Saturday, July 27, 2013

PRAYER OF THE DAY

A Prayer To Be Said by Young Men

O most glorious Saint Aloysius,
who hast been honored by the Church with the fair title of "angelic youth,"
because of the life of utmost purity thou didst lead here on earth,
I come before thy presence this day with all the devotion of my mind and heart.
O perfect exemplar,
kind and powerful patron of young men,
how great is my need of thee!
The world and the devil are trying to ensnare me;
I am conscious of that ardor of my passions;
I know full well the weakness and inconstancy of my age.
Who shall be able to keep me safe,
if not thou, O saint of angelic purity,
the glory and honor,
the loving protector of youth?
To thee, therefore,
I have recourse with all my soul,
to thee I commit myself with all my heart.
I hereby resolve, promise,
and desire to be especially devout toward thee,
to glorify thee by imitating thy extraordinary virtues
and in particular thy angelic purity,
to copy thy example,
and to promote devotion to thee among my companions.
O dear Saint Aloysius,
do thou guard and defend me always,
in order that,
under thy protection and following thy example,
I may one day be able to join with thee in seeing and praising my God forever in heaven.

Amen.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading
EX 24:3-8

When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
“We will do everything that the LORD has told us.”
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,
rising early the next day,
he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the children of Israel
to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls
as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.”
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
“This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his.”


Responsorial Psalm
PS 50:1B-2, 5-6, 14-15

R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.

R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.

R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

“Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.”

R. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.


Gospel
MT 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.

“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

SAINT OF THE DAY

July 27

St. Pantaleon (275 - 303)

St Pantaleon came from Nicomedia, near the Black Sea, in Asia. 
He was such a famous doctor that the Emperor himself chose him for his own doctor. 
Pantaleon was a Christian, 
but the bad influence from the pagan court caused him to give up his Christian faith entirely.

A holy priest named Hermolaos made him realize what a sin he had committed. Pantaleon listened to him, detested his sin and joined the Church once more. To make up for what he had done, he greatly desired to suffer and die for Jesus. 
In the meantime, 
he imitated Our Lord's charity by taking care of poor sick people without any charge for his medical services.

When the Emperor Diocletian began his persecution, Pantaleon at once gave away everything he owned to the poor. Not long afterwards, he was accused of being a Christian. He was given the choice of denying his Faith or being put to death. No torture could force Pantaleon to deny his Faith.

There has been strong devotion in past ages to this Saint. 
In the East he is called the "Great Martyr and Wonder-worker."

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open our lips.
And we shall praise your name.

Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 94 (95)

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.

Come, let us rejoice in the Lord,
let us acclaim God our salvation.
Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks,
let us acclaim him with songs.

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.

For the Lord is a great God,
a king above all gods.
For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands,
and the peaks of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his: he made it;
and his hands formed the dry land.

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.

Come, let us worship and bow down,
bend the knee before the Lord who made us;
for he himself is our God and we are his flock,
the sheep that follow his hand.

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.

If only, today, you would listen to his voice:
“Do not harden your hearts
as you did at Meribah,
on the day of Massah in the desert,
when your fathers tested me –
they put me to the test,
although they had seen my works.”

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.

“For forty years they wearied me,
that generation.
I said: their hearts are wandering,
they do not know my paths.
I swore in my anger:
they will never enter my place of rest.”

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Let us listen for the voice of the Lord
and enter into his peace.


Hymn

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish, like leaves on the tree,
Then wither and perish; but naught changeth thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render: O help us to see
‘Tis only the splendour of light hideth thee.


Psalm 49 (50)
True reverence for the Lord

The Lord has summoned heaven and earth
to witness his judgement of his people.

The Lord, the God of gods has spoken:
he has summoned the whole earth, from east to west.
God has shone forth from Zion in her great beauty.
Our God will come, and he will not be silent.
Before him, a devouring fire;
around him, a tempest rages.
He will call upon the heavens above, and on the earth, to judge his people.
“Bring together before me my chosen ones, who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice.”
The heavens will proclaim his justice; for God is the true judge.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

The Lord has summoned heaven and earth
to witness his judgement of his people.


Psalm 49 (50)

Call on me in the day of trouble,
and I will come to free you.

Listen, my people, and I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
I will not reproach you with your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are always before me.
But I will not accept calves from your houses,
nor goats from your flocks.
For all the beasts of the forests are mine,
and in the hills, a thousand animals.
All the birds of the air – I know them.
Whatever moves in the fields – it is mine.
If I am hungry, I will not tell you;
for the whole world is mine, and all that is in it.
Am I to eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer a sacrifice to God – a sacrifice of praise;
to the Most High, fulfill your vows.
Then you may call upon me in the time of trouble:
I will rescue you, and you will honor me.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Call on me in the day of trouble,
and I will come to free you.


