SAINT OF THE DAY

PRAYER OF PEACE

By Saint John of the Cross

O blessed Jesus,

give me stillness of soul in You.

Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.

Rule me, O King of Gentleness,

King of Peace.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, 

priest and doctor of the Church

Reading

Is 48:17-19

Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel:

I, the LORD, your God,

teach you what is for your good,

and lead you on the way you should go.

If you would hearken to my commandments,

your prosperity would be like a river,

and your vindication like the waves of the sea;

Your descendants would be like the sand,

and those born of your stock like its grains,

Their name never cut off

or blotted out from my presence.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 And 6

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Blessed the man who follows not

the counsel of the wicked

Nor walks in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the company of the insolent,

But delights in the law of the LORD

and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

He is like a tree

planted near running water,

That yields its fruit in due season,

and whose leaves never fade.

Whatever he does, prospers.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Not so the wicked, not so;

they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

For the LORD watches over the way of the just,

but the way of the wicked vanishes.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Gospel

Mt 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds:

"To what shall I compare this generation?

It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,

'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,

we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.'

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,

'He is possessed by a demon.'

The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,

'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,

a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'

But wisdom is vindicated by her works."

SAINT OF THE DAY

December 14

St. John of the Cross (1541-1591)

John is a saint because his life was a heroic effort to live up to his name: “of the Cross.” The folly of the cross came to full realization in time. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34b) is the story of John’s life. 
The Paschal Mystery—through death to life—strongly marks John as reformer, mystic-poet and theologian-priest.

Ordained a Carmelite priest at 25 (1567), John met Teresa of Jesus (Avila--October 15) and like her vowed himself to the primitive Rule of the Carmelites. As partner with Teresa and in his own right, John engaged in the work of reform, and came to experience the price of reform: increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, imprisonment. He came to know the cross acutely—to experience the dying of Jesus—
as he sat month after month in his dark, damp, narrow cell with only his God!

Yet, the paradox! In this dying of imprisonment John came to life, uttering poetry. In the darkness of the dungeon, John’s spirit came into the Light. There are many mystics, many poets; John is unique as mystic-poet, expressing in his prison-
cross the ecstasy of mystical union with God in the Spiritual Canticle.

But as agony leads to ecstasy, so John had his Ascent to Mt. Carmel, as he named it in his prose masterpiece. As man-Christian-Carmelite, he experienced in himself this purifying ascent; as spiritual director, he sensed it in others; as psychologist-theologian, he described and analyzed it in his prose writings. His prose works are outstanding in underscoring the cost of discipleship, the path of union with God: rigorous discipline, abandonment, purification. Uniquely and strongly John underlines the gospel paradox: The cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial to self to union with God. If you want to save your life, you must lose it. John is truly “of the Cross.” 
He died at 49—a life short, but full.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips.

And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 66 (67)

Come, let us worship the Lord, the fountain of wisdom.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the fountain of wisdom.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the fountain of wisdom.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the fountain of wisdom.

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.

– Come, let us worship the Lord, the fountain of wisdom.

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 fountain of wisdom.

Hymn

The Advent of our God

With eager prayers we greet

And singing haste up on the road

His glorious gift to meet.

The everlasting Son

Scorns not a Virgin’s womb;

That we from bondage may be won

He bears a bondsman’s doom.

Daughter of Zion, rise

To meet thy lowly King;

Let not thy stubborn heart despise

The peace he deigns to bring.

In clouds of awful light,

As Judge he comes again,

His scattered people to unite,

With them in heaven to reign.

Let evil flee away

Ere that dread hour shall dawn.

Let this old Adam day by day

God’s image still put on.

Praise to the Incarnate Son,

Who comes to set us free,

With God the Father, ever One,

To all eternity.

Psalm 37 (38)

The plea of a sinner in great peril

Do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.

Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath,

do not ruin me in your anger:

for I am pierced by your arrows

and crushed beneath your hand.

In the face of your anger

there is no health in my body.

There is no peace for my bones,

no rest from my sins.

My transgressions rise higher than my head:

a heavy burden, they weigh me down.

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.

Do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.

Psalm 37 (38)

O Lord, you know all my longing.

My wounds are corruption and decay

because of my foolishness.

I am bowed down and bent,

bent under grief all day long.

For a fire burns up my loins,

and there is no health in my body.

