship which the Church offers here on earth
to God, and in many ways contribute to its greater upbuilding. For after they have been received into
their heavenly home and are present to the Lord, through him and with him and in him, they do not
cease to intercede with the Father for us. Rather, they show forth the merits which they have won on
earth through the one Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. There they served God in all things
and filled up in their flesh whatever was lacking of the sufferings of Christ on behalf of his body which is
the Church. Thus by their brotherly interest our weakness is greatly strengthened. Very much aware of
the bonds linking the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim Church from the very first ages of
the Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the dead. Because it is a holy and
wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins, she has also offered
prayers for them. For as long as all of us, who are sons and daughters of God and comprise one family in
Christ, remain in communion with one another in mutual charity and in one praise of the most holy
Trinity, we are responding to the deepest vocation of the Church and partaking in a foretaste of the
liturgy of consummate glory. For when Christ shall appear and the glorious resurrection of the dead takes
place, the splendour of God will brighten the heavenly city and the Lamb will be the lamp thereof. Then in
the supreme happiness of charity the whole Church of the saints will adore God and the Lamb who was
slain, proclaiming with one voice: To him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb blessing, and honour
and glory and dominion forever and ever.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE END OF ANTIOCHUS: 1 MACCABEES 6:1-17
King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elymais in Persia was a city
famed for its wealth in silver and gold. Its temple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates,
and weapons left there by Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned over the
Greeks. So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not, because his plan became
known to the men of the city and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed
from there to return to Babylon.
Then some one came to him in Persia and reported that the armies which had gone into the land of Judah
had been routed; that Lysias had gone first with a strong force, but had turned and fled before the Jews;
that the Jews had grown strong from the arms, supplies, and abundant spoils which they had taken from
the armies they had cut down; that they had torn down the abomination which he had erected upon the
altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls as before, and also Beth-
zur, his city.
When the king heard this news, he was astounded and badly shaken. He took to his bed and became sick
from grief, because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. He lay there for many days,
because deep grief continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying. So he called all his
friends and said to them, “Sleep departs from my eyes and I am downhearted with worry. I said to myself,
‘To what distress I have come! And into what a great flood I now am plunged! For I was kind and beloved
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in my power.’ But now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of silver and gold;
and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good reason. I know that it is because of this that
these evils have come upon me; and behold, I am perishing of deep grief in a strange land.”
Then he called for Philip, one of his friends, and made him ruler over all his kingdom. He gave him the
crown and his robe and the signet, that he might guide Antiochus his son and bring him up to be king.
Thus Antiochus the king died there in the one hundred and forty-ninth year. And when Lysias learned that
the king was dead, he set up Antiochus the king’s son to reign. Lysias had brought him up as a boy, and he
named him Eupator.

ENARR. IN PS. 18, 11, 14-15 (CCL 38:112-113); WORD IN SEASON VIII
If my own secret sins and those of others shall have no dominion over me, then I shall be without spot
and I shall be cleansed from the great sin. From what sin, are we to suppose? What is this great sin?
Possibly it is not what I am going to say, yet I will not hide my opinion. This great sin, I consider, is pride.
This is perhaps what he expresses in other terms by saying: And I shall be cleansed from the great sin. Do
you ask how great that sin is which overthrew an angel, which changed an angel into a devil and closed
the kingdom of heaven against him forever? A great sin it surely is, and the head and origin of all sins. For
the Scripture tells us: Pride is the beginning of all sin; and for fear you should disregard this as a light
matter, it adds: The beginning of the pride of man is to fall off from God. No, my brethren, this vice is no
slight fault. Those high and mighty personages whom you see addicted to this vice find Christian humility
distasteful. It is this vice which makes them scorn to bend their necks beneath the yoke of Christ,
constrained though they are yet more tightly by the yoke of sin. Serve they must, yet serve they will not,
even when it would be to their advantage. By refusing to serve they merely withdraw their service from a
good Master without finding any escape from servitude, since anyone who will not serve love must needs
become the slave of sin.
That vice, the source of all vices, since all the rest spring from it, has caused a falling off from God, when a
soul, by a deplorable misuse of its free will, plunges into darkness and all other sins follow on. Thus the
soul squanders its substance in living riotously with prostitutes, and the former companion of angels
becomes through want a feeder of swine. It was because of this vice, because of this enormous sin of
pride, that God came in humility. This enormous sin, this monstrous disease of souls, was the very thing
which brought the almighty Physician down from heaven, humbled him even to taking the form of a
slave, exposed him to ignominy, hung him upon the tree, that by the saving strength of so potent a
remedy this tumour might be healed. And now finally let man blush to be proud, for whose sake God has
become humble. So, says the Psalmist, I shall be cleansed from the great sin, because God resists the
proud and gives grace to the humble.
WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE DEATH OF JUDAS IN BATTLE: 1MACCABEES 9:1-22
When Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, he sent Bacchides and Alcimus into
the land of Judah a second time, and with them the right wing of the army. They went by the road which
leads to Gilgal and encamped against Mesaloth in Arbela, and they took it and killed many people. In the
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first month of the one hundred and fifty-second year they encamped against Jerusalem; then they
marched off and went to Berea with twenty thousand foot soldiers and two thousand cavalry.
Now Judas was encamped in Elasa, and with him were three thousand picked men. When they saw the
huge number of the enemy forces, they were greatly frightened, and many slipped away from the camp,
until no more than eight hundred of them were left.
When Judas saw that his army had slipped away and the battle was imminent, he was crushed in spirit,
for he had no time to assemble them. He became faint, but he said to those who were left, “Let us rise
and go up against our enemies. We may be able to fight them.” But they tried to dissuade him, saying,
“We are not able. Let us rather save our own lives now, and let us come back with our brethren and fight
them; we are too few.” But Judas said, “Far be it from us to do such a thing as to flee from them. If our
time has come, let us die bravely for our brethren, and leave no cause to question our honour.”
Then the army of Bacchides marched out from the camp and took its stand for the encounter. The cavalry
was divided into two companies, and the slingers and the archers went ahead of the army, as did all the
chief warriors. Bacchides was on the right wing. Flanked by the two companies, the phalanx advanced to
the sound of the trumpets; and the men with Judas also blew their trumpets. The earth was shaken by
the noise of the armies, and the battle raged from morning till evening.
Judas saw that Bacchides and the strength of his army were on the right; then all the stout-hearted men
went with him, and they crushed the right wing, and he pursued them as far as Mount Azotus. When
those on the left wing saw that the right wing was crushed, they turned and followed close behind Judas
and his men. The battle became desperate, and many on both sides were wounded and fell. Judas also
fell, and the rest fled.
Then Jonathan and Simon took Judas their brother and buried him in the tomb of their fathers at Modein,
and wept for him. And all Israel made great lamentation for him; they mourned many days and said,
“How is the mighty fallen, the saviour of Israel!” Now the rest of the acts of Judas, and his wars and the
brave deeds that he did, and his greatness, have not been recorded, for they were very many.
A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE BLESSING OF DEATH BY ST AMBROSE