Psalm 49 (50)

A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honor me.

To the sinner, God has said this:
Why do you recite my statutes?
Why do you dare to speak my covenant?
For you hate what I teach you,
and reject what I tell you.
The moment you saw a thief, you joined him;
you threw in your lot with adulterers.
You spoke evil with your mouth,
and your tongue made plans to deceive.
Solemnly seated, you denounced your own brother;
you poured forth hatred against your own mother’s son.
All this you did, and I was silent;
so you thought that I was just like you.
But I will reprove you –
I will confront you with all you have done.
Understand this, you who forget God;
lest I tear you apart, with no-one there to save you.
Whoever offers up a sacrifice of praise gives me true honor;
whoever follows a sinless path in life will be shown the salvation of God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honor me.


We ceaselessly pray to God for you.
– For you to have the fullest knowledge of God’s will.


First Reading
2 Corinthians 6:1-7:1

As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received. For he says: At the favorable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help. Well, now is the favorable time; 
this is the day of salvation.

We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants. Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; laboring, sleepless, starving. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honor or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumored to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.

Corinthians, we have spoken to you very frankly; our mind has been opened in front of you. Any constraint that you feel is not on our side; the constraint is in your own selves. I speak as if to children of mine: as a fair exchange, 
open your minds in the same way.

Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers. Virtue is no companion for crime. Light and darkness have nothing in common. Christ is not the ally of Beliar, nor has a believer anything to share with an unbeliever. The temple of God has no common ground with idols, and that is what we are – the temple of the living God. We have God’s word for it: I will make my home among them and live with them; I will be their God and they shall be my people. Then come away from them and keep aloof, says the Lord. Touch nothing that is unclean, 
and I will welcome you and be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty Lord.

With promises like these made to us, dear brothers, let us wash off all that can soil either body or spirit, 
to reach perfection of holiness in the fear of God.


Responsory

How can right and wrong be partners?
How can God’s temple tolerate pagan idols?
You yourselves are the temple of the living God.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
You yourselves are the temple of the living God.


Second Reading
From a homily on the 2nd letter to the Corinthians
by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop

Our heart is enlarged

Our heart is enlarged. For as heat makes things expand, so it is the work of love to expand the heart, for its power is to heat and make fervent. It is this that opened Paul’s lips and enlarged his heart. For I do not love only in words; he means, but my loving heart too is in unison with my words; and so I speak with confidence, without restraint or reserve. There was nothing more capacious than the heart of Paul, for he loved all the faithful with as intimate a love as any lover could have for a loved one, his love not being divided and lessened but remaining whole and entire for each of them. And what marvel is it that his love for the faithful was such, since his heart embraced the unbelievers, too, 
throughout the whole world?

So he did not just say, “I love you,” but with greater emphasis: Our mouth is open, our heart is enlarged; we hold you all in it, and not only that, but with room for you to move freely. For those who are loved enter fearlessly into the heart of their lover. And therefore he says: You are not constrained because of us, but you are constrained in your own affections. See how this reproach is tempered with much forbearance, as is the way with those who love much. For he did not say: You do not love me, but you do not love me in the same measure; 
for he did not want to charge them more harshly.

Indeed one may see with what a wonderful love for the faithful he is always inflamed, as one finds proof of it in all his writings. To the Romans he says: I desire to see you, and I have often planned to come to you, and if by any means at last I may succeed in reaching you. To the Galatians he says: My little children, with whom I am again in labor; to the Ephesians: For this reason I bend my knees on your behalf; and to the Thessalonians: What is my hope and my crown of glory? Is it not yourselves? For he used to say that he carried them about in his heart and in his chains.

Again he writes to the Colossians: I want you to know how greatly I strive for you and for all who have not seen my face; and to the Thessalonians: Like a nurse taking care of her children, being desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the Gospel but also our own selves. So too he says: You are not restricted by us. And so Paul does not merely say that he loves them but also that they love him, so that in this way he may draw them to him. Indeed, to the Corinthians he bears witness of this love when he says: 
Titus came, telling us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me.


Responsory

Love is patient; love is kind and envies no-one.
Love is never conceited.
Love does not gloat over other men’s sins,
but delights in the truth.

Hatred provokes quarrels,
but love overlooks all transgressions.
Love does not gloat over other men’s sins,
but delights in the truth.

Let us pray.

Be gracious, Lord, to us who serve you,
and in your kindness increase your gifts of grace within us:
so that, fervent in faith, hope and love,
we may be ever on the watch
and persevere in doing what you command.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.