PRAYER OF THE DAY

The Litany of St. Benedict

Lord, have mercy on us, Christ, have mercy on us.

God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.

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

God, the Holy Spirit, 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.

Holy Father, Saint Benedict, Pray for us.

Father most reverend, Pray for us.

Father most renowned, Pray for us.

Father most compassionate, Pray for us.

Man of great fortitude, Pray for us.

Man of venerable life, Pray for us.

Man of the most holy conversation, Pray for us.

True servant of God, Pray for us.

Light of devotion, Pray for us.

Light of prayer, Pray for us.

Light of contemplation, Pray for us.

Star of the world, Pray for us.

Best master of an austere life, Pray for us.

Leader of the holy warfare, Pray for us.

Leader and chief of monks, Pray for us.

Master of those who die to the world, Pray for us.

Protector of those who cry to thee, Pray for us.

Wonderful worker of miracles, Pray for us.

Revealer of the secrets of the human heart, Pray for us.

Master of spiritual discipline, Pray for us.

Companion of the patriarchs, Pray for us.

Equal of the prophets, Pray for us.

Follower of the Apostles, Pray for us.

Teacher of Martyrs, Pray for us.

Father of many pontiffs, Pray for us.

Gem of abbots, Pray for us.

Glory of Confessors, Pray for us.

Imitator of anchorites, Pray for us.

Associate of virgins, Pray for us.

Colleague of all the Saints, 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.

V. Intercede for us, O holy father Saint Benedict,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray:

O God,

Who hast called us from the vanity of the world,

and Who dost incite us to the reward of a heavenly vocation

under the guidance of our holy patriarch and founder,

Saint Benedict,

inspire and purify our hearts and pour forth on us Thy grace,

whereby we may persevere in Thee.

Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Amen.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot

Reading

GN 44:18-21, 23B-29; 45:1-5

Judah approached Joseph and said: “I beg you, my lord,

let your servant speak earnestly to my lord,

and do not become angry with your servant,

for you are the equal of Pharaoh.

My lord asked your servants, ‘Have you a father, or another brother?’

So we said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father,

and a young brother, the child of his old age.

This one’s full brother is dead,

and since he is the only one by that mother who is left,

his father dotes on him.’

Then you told your servants,

‘Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.

Unless your youngest brother comes back with you,

you shall not come into my presence again.’

When we returned to your servant our father,

we reported to him the words of my lord.

“Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.

So we reminded him, ‘We cannot go down there;

only if our youngest brother is with us can we go,

for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.’

Then your servant our father said to us,

‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons.

One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude

that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts;

I have not seen him since.

If you now take this one away from me, too,

and some disaster befalls him,

you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.’“

Joseph could no longer control himself

in the presence of all his attendants,

so he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!”

Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.

But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him,

and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace.

“I am Joseph,” he said to his brothers.

“Is my father still in good health?”

But his brothers could give him no answer,

so dumbfounded were they at him.

“Come closer to me,” he told his brothers.

When they had done so, he said:

“I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.

But now do not be distressed,

and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here.

It was really for the sake of saving lives

that God sent me here ahead of you.”

Responsorial Psalm

PS 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

or:

R. Alleluia.

When the LORD called down a famine on the land

and ruined the crop that sustained them,

He sent a man before them,

Joseph, sold as a slave.

R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

or:

R. Alleluia.

They had weighed him down with fetters,

and he was bound with chains,

Till his prediction came to pass

and the word of the LORD proved him true.

R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The king sent and released him,

the ruler of the peoples set him free.

He made him lord of his house

and ruler of all his possessions.

R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Gospel

MT 10:7-15

Jesus said to his Apostles:

“As you go, make this proclamation:

‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Cure the sick, raise the dead,

cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.

Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;

no sack for the journey, or a second tunic,

or sandals, or walking stick.

The laborer deserves his keep.

Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it,

and stay there until you leave.

As you enter a house, wish it peace.

If the house is worthy,

let your peace come upon it;

if not, let your peace return to you.

Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—

go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.

Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment

than for that town.”

SAINT OF THE DAY

July 11

St. Benedict (480?-543)

It is unfortunate that no contemporary biography was written of a man who has exercised the greatest influence on monasticism in the West. Benedict is well recognized in the later Dialogues of St. Gregory, 

but these are sketches to illustrate miraculous elements of his career.