I am afflicted, utterly cast down,

I cry out from the sadness of my heart.

Lord, all that I desire is known to you;

my sighs are not hidden from you.

My heart grows weak, my strength leaves me,

and the light of my eyes – even that has gone.

My friends and my neighbours

keep far from my wounds.

Those closest to me keep far away,

while those who would kill me set traps,

those who would harm me make their plots:

they plan mischief all through the day.

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.

O Lord, you know all my longing.

Psalm 37 (38)

I confess my guilt to you, Lord;

do not forsake me, my savior.

But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;

like one who is dumb, I do not open my mouth.

I am like someone who cannot hear,

in whose mouth there is no reply.

For in you, Lord, I put my trust:

you will listen to me, Lord, my God.

For I have said, “Let them never triumph over me:

if my feet stumble, they will gloat.”

For I am ready to fall:

my suffering is before me always.

For I shall proclaim my wrongdoing:

I am anxious because of my sins.

All the time my enemies live and grow stronger;

they are so many, those who hate me without cause.

Returning evil for good they dragged me down,

because I followed the way of goodness.

Do not abandon me, Lord:

my God, do not leave me.

Hurry to my aid,

O Lord, my savior.

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.

I confess my guilt to you, Lord;

do not forsake me, my savior.

Lord, let your loving kindness be upon me:

– your salvation, as you have promised.

Reading

Isaiah 27:1-13

That day,

sing of the delightful vineyard!

I, the Lord, am its keeper;

every moment I water it

for fear its leaves should fall;

night and day I watch over it.

I am angry no longer.

If thorns and briars come

I will declare war on them,

I will burn them every one.

Or if they would shelter under my protection,

let them make their peace with me,

let them make their peace with me.

In the days to come, Jacob will put out shoots,

Israel will bud and blossom

and fill the whole world with fruit.

Has he beaten her as he beat those who beat her?

Has he murdered her as he murdered those who murdered her?

You have punished it with expulsion and exile;

he pursued it with a blast as fierce as the wind from the east.

Now here is how Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for,

here is the ransom for its sin:

he treats all the altar stones

like lumps of chalk that are ground to powder.

Sacred poles and solar pillars stand no longer,

for the fortified city is abandoned now,

it lies deserted,

forsaken as a wilderness.

There the herd grazes,

there it rests and browses on the branches.

The boughs are dry and broken,

women come and use them for firewood;

for this is a nation without understanding

and so its Maker will have no pity for it,

he that shaped it will show it no favour.

That day, the Lord will start his threshing

from the course of the River to the wadi of Egypt,

and you will be gathered one by one,

sons of Israel.

That day, the great trumpet will be sounded,

and those lost in the land of Assyria will come,

and those exiled to the land of Egypt,

and they will worship the Lord

on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.

Responsory

The Lord will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call,

and the angels will gather his elect from the four winds,

from one end of heaven to the other.

They will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem,

and the angels will gather his elect from the four winds,

from one end of heaven to the other.

Reading

A Spiritual Canticle of St John of the Cross

Recognising the mystery hidden within Christ Jesus

Though holy doctors have uncovered many mysteries and wonders, and devout souls have understood them in this earthly condition of ours, 

yet the greater part still remains to be unfolded by them, and even to be understood by them.

We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: 

however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.

For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ: In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The soul cannot enter into these treasures, nor attain them, unless it first crosses into and enters the thicket of suffering, enduring interior and exterior labours, 

and unless it first receives from God very many blessings in the intellect and in the senses, and has undergone long spiritual training.

All these are lesser things, disposing the soul for the lofty sanctuary of the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ: 

this is the highest wisdom attainable in this life.

Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. 

The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross.

Saint Paul therefore urges the Ephesians not to grow weary in the midst of tribulations, but to be steadfast and rooted and grounded in love, so that they may know with all the saints the breadth, the length, the height and the depth – to know what is beyond knowledge, the love of Christ, 

so as to be filled with all the fullness of God.

The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdom is the cross; because it is a narrow gate, 

while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it.

Responsory

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, things beyond our imagining –

all that God has prepared for those who love him:

these are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

The Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God:

these are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

Let us pray.

Lord God, you gave Saint John of the Cross

the grace of complete self-denial

and an ardent love for the cross of Christ.

Grant that by following always in his footsteps

we may come to the eternal vision of your glory.

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 bless the Lord.

– Thanks be to God.