PRAYER OF THE DAY

The Litany of St. Boniface

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us, Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.

God, the Holy Ghost, Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Pray for us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us.

Holy Virgin of virgins, Pray for us.

Queen of the Apostles, Pray for us.

Saint Boniface, Pray for us.

Apostle of Germany, Pray for us.

Worthy successor of the Apostles, Pray for us.

Worthy disciple of Saint Benedict, Pray for us.

Ornament of the Catholic Church, Pray for us.

Thou light, shining for the conversion of pagan nations, Pray for us.

Thou light, shining like the sun, Pray for us.

Thou great benefactor of many nations, Pray for us.

Thou zealous preacher of the Gospel, Pray for us.

Thou unwearied laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, Pray for us.

Thou founder of the Catholic Church in Germany, Pray for us.

Saint Boniface, our Father, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, teacher of truth and virtue, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, extirpator of heathenism, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, destroyer of heresy, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, great bishop and model of missionaries, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, protector of missions, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, founder of many monasteries, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, powerful advocate with God, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, who didst work many miracles, Pray for us.

St. Boniface, great Martyr of faith, Pray for us.

That God may preserve and confirm us in our holy Catholic religion, Pray for us.

That God may grant us the grace to walk piously and faithfully before Him, Pray for us.

That God may humble the enemies of His Church, Pray for us.

That God may grant the grace of True Faith to all heretics and infidels, Pray for us.

That God may give us that spirit with which thou didst serve Him, Pray for us.

That God may restore the Faith to the whole of Germany, Pray for us.

That God may raise up zealous missionaries to convert all pagans and heretics, Pray for us.

That the Holy Spirit may enlighten all missionaries, Pray for us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

(Our Father for the conversion of sinners)

Let Us Pray:

Merciful God, 
Who hast shown compassion to so many heathen nations through Thy faithful servant St. Boniface, 
we humbly pray Thee to revive and preserve that Faith which he preached in Thy holy Name, 
that we may receive Thy revelation with a faithful heart, 
and so regulate our lives as to gain the Heavenly Kingdom, 
through Jesus Christ Our Lord. 

Amen.

Preserve and increase, 
we beseech Thee, 
O God, the faith of Thy children, 
and lead back to the True Fold all those who have been separated or have separated themselves from it, 
through Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Memorial of Saint Boniface,

Bishop and Martyr

Reading

TB 3:1-11A, 16-17A

Grief-stricken in spirit, I, Tobit, groaned and wept aloud.

Then with sobs I began to pray:

“You are righteous, O Lord,

and all your deeds are just;

All your ways are mercy and truth;

you are the judge of the world.

And now, O Lord, may you be mindful of me,

and look with favor upon me.

Punish me not for my sins,

nor for my inadvertent offenses,

nor for those of my ancestors.

“We sinned against you,

and disobeyed your commandments.

So you handed us over to plundering, exile, and death,

till you made us the talk and reproach of all the nations

among whom you had dispersed us.

“Yes, your judgments are many and true

in dealing with me as my sins

and those of my ancestors deserve.

For we have not kept your commandments,

nor have we trodden the paths of truth before you.

“So now, deal with me as you please,

and command my life breath to be taken from me,

that I may go from the face of the earth into dust.

It is better for me to die than to live,

because I have heard insulting calumnies,

and I am overwhelmed with grief.

“Lord, command me to be delivered from such anguish;

let me go to the everlasting abode;

Lord, refuse me not.

For it is better for me to die

than to endure so much misery in life,

and to hear these insults!”

On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media,

it so happened that Raguel’s daughter Sarah

also had to listen to abuse,

from one of her father’s maids.

For she had been married to seven husbands,

but the wicked demon Asmodeus killed them off

before they could have intercourse with her,

as it is prescribed for wives.

So the maid said to her:

“You are the one who strangles your husbands!

Look at you!

You have already been married seven times,

but you have had no joy with any one of your husbands.

Why do you beat us? Is it on account of your seven husbands,

Because they are dead?

May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

The girl was deeply saddened that day,

and she went into an upper chamber of her house,

where she planned to hang herself.

But she reconsidered, saying to herself:

“No! People would level this insult against my father:

‘You had only one beloved daughter,

but she hanged herself because of ill fortune!’

And thus would I cause my father in his old age

to go down to the nether world laden with sorrow.

It is far better for me not to hang myself,

but to beg the Lord to have me die,

so that I need no longer live to hear such insults.”

At that time, then, she spread out her hands,

and facing the window, poured out her prayer:

“Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God,

and blessed is your holy and honorable name.

Blessed are you in all your works for ever!”

At that very time,

the prayer of these two suppliants

was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God.

So Raphael was sent to heal them both:

to remove the cataracts from Tobit’s eyes,

so that he might again see God’s sunlight;

and to marry Raguel’s daughter Sarah to Tobit’s son Tobiah,

and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 25:2-3, 4-5AB, 6 AND 7BC, 8-9

R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

In you I trust; let me not be put to shame,

let not my enemies exult over me.

