PRAYER OF THE DAY

Act of Reparation From the Angel of Fatima

Most Holy Trinity,

Father,

Son and Holy Ghost,

adore You profoundly and I offer You the most precious Body,

Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ,

present in all the tabernacles of the world,

in reparation for the outrages,

sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended.

And by the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Reading

Jas 4:1-10

Beloved:

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?

Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?

You covet but do not possess.

You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;

you fight and wage war.

You do not possess because you do not ask.

You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly,

to spend it on your passions.

Adulterers!

Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world

makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks without meaning when it says,

The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy?

But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says:

God resists the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.

So submit yourselves 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 of two minds.

Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep.

Let your laughter be turned into mourning

and your joy into dejection.

Humble yourselves before the Lord

and he will exalt you.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 55:7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23

R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

And I say, "Had I but wings like a dove,

I would fly away and be at rest.

Far away I would flee;

I would lodge in the wilderness."

R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

"I would wait for him who saves me

from the violent storm and the tempest."

Engulf them, O Lord; divide their counsels.

R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

In the city I see violence and strife,

day and night they prowl about upon its walls.

R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

Cast your care upon the LORD,

and he will support you;

never will he permit the just man to be disturbed.

R. Throw your cares on the Lord, and he will support you.

Gospel

Mk 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,

but he did not wish anyone to know about it.

He was teaching his disciples and telling them,

"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men

and they will kill him,

and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise."

But they did not understand the saying,

and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,

he began to ask them,

"What were you arguing about on the way?"

But they remained silent.

For they had been discussing among themselves on the way

who was the greatest.

Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,

"If anyone wishes to be first,

he shall be the last of all and the servant of all."

Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,

and putting his arms around it, he said to them,

"Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;

and whoever receives me,

receives not me but the One who sent me."

SAINT OF THE DAY

February 21

St. Peter Damian (1007-1072)

Maybe because he was orphaned and had been treated shabbily by one of his brothers, Peter Damian was very good to the poor. It was the ordinary thing for him to have a poor person or two with him at table and he liked to minister personally to their needs.

Peter escaped poverty and the neglect of his own brother when his other brother, who was archpriest of Ravenna, took him under his wing. His brother sent him to good schools and Peter became a professor.

Already in those days Peter was very strict with himself. He wore a hair shirt under his clothes, fasted rigorously and spent many hours in prayer. Soon, he decided to leave his teaching and give himself completely to prayer with the Benedictines of the reform of St. Romuald at Fonte Avellana. They lived two monks to a hermitage. Peter was so eager to pray and slept so little that he soon suffered from severe insomnia. He found he had to use some prudence in taking care of himself. When he was not praying, he studied the Bible.

The abbot commanded that when he died Peter should succeed him. Abbot Peter founded five other hermitages. He encouraged his brothers in a life of prayer and solitude and wanted nothing more for himself. The Holy See periodically called on him, however, to be a peacemaker or troubleshooter, between two abbeys in dispute or a cleric or government official in some disagreement with Rome.

Finally, Pope Stephen IX made Peter the cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He worked hard to wipe out simony (the buying of church offices), and encouraged his priests to observe celibacy and urged even the diocesan clergy to live together and maintain scheduled prayer and religious observance. He wished to restore primitive discipline among religious and priests, warning against needless travel, violations of poverty and too comfortable living. He even wrote to the bishop of Besancon, complaining that the canons there sat down when they were singing the psalms in the Divine Office.

He wrote many letters. Some 170 are extant. We also have 53 of his sermons and seven lives, or biographies, that he wrote. He preferred examples and stories rather than theory in his writings. The liturgical offices he wrote are evidence of his talent as a stylist in Latin.

He asked often to be allowed to retire as cardinal-bishop of Ostia, and finally Alexander II consented. Peter was happy to become once again just a monk, but he was still called to serve as a papal legate. When returning from such an assignment in Ravenna, he was overcome by a fever. With the monks gathered around him saying the Divine Office, he died on February 22, 1072.

In 1828 he was declared a Doctor of the Church.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips.

And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 94 (95)

Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

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.”

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

“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.”

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the great King.

