PRAYER OF THE DAY

Prayer On Tuesday of Holy Week

[The special prayer either before or after the Tuesday evening meal

is a selection from Psalm 21:13-22,

in which we see through the eyes of David the picture of Christ suffering for us on the Cross.]

Many bullocks surround me;

the strong bulls of Basan encircle me.

They open their mouths against me like ravening and roaring lions.

I am like water poured out;

all my bones are racked.

My heart has become like wax melting away within my bosom.

My throat is dried up like baked clay,

my tongue cleaves to my jaws;

to the dust of death you have brought me down.

Indeed, many dogs surround me,

a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;

They have pierced my hands and my feet;

I can count all my bones.

They look on and gloat over me;

they divide my garments among them,

and for my vesture they cast lots.

But you, O Lord,

be not far from me;

O my help,

hasten to aid me.

Rescue my soul from the sword,

my loneliness from the grip of the dog.

Save me from the lion's mouth;

from the horns of the wild bulls,

my wretched life.

DAILY MASS READINGS

Tuesday of Holy Week

Reading

IS 49:1-6

Hear me, O islands,

listen, O distant peoples.

The LORD called me from birth,

from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.

He made of me a sharp-edged sword

and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.

He made me a polished arrow,

in his quiver he hid me.

You are my servant, he said to me,

Israel, through whom I show my glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,

and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,

Yet my reward is with the LORD,

my recompense is with my God.

For now the LORD has spoken

who formed me as his servant from the womb,

That Jacob may be brought back to him

and Israel gathered to him;

And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,

and my God is now my strength!

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,

to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the survivors of Israel;

I will make you a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 71:1-2, 3-4A, 5AB-6AB, 15 AND 17

R. I will sing of your salvation.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;

incline your ear to me, and save me.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

Be my rock of refuge,

a stronghold to give me safety,

for you are my rock and my fortress.

O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

For you are my hope, O Lord;

my trust, O God, from my youth.

On you I depend from birth;

from my mother’s womb you are my strength.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

My mouth shall declare your justice,

day by day your salvation.

O God, you have taught me from my youth,

and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.

R. I will sing of your salvation.

Gospel

JN 13:21-33, 36-38

Reclining at table with his disciples,

Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,

was reclining at Jesus’ side.

So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.

He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,

“Master, who is it?”

Jesus answered,

“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”

So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,

son of Simon the Iscariot.

After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.

So Jesus said to him,

“What you are going to do, do quickly.”

Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.

Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,

“Buy what we need for the feast,”

or to give something to the poor.

So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.

When he had left, Jesus said,

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,

and he will glorify him at once.

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.

You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,

‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”

Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”

Jesus answered him,

“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,

though you will follow later.”

Peter said to him,

“Master, why can I not follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.”

Jesus answered,

“Will you lay down your life for me?

Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow

before you deny me three times.”

SAINT OF THE DAY

April 15

Blessed Caesar de Bus (1544-1607)

Like so many of us, Caesar de Bus struggled with the decision about what to do with his life. After completing his Jesuit education he had difficulty settling between a military and a literary career. 

He wrote some plays but ultimately settled for life in the army and at court.

For a time life was going rather smoothly for the engaging, well-to-do young Frenchman. He was confident he had made the right choice. That was until he saw firsthand the realities of battle, 

including the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres of French Protestants in 1572.

He fell seriously ill and found himself reviewing his priorities, including his spiritual life. By the time he had recovered, Caesar had resolved to become a priest. Following his ordination in 1582, he undertook special pastoral work: teaching the catechism to ordinary people living in neglected, rural, out-of-the-way places. His efforts were badly needed and well received.

Working with his cousin, Caesar developed a program of family catechesis. The goal—to ward off heresy among the people—

met the approval of local bishops. Out of these efforts grew a new religious congregation: 

the Fathers of Christian Doctrine.

One of Caesar's works, Instructions for the Family on the Four Parts of the Roman Catechism, 

was published 60 years after his death.

He was beatified in 1975.

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

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,

sing the last, the dread affray;

o’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,

sound the high triumphal lay,

how, the pains of death enduring,

earth’s Redeemer won the day.

When at length the appointed fulness

of the sacred time was come,

he was sent, the world’s Creator,

from the Father’s heavenly home,

and was found in human fashion,

offspring of the virgin’s womb.

Now the thirty years are ended

which on earth he willed to see.

Willingly he meets his passion,

born to set his people free:

on the cross the Lamb is lifted,

there the sacrifice to be.

There the nails and spear he suffers,

vinegar and gall and reed.

From his sacred body piercèd

blood and water both proceed:

precious flood, which all creation

from the stain of sin hath freed.

Faithful Cross, above all other,

one and only noble Tree.

none in foliage, none in blossom,

none in fruit thy peer may be.

Sweet the wood and sweet the iron,

and thy load, most sweet is he.

Bend, O lofty Tree, thy branches,

thy too rigid sinews bend;

and awhile the stubborn harshness,

which thy birth bestowed, suspend;

and the limbs of heaven’s high Monarch

gently on thine arms extend.

Thou alone wast counted worthy

this world’s ransom to sustain,

that a shipwrecked race for ever

might a port of refuge gain,

with the sacred Blood anointed

of the Lamb for sinners slain.

Praise and honour to the Father,

praise and honour to the Son,

praise and honour to the Spirit,

ever Three and ever One:

One in might and One in glory,

while eternal ages run.

