WEDNESDAY JULY 7, 2010
EDITOR’S NOTE: The daily readings may be delayed, in a different format or missing. I am traveling and do not have regular access to a computer. Sorry for any inconvenience.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Offering in Reparation to the Precious Blood
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for the spread and exaltation of my dear Mother, Thy holy Church, for the preservation and welfare of her visible Head, the sovereign Roman Pontiff, for the cardinals, bishops, and pastors of souls, and for all the ministers of the sanctuary.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for peace and concord among Catholic kings and princes, for the humbling of the enemies of our holy faith, and for the welfare of all Thy Christian people.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for the conversion of unbelievers, the rooting-up of all heresies, and the conversion of sinners.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for all my relations, friends and enemies, for those in need, in sickness, and in tribulation, and for all those for whom Thou knowest that I am bound to pray, and willest that I should pray for.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for all those who are to pass this day to the other life, that Thou wouldst deliver them from the pains of hell, and admit them with all speed to the possession of Thy glory.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for all men who are lovers of this great treasure and who are united with me in adoring and glorifying It and who labor to spread this devotion.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy beloved Son, my Savior and my God, for all my needs, both temporal and spiritual, as in intercession for the holy souls in purgatory, and in an especial manner for those who were most devoted to this price of our redemption, and to the sorrows and sufferings of our dear Mother, Mary most holy.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Blessed and praised for evermore be Jesus, who hath saved us with his Blood!
Glory to the Blood of Jesus both now and for evermore and through the everlasting ages.
Amen.
WEDNESDAY OF THE FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Reading 1
Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12
Israel is a luxuriant vine
whose fruit matches its growth.
The more abundant his fruit,
the more altars he built;
The more productive his land,
the more sacred pillars he set up.
Their heart is false,
now they pay for their guilt;
God shall break down their altars
and destroy their sacred pillars.
If they would say,
"We have no king"—
Since they do not fear the LORD,
what can the king do for them?
The king of Samaria shall disappear,
like foam upon the waters.
The high places of Aven shall be destroyed,
the sin of Israel;
thorns and thistles shall overgrow their altars.
Then they shall cry out to the mountains, "Cover us!"
and to the hills, "Fall upon us!"
"Sow for yourselves justice,
reap the fruit of piety;
break up for yourselves a new field,
for it is time to seek the LORD,
till he come and rain down justice upon you."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. Seek always the face of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel
Mt 10:1-7
Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
"Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"
SAINT OF THE DAY
Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and Companions (1804-1860)
Not much is known of the early life of Emmanuel Ruiz, but details of his heroic death in defense of the faith have come down to us.
Born of humble parents in Santander, Spain, he became a Franciscan priest and served as a missionary in Damascus. This was at a time when anti-Christian riots shook Syria and thousands lost their lives in just a short time.
Among these were Emmanuel, superior of the Franciscan convent, seven other friars and three laymen. When a menacing crowd came looking for the men, they refused to renounce their faith and become Muslims. The men were subjected to horrible tortures before their martyrdom.
Emmanuel, his brother Franciscans and the three Maronite laymen were beatified in 1926 by Pope Pius XI.
OFFICE OF READINGS
O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 94 (95)
Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
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.
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
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.
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
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.
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
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.”
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
“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.”
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
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.
– Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
Hymn
Thou madest all and dost control,
Lord, with thy touch divine.
Cast out the slumbers of the soul,
The rest that is not thine.
Look down, Eternal Holiness,
And wash the sins away,
Of those, who, rising to confess,
Outstrip the lingering day.
Our hearts and hands by night, O Lord,
We lift them in our need;
As holy Psalmist gives the word,
And holy Paul the deed.
Each sin to thee of years gone by,
Each hidden stain lies bare;
We shrink not from thine awful eye,
But pray that thou wouldst spare.
Grant this, O Father, Only Son
And Spirit, God of grace,
To whom all worship shall be done
In every time and place.
A prayer in sickness
Psalm 38 (39)
We groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.
I said, “I will watch my ways,
I will try not to sin in my speech.
I will set a guard on my mouth,
for as long as my enemies are standing against me.”
I stayed quiet and dumb, spoke neither evil nor good,
but my pain was renewed.
My heart grew hot within me,
and fire blazed in my thoughts.
Then I spoke out loud:
“Lord, make me know my end.
Let me know the number of my days,
so that I know how short my life is to be.”
All the length of my days is a handsbreadth or two,
the expanse of my life is as nothing before you.
For in your sight all men are nothingness:
man passes away, like a shadow.
Nothingness, although he is busy:
he builds up treasure, but who will collect it?
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.
We groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.
Psalm 38 (39)
Listen, Lord, to my prayer: see my tears.
What, now, can I look forward to, Lord?
My hope is in you.
Rescue me from all my sins,
do not make me a thing for fools to laugh at.
I have sworn to be dumb, I will not open my mouth:
for it is at your hands that I am suffering.
Aim your blows away from me,
for I am crushed by the weight of your hand.
You rebuke and chastise us for our sins.
Like the moth you consume all we desire
– for all men are nothingness.
Listen, Lord, to my prayer:
turn your ear to my cries.
Do not be deaf to my weeping,
for I come as a stranger before you,
a wanderer like my fathers before me.
Turn away from me, give me respite,
before I leave this world,
before I am no more.
