PRAYER OF THE DAY

Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

O Mary,

Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy,

Queen of Heaven and Refuge of sinners,

we consecrate ourselves to thine immaculate heart.

We consecrate to thee our very being and our whole life;

all that we have,

all that we love,

all that we are.

To thee we give

our bodies,

our hearts,

and our souls;

to thee we give our homes,

our families,

our country.

We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to thee,

and may share in the benefits of thy motherly benediction.

And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting,

we renew this day at thy feet the promises of our Baptism

and our first Holy Communion.

We pledge ourselves to profess courageously

and at all times the truths of our holy Faith,

and to live as befits Catholics who are duly submissive to all

the directions of the Pope and the Bishops in communions with him.

We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church,

in particular to keep holy the Lord's Day.

We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices

of the Christian religion,

and above all, Holy Communion,

an integral part of our lives,

insofar as we shall be able so to do.

Finally, we promise thee,

O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of men,

to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the service of thy blessed cult,

in order to hasten and assure,

through the sovereignty of thine immaculate heart,

the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of thine adorable Son,

in our own hearts and in those of all men,

in our country and in all the world,

as in heaven, so on earth.

Amen.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading

NM 13:1-2, 25–14:1, 26A-29A, 34-35

The LORD said to Moses [in the desert of Paran,]

“Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan,

which I am giving the children of Israel.

You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe,

all of them princes.”

After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned,

met Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the children of Israel

in the desert of Paran at Kadesh,

made a report to them all,

and showed the fruit of the country

to the whole congregation.

They told Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us.

It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.

However, the people who are living in the land are fierce,

and the towns are fortified and very strong.

Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there.

Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb;

Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites dwell in the highlands,

and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan.”

Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said,

“We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so.”

But the men who had gone up with him said,

“We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us.”

So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel

about the land they had scouted, saying,

“The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants.

And all the people we saw there are huge, veritable giants

(the Anakim were a race of giants);

we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”

At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries,

and even in the night the people wailed.

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

“How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me?

I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel against me.

Tell them: By my life, says the LORD,

I will do to you just what I have heard you say.

Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall.

Forty days you spent in scouting the land;

forty years shall you suffer for your crimes:

one year for each day.

Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me.

I, the LORD, have sworn to do this

to all this wicked assembly that conspired against me:

here in the desert they shall die to the last man.”

Responsorial Psalm

PS 106:6-7AB, 13-14, 21-22, 23

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

We have sinned, we and our fathers;

we have committed crimes; we have done wrong.

Our fathers in Egypt

considered not your wonders.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

But soon they forgot his works;

they waited not for his counsel.

They gave way to craving in the desert

and tempted God in the wilderness.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

They forgot the God who had saved them,

who had done great deeds in Egypt,

Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,

terrible things at the Red Sea.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Then he spoke of exterminating them,

but Moses, his chosen one,

Withstood him in the breach

to turn back his destructive wrath.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Gospel

MT 15: 21-28

At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,

“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!

My daughter is tormented by a demon.”

But he did not say a word in answer to her.

His disciples came and asked him,

“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

He said in reply,

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”

He said in reply,

“It is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs.”

She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps

that fall from the table of their masters.”

Then Jesus said to her in reply,

“O woman, great is your faith!

Let it be done for you as you wish.”

And her daughter was healed from that hour.

SAINT OF THE DAY

August 7

St. Cajetan (1480-1557)

Like most of us, Cajetan seemed headed for an “ordinary” life—first as a lawyer, 
then as a priest engaged in the work of the Roman Curia.

His life took a characteristic turn when he joined the Oratory of Divine Love in Rome, a group devoted to piety and charity, shortly after his ordination at 36. When he was 42 he founded a hospital for incurables at Venice. At Vicenza, he joined a “disreputable” religious community that consisted only of men of the lowest stations of life—and was roundly censured by his friends, who thought his action was a reflection on his family. 
He sought out the sick and poor of the town and served them.

The greatest need of the time was the reformation of a Church that was “sick in head and members.” Cajetan and three friends decided that the best road to reformation lay in reviving the spirit and zeal of the clergy. (One of them later became Paul IV.) Together they founded a congregation known as the Theatines (from Teate [Chieti] where their first superior-bishop had his see). They managed to escape to Venice after their house in Rome was wrecked when Emperor Charles V’s troops sacked Rome in 1527. The Theatines were outstanding among the Catholic reform movements that took shape before the Protestant Reformation. He founded a monte de pieta (“mountain [or fund] of piety”) in Naples—one of many charitable, nonprofit credit organizations that lent money on the security of pawned objects. 
The purpose was to help the poor and protect them against usurers. 
Cajetan’s little organization ultimately became the Bank of Naples, with great changes in policy.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open our lips.