DE BONO MORTIS, 3, 9; 4, 15; THE DIVINE OFFICE III.
The Apostle says: The world is crucified to me and I to the world. Then wishing to make it clear that the
death to which he is referring is death in this life, and a happy death too, he bids us, carry round the
death of Jesus in our bodies; for whoever has the death of Jesus in his body, will have the life of the Lord
Jesus too in his body.
Death then must already be active in us if life too is to be active; and by life and happiness after death, we
mean life and happiness after victory, when the battle is over, when the law of the flesh is no longer at
variance with the law of the mind, when there is no longer a struggle between us and our mortal flesh,
but victory over the body of this death, our fallen nature. I am not sure that this death is not a higher
state than life, and we have the authority of the Apostle for this: Death works in us with life in you. Think
of the vast number of people who owe their life to one man’s death. And so the Apostle teaches us that
we must embrace Christ’s death while we are still alive in this world so that the splendour of his death
may shine out in our body. This is the death which leads to happiness, by which our outer nature wastes
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away so that our inner nature may be renewed; our earthly habitation is pulled down so that the gates of
our heavenly home may be unlocked.
Metaphorically a man dies when he breaks away from the thralldom of the flesh and casts off its bonds,
of which the Lord says to us by the Prophet Isaiah: Loose every bond of wickedness, dissolve unjust
contracts, let the oppressed go free, break all dishonesty.
The Lord allowed death to make its way into our world so that guilt should come to an end; but lest
human nature should perish by death he ordained the resurrection of the dead. Thus by death guilt
should have a end, by the resurrection human nature should endure forever.
Death in this sense is a pilgrimage, a lifetime’s pilgrimage which none must shirk, a pilgrimage from decay
to imperishable life, from mortality to immortality, from anxiety to unruffled calm. Do not be afraid of the
word death: rather rejoice in the blessings which follow a happy death. What is death after all but the
burial of vice, the flowering of goodness? Hence the words of Scripture, Let my soul die with the souls of
the just, that is, let it be buried with them and so slough off its own vice and be clothed in the grace of the
saints who carry round the mortification of Christ in their own bodies and souls.
THURSDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE YOUNG MEN OF ISRAEL ARE FAITHFUL IN THE PALACE OF THE KING OF BABYLON: DANIEL
1:1-21
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to
Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the
vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and
placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to
bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish,
handsome and skilful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to
serve in the king’s palace, and to teach them the letters and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned
them a daily portion of the rich food which the king ate, and of the wine which he drank. They were to be
educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these
were Daniel, Hananiah, Misha-el, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave
them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Misha-el he called Meshach,
and Azariah he called Abednego.
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s rich food, or with the wine which he
drank; therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave
Daniel favour and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs; and the chief of the eunuchs said
to Daniel, “I fear lest my lord the king, who appointed your food and your drink, should see that you were
in poorer condition than the youths who are of your own age. So you would endanger my head with the
king.” Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel,
Hananiah, Misha-el, and Azariah; “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and
water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s rich food be
observed by you, and according to what you see deal with your servants.” So he hearkened to them in
this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in
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appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s rich food. So the steward took away
their rich food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all letters and wisdom; and Daniel had
understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they
should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king
spoke with them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Misha-el, and Azariah;
therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding concerning
which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters
that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.
A READING FROM ON THE TRINITY AND ITS WORKS BY ABBOT RUPERT OF DEUTZ
DE TRINITATE ET OPERIBUS EIUS, XLII (PL 167:1499-1502); WORD IN SEASON VIII.
We shall now look at the book of Daniel. May Christ, whose mysteries we seek to find in it, open our eyes
to the light. What is so arresting is the grandiose vision it contains. There, in the language of imagery, is
described the single combat between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, revealed under
several different aspects to the captives in Babylon for the consolation of the citizens of God’s kingdom.
First, there is the single stone, hurtling from the mountain, which smote and shattered, without the aid of
human hands, the mighty and frightening statue. Then, the fire which neither touched nor distressed the
three children in the fiery furnace. Then, the strong and mighty king, marvelling at the Babylon he had
built, who became demented by the voice which fell from heaven, was driven from among men and ate
grass like an ox. It was after this experience that he acknowledged the most high God, who lives forever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. Then, the kingdom of Babylon itself is conquered by God our
king and given to the Medes and Persians. There is Daniel himself, a man of prayer, who got the better of
the calumnious men who criticized him to the king. Then there are the four competing winds of heaven
and the four great beasts coming up out of the sea, and after that, there came one like a son of man, and
he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory
and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. Finally, that the kingdom of sin is
to be destroyed and to be succeeded by the reign of the kingdom of God is very clearly shown by this
prophecy: Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city to finish the
transgression, to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal
both vision and Prophet and to anoint the Holy One.
But let us now remember Daniel. Daniel loved God, so he had to take a stand against the kingdom
opposed to God – against sinful men who are the enemies of God’s kingdom. Born into the world, he
knew that because of original sin, he was an exile; he heard the Gentiles say to the captive people of God,
because of their actual sins, Where is your God? On the one hand, the tyranny of the evil; on the other,
human arrogance. Daniel shunned intimacy with either, desirous as he was of the true glory of the one God.
And he won his consolation in proportion to his zeal, for as the psalmist says, You will hear the desires of the
meek. At the very beginning of the book Scripture shows Daniel’s zeal: Daniel resolved that he would not
defile himself with the king's rich food. As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all
letters and wisdom, but Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
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FRIDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VISION OF THE IMAGE AND THE STONE; THE ETERNAL KINGDOM OF GOD: DANIEL 2:26-47
The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream
that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered the king, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians,
or astrologers can show to the king the mystery which the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven
who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.
Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed
came thoughts of what would be hereafter, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to
be. But as for me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living has this mystery been
revealed to me, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may
know the thoughts of your mind.
“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood
before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its breast and
arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you
looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and
broke them in pieces; then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were
broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them
away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great
mountain and filled the whole earth.
“This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom
the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand
he has given, wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air,
making you rule over them all – you are the head of gold. After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to
you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth
kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things; and like iron which crushes,
it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of
iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron
mixed with the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall
be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will mix with one
another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of
those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its
sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an
end, and it shall stand for ever; just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand,
and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made
known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and did homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering
and incense be offered up to him. The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of
kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.”
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SERMO 45.6-8; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Daniel saw a vision. I saw, said Daniel, and beheld a stone cut from a mountain without hands. He did not
mean that the stone was without hands, but that the stone was cut from the mountain without human
action; no human hands came along to cut the stone from the mountain. Your honours will be aware that
stones are not cut from mountains unless human hands come along to do it. But that one was cut from a
mountain without hands, and it came and broke all the kingdoms of earth into pieces. I do not know if it
conjures up before your eyes a picture of anything but Christ, of whom it is said, All the kings of the earth
shall worship him. He is the one who broke all the kingdoms of the earth into pieces. A proud king will not
have any other king ahead of him. Now all kings have Christ as their king. So he has broken into pieces all
the kingdoms of the earth, that he himself may reign.
And what does it say? This stone grew, and became a great mountain, such that it filled the whole face of
the earth. Now I imagine that you recognize Christ. You have heard about the land: Those who have given
themselves to me shall possess the land. You have also heard about the mountain: And shall inhabit my
holy mountain. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of
flesh and spirit.
Cut from a mountain, and it became a mountain by growing. But what sort of mountain? Not one like the
mountain it was cut from. You see, about the mountain it was cut from it does not say, ‘It grew and filled
the whole earth.’ So there are two mountains. The first mountain is the synagogue, the second the
Church. The first is the Jewish people, the second mountain the Christian people. But in order that the
Christian people might become a great mountain and fill the whole earth, a stone was cut from that other
mountain, because Christ came from the Jews. So why without hands? Without human agency. Christ,
you see, was born of a virgin, he was conceived apart from conjugal embrace.
So that is the mountain we have in Christ; we have the Church, let us love the Church. This mountain
grew and filled the whole wide world. It is obvious that those who have formed a party are not in this
mountain, and do not hold the whole earth with us.
So you there, love this mountain and make yourself ready to inhabit this mountain forever. And cleanse
yourself from every defilement of flesh and spirit, having such promises. What promises? If you want to
possess the land and inhabit the holy mountain, cleanse yourself from every defilement of flesh and
spirit.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-THIRD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE KING’S GOLDEN STATUE; THE YOUTHS THROWN INTO THE FURNACE: DANIEL 3:8-12,19-23,
1, 68, 24-30
At that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They said to King
Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live for ever! You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the
sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship
the golden image; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace.
There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach,
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Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no heed to you; they do not serve your gods or worship
the golden image which you have set up.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was wont to be
heated. And he ordered certain mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and
to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their mantles, their tunics,
their hats, and their other garments, and they were cast into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king’s
order was strict and the furnace very hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who took up Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the
burning fiery furnace.
And they walked about in the midst of the flames, singing hymns to God and blessing the Lord. “Bless
him, all who worship the Lord, the God of gods, sing praise to him and give thanks to him, for his mercy
endures for ever.”
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He said to his counsellors, “Did we not
cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He answered, “But I see
four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth
is like a son of the gods.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace and said, “Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here!" Then Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s
counsellors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men;
the hair of their heads was not singed, their mantles were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come
upon them. Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has
sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set at nought the king’s command, and
yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a
decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able
to deliver in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of
Babylon.

