PRAYER OF THE DAY

Mary Most Sorrowful

Mary most sorrowful, Mother of Christians, pray for us.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Reading

1 Tm 1:15-17

Beloved:

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance:

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Of these I am the foremost.

But for that reason I was mercifully treated,

so that in me, as the foremost,

Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example

for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.

To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,

honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 113:1b-2, 3-4, 5 And 6-7

R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.

Praise, you servants of the LORD,

praise the name of the LORD.

Blessed be the name of the LORD

both now and forever.

R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.

From the rising to the setting of the sun

is the name of the LORD to be praised.

High above all nations is the LORD;

above the heavens is his glory.

R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.

Who is like the LORD, our God,

and looks upon the heavens and the earth below?

He raises up the lowly from the dust;

from the dunghill he lifts up the poor.

R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.

Gospel

Lk 6:43-49

Jesus said to his disciples:

"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,

nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.

For every tree is known by its own fruit.

For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,

nor do they gather grapes from brambles.

A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,

but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;

for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

"Why do you call me, "Lord, Lord," but not do what I command?

I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,

listens to my words, and acts on them.

That one is like a man building a house,

who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;

when the flood came, the river burst against that house

but could not shake it because it had been well built.

But the one who listens and does not act

is like a person who built a house on the ground

without a foundation.

When the river burst against it,

it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed."

SAINT OF THE DAY

September 10

Pedro de Corpa and Companions (d. 1597)

These five friars were martyred in Georgia for their insistence on monogamy in Christian marriages.

In 1565 the Spanish established a fort and a settlement at St. Augustine, Florida. Pedro de Corpa came from Spain to Florida in 1587 and in the same year went to the missions among the Guale people in Georgia.

Pedro worked in Tolomato (near present Darien) where he converted a number of Guales and assisted their chief in running this Christian village. Juanillo, the chief’s son, lapsed into polygamy and was urged to give this up. He refused and was publicly denounced and deprived of the right to succeed his father. Juanillo left, but only to gather some friends to help him seek vengeance on the friars. They killed Father Pedro several days later on September 13, 1597.

Father Blas de Rodriguez had come to Florida from Spain in 1580. He was the superior of the five martyred friars. Juanillo and his followers killed Blas on September 16 at the village of Tupiqui (near present Eulonia).

Father Miguel de Anon had come to Georgia in 1595; Brother Antonio de Badajoz in 1587. They were working together on St. Catherine’s Island when Juanillo and his followers killed them on September 17.

Father Francisco de Berascola had come to Georgia in 1595 and founded the Misión Santo Domingo de Asao on St. Simon’s Island. He was martyred by Juanillo’s forces around September 18.

In 1605 the Guale missions were reestablished. They again began to prosper until English colonists arrived and destroyed all of them by 1702.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips.

  And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

---

Invitatory Psalm	Psalm 66 (67)

The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

O God, take pity on us and bless us,

  and let your face shine upon us,

so that your ways may be known across the world,

  and all nations learn of your salvation.

– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

Let the peoples praise you, O God,

  let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and rejoice,

  for you judge the peoples with fairness

  and you guide the nations of the earth.

– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

Let the peoples praise you, O God,

  let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has produced its harvest:

  may God, our God, bless us.

May God bless us,

  may the whole world revere him.

– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

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’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

Hymn

Great God of boundless mercy, hear!

Thou Ruler of this earthly sphere;

In substance one, in Persons three,

Dread Trinity in Unity!

Do thou in love accept our lays

Of mingled penitence and praise;

And set our hearts from error free,

More fully to rejoice in thee.

Our reins and hearts in pity heal,

And with thy chastening fires anneal;

Gird thou our loins, each passion quell,

And every harmful lust expel.

Now as our anthems, upward borne,

Awake the silence of the morn,

Enrich us with thy gifts of grace,

From heaven, thy blissful dwelling place!

Hear thou our prayer, almighty King;

Hear thou our praises, while we sing,

Adoring with the heavenly host

The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

---

Psalm 106 (107) Thanksgiving after rescue

Let them thank the Lord for his love, for the wonders he does for men.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

  for his kindness is for ever.

Let them say this, the people the Lord has redeemed,

  those whom he rescued from their enemies

  whom he gathered together from all lands,

  from east and west, from the north and the south.

They wandered through desert and wilderness,

  they could find no way to a city they could dwell in.

Their souls were weary within them,

  weary from hunger and thirst.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He set them on the right path

  towards a city they could dwell in.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

the Lord, who feeds hungry creatures

  and gives water to the thirsty to drink.

They sat in the darkness and shadow of death,

  imprisoned in chains and in misery,

because they had rebelled against the words of God

  and spurned the counsels of the Most High.

He wore out their hearts with labour:

  they were weak, there was no-one to help.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He led them out of the darkness and shadow of death,

  he shattered their chains.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

the Lord, who shatters doors of bronze,

  who breaks bars of iron.

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 them thank the Lord for his love, for the wonders he does for men.

---

Psalm 106 (107)

They have seen the Lord’s deeds and the wonders he does.

The people were sick because they transgressed,

  afflicted because of their sins.

All food was distasteful to them,

  they were on the verge of death.

They cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He sent forth his word and healed them,

  delivered them from their ruin.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

Let them offer a sacrifice of praise

  and proclaim his works with rejoicing.