And we shall praise your name.

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 99 (100)

Cry out with joy to God,

all the earth:

serve the Lord with gladness.

Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth,

and serve him with joy.

Exult as you enter his presence.

Cry out with joy to God,

all the earth:

serve the Lord with gladness.

Know that the Lord is God.

He made us and we are his

– his people, the sheep of his flock.

Cry out with joy to God,

all the earth:

serve the Lord with gladness.

Cry out his praises as you enter his gates,

fill his courtyards with songs.

Proclaim him and bless his name;

for the Lord is our delight.

His mercy lasts for ever,

his faithfulness through all the ages.

Cry out with joy to God,

all the earth:

serve the Lord with gladness.

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.

Cry out with joy to God,

all the earth:

serve the Lord with gladness.

Hymn

Ambrose of Milan

(tr. J.M. Neale)

O God, creation’s secret force,

yourself unmoved, all motion’s source,

who from the morn till evening ray

through all its changes guide the day:

Grant us, when this short life is past,

the glorious evening that shall last;

that, by a holy death attained,

eternal glory may be gained.

To God the Father, God the Son,

and God the Spirit, Three in One,

may every tongue and nation raise

an endless song of thankful praise!

Psalm 38 (39)

A prayer in sickness

We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.

I said, “I will watch my ways,

I will try not to sin in my speech.

I will set a guard on my mouth,

for as long as my enemies are standing against me.”

I stayed quiet and dumb, spoke neither evil nor good,

but my pain was renewed.

My heart grew hot within me,

and fire blazed in my thoughts.

Then I spoke out loud:

“Lord, make me know my end.

Let me know the number of my days,

so that I know how short my life is to be.”

All the length of my days is a handsbreadth or two,

the expanse of my life is as nothing before you.

For in your sight all men are nothingness:

man passes away, like a shadow.

Nothingness, although he is busy:

he builds up treasure, but who will collect it?

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.

We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.

Psalm 38 (39)

Lord, hear my prayer:

do not be deaf to my tears.

What, now, can I look forward to, Lord?

My hope is in you.

Rescue me from all my sins,

do not make me a thing for fools to laugh at.

I have sworn to be dumb, I will not open my mouth:

for it is at your hands that I am suffering.

Aim your blows away from me,

for I am crushed by the weight of your hand.

You rebuke and chastise us for our sins.

Like the moth you consume all we desire

– for all men are nothingness.

Listen, Lord, to my prayer:

turn your ear to my cries.

Do not be deaf to my weeping,

for I come as a stranger before you,

a wanderer like my fathers before me.

Turn away from me, give me respite,

before I leave this world,

before I am no more.

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.

Lord, hear my prayer:

do not be deaf to my tears.

Psalm 51 (52)

Against calumny

I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.

Why do you take pride in your malice,

you expert in evil-doing?

All day long you plan your traps,

your tongue is sharp as a razor –

you master of deceit!

You have chosen malice over kindness;

you speak lies rather than the truth;

your tongue is in love with every deceit.

For all this, in the end God will destroy you.

He will tear you out and expel you from your dwelling,

uproot you from the land of the living.

The upright will see and be struck with awe:

they will deride the evil-doer.

“Here is the man who did not make God his refuge,

but put his hope in the abundance of his riches

and in the power of his stratagems.”

But I flourish like an olive in the palace of God.

I hope in the kindness of God,

for ever, and through all ages.

I shall praise you for all time for what you have done.

I shall put my hope in your name and in its goodness

in the sight of your chosen ones.

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 trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.

My soul waits for his word;

– my soul puts its hope in the Lord.

First Reading

Amos 9:1-15

I saw the Lord standing at the side of the altar.

‘Strike the capitals’ he said ‘and let the roof tumble down!

I mean to break their heads, every one,

and all who remain I will put to the sword;

not one shall get away,

not one escape.

Should they burrow their way down to Sheol,

my hand shall haul them out;

should they scale the heavens,

I will drag them down;

should they hide on Carmel’s peak,

there I will track them down and catch them;

should they hide from my sight on the sea bed,

I will tell the Dragon to bite them there;

should they go into exile driven before their enemies,

I will order the sword to slaughter them there;

and my eyes will be on them

for their misfortune, not their good.’