Benedict was born into a distinguished family in central Italy, studied at Rome and early in life was drawn to the monastic life. At first he became a hermit, leaving a depressing world—pagan armies on the march, 

the Church torn by schism, people suffering from war, morality at a low ebb.

He soon realized that he could not live a hidden life in a small town any better than in a large city, so he withdrew to a cave high in the mountains for three years. Some monks chose him as their leader for a while, but found his strictness not to their taste. Still, the shift from hermit to community life had begun for him. He had an idea of gathering various families of monks into one “Grand Monastery” to give them the benefit of unity, fraternity, permanent worship in one house. Finally he began to build what was to become one of the most famous monasteries in the world—

Monte Cassino, commanding three narrow valleys running toward the mountains north of Naples.

The Rule that gradually developed prescribed a life of liturgical prayer, study, manual labor and living together in community under a common father (abbot). Benedictine asceticism is known for its moderation, and Benedictine charity has always shown concern for the people in the surrounding countryside. In the course of the Middle Ages, 

all monasticism in the West was gradually brought under the Rule of St. Benedict.

Today the Benedictine family is represented by two branches: 

the Benedictine Federation and the Cistercians.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open our lips.

And we shall praise your name.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 94 (95)

How wonderful is God among his saints:

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.

How wonderful is God among his saints:

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.

How wonderful is God among his saints:

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.

How wonderful is God among his saints:

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.”

How wonderful is God among his saints:

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.”

How wonderful is God among his saints:

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.

How wonderful is God among his saints:

come, let us adore him.

Hymn

Where true love is dwelling, God is dwelling there:

Love’s own loving Presence love does ever share.

Love of Christ has made us out of many one;

In our midst is dwelling God’s eternal Son.

Give him joyful welcome, love him and revere:

Cherish one another with a love sincere.

Psalm 43 (44)

In time of defeat

It was you who saved us, Lord:

we will praise your name without ceasing.

Our own ears have heard, O God,

and our fathers have proclaimed it to us,

what you did in their days, the days of old:

how with your own hand you swept aside the nations

and put us in their place,

struck them down to make room for us.

It was not by their own swords that our fathers took over the land,

it was not their own strength that gave them victory;

but your hand and your strength,

the light of your face,

for you were pleased in them.

You are my God and my king,

who take care for the safety of Jacob.

Through you we cast down your enemies;

in your name we crushed those who rose against us.

I will not put my hopes in my bow,

my sword will not bring me to safety;

for it was you who saved us from our afflictions,

you who set confusion among those who hated us.

We will glory in the Lord all the day,

and proclaim your name for all ages.

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.

It was you who saved us, Lord:

we will praise your name without ceasing.

Psalm 43 (44)

Spare us, Lord, do not let your people be put to shame.

But now, God, you have spurned us and confounded us,

so that we must go into battle without you.

You have put us to flight in the sight of our enemies,

and those who hate us plunder us at will.

You have handed us over like sheep sold for food,

you have scattered us among the nations.

You have sold your people for no money,

not even profiting by the exchange.

You have made us the laughing-stock of our neighbours,

mocked and derided by those who surround us.

The nations have made us a by-word,

the peoples toss their heads in scorn.

All the day I am ashamed,

I blush with shame

as they reproach me and revile me,

my enemies and my persecutors.

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.

Spare us, Lord, do not let your people be put to shame.

Psalm 43 (44)

Arise, Lord!

Redeem us because of your love.

All this happened to us,

but not because we had forgotten you.

We were not disloyal to your covenant;

our hearts did not turn away;

our steps did not wander from your path;

and yet you brought us low,

with horrors all about us:

you overwhelmed us in the shadows of death.

If we had forgotten the name of our God,

if we had spread out our hands before an alien god —

would God not have known?

He knows what is hidden in our hearts.

It is for your sake that we face death all the day,

that we are reckoned as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, Lord, why do you sleep?

Rise up, do not always reject us.

Why do you turn away your face?

How can you forget our poverty and our tribulation?

Our souls are crushed into the dust,

our bodies dragged down to the earth.

Rise up, Lord, and help us.

In your mercy, redeem us.

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.

Arise, Lord!

Redeem us because of your love.

Lord, to whom shall we go?

– You have the words of eternal life.

