PRAYER OF THE DAY

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

O God,

who didst enrich St. Benedict,

Thy confessor, with heavenly gifts,

and didst permit him to be distinguished in the Church through miraculous signs and virtues,

grant us, we beseech Thee,

that through his merits and intercession we may receive Thy benefits.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Franciscan Book Of Saints, ed. by Marion Habig, ofm.

© 1959 Franciscan Herald Press

DAILY MASS READINGS

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Reading

EX 32:7-14

The LORD said to Moses,

“Go down at once to your people

whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,

for they have become depraved.

They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,

making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,

sacrificing to it and crying out,

‘This is your God, O Israel,

who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’

The LORD said to Moses,

“I see how stiff-necked this people is.

Let me alone, then,

that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.

Then I will make of you a great nation.”

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,

“Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,

whom you brought out of the land of Egypt

with such great power and with so strong a hand?

Why should the Egyptians say,

‘With evil intent he brought them out,

that he might kill them in the mountains

and exterminate them from the face of the earth’?

Let your blazing wrath die down;

relent in punishing your people.

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,

and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,

‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;

and all this land that I promised,

I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“

So the LORD relented in the punishment

he had threatened to inflict on his people.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 106:19-20, 21-22, 23

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

Our fathers made a calf in Horeb

and adored a molten image;

They exchanged their glory

for the image of a grass-eating bullock.

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

JN 5:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews:

“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.

But there is another who testifies on my behalf,

and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.

You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.

I do not accept human testimony,

but I say this so that you may be saved.

He was a burning and shining lamp,

and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.

But I have testimony greater than John’s.

The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,

these works that I perform testify on my behalf

that the Father has sent me.

Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.

But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,

and you do not have his word remaining in you,

because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.

You search the Scriptures,

because you think you have eternal life through them;

even they testify on my behalf.

But you do not want to come to me to have life.

“I do not accept human praise;

moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.

I came in the name of my Father,

but you do not accept me;

yet if another comes in his own name,

you will accept him.

How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another

and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:

the one who will accuse you is Moses,

in whom you have placed your hope.

For if you had believed Moses,

you would have believed me,

because he wrote about me.

But if you do not believe his writings,

how will you believe my words?”

SAINT OF THE DAY

April 3

St. Benedict the African (1526-1589)

Benedict held important posts in the Franciscan Order and gracefully adjusted to other work when his terms of office were up.

His parents were slaves brought from Africa to Messina, Sicily. Freed at 18, Benedict did farm work for a wage and soon saved enough to buy a pair of oxen. He was very proud of those animals. In time he joined a group of hermits around Palermo and was eventually recognized as their leader. Because these hermits followed the Rule of St. Francis, 

Pope Pius IV ordered them to join the First Order.

Benedict was eventually novice master and then guardian of the friars in Palermo— 

positions rarely held in those days by a brother. In fact, Benedict was forced to accept his election as guardian. 

And when his term ended he happily returned to his work in the friary kitchen.

Benedict corrected the friars with humility and charity. Once he corrected a novice and assigned him a penance only to learn that the novice was not the guilty party. Benedict immediately knelt down before the novice and asked his pardon.

In later life Benedict was not possessive of the few things he used. He never referred to them as "mine" but always called them "ours." His gifts for prayer and the guidance of souls earned him throughout Sicily a reputation for holiness. Following the example of St. Francis, Benedict kept seven 40-day fasts throughout the year; he also slept only a few hours each night.

After Benedict’s death, King Philip III of Spain paid for a special tomb for this holy friar. 

Canonized in 1807, he is honored as a patron saint by African-Americans.

OFFICE OF READINGS

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will proclaim Your Praise!

Invitatory Psalm

Psalm 66 (67)

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

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.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

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.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

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.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

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.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us.

Come, let us adore him.

Hymn

Lord, who throughout these forty days

for us didst fast and pray,

teach us with thee to mourn our sins,

and close by thee to stay.

As thou with Satan didst contend

and didst the victory win,

O give us strength in thee to fight,

in thee to conquer sin.

As thou didst hunger bear, and thirst,

so teach us, gracious Lord,

to die to self, and chiefly live

by thy most holy word.

And through these days of penitence,

and through thy Passiontide,

yea, evermore in life and death,

Jesus, with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life

of suffering overpast,

an Easter of unending joy

we may attain at last.

Psalm 43 (44)

In time of defeat

Their own arm did not bring them victory:

this was won by your right hand and the light of your face.

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.

Their own arm did not bring them victory:

this was won by your right hand and the light of your face.

Psalm 43 (44)

If you return to the Lord,

then he will not hide his face from you.

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.

If you return to the Lord,

then he will not hide his face from you.

Psalm 43 (44)

Arise, Lord, do not reject us for ever.

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, do not reject us for ever.

He who reflects on the law of the Lord

– will yield his fruit in due season.