No one who waits for you shall be put to shame;

those shall be put to shame who heedlessly break faith.

R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;

teach me your paths,

Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my savior.

R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,

and your kindness are from of old.

In your kindness remember me,

because of your goodness, O LORD.

R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Good and upright is the LORD;

thus he shows sinners the way.

He guides the humble to justice,

he teaches the humble his way.

R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Gospel

MK 12:18-27

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,

came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying,

“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,

If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child,

his brother must take the wife

and raise up descendants for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers.

The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.

So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,

and the third likewise.

And the seven left no descendants.

Last of all the woman also died.

At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?

For all seven had been married to her.”

Jesus said to them,

“Are you not misled

because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

When they rise from the dead,

they neither marry nor are given in marriage,

but they are like the angels in heaven.

As for the dead being raised,

have you not read in the Book of Moses,

in the passage about the bush, how God told him,

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob?

He is not God of the dead but of the living.

You are greatly misled.”

SAINT OF THE DAY

June 5

St. Boniface (672?-754)

Boniface, known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the pope of Rome.

How absolutely necessary this orthodoxy and fidelity were is borne out by the conditions he found on his first missionary journey in 719 at the request of Pope Gregory II. Paganism was a way of life. What Christianity he did find had either lapsed into paganism or was mixed with error. The clergy were mainly responsible for these latter conditions since they were in many instances uneducated, 

lax and questionably obedient to their bishops. In particular instances their very ordination was questionable.

These are the conditions that Boniface was to report in 722 on his first return visit to Rome. The Holy Father instructed him to reform the German Church. The pope sent letters of recommendation to religious and civil leaders. Boniface later admitted that his work would have been unsuccessful, from a human viewpoint, without a letter of safe-conduct from Charles Martel, the powerful Frankish ruler, grandfather of Charlemagne. 

Boniface was finally made a regional bishop and authorized to organize the whole German Church. 

He was eminently successful.

In the Frankish kingdom, he met great problems because of lay interference in bishops’ elections, 

the worldliness of the clergy and lack of papal control.

During a final mission to the Frisians, he and 53 companions were massacred while he was preparing converts for Confirmation.

In order to restore the Germanic Church to its fidelity to Rome and to convert the pagans, he had been guided by two principles. The first was to restore the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope of Rome. The second was the establishment of many houses of prayer which took the form of Benedictine monasteries. A great number of Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns followed him to the continent. 

He introduced Benedictine nuns to the active apostolate of education.

OFFICE OF READINGS

Lord, open our lips.

And we shall praise your name.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 94 (95)

The Lord is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

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.

The Lord is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

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.

The Lord is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

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.

The Lord is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

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.”

The Lord is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

“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.”

The Lord is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

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 is the king of martyrs:

come, let us adore him.

Hymn

Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal

Bright as fire in darkness,

Sharper than a sword,

Lives throughout the ages

God’s eternal word.

Father, Son and Spirit,

Trinity of might,

Compassed in your glory,

Give the world your light.

Psalm 17 (18)

Thanksgiving for salvation and victory

I love you, Lord, my strength.

I will love you, Lord, my strength:

Lord, you are my foundation and my refuge,

you set me free.

My God is my help: I will put my hope in him,

my protector, my sign of salvation,

the one who raises me up.

I will call on the Lord – praise be to his name –

and I will be saved from my enemies.

The waves of death flooded round me,

the torrents of Belial tossed me about,

the cords of the underworld wound round me,

death’s traps opened before me.

In my distress I called on the Lord,

I cried out to my God:

from his temple he heard my voice,

my cry to him came to his ears.

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 love you, Lord, my strength.

Psalm 17 (18)

The Lord saved me because he loved me.

The earth moved and shook,

at the coming of his anger the roots of the mountains rocked

and were shaken.

Smoke rose from his nostrils,

consuming fire came from his mouth,

from it came forth flaming coals.

He bowed down the heavens and descended,

storm clouds were at his feet.

He rode on the cherubim and flew,

he travelled on the wings of the wind.

He made dark clouds his covering;

his dwelling-place, dark waters and clouds of the air.

The cloud-masses were split by his lightnings,

hail fell, hail and coals of fire.

The Lord thundered from the heavens,

the Most High let his voice be heard,

with hail and coals of fire.

He shot his arrows and scattered them,

hurled thunderbolts and threw them into confusion.

The depths of the oceans were laid bare,

the foundations of the globe were revealed,

at the sound of your anger, O Lord,

at the onset of the gale of your wrath.

He reached from on high and took me up,

he lifted me from the many waters.

He snatched me from my powerful enemies,

from those who hate me, for they were too strong for me.

They attacked me in my time of trouble,

but the Lord was my support.