Psalm 36 (37)

The fate of the evil and the righteous

Commit your life to the Lord,

and he will act on your behalf.

Do not envy the wicked;

do not be jealous of those that do evil.

They will dry up as quickly as hay;

they will wither like the grass.

Put your trust in the Lord and do good,

and your land and habitation will be secure.

Take your delight in the Lord,

and he will give you what your heart desires.

Entrust your journey to the Lord, and hope in him:

and he will act.

He will make your uprightness shine like the light,

your judgement like the sun at noon.

Take your rest in the Lord, and hope in him:

do not envy the one who thrives in his own way,

the man who weaves plots.

Abstain from wrath, abandon anger:

do not envy him who turns to evil,

for those who do evil will be destroyed,

but those on the side of the Lord

will inherit the earth.

A moment yet – and the sinner will be gone:

you will look where he was and find nothing.

But the needy will inherit the land

and delight in abundant peace.

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.

Commit your life to the Lord,

and he will act on your behalf.

Psalm 36 (37)

Turn away from evil and do good:

the Lord will support the just.

The wicked will plot against the righteous

and gnash his teeth at him;

but the Lord will deride him in his turn,

for the Lord has seen what awaits him.

The wicked have pulled out their swords,

the wicked have drawn their bows,

to throw down the poor and the destitute,

to murder whoever follows the straight path.

But their swords will enter their own hearts,

and their bows will splinter.

For the righteous, the little they have is better

than the abundant wealth of the wicked.

The limbs of the wicked will be broken

while the Lord gives his strength to the just.

The Lord knows when the day of the perfect will come;

and their inheritance will be eternal.

They will not be troubled in evil times,

and in times of famine they will have more than enough.

For the wicked will perish:

the enemies of the Lord will be like the flowers of the fields,

and like smoke they will vanish away.

The wicked man borrows and does not return;

but the righteous takes pity and gives.

The blessed ones of the Lord will inherit the earth,

but those whom he curses will be cut off.

It is the Lord who strengthens the steps of man

and chooses his path.

Even if he trips he will not fall flat,

for the Lord is holding his hand.

I was young and I have grown old,

but I have not seen the righteous man abandoned

nor his children seeking for bread.

All day long he takes pity and lends,

and his seed will be blessed.

Shun evil and do good,

and you will live for ever.

For the Lord loves right judgement,

and will not abandon his chosen ones.

The unjust will be destroyed for ever,

and the seed of the wicked will be cut off,

but the righteous will inherit the earth

and live there from age to age.

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.

Turn away from evil and do good:

the Lord will support the just.

Psalm 36 (37)

Wait for the Lord, keep to his way.

The mouth of the righteous will speak wisdom,

and his tongue will utter right judgement.

The law of his God is in his heart

and his steps will not stumble.

The wicked man watches the just

and seeks to kill him;

but the Lord will rescue the just man from his hands

and not condemn the just in the time of judgement.

Put your hope in the Lord and follow his paths,

and he will raise you up and make the land your inheritance,

let you watch as the wicked are cut off.

I have seen the sinner triumph,

flourish like a green cedar,

but he is gone, he is there no longer:

I have looked for him but have not found him.

Preserve innocence, follow uprightness:

for the future belongs to the man of peace.

The unrighteous will be destroyed altogether,

their posterity will be cut off.

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord,

and their protection in time of trouble.

The Lord will come to their help and free them,

rescue them from the wicked and save them,

because they have put their trust in 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.

Wait for the Lord, keep to his way.

When I am lifted up from the earth

– I shall draw all things to myself.

First Reading

Hebrews 12:1-13

With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne. Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage. In the fight against sin, 

you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.

Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? If you were not getting this training, as all of you are, then you would not be sons but bastards. Besides, we have all had our human fathers who punished us, and we respected them for it; we ought to be even more willing to submit ourselves to our spiritual Father, to be given life. Our human fathers were thinking of this short life when they punished us, and could only do what they thought best; but he does it all for our own good, so that we may share his own holiness. Of course, any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant; but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness. So hold up your limp arms and steady your trembling knees and smooth out the path you tread; 

then the injured limb will not be wrenched, it will grow strong again.

Responsory

Jesus,

who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection,

for the sake of the joy which was still in the future,

he endured the cross,

and now he has taken his place at God’s right hand.

He was humble and walked the path of obedience to death,

and now he has taken his place at God’s right hand.

Second Reading

From the book On the Holy Spirit

by Saint Basil, bishop

By one death and resurrection the world was saved

When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Saviour made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, 

and recover our original status as sons of God by adoption.

To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, 
we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, 

Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life.

We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, 

to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.

Our descent into hell takes place when we imitate the burial of Christ by our baptism. The bodies of the baptized are in a sense buried in the water as a symbol of their renunciation of the sins of their unregenerate nature. As the Apostle says: The circumcision you have undergone is not an operation performed by human hands, but the complete stripping away of your unregenerate nature. This is the circumcision that Christ gave us, and it is accomplished by our burial with him in baptism. Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist, and I shall be whiter than snow. We receive this saving baptism only once because there was only one death and one resurrection for the salvation of the world, and baptism is its symbol.

Responsory

When we were baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized in his death;

if in union with him we have imitated his death,

we shall also imitate him in his resurrection.

When we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death;

if in union with him we have imitated his death,

we shall also imitate him in his resurrection.

Let us pray.

All-powerful, ever-living God,

may our sacramental celebration of the Lord’s passion

bring us your forgiveness.

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.