First Reading

1 Chronicles 22:5-19

Then David said, ‘My son Solomon is young, of tender years, and the house to be built for the Lord must be of great splendour, renowned for its magnificence in every country. I will make preparations for him.’ And so, before he died, David made ample preparations. He then summoned his son Solomon and instructed him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. ‘My son,’ David said to Solomon ‘my heart was set on building a house for the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me, “You have shed much blood and fought great battles; it is not for you to build a house for my name, since you have shed so much blood on the earth in my presence. But now a son is born to you. He shall be a man of peace and I will give him peace from all the enemies that surround him; for Solomon is his name, and in his days I will give Israel peace and quiet. He shall build a house for my name; he shall be a son to me and I a father to him, and I will make his royal throne secure in Israel for ever.” Now, my son, may the Lord be with you and give you success in building a house for the Lord your God, as he has said concerning you. Yet may he give you discretion and discernment, may he give you his orders for Israel so that you may observe the Law of the Lord your God. Success will be yours if you carefully observe the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord has prescribed to Moses for Israel. Be strong and stand fast, be fearless, be dauntless. Poor as I am, I have set aside for the house of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver and more bronze and iron than can be weighed; I have stored up wood and stone too, to which you must add more. You will have many workmen, stonecutters, masons, carpenters, skilled artisans of every kind, while your gold and silver, bronze and iron, will be beyond reckoning. 

Set to work, then, and may the Lord be with you!’

David then ordered all the Israelite leaders to help his son Solomon. ‘Is not the Lord your God with you?’ he said. ‘He has given you peace on all sides, since he has put the inhabitants of the country into my power and the land has been subdued for the Lord and for his people. So now devote heart and soul to the search for the Lord your God. 

Set to and build the sanctuary of the Lord your God, 

so that you can bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy things of God to the house that is built for the name of the Lord.’

Responsory

Set your mind on building the sanctuary of the Lord God.

Let us go to his dwelling-place,

let us worship at his footstool.

Thus says the Lord:

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Let us go to his dwelling-place,

let us worship at his footstool.

Second Reading

From the Rule of Benedict, abbot

Put Christ before everything

Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection; that he, who has honoured us by counting us among his children, may never be grieved by our evil deeds. For we must always serve him with the good things he has given us in such a way that he may never 

– as an angry father disinherits his sons or even like a master who inspires fear 

– grow impatient with our sins and consign us to everlasting punishment, 

like wicked servants who would not follow him to glory.

So we should at long last rouse ourselves, prompted by the words of Scripture: Now is the time for us to rise from sleep. Our eyes should be open to the God-given light, and we should listen in wonderment to the message of the divine voice as it daily cries out: Today, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts; and again: If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And what does the Spirit say? Come my sons, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Hurry, while you have the light of life, so that death’s darkness may not overtake you.

And the Lord as he seeks the one who will do his work among the throng of people to whom he makes that appeal, says again: Which of you wants to live to the full; who loves long life and the enjoyment of prosperity? And, if when you hear this you say, I do, God says to you: If you desire true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit; turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. And when you have done these things my eyes will be upon you and my ears will be attentive to your prayers; and before you call upon my name I shall say to you: Behold, I am here. What could be more delightful, dearest brothers, than the voice of our Lord’s invitation to us? 

In his loving kindness he reveals to us the way of life.

And so, girded with faith and the performance of good works, let us follow in his paths by the guidance of the Gospel; then we shall deserve to see him who has called us into his kingdom. 

If we wish to attain a dwelling-place in his kingdom we shall not reach it unless we hasten there by our good deeds.

Just as there exists an evil fervour, a bitter spirit, which divides us from God and leads us to hell, so there is a good fervour which sets us apart from evil inclinations and leads us toward God and eternal life. Monks should put this fervour into practice with an overflowing love: that is, they should surpass each other in mutual esteem, accept their weaknesses, either of body or of behaviour, with the utmost patience; and vie with each other in acceding to requests. No one should follow what he considers to be good for himself, but rather what seems good for another. They should display brotherly love in a chaste manner; fear God in a spirit of love; 

revere their abbot with a genuine and submissive affection. 

Let them put Christ before all else; and may he lead us all to everlasting life.

Responsory

In his desire to please God alone,

blessed Benedict abandoned home and patrimony and sought the religious life;

he dwelt by himself, apart,

in the presence of the all-seeing God of heaven.

He left the world of men,

knowingly ignorant of its ways,

and wisely untrained in its wisdom;

he dwelt by himself, apart,

in the presence of the all-seeing God of heaven.

Let us pray.

Lord God, you appointed Saint Benedict

to be a wise master in the school of your service.

Give us grace to put your love before all else,

and so to run with joy in the way of your commandments.

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.