ST HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME, COMM. IN DAN. II, 18-37 (SC 14:150-184); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Look well; behold three youths who have set an example for all. They were unafraid of the numerous
satraps and of the words of the king: they did not tremble when they heard about the fiery flames of the
furnace, but they spurned all and the whole world for they thought only of the fear of God.
You see how the Spirit of the Father teaches eloquence to the martyrs, consoling them and exhorting
them to despise death in this world, to hasten their attainment of heavenly goods. But a person who is
without the Holy Spirit is frightened of the struggle. He hides himself, takes precautions against a death
that is only temporal, is afraid of the sword, falls into a panic at the thought of the torture. He no longer
sees any other thing than the world here below, worries only about the present life, prefers his wife to
everything else, is bothered only about love for his children, and seeks nothing but wealth.
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Such a man, because he is not endowed with heavenly strength, is quickly lost. That is why anyone who
desires to come near the Word listens to the behest of the King and Lord of heaven: Whoever does not
bear his cross and follow me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not renounce all that he possesses
cannot be my disciple.
Scripture tells us that after this those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell into the white-
hot furnace and walked about in the flames, singing to God and blessing the Lord. The fire had no
difficulty in devouring the fetters with which they had been bound by order of the king, but it did not
touch their coats, hats, shoes and other garments. This miracle brought out the wonderful power of
God.
But someone might say: ‘Why did God of old not rescue martyrs of our own day? For we see that blessed
Daniel was cast twice into the den, and that he was not devoured by the beasts, just as the three youths
were cast into the furnace and suffered not the least damage from the fire.’
Think it over, O man! At that time, God saved those he wanted, in order that the wonders of his works
might be revealed to the whole world. But those whom he desired to undergo martyrdom, he crowned
and let them come to him. If he drew the three youths out of their predicament, it was to show the
emptiness and folly of Nebuchadnezzar’s boastfulness and prove at the same time that what is impossible
to man is possible to God. Nebuchadnezzar had proudly declared: Who is the God that can deliver you
out of my hands? God proved to him that he can free his servants when he wishes to do so. That is why it
is improper for man to oppose the decisions of God. For if we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we
die for the Lord. Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord.
CHRIST THE KING