He led me to the open spaces,

he was my deliverance, for he held me in favor.

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 saved me because he loved me.

Psalm 17 (18)

You, O Lord, are my lamp,

my God who lightens my darkness.

The Lord rewards me according to my uprightness,

he repays me according to the purity of my hands,

for I have kept to the paths of the Lord

and have not departed wickedly from my God.

For I keep all his decrees in my sight,

and I will not reject his judgements;

I am stainless before him,

I have kept myself away from evil.

And so the Lord has rewarded me according to my uprightness,

according to the purity of my hands in his sight.

You will be holy with the holy,

kind with the kind,

with the chosen you will be chosen,

but with the crooked you will show your cunning.

For you will bring salvation to a lowly people

but make the proud ashamed.

For you light my lamp, O Lord;

my God brings light to my darkness.

For with you I will attack the enemy’s squadrons;

with my God I will leap over their wall.

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.

You, O Lord, are my lamp,

my God who lightens my darkness.

All were astonished by the gracious words

– that came from his lips.

First Reading

Job 32:1-6,33:1-22

These three men said no more to Job, because he was convinced of his innocence. But another man was infuriated – Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram. He fumed with rage against Job for thinking that he was right and God was wrong; and he was equally angry with the three friends for giving up the argument and thus admitting that God could be unjust. While they were speaking, Elihu had held himself back, because they were older than he was; but when he saw that the three men had not another word to say in answer, his anger burst out. 

Thus Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite spoke next. 

He said:

I am still young,

and you are old,

so I was shy, afraid,

to tell you what I know.

Now, Job, be kind enough to listen to my words,

and attend to all I have to say.

Now as I open my mouth,

and my tongue shapes words against my palate,

my heart shall utter sayings full of wisdom,

and my lips speak the honest truth.

Refute me, if you can.

Prepare your ground to oppose me.

See, I am your fellow man, not a god;

like you, I was fashioned out of clay.

God’s breath it was that made me,

the breathing of Shaddai that gave me life.

Thus, no fear of me need disturb you,

my hand will not lie heavy over you.

How could you say in my hearing –

for the sound of your words did not escape me –

‘I am clean, and sinless,

I am pure, free of all fault.

Yet he is inventing grievances against me,

and imagining me his enemy.

He puts me in the stocks,

he watches my every step’?

In saying so, I tell you, you are wrong:

God does not fit man’s measure.

Why do you rail at him

for not replying to you, word for word?

God speaks first in one way,

and then in another, but no one notices.

He speaks by dreams, and visions that come in the night,

when slumber comes on mankind,

and men are all asleep in bed.

Then it is he whispers in the ear of man,

or may frighten him with fearful sights,

to turn him away from evil-doing,

and make an end of his pride;

to save his soul from the pit

and his life from the pathway to Sheol.

With suffering, too, he corrects man on his sick-bed,

when his bones keep trembling with palsy;

when his whole self is revolted by food,

and his appetite spurns dainties;

when his flesh rots as you watch it,

and his bare bones begin to show;

when his soul is drawing near to the pit,

and his life to the dwelling of the dead.

Responsory

How rich are the depths of God,

how deep his wisdom and knowledge,

how inscrutable are his judgements!

Who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counsellor?

How inscrutable are his judgements!

Second Reading

A letter

by St Boniface

The careful shepherd watches over Christ's flock

In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. 

Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course.

The ancient fathers showed us how we should carry out this duty: Clement, Cornelius and many others in the city of Rome, Cyprian at Carthage, Athanasius at Alexandria. They all lived under emperors who were pagans; they all steered Christ’s ship – or rather his most dear spouse, the Church. This they did by teaching and defending her, by their labours and sufferings, even to the shedding of blood.

I am terrified when I think of all this. Fear and trembling came upon me and the darkness of my sins almost covered me. I would gladly give up the task of guiding the Church which I have accepted if I could find such an action warranted by the example of the fathers or by holy Scripture.

Since this is the case, and since the truth can be assaulted but never defeated or falsified, with our tired mind let us turn to the words of Solomon: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own prudence. Think on him in all your ways, and he will guide your steps. In another place he says: The name of the Lord is an impregnable tower. The just man seeks refuge in it and he will be saved.

Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God’s strengthening aid and say to him: 

O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations.

Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. 

For he is all-powerful and he tells us: 

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, 

let us die for the holy laws of our fathers, 

so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.

Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ’s flock. Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as Saint Gregory writes in his book of Pastoral Instruction.

Responsory

In our great longing for you,

we desired nothing better than to offer you our own lives,

as well as God’s gospel,

so greatly had we learned to love you.

My little children,

I am in travail over you afresh,

until I can see Christ’s image formed in you,

so greatly had we learned to love you.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, the martyr Saint Boniface

sealed with his blood the faith he preached.

Let him pray

that we may hold fast to the faith

and profess it courageously in our lives.

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.