Those who go down to the sea in ships,

  those who trade across the great waters –

they have seen the works of the Lord,

  the wonders he performs in the deep.

He spoke, and a storm arose,

  and the waves of the sea rose up.

They rose up as far as the heavens

  and descended down to the depths:

the sailors’ hearts melted from fear,

  they staggered and reeled like drunkards,

  terror drove them out of their minds.

But they cried to the Lord in their trouble

  and he rescued them from their distress.

He turned the storm into a breeze

  and silenced the waves.

They rejoiced at the ending of the storm

  and he led them to the port that they wanted.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,

  for the wonders he works for men:

let them exalt him in the assembly of the people,

  give him praise in the council of the elders.

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.

They have seen the Lord’s deeds and the wonders he does.

---

Psalm 106 (107)

The upright see and rejoice; they consider the love of the Lord.

The Lord has turned rivers into wilderness,

  he has made well-watered lands into desert,

  fruitful ground into salty waste

  because of the evil of those who dwelt there.

But he has made wilderness into ponds,

  deserts into the sources of rivers,

he has called together the hungry

  and they have founded a city to dwell in.

They have sowed the fields, planted the vines;

  they grow and harvest their produce.

He has blessed them and they have multiplied;

  he does not let their cattle decrease.

But those others became few and oppressed

  through trouble, evil, and sorrow.

He poured his contempt on their princes

  and set them to wander the trackless waste.

But the poor he has saved from their poverty

  and their families grow numerous as sheep.

The upright shall see, and be glad,

  and all wickedness shall block up its mouth.

Whoever is wise will remember these things

  and understand the mercies of the Lord.

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 upright see and rejoice; they consider the love of the Lord.

---

Lord, your faithfulness reaches up to the clouds.

– Your judgements reach down to the depths.

---

Reading	Lamentations 5:1-22

O Lord, remember what has happened to us;

  look on us and see our degradation.

Our inheritance has passed to aliens,

  our homes to barbarians.

We are orphans, we are fatherless;

  our mothers are like widows.

We drink our own water – at a price;

  we have to pay for what is our own firewood.

The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted;

  we are worked to death; no relief for us.

We hold out our hands to Egypt,

  or to Assyria, just to get enough bread.

Our fathers have sinned; they are no more,

  and we ourselves bear the weight of their crimes.

Slaves rule us;

  no one rescues us from them.

At peril of our lives we earn our bread,

  by risking the sword of the desert.

Our skin is as hot as the oven,

  such is the fever of famine.

They have raped the women in Zion,

  the virgins in the towns of Judah.

Princes have been hanged at their hands;

  the face of the old has not been respected.

Youths have toiled at the mill;

  boys have collapsed under loads of wood.

The elders have deserted the gateway;

  the young men have given up their music.

Joy has vanished from our hearts;

  our dancing has been turned to mourning.

The garland has fallen from our heads.

  Woe to us, because we have sinned!

This is why our hearts are sick;

  this is why our eyes are dim:

because Mount Zion is desolate;

  jackals roam to and fro on it.

But you, O Lord, you remain for ever;

  your throne endures from age to age.

You cannot mean to forget us for ever?

  You cannot mean to abandon us for good?

Make us come back to you, O Lord, and we will come back.

  Renew our days as in times past,

unless you have utterly rejected us,

  in an anger that knows no limit.

Responsory

Lord, you abide for ever, but will you forget us for ever? Call us back to you, and we shall return.

Lord, save us, or we perish. Call us back to you, and we shall return.

---

Reading	An oration by St Athanasius on the incarnation of the Word

Make our lives new as they were at the beginning

God the Word of the great and good Father did not abandon human nature as it was falling into corruption and decay. By offering his own body he wiped out the death towards which mankind was heading. By his teaching he healed their ignorance, and by his power and might he re-founded the whole of human nature.

  If you want confirmation of this, look to the authority of Christ’s own disciples and what they have written about God: The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them, our Lord Jesus Christ. And again: We see in Jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God’s grace he had to experience death for all mankind. Then he gives the reason why only God the Word could become man: It was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation. These words mean that the rescue of mankind from corruption and decay was the task of none other than God the Word, by whom they were originally created.

  The Word’s purpose behind taking on a body was that he should become a sacrifice for bodies of the same kind, as scripture says: Since all the children share the same blood and flesh, he too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could take away all the power of him who had power over death, and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. So by offering up his own body he brought an end to the law that had been condemning us, and by giving us the hope of resurrection he gave our lives a new beginning.

  It was through the act of man that death received power over man, and through the act of God the Word for man that death lost its power and the resurrection of life took its place. Thus Paul said: Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ... and so on. We no longer die to be condemned, we die to be raised up and await the resurrection of all, which God will bring about at a time of his choosing, the creator of all things and the giver of all gifts.

Responsory

All alike have sinned, all alike are unworthy of God’s praise. And justification comes to us as a free gift from his grace, through our redemption in Jesus Christ. God has offered him to us as a means of reconciliation, through our faith in him, ransoming us with blood.

Just as all have died with Adam, so all will be brought to life with Christ. God has offered him to us as a means of reconciliation, through our faith in him, ransoming us with blood.

---

Let us pray.

Since it is from you, God our Father,

  that redemption comes to us, your adopted children,

look with favour on the family you love,

  give true freedom to us and to all who believe in Christ,

  and bring us all alike to our eternal heritage.

We make our prayer 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.

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Let us bless the Lord.

– Thanks be to God.