THE VISION OF THE SON OF MAN ACCEPTING THE KINGDOM: DANIEL 7:1-17, 23-27
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his
bed. Then he wrote down the dream, and told the sum of the matter. Daniel said, “I saw in my vision by
night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up
out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked
its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand upon two feet like a
man; and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was
raised up on one side; it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour
much flesh.’ After this I looked, and lo, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back; and
the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a
fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and
broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were
before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another
horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this
horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. As I looked, thrones were
placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his
head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and
came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.
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“I looked then because of the sound of the great words which the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the
beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the
beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in
the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came
to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
“As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached
one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me, and made
known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out
of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever,
for ever and ever.’
“Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different
from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As
for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be
different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most
High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and
they shall be given into his hand for a time, two times, and half a time. But the court shall sit in judgment,
and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and
the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of
the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve
and obey them.’”

IN IOANNIS EVANGELIUM II, 35 (PG 73:283-286); WORD IN SEASON VIII
Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. Notice that Christ does
not ask for a new beginning in glory, but a restoration of the glory which he had of old, and also that he
speaks these words as a man. Again, the fact that he became a man is the reason why all things are said
to have been given to the Son. We who are eager for knowledge will gather wisdom from every source in
seeking to understand this. But nothing will teach us better than that awe-inspiring vision of Daniel, in
which the Prophet says he saw him whose days are without beginning seated in majesty, with thousands
upon thousands and myriads upon myriads there to serve and attend him. He continues: And behold,
with the clouds of heaven there came one like a man, who approached him whose days have no
beginning and was presented to him. And to him was given the dominion and glory of the kingdom, so
that all people, the nations of all tongues, should serve him.
Do you see how in these words we have an accurate portrayal of the whole mystery of the incarnation? In
telling us how the Son received the kingdom from the Father, the Prophet refers not merely to the Son,
but to one who appeared as a man. For he humbled himself, as it is written, by taking the form of a man
for our sake, so that in ascending first to the kingdom he might open up the way for us to follow him to
the kingdom of glory. And just as he is by nature life, so it was for our sake that he came down to die in
the flesh for all humanity, to set us free from death and corruption. By his likeness to ourselves he could
as it were mingle his own nature with ours, and make us to be partakers of eternal life. So although as
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God he is the Lord of glory, yet he takes on the form of our low estate in order to raise human nature also
to royal honour.
For he came to take precedence in all things, as Paul says. He is the way, the door, the first fruits of our
blessings; he leads us from death to life, from corruption to incorruption, from weakness to strength,
from slavery to adoption as children of God, and from all the obscurity of our low estate to kingly honour
and glory.
MONDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