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.
Listen, Lord, to my prayer: see my tears.
Psalm 51 (52)
Against calumny
But I hope in the kindness of God forever.
Why do you take pride in your malice,
you expert in evil-doing?
All day long you plan your traps,
your tongue is sharp as a razor –
you master of deceit!
You have chosen malice over kindness;
you speak lies rather than the truth;
your tongue is in love with every deceit.
For all this, in the end God will destroy you.
He will tear you out and expel you from your dwelling,
uproot you from the land of the living.
The upright will see and be struck with awe:
they will deride the evil-doer.
“Here is the man who did not make God his refuge,
but put his hope in the abundance of his riches
and in the power of his stratagems.”
But I flourish like an olive in the palace of God.
I hope in the kindness of God,
for ever, and through all ages.
I shall praise you for all time for what you have done.
I shall put my hope in your name and in its goodness
in the sight of your chosen ones.
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.
But I hope in the kindness of God forever.
My soul waits for his word;
– my soul puts its hope in the Lord.
Reading
2 Samuel 24:1-4,10-18,24-25
The anger of the Lord once again blazed out against the Israelites and he incited David against them. ‘Go,’ he said ‘take a census of Israel and Judah.’ The king said to Joab and to the senior army officers who were with him, ‘Now go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and take a census of the people; I wish to know the size of the population.’ Joab said to the king, ‘May the Lord your God multiply the people a hundred times while my lord the king still has eyes to see it, but why should my lord the king be so set on this?’ But the king enforced his order on Joab and the senior officers, and Joab and the senior officers went from the king’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel.
But afterwards David’s heart misgave him for having taken a census of the people. ‘I have committed a grave sin’ David said to the Lord. ‘But now, Lord, I beg you to forgive your servant for this fault. I have been very foolish.’ But when David got up next morning, the following message had come from the Lord to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, ‘Go and say to David, “the Lord says this: I offer you three things; choose one of them for me to do to you.”’
So Gad went to David and told him. ‘Are three years of famine to come on you in your country’ he said ‘or will you flee for three months before your pursuing enemy, or would you rather have three days’ pestilence in your country? Now think, and decide how I am to answer him who sends me.’ David said to Gad, This is a hard choice. But let us rather fall into the power of the Lord, since his mercy is great, and not into the power of men.’ So David chose pestilence.
It was the time of the wheat harvest. The Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning till the time appointed and plague ravaged the people, and from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of them died. The angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, but the Lord thought better of this evil, and he said to the angel who was destroying the people, ‘Enough! Now withdraw your hand.’ The angel of the Lord was beside the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel who was ravaging the people, he spoke to the Lord. ‘It was I who sinned;’ he said ‘I who did this wicked thing. But these, this flock, what have they done? Let your hand lie heavy on me then, and on my family.’
Gad went to David that day and said, ‘Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ David paid fifty shekels in silver for the threshing-floor and oxen. David built an altar to the Lord there and offered holocausts and communion sacrifices. Then the Lord took pity on the country and the plague was turned away from Israel.
Responsory
Lord, remember your covenant and say to the destroying angel, Enough! Now withdraw your hand, lest the land be laid waste and all the people destroyed.
See, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Lord, I implore you to turn away your wrath from your people, lest the land be laid waste and all the people destroyed.
Reading
From the ancient document entitled "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles"
The Eucharist
Celebrate the Eucharist as follows: Say over the cup: “we give you thanks, Father, for the holy vine of David, your servant, which you made known to us through Jesus your servant. To you be glory for ever.”
Over the broken bread say: “we give you thanks, Father, for the life and the knowledge which you have revealed to us through Jesus your servant. To you be glory for ever. As this broken bread scattered on the mountains was gathered and became one, so too, may your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom. For glory and power are yours through Jesus Christ for ever.”
Do not let anyone eat or drink of your eucharist except those who have been baptised in the name of the Lord. For the statement of the Lord applies here also: Do not give to dogs what is holy.
When you finish the meal, offer thanks in this manner: “We thank you, holy Father, for your name which you enshrined in our hearts. We thank you for the knowledge and faith and immortality which you revealed to us through your servant Jesus. To you be glory for ever. Almighty ruler, you created all things for the sake of your name; you gave men food and drink to enjoy so that they might give you thanks. Now you have favoured us through Jesus your servant with spiritual food and drink as well as with eternal life. Above all we thank you because you are mighty. To you be glory for ever.
“Remember, Lord, your Church and deliver her from all evil. Perfect her in your love; and, once she has been sanctified, gather her together from the four winds into the kingdom which you have prepared for her. For power and glory are yours for ever.
“May grace come and this world pass away! Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let him come. If anyone is not, let him repent. Maranatha. Amen.”
On the Lord’s day, when you have been gathered together, break bread and celebrate the Eucharist. But first confess your sins so that your offering may be pure. If anyone has a quarrel with his neighbour, that person should not join you until he has been reconciled. Your sacrifice must not be defiled. In this regard, the Lord has said: In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice. I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is great among the nations.
Responsory
Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share in the one bread. Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
O God, the world had fallen flat in the dust but your Son’s humility stood it upright once more.
Fill your faithful people with a holy joy:
take those whom you have torn away from slavery to sin
and make them rejoice eternally.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.