Hymn

O light of light, O Dayspring bright,

Co-equal in thy Father’s light:

Assist us, as with prayer and psalm

Thy servants break the nightly calm.

All darkness from our minds dispel,

And turn to flight the hosts of hell:

Bid sleepfulness our eyelids fly,

Lest overwhelmed in sloth we lie.

Jesu, thy pardon, kind and free,

Bestow on us who trust in thee:

And as thy praises we declare,

O with acceptance hear our prayer.

O Father, that we ask be done,

Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son,

Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee,

Doth live and reign eternally.

Psalm 67 (68)

The Lord's triumphal journey

Let God arise, let those who hate him flee before him.

God arises and his enemies are scattered:

those who hate him flee from his sight.

You blow them away like wisps of smoke;

as wax melts in front of a fire,

so the wicked melt away before God.

The righteous are glad and exult in God’s sight;

they rejoice in their gladness.

Sing to the Lord and celebrate his name!

Make a road for him who rides upon the clouds –

“The Lord” is his name.

Rejoice in his sight,

the father of orphans, defender of widows,

God in his holy dwelling-place,

God, who gives the lonely a house to dwell in,

God, who leads captives out into prosperity;

but the rebellious shall live in a desert land.

God, when you set out in the sight of your people,

when you crossed the wilderness – the earth shook.

The heavens sent down dew at your coming –

the God of Sinai, the God of Israel.

At your bidding the rains came, O God,

your inheritance was worn out but you refreshed it.

All your creatures took up residence there,

in your goodness you made a place for the needy.

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 God arise, let those who hate him flee before him.

Psalm 67 (68)

This God of ours is a God who saves. 

The Lord holds the keys of death.

The Lord gives out the word,

and a great army of maidens brings the news:

“The kings of the armies are fleeing, they are fleeing,

and the fair one at home is dividing the spoils.

While you sleep among the sheepfolds,

the wings of the dove shine with silver,

her feathers glow with green gold.

Through her the Almighty scatters the kings,

and the mountain of Zalmon is white with snow.

The mountain of Bashan is God’s mountain;

the mountain of God is a high-peaked mountain.

Why do you envy it, you high-peaked mountains,

envy the mountain that God has chosen?

The Lord will dwell there for ever.

The chariots of God are ten thousand thousand:

the Lord has come from Sinai to his holy sanctuary.

You have scaled the heights, you have taken captives,

you have received men as gifts

so that even the rebels live with the Lord God.

Blessings on the Lord, day after day!

God will carry us, God our saviour.

Our God is a God of salvation,

our Lord is a Lord who rescues from death.

Truly God will break the heads of his enemies,

take the scalps of those who tread the path of crime.

The Lord has spoken:

“I shall bring them back from Bashan,

I shall bring them back from the depths of the sea,

so that your feet may be dipped in blood

and the tongues of your dogs receive food from your enemies.”

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.

This God of ours is a God who saves. 

The Lord holds the keys of death.

Psalm 67 (68)

Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, praise the Lord.

They have seen your processions, O God,

the processions of God, my king, to his sanctuary.

First came the singers, last the musicians,

between them the maidens playing their drums.

“Bless God in the assemblies:

bless the Lord, you who spring from Israel!”

There was young Benjamin, leading them,

the princes of Judah in their rich robes,

the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

O God, command in your strength;

make firm what you have achieved in us.

From your temple in Jerusalem,

kings shall bring you tribute.

Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds,

the herd of bulls, the lords of peoples.

Let them lie prostrate before you with tribute of silver.

Scatter the peoples that delight in war.

Nobles will come from Egypt,

Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.

Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;

celebrate the Lord.

Sing to God who rides on the highest heavens,

at the origin of all things.

Listen! – he speaks, a voice of power.

Acknowledge the strength of the Lord:

his majesty is over Israel,

his strength is in the clouds.

God inspires awe in his holy place;

he, the God of Israel, gives power to his people;

he gives them strength.

Blessed be 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.

Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, praise the Lord.

I will hear whatever the Lord God has to say:

– words of peace for his people.

Reading

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

There is a season for everything,

a time for every occupation under heaven:

A time for giving birth,

a time for dying;

a time for planting,

a time for uprooting what has been planted.