GOD’S JUDGEMENT AT BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST: DANIEL 5:1-2, 5-9, 13-17, 25-31
King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in front of the thousand.
Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver which
Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his
lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
Immediately the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s
palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king’s colour changed,
and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. The king cried aloud
to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king said to the wise men of Babylon,
“Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple, and have a
chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” Then all the king’s wise men
came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King
Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his colour changed; and his lords were perplexed.
Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king said to Daniel, “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles
of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. I have heard of you that the spirit of the holy
gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise
men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its
interpretation; but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can
give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its
interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be
the third ruler in the kingdom.”
Then Daniel answered before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another;
nevertheless I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.
“And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of
the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you
have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the
Medes and Persians.”
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Then Belshazzar commanded, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put about his neck,
and proclamation was made concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being
about sixty-two years old.
A READING FROM ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE BY THEODORET OF CYRUS

DE DIVINA PROVIDENTIA, 10, 52-54; WORD IN SEASON VIII
When the people had lapsed into the depths of impiety, loot was sent to Babylon and the sacred vessels
became the spoils of the enemy. Now Nebuchadnezzar, since they were sacred, removed them from
profane use and brought them to the temples of those whom they cultivated as gods. His son, Belshazzar,
however, had not learned his lesson sufficiently from his father’s disasters and did not calculate the
penalty he should pay for such arrogance; having honoured, as he thought, these sacred vessels, he
brought out the vessels once consecrated to God, drank from them – the wretch – and handed round the
vessels that should not be touched to his fellow drinkers. While this was going on, the decision against
the accursed wretch was produced and a hand of somebody invisible wrote on the wall the sentence of
God. Belshazzar was held in doubt, unable to read or understand the import of what was written.
Then his mother brought into the court Daniel, who often solved such problems for his father. Daniel
read and interpreted it, and told him the cause of the punishment, saying: ‘We have been made captives
to pay the penalty for our sins. And God has given those vessels consecrated by us to our vanquisher to
teach us that he suffered us to offer sacrifices which he did not need and accepted our offerings as long
as we remained holy, because he wished to be of help to us. But when we drifted into impiety he rejected
the gifts we offered. Your father, then, accepting the rebuke, worshipped as he thought best,
withdrawing objects from profane use and offering them to his supposed gods. You have no use for such
worship; you have fallen into the abyss of arrogance and have drunk from the sacred vessels. The reason
the Lord gives you such a lesson to end your arrogance is not his care for inanimate objects, but his loving
care for all, and he proposes your punishment as a lesson in discipline for many.’ So much he said, and
that night Belshazzar paid the penalty.
Behold, then, how the Maker of the universe has always shown a loving care for mankind, not merely for
the race of the descendants of Abraham, but for all the descendants of Adam; through one tribe he has
led all tribes to a knowledge of himself. He used them for this purpose both when they were religious and
when they were paying the penalty for their sins - for instance, Nebuchadnezzar, the arrogant tyrant, who
raised up the golden image and called on all to adore it, saying: I will exalt my throne above the stars. I
will ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. I will gather in my hand the
whole earth as a nest, as eggs that lie abandoned will I gather it.
TUESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DANIEL IS THROWN INTO THE LIONS’ DEN: DANIEL 6:4-28
The presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the
kingdom; but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error
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or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this
Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
Then these presidents and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live for
ever! All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counsellors and the governors
are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict, that whoever makes
petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now,
O king, establish the interdict and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law
of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document
and interdict.
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in
his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem; and he got down upon his knees three times a day and
prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement
and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God. Then they came near and said before
the king, concerning the interdict, “O king! Did you not sign an interdict, that any man who makes
petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?”
The king answered, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot
be revoked.” Then they answered before the king, “That Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays
no heed to you, O king, or the interdict you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed, and set his mind to deliver Daniel; and
he laboured till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by agreement to the king, and
said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no interdict or ordinance
which the king establishes can be changed.”
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel,
“May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” And a stone was brought and laid upon the
mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing
might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace, and spent the night fasting; no
diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.
Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. When he came near to the
den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish and said to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living
God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” Then Daniel
said to the king, “O king, live for ever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have
not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no
wrong.” Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So
Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of hurt was found upon him, because he had trusted in
his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had accused Daniel were brought and cast into
the den of lions – they, their children, and their wives; and before they reached the bottom of the den
the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be
multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion men tremble and fear before the God of
Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring for ever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion
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shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who
has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”
So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