The Lord, the Lord of Hosts –

he touches the earth and it melts,

and all its inhabitants mourn;

it all heaves, like the Nile,

and subsides, like the river of Egypt.

He has built his high dwelling place in the heavens

and supported his vault on the earth;

he summons the waters of the sea

and pours them over the land.

“The Lord” is his name.

‘Are not you and the Cushites all the same to me,

sons of Israel? – it is the Lord who speaks.

Did not I, who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt,

bring the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramaeans from Kir?

Now, my eyes are turned on the sinful kingdom,

to wipe it off the face of the earth.

‘Yet I am not going to destroy

the House of Jacob completely – it is the Lord who speaks.

For now I will issue orders

and shake the House of Israel among all the nations,

as you shake a sieve

so that not one pebble can fall on the ground.

All the sinners of my people are going to perish by the sword,

all those who say,

“No misfortune will ever touch us, nor even come anywhere near us.”

‘That day I will re-erect the tottering hut of David,

make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins

and rebuild it as it was in the days of old,

so that they can conquer the remnant of Edom

and all the nations that belonged to me.

It is the Lord who speaks, and he will carry this out.

‘The days are coming now – it is the Lord who speaks –

when harvest will follow directly after plowing,

the treading of grapes soon after sowing,

when the mountains will run with new wine

and the hills all flow with it.

I mean to restore the fortunes of my people Israel;

they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them,

plant vineyards and drink their wine,

dig gardens and eat their produce.

I will plant them in their own country,

never to be rooted up again

out of the land I have given them,

says the Lord, your God.’

Responsory

I shall return and rebuild the House of David,

says the Lord.

I shall restore the House of David,

so that all men,

all the pagans consecrated to my name,

will look for the Lord.

God has arranged to enlist a people for his name out of the pagans,

since the scriptures say:

I shall restore the House of David,

so that all men,

all the pagans consecrated to my name,

will look for the Lord.

Second Reading

The "Epistle of Barnabas"

The way of light

The Way of Light is this: if any man wants to journey to his appointed home then he must put his whole heart into his work. To aid our steps on the road, illumination has been given to us as follows — love your Maker, fear your Creator, glorify him who redeemed you from death. Be simple in heart, and rich in spirit. Shun the company of those who walk in the way of death. Hate all that is not pleasing to God, hate all hypocrisy, and never desert the commandments of the Lord. Do not proclaim your own importance but keep a modest and humble mind. 

Do not seek to cover yourself in glory. 

Make no evil plans against your neighbor. 

Keep away from the sin of presumption.

Love your neighbor more than your own life. Do not procure abortion, do not commit infanticide. Do not withhold your discipline from your son or your daughter but teach them the fear of God from their childhood onwards. Do not covet your neighbor’s goods or avariciously hold on to your own. Do not cultivate intimacy with the great but keep company with humble and virtuous men. When tribulations come upon you, 

receive them as you would receive good things, seeing that nothing happens without God. 

Do not equivocate or speak in double meanings.

Share your goods with your neighbor and do not insist that they are yours alone — for if you are sharers in that which is incorruptible, how much more must you be sharers in that which is corruptible. Do not be in a hurry to speak, for the tongue is a deadly snare. Keep your soul as pure as you can. Do not be someone who stretches out his hands to take, and but keeps them tight shut when it comes to giving. 

If anyone expounds the word of the Lord to you, love them as the apple of your eye.

Keep the day of judgement in mind, day and night. 

Seek the daily company of the people of God, either laboring by word of mouth 

— by going among them, exhorting them and striving to save souls by the word —

 or laboring with your hands, earning a ransom for your sins.

Do not hesitate to give, and give without grumbling: you will discover who can be generous with his rewards. Keep the commandments you have received, adding nothing and taking nothing away. Hold evil in detestation. Make your decisions fairly and uprightly. Do not cause quarrels, but rather bring together those who are in dispute and reconcile them. Confess your own sins. Do not set about prayer when you have a bad conscience. This is the Way of Light.

Responsory

I turn my feet from evil paths to obey your word,

O Lord.

I have not turned from your decrees;

you yourself have taught me to obey your word,

O Lord.

Let us pray.

We recognize with joy

that you, Lord, created us,

and that you guide us by your providence.

In your unfailing kindness, support us in our prayer:

renew your life within us,

guard it and make it bear fruit for eternity.

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.