A time for killing,

a time for healing;

a time for knocking down,

a time for building.

A time for tears,

a time for laughter;

a time for mourning,

a time for dancing.

A time for throwing stones away,

a time for gathering them up;

a time for embracing,

a time to refrain from embracing.

A time for searching,

a time for losing;

a time for keeping,

a time for throwing away.

A time for tearing,

a time for sewing;

a time for keeping silent,

a time for speaking.

A time for loving,

a time for hating;

a time for war,

a time for peace.

What does a man gain for the efforts that he makes? I contemplate the task that God gives mankind to labour at. All that he does is apt for its time; but though he has permitted man to consider time in its wholeness, man cannot comprehend the work of God from beginning to end.

I know there is no happiness for man except in pleasure and enjoyment while he lives. And when man eats and drinks and finds happiness in his work, this is a gift from God.

I know that what God does he does consistently. To this nothing can be added, from this nothing taken away; yet God sees to it that men fear him. What is, already was; what is to be, has been already; yet God cares for the persecuted. But I still observe that under the sun crime is where law should be, the criminal where the good should be. ‘God’ I thought to myself ‘will judge both virtuous and criminal, because there is a time here for all that is purposed or done.’ I also thought that mankind behaves like this so that God may show them up for what they are, and expose them for the brute beasts they are to each other. Indeed, the fate of man and beast is identical; one dies, the other too, and both have the selfsame breath; man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity. Both go to the same place; both originate from the dust and to the dust both return. Who knows if the spirit of man mounts upward or if the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?

I see there is no happiness for man but to be happy in his work, for this is the lot assigned him. Who then can bring him to see what is to happen after his time?

Responsory

Our time is growing short:

those who have to deal with the world should not become engrossed in it.

I say this because the world as we know it is passing away.

There is a season for everything;

there is no activity,

here beneath the heavens,

but has its allotted time for beginning and coming to an end.

I say this because the world as we know it is passing away.

Reading

A sermon on Ecclesiastes by St Gregory of Nyssa

There is a time to be born and a time to die

There is a time to be born and a time to die. The fact that there is a natural link between birth and death is expressed very clearly in this text of Scripture. Death invariably follows birth, and everyone who is born comes at last to the grave.

There is a time to be born and a time to die. God grant that mine may be a timely birth and a timely death! Of course no one imagines that the Speaker regards as acts of virtue our natural birth and death, in neither of which our own will plays any part. A woman does not give birth because she chooses to do so; neither does anyone die as a result of his own decision. Obviously, there is neither virtue nor vice in anything that lies beyond our control. So we must consider what is meant by a timely birth and a timely death.

It seems to me that the birth referred to here is our salvation, as is suggested by the prophet Isaiah. This reaches its full term and is not stillborn when, having been conceived by the fear of God, the soul’s own birth pangs bring it to the light of day. We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good. Such a choice becomes possible for us when we have received God into ourselves and have become children of God, children of the Most High. On the other hand, if what the Apostle calls the form of Christ has not been produced in us, we abort ourselves. The man of God must reach maturity.

Now if the meaning of a timely birth is clear, so also is the meaning of a timely death. For Saint Paul every moment was a time to die, as he proclaims in his letters: I swear by the pride I take in you that I face death every day. Elsewhere he says, For your sake we are put to death daily and we felt like men condemned to death.

How Paul died daily is perfectly obvious. He never gave himself up to a sinful life but kept his body under constant control. He carried death with him, Christ’s death, wherever he went. He was always being crucified with Christ. It was not his own life he lived; it was Christ who lived in him. This surely was a timely death-a death whose end was true life.

I put to death and I shall give life, God says, teaching us that death to sin and life in the Spirit is his gift, and promising that whatever he puts to death he will restore to life again.

Responsory

It is I who deal death and life;

when I have struck it is I who heal;

and none can deliver from my hand.

I hold the keys of death and the underworld,

and none can deliver from my hand.

Let us pray.

Grant, almighty God,

that with our thoughts always on the things of the Spirit

we may please you in all that we say and do.

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.

Let us bless the Lord.

– Thanks be to God.