ST HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME, COMM. IN DAN. III, 21-30 (SC 14:242-258); WORD IN SEASON VIII
When Daniel became acquainted with the decree he sensed that there was a plot against him, but he was
not afraid; he did not yield to fright, for he was ready to become the prey of beasts rather than submit to
the decree of the king. He recalled the example of the three young men. Because they had refused to
adore the statue of the king, they were saved from the fiery furnace. Having returned home, Daniel knelt
in prayer in the upper chamber three times a day, with the windows open toward Jerusalem, as was his
custom.
Let us contemplate the piety of blessed Daniel. Although he seemed to have much work to do for the
king, he continued to be faithful to daily prayer, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to
God what belongs to God.
Someone might object: Was it not possible for him to pray to God in the intimacy of his heart during the
day, and then, during the night, remain secretly recollected in his home as he desired, and without
endangering himself? Of course, he could have acted in that way, but he did not want that kind of
conduct. For in such a case, the supervisors and the satraps might have said: What is the value of the fear
of God, since he is afraid of the king’s edict and is submissive to his commands? And they would have
been ready to accuse him of infidelity. Here we have the work of hypocrisy; but faith and the fear of God
do not operate in that way. Hence, Daniel did not give his adversaries any ‘pretext’ for detraction, for
whoever submits to a man is that man’s slave.
That is why the blessed Daniel, who had preferred the fear of God and delivered himself to death, was
saved from the lions by the angel. If he had taken the edict into consideration and had remained quiet for
thirty days, his faith would not have preserved its purity. No one can serve two masters. The wily devil
exercises his wits to persecute, oppress, bring down the saints, and prevent them from raising their holy
hands to God in their prayers.
The devil knows well that the prayer of the saints gives peace to the world and brings chastisements to
the wicked, which makes us recall that when Moses in the desert raised his hands, Israel overcame, and
when he lowered them, it was Amalek who had the upper hand. This still takes place for us today. When
we stop praying, the adversary is victorious over us; and when we cling to prayer, the power and energy
of the Evil One are fruitless.
How powerful are those who trust more in God than in men! Men extinguish all hope and deliver us to
death, but God will not abandon his servants. That is why the psalmist teaches that it is better to take
refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in princes.
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WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

VISION OF THE RAM AND THE HE-GOAT; VICTORIES AND RUIN OF THE GREEKS’ KINGDOM:
DANIEL 8:1-26
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which
appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the capital, which is in
the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was at the river Ulai. I raised my eyes and saw, and
behold, a ram standing on the bank of the river. It had two horns; and both horns were high, but one was
higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward
and southward; no beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his
power; he did as he pleased and magnified himself.
As I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without
touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with
the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the river, and he ran at him in his mighty wrath. I
saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two
horns; and the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled
upon him; and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the he-goat magnified
himself exceedingly; but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up
four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.
Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the
east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven; and some of the host of the
stars it cast down to the ground, and trampled upon them. It magnified itself, even up to the Prince of the
host; and the continual burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was
overthrown. And the host was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through
transgression; and truth was cast down to the ground, and the horn acted and prospered. Then I heard a
holy one speaking; and another holy one said to the one that spoke, “For how long is the vision
concerning the continual burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the
sanctuary and host to be trampled under foot?” And he said to him, “For two thousand and three
hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”
When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; and behold, there stood before me one
having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called,
“Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was
frightened and fell upon my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the
time of the end.”
As he was speaking to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground; but he touched me and set
me on my feet. He said, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the
indignation; for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram which you saw with the two
horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the he-goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn
between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose,
four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their rule, when
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the transgressors have reached their full measure, a king of bold countenance, one who understands
riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great, and he shall cause fearful destruction, and shall succeed in
what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people of the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit
prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall magnify himself. Without warning he shall destroy
many; and he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes; but, by no human hand, he shall be broken.
The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been told is true; but seal up the vision, for it
pertains to many days hence.”

ST HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME, COMM IN DAN. IV, 26-27 (SC 14:316, 317); WORD IN SEASON VIII
All that Daniel had recounted in his first vision, he wished to describe a second time at length for the
edification of believers. The ram that butted against the sea, and toward the north and the south, is
Darius, the king of Persia, who was victorious over all the nations, for Daniel tells us: No beast could
withstand it. The he-goat that came from the West is Alexander of Macedonia, the king of the Greeks.
The he-goat approached the ram and struck its face. It crushed the ram, cast it down to earth and
trampled on it. This means – and this truly happened – that after battling with Darius, Alexander
overcame him, became the master of all Darius’ might, destroyed his army, and trampled it under foot.
Afterward, when the he-goat had risen, its great horn was shattered and in its place came up four others,
facing the four winds of heaven. We know, in fact, that Alexander, after becoming the master and lord of
all Persia, died after he had divided his empire into four principalities namely, those of Seleucus, De-
metrius, Ptolemy, and Philip.
Out of one of them came a little horn which kept growing as far as the host of heaven. It removed the
daily sacrifice. It cast truth to the ground. We find that indeed the race of Alexander gave birth to king
Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanius, who reigned over Syria and subjected the whole army of Egypt to his
power. Then he went up against Jerusalem, invaded the sanctuary and took away the treasures of the
house and the golden candlestick, the table and the altar of sacrifices.
He massacred many in the land and uttered words of extreme pride. He prohibited sacrifice and oblation
and constructed sacred shrines and idolatrous temples throughout the city. Pigs and unclean animals
were immolated, thus accomplishing the words of the Prophet that because of him the sacrifice would be
interrupted and the sanctuary and the army trampled underfoot until one evening and one morning: a
thousand and three hundred days.
It is a historical fact also that during all that time, that is during three-and-a-half years, the sanctuary was
abandoned. This makes a thousand and three hundred days until the appearance of Judas Maccabeus.
After the death of his father, Judas rebelled against Antiochus, destroyed his armies, delivered the city,
restored the sacred ceremonies, and renewed them by having all things done in accordance with the law.
All this, therefore, has been properly fulfilled according to Scripture.
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THURSDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

DANIEL’S PRAYER IN PERSECUTION: DANIEL 9:1-4, 18-27
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the
Chaldeans – in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years which,
according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations
of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth
and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and terrible
God, who keepest covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, O
my God, incline thy ear and hear; open thy eyes and behold our desolations, and the city which is called
by thy name; for we do not present our supplications before thee on the ground of our righteousness,
but on the ground of thy great mercy. O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, give heed and act; delay
not, for thy own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people are called by thy name.”
While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my
supplication before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God; while I was speaking in prayer, the man
Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening
sacrifice. He came and he said to me, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and
understanding. At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to tell it to you,
for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the word and understand the vision.
“Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the
transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal
both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the
going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there
shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a
troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing;
and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come
with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong
covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease;
and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured
out on the desolator.”