First Reading

Numbers 12:16-13:3,17-33

Scouts are sent into Canaan

The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Send out men, one from each tribe, 

to make a reconnaissance of this land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel. 

Send the leader of each tribe.’

At the Lord’s bidding, Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran to reconnoitre the land of Canaan, ‘Go up into the Negeb; then go up into the highlands. See what sort of country it is, and what sort of people the inhabitants are, whether they are strong or weak, few or many, what sort of country they live in, whether it is good or poor; what sort of towns they have, whether they are open or fortified; what sort of land it is, fertile or barren, wooded or open. Be bold, 

and bring back some of the produce of the country.’

It was the season for early grapes. They went up to reconnoitre the land, from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, the Pass of Hamath. They went up by way of the Negeb as far as Hebron, where the Anakim lived, Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai. (Hebron was founded seven years before Tanis in Egypt.) They came to the Valley of Eshcol; there they lopped off a vine branch with a cluster of grapes, which two of them carried away on a pole, as well as pomegranates and figs. 

This place was called the Valley of Eshcol after the cluster which the sons of Israel had cut there.

At the end of forty days, they came back from their reconnaissance of the land. They sought out Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They made their report to them, and to the whole community, 

and showed them the produce of the country.

They told them this story, ‘We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey; this is its produce. At the same time, its inhabitants are a powerful people; the towns are fortified and very big; yes, and we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekite holds the Negeb area, the Hittite, Amorite and Jebusite the highlands, 

and the Canaanite the sea coast and the banks of the Jordan.’

Caleb harangued the people gathered about Moses: ‘We must march in,’ he said ‘and conquer this land: we are well able to do it.’ But the men who had gone up with him answered, ‘We are not able to march against this people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they began to disparage the country they had reconnoitred to the sons of Israel, ‘The country we went to reconnoitre is a country that devours its inhabitants. Every man we saw there was of enormous size. Yes, 

and we saw giants there (the sons of Anak, descendants of the Giants). We felt like grasshoppers, 

and so we seemed to them.’

Responsory

The Lord your God carried you all the way in the wilderness as a father carries his son,

and yet you would not trust the Lord your God.

You refused to go up into the land of promise,

and you rebelled against the voice of the Lord your God.

You would not trust the Lord your God.

Second Reading

From a sermon

by Saint Leo the Great, pope

Contemplating the Lord's passion

True reverence for the Lord’s passion means fixing the eyes of our heart on Jesus crucified and recognising in him our own humanity.

The earth – our earthly nature – should tremble at the suffering of its Redeemer. The rocks – the hearts of unbelievers – should burst asunder. The dead, imprisoned in the tombs of their mortality, should come forth, the massive stones now ripped apart. Foreshadowings of the future resurrection should appear in the holy city, the Church of God: 

what is to happen to our bodies should now take place in our hearts.

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to him in repentance.

Ignorance has been destroyed, obstinacy has been overcome. The sacred blood of Christ has quenched the flaming sword that barred access to the tree of life. The age-old night of sin has given place to the true light.

The Christian people are invited to share the riches of paradise. 

All who have been reborn have the way open before them to return to their native land, 

from which they had been exiled. 

Unless indeed they close off for themselves the path that could be opened before the faith of a thief.

The business of this life should not preoccupy us with its anxiety and pride, so that we no longer strive with all the love of our heart to be like our Redeemer, and to follow his example. Everything that he did or suffered was for our salvation: 

he wanted his body to share the goodness of its head.

First of all, in taking our human nature while remaining God, so that the Word became man, he left no member of the human race, the unbeliever excepted, without a share in his mercy. Who does not share a common nature with Christ if he has welcomed Christ, who took our nature, and is reborn in the Spirit through whom Christ was conceived?

Again, who cannot recognise in Christ his own infirmities? Who would not recognise that Christ’s eating and sleeping, 

his sadness and his shedding of tears of love are marks of the nature of a slave?

It was this nature of a slave that had to be healed of its ancient wounds and cleansed of the defilement of sin. For that reason the only-begotten Son of God became also the son of man. 

He was to have both the reality of a human nature and the fullness of the godhead.

The body that lay lifeless in the tomb is ours. The body that rose again on the third day is ours. The body that ascended above all the heights of heaven to the right hand of the Father’s glory is ours. If then we walk in the way of his commandments, and are not ashamed to acknowledge the price he paid for our salvation in a lowly body, we too are to rise to share his glory. The promise he made will be fulfilled in the sight of all: Whoever acknowledges me before men, 

I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven.

Responsory

To those who court their own ruin,

the message of the cross is but folly;

to us, who are on the way to salvation,

it is evidence of God’s power.

What we preach is Christ crucified,

to the Jews a discouragement,

to the Gentiles, mere folly;

to us, who are on the way to salvation,

it is evidence of God’s power.

Let us pray.

Compassionate Lord, you have chastened us by penance and schooled us in good works.

Grant us now a single-hearted perseverance in keeping your commandments,

and bring us untouched by sin to the joys of Easter.

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.