ST HIPPOLYTUS OF ROME, COMM. IN DAN. IV, 38-39 (SC 14:340-343); WORD IN SEASON VIII
The Holy of Holies is none other than the Son of God, who appeared and declared himself to be the
Anointed of the Father, sent into the world, for he said: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he
has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives,
recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favour from the Lord.
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All who believed in the heavenly Priest were purified by the Priest himself and received remission of their
faults. But those who did not believe in him, paid no more attention to him than to any other man, and
their sins remained ‘sealed’; they were indelible.
That is why Gabriel says: Seal the vision and the Prophet. We must note that fullness of the Law and the
Prophets came ‘in person’ for the Law and the Prophets were in force till John - and for that reason their
words had to be sealed in order that at the advent of the Lord everything would appear loosed and the
things that were sealed and difficult to know would be known, and that which formerly was fettered
would be unfettered from then on.
The Lord himself indicated as much to the princes of the people who were indignant because they saw
him perform miracles on the Sabbath and cure all sickness and infirmity. He told them: O you hypocrites!
Which of you does not let his ox or ass out of the stall on the Sabbath to water it? Should not this
daughter of Abraham here who has been in the bondage of Satan for eighteen years have been released
from her shackles on the Sabbath?
The Lord has come to release from the shackles of death all those who had been in the bondage of Satan,
to shackle him who against everyone else had been the strong man, and liberate mankind, according to
the words of Isaiah: Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness, show yourselves!
Now, all that the Law and the Prophets had said of old to men was something sealed and unknown to
them. This is what Isaiah illustrates: When the sealed scroll is handed to one who can read, with the
request, ‘Read this’, he replies, ‘I cannot; it is sealed.’ It was necessary, then, that everything the prophets
had said for the unbelieving Pharisees, who considered themselves to be learned in the law, should be
sealed for them but open to believers.
We see, therefore, that everything which was formerly sealed is now open to the saints by the grace of
the Lord. For he is the perfect seal, the key of David, who opens, and no one shuts; who shuts, and no one
opens. He, then, has taken the book and loosed the seals so that what had been said about him in an
obscure way, could now be announced unequivocally from the housetops. That is why the Angel said to
Daniel: Seal up those words, for the vision refers to distant days. But to the Christ it was not said: ‘Seal’,
but: ‘Loose what was formerly bound’ that his grace might make us know the will of the Father and we
may believe in him whom the Father has sent for the salvation of men, Jesus Christ our Lord.
FRIDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE VISION OF THE MAN AND THE APPEARANCE OF THE ANGEL; DANIEL 10:1-21
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And
the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the
vision.
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my
mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month,
as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and looked, and
behold, a man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his
1229
face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of
burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the noise of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the
vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and
they fled to hide themselves. So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me;
my radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his
words; and when I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in a deep sleep with my face to the
ground.
And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 And he said to me, “O
Daniel, man greatly beloved, give heed to the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have
been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me,
“Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to understand and humbled yourself
before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the
kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help
me, so I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia and came to make you understand what is
to befall your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”
When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was
dumb. And behold, one in the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips; then I opened my mouth and
spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me,
and I retain no strength. How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in
me, and no breath is left in me.”
Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, “O man
greatly beloved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And when he spoke to me,
I was strengthened and said, "Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me." Then he said, “Do you
know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I am
through with him, lo, the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of
truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.”

CONFERENCES, 8.13.1-3; ACW 57 (1997) TR. RAMSEY
It is very clear that the evil spirits desire the onslaughts by which they attack men, even when these set
them against one another. For, in similar fashion, they do not cease to incite discord and conflict on
behalf of some peoples that they have befriended because of a kind of mutual wickedness. We see this
very plainly depicted in the vision of the Prophet Daniel, when the angel Gabriel speaks as follows: Do not
fear, Daniel, for from the first day when you set your heart to understand that you should afflict yourself
in the sight of your God your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. But the
prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me for twenty-one days. And behold, Michael, one of the
chief princes, came to my help, and I remained there next to the king of the Persians. But I have come to
teach you what will befall your people in the last days.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the prince of the kingdom of the Persians was the adversary power
that defended the Persian nation, which was hostile to the people of God. And he stood in the way of the
benefit that he saw the archangel was going to procure in response to the request that the Prophet had
made of the Lord. He was envious lest the angel’s consolation come to Daniel too quickly and lest he
1230
comfort the people of God who were protected by the archangel Gabriel. The latter said that he would
have been unable to come to him even then because of the vehemence of his onslaught were it not that
the archangel Michael helped him by resisting the prince of the kingdom of the Persians.
And shortly afterward it says: The angel said: Do you know why I came to you? And now I will return to
fight against the prince of the Persians. For when I went out, the prince of the Greeks appeared coming.
But I shall tell you what is set down in the writings of truth, and no one is my helper in all these things but
Michael your prince. And again: At that time Michael, the great prince, who stands for the children of
your people, shall arise. We read, then, that there is another who is called the prince of the Greeks, and
he favoured the people subject to him while seeming to be opposed both to the people of Israel and to
the nation of the Persians.
Hence it is quite clear that the discords and conflicts and animosity of peoples, which the adversary
powers promote among themselves by these provocations, are also carried on against themselves. They
either rejoice in their clients’ victory or are tormented by their defeat, and therefore they cannot be at
peace among themselves as long as one of them is constantly struggling with aggressive rivalry against
the leader of another people on behalf of those over whom he himself is set.
SATURDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

THE PROPHECY OF THE LAST DAY AND OF THE RESURRECTION: DANIEL 12:1-13
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a
time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time; but at that time your
people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those
who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those
who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and
seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
Then I Daniel looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank
of the stream. And I said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long
shall it be till the end of these wonders?” The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the
stream, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven; and I heard him swear by him who lives for
ever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time; and that when the shattering of the power of
the holy people comes to an end all these things would be accomplished. I heard, but I did not
understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the issue of these things?” He said, “Go your way,
Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves, and
make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall
understand; but those who are wise shall understand. And from the time that the continual burnt offering
is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred
and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
But go your way till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the
days.”
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PAROCHIAL & PLAIN SERMONS, IV, 222-224; WORD IN SEASON VIII
Our present state is precious as revealing to us, amid shadows and figures, the existence and attributes of
Almighty God and his elect people: it is precious, because it enables us to hold intercourse with immortal
souls who are on their trial as we are. It is momentous, as being the scene and means of our trial; but
beyond this it has no claims upon us. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, all is vanity. We may be poor
or rich, young or old, honoured or slighted, and it ought to affect us no more, neither to elate us nor
depress us, than if we were actors in a play, who know that the characters they represent are not their
own, and that though they may appear to be superior one to another, to be kings or to be peasants, they
are in reality all on a level. The one desire which should move us should be, first of all, that of seeing him
face to face, who is now hid from us; and next of enjoying eternal and direct communion, in and through
him, with our friends around us, whom at present we know only through the medium of sense, by
precarious and partial channels, which give us little insight into their hearts.
These are suitable feelings toward this attractive but deceitful world. What have we to do with its gifts
and honours, who, having been already baptized into the world to come, are no longer citizens of this?
Why should we be anxious for a long life, or wealth, or credit, or comfort, who know that the next world
will be everything which our hearts can wish, and that not in appearance only, but truly and everlastingly?
Why should we rest in this world, when it is the token and promise of another? Why should we be
content with its surface, instead of appropriating what is stored beneath it?
To those who live by faith, everything they see speaks of that future world; the very glories of nature, the
sun, moon, and stars, and the richness and the beauty of the earth, are as types and figures witnessing
and teaching the invisible things of God. All that we see is destined one day to burst forth into a heavenly
bloom, and to be transfigured into immortal glory. Heaven at present is out of sight, but in due time, as
snow melts and discovers what it lay upon, so will this visible creation fade away before those greater
splendours which are behind it, and on which at present it depends. In that day shadows will retire, and
the substance show itself. The sun will grow pale and be lost in the sky, but it will be before the radiance
of him whom it does but image, the Sun of Righteousness, with healing on his wings, who will come forth
in visible form, as a bridegroom out of his chamber, while his perishable type decays. The stars which
surround it will be replaced by saints and angels circling his throne. Above and below, the cloud of the air,
the trees of the field, the waters of the great deep will be found impregnated with the forms of
everlasting spirits, the servants of God which do his pleasure. And our own mortal bodies will then
be found in like manner to contain within them an inner man, which will then receive its due
proportions, as the soul’s harmonious organ, instead of that gross mass of flesh and blood which sight
and touch are sensible of. For this glorious manifestation the whole creation is at present in travail,
earnestly desiring that it may be accomplished in its season.
These are thoughts to make us eagerly and devoutly say, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, to end the time of waiting, of
darkness, of turbulence, of disputing, of sorrow, of care.’
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Advent Readings from Isaiah and Early Church Fathers

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WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ........................................................ 1055

THURSDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME ............................................................ 1068

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AELRED OF RIEVAULX

MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD

WEDNESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST ODILO OF CLUNY

THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY PETER OF BLOIS

FRIDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

SATURDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY BLESSED GUERRIC OF IGNY

SUNDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

MONDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST BERNARD

TUESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.

WEDNESDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

A READING FROM A HOMILY BY ABBOT GODFREY OF ADMONT

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS BY ST AUGUSTINE

FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

A READING FROM THE TREATISE AGAINST HERESIES BY ST IRENAEUS

SATURDAY, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST AUGUSTINE

SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST AMBROSE OF MILAN

MONDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON MICAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET MICAH

WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

A READING FROM THE PROPHET MICAH

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE TRINITY BY ST HILARY OF POITIERS

A READING FROM THE PROPHET MICAH

A READING FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST AUGUSTINE

A READING FROM THE PROPHET MICAH

A READING FROM THE TREATISE ON THE INCARNATION BY ST ATHANASIUS

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A SERMON BY ST MAXIMUS OF TURIN

A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

A READING FROM A COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH BY ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA