MEMORIAL OF SAINT PETER CLAVER


Antiphon

You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right;
treat your servant in accord with your merciful love.

Collect

O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves
and strenghtened him with wonderful charity and patience
as he came to their help,
grant, through his intercession,
that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ,
we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

Amen.



Memorial of Saint Peter Claver
Priest

Reading
1 COR 9:16-19, 22B-27

Brothers and sisters:

If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel.

Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the Gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.

Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race,
but only one wins the prize?
Run so as to win.
Every athlete exercises discipline in every way.
They do it to win a perishable crown,
but we an imperishable one.
Thus I do not run aimlessly;
I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.
No, I drive my body and train it,
for fear that, after having preached to others,
I myself should be disqualified.


Responsorial Psalm
PS 84:3, 4, 5-6, 12

R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.

R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!

R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
their hearts are set upon the pilgrimage.

R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

For a sun and a shield is the LORD God;
grace and glory he bestows;
The LORD withholds no good thing
from those who walk in sincerity.

R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!


Alleluia
JN 17:17B, 17A

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
LK 6:39-42

Jesus told his disciples a parable:

“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”



September 9

St. Peter Claver (1581-1654)

A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World. He sailed into Cartagena (now in Colombia), 
a rich port city washed by the Caribbean. He was ordained there in 1615.

By this time the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly 100 years, and Cartagena was a chief center for it. Ten thousand slaves poured into the port each year after crossing the Atlantic from West Africa under conditions so foul and inhuman that an estimated one-third of the passengers died in transit. Although the practice of slave-trading was condemned by Pope Paul III and later labeled "supreme villainy" by Pius IX, it continued to flourish.

Peter Claver's predecessor, Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval, had devoted himself to the service of the slaves for 40 years before Claver arrived to continue his work, 
declaring himself "the slave of the Negroes forever."

As soon as a slave ship entered the port, Peter Claver moved into its infested hold to minister to the ill-treated and exhausted passengers. After the slaves were herded out of the ship like chained animals and shut up in nearby yards to be gazed at by the crowds, Claver plunged in among them with medicines, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco. With the help of interpreters he gave basic instructions and assured his brothers and sisters of their human dignity and God's saving love. 
During the 40 years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves.

His apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves. He became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena. He preached in the city square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions, during which he avoided, when possible, 
the hospitality of the planters and owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead.

After four years of sickness which forced the saint to remain inactive and largely neglected, he died on September 8, 1654. The city magistrates, who had previously frowned at his solicitude for the black outcasts, ordered that he should be buried at public expense and with great pomp.

He was canonized in 1888, 
and Pope Leo XIII declared him the worldwide patron of missionary work among black slaves.



O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will proclaim Your Praise!

Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 66 (67)


Give thanks to the Lord, 

for his great love is without end.


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.


Give thanks to the Lord, 

for his great love is without end.


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.


Give thanks to the Lord, 

for his great love is without end.


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.


Give thanks to the Lord, 

for his great love is without end.


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.


Give thanks to the Lord, 

for his great love is without end.



Hymn

In ancient times God spoke to us
Through prophets, and in varied ways,
But now he speaks through Christ his Son,
His radiance through eternal days.
To God the Father of the world,
His Son through whom he made all things,
And Holy Spirit, bond of love,
All glad creation glory sings.

Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal


Psalm 68 (69)
I am consumed with zeal for your house

I am wearied with all my crying as I await my God.

Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
I am stuck in bottomless mud;
I am adrift in deep waters
and the flood is sweeping me away.
I am exhausted with crying out, my throat is parched,
my eyes are failing as I look out for my God.
Those who hate me for no reason
are more than the hairs of my head.
They are strong, my persecutors, my lying enemies:
they make me give back things I never took.
God, you know my weakness:
my crimes are not hidden from you.
Let my fate not put to shame those who trust in you,
Lord, Lord of hosts.
Let them not be dismayed on my account,
those who seek you, God of Israel.
For it is for your sake that I am taunted
and covered in confusion:
I have become a stranger to my own brothers,
a wanderer in the eyes of my mother’s children –
because zeal for your house is consuming me,
and the taunts of those who hate you
fall upon my head.
I have humbled my soul with fasting
and they reproach me for it.
I have made sackcloth my clothing
and they make me a byword.
The idlers at the gates speak against me;
for drinkers of wine, I am the butt of their songs.

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 am wearied with all my crying as I await my God.


Psalm 68 (69)

For food they gave me poison,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

But I turn my prayer to you, Lord,
at the acceptable time, my God.
In your great kindness, hear me,
and rescue me with your faithful help.
Tear me from the mire, before I become stuck;
tear me from those who hate me;
tear me from the depths of the waters.
Do not let the waves overwhelm me;
do not let the deep waters swallow me;
do not let the well’s mouth engulf me.
Hear me, Lord, for you are kind and good.
In your abundant mercy, look upon me.
Do not turn your face from your servant:
I am suffering, so hurry to answer me.
Come to my soul and deliver it,
rescue me from my enemies’ attacks.
You know how I am taunted and ashamed;
how I am thrown into confusion.
You can see all those who are troubling me.
Reproach has shattered my heart – I am sick.
I looked for sympathy, but none came;
I looked for a consoler but did not find one.
They gave me bitterness to eat;
when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.

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.

For food they gave me poison,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.


Psalm 68 (69)

Seek the Lord,
and he will give life to your soul.

I am weak and I suffer,
but your help, O God, will sustain me.
I will praise the name of God in song
and proclaim his greatness with praises.
This will please the Lord more than oxen,
than cattle with their horns and hooves.
Let the humble see and rejoice.
Seek the Lord, and your heart shall live,
for the Lord has heard the needy
and has not despised his captive people.
Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and all that swims in them.
For the Lord will make Zion safe
and build up the cities of Judah:
there they will live, the land will be theirs.
The seed of his servants will inherit the land,
and those who love his name will dwell there.

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.

Seek the Lord,
and he will give life to your soul.


The Lord will teach us his ways
– and we shall walk in his paths.


First Reading
Lamentations 3:1-33

Aleph
I am the man familiar with misery
under the rod of his anger;
I am the one he has driven and forced to walk
in darkness, and without any light.
Against me alone he turns his hand,
again and again, all day long.

Beth
He has wasted my flesh and skin away,
has broken my bones.
He has made a yoke for me,
has encircled my head with weariness.
He has forced me to dwell in darkness
with the dead of long ago.

Ghimel
He has walled me in; I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
and when I call and shout,
he shuts out my prayer.
He has blocked my ways with cut stones,
he has obstructed my paths.

Daleth
For me he has been a lurking bear,
a lion on the watch.
He has filled my paths with briars and torn me,
he has made me a thing of horror.
He has bent his bow and taken aim,
making me the target for his arrows.

He
In my back he has planted his darts,
the children of his quiver.
I have become the laughing-stock of my whole nation,
their butt all day long.
He has given me my fill of bitterness,
he has made me drunk with wormwood.

Waw
He has broken my teeth with gravel,
he has given me ashes for food.
My soul is shut out from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.
And now I say, ‘My strength is gone,
that hope which came from the Lord.’

Zain
Brooding on my anguish and affliction
is gall and wormwood.
My spirit ponders it continually
and sinks within me.
This is what I shall tell my heart,
and so recover hope:

Heth
the favours of the Lord are not all past,
his kindnesses are not exhausted;
every morning they are renewed;
great is his faithfulness.
‘My portion is the Lord’ says my soul
‘and so I will hope in him.’

Teth
The Lord is good to those who trust him,
to the soul that searches for him.
It is good to wait in silence
for the Lord to save.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
from youth onwards,

Yod
to sit in solitude and silence
when the Lord fastens it on him,
to put his lips to the dust
– perhaps there still is hope –
to offer his cheek to the striker,
to be overwhelmed with insults.

Kaph
For the Lord does not reject mankind
for ever and ever.
If he has punished, he has compassion
so great is his kindness;
since he takes no pleasure in abasing
and afflicting the human race.


Responsory

℟. They were my enemies for no reason.
I said: My end has come. I called on your name, O Lord, and you heard my appeal.
* Have no fear, you said;
you pleaded my cause, you ransomed my life.

℣. I am ready not merely to be fettered,
but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.
* Have no fear, you said;
you pleaded my cause, you ransomed my life.


Second Reading
From a sermon
by Blessed Isaac of Stella, abbot

It is not Christ's will to forgive without the Church

There are two things that are God’s and God’s alone: the honor of receiving confession and the power of granting forgiveness. Confession is what we must make to him, and forgiveness is what we must hope to receive from him. The power to forgive sins belongs only to God, 
and this is why we must confess them to him.

But God has taken a bride. The Almighty has taken the feeble one, the Most High has taken the lowly one – out of a servant he has made a queen. She was behind and beneath him and he raised her to be at his side. From out of his wounded side she came, and he took her to be his bride.

Just as all that the Father has is the Son’s, so too what the Son has is the Father’s, since they share the same undivided nature. In just the same way the bridegroom gave all that was his to the bride and shared all that she had, making her one with himself and the Father. Hear the Son making his plea to the Father for his bride: I desire that just as you and I are one, so these should be one with us.

The bridegroom is one with the Father and one with his bride. Whatever in her was foreign to her nature he took away from her and nailed to the cross. He carried her sins with him onto the tree and by the tree he took them away from her. Whatever was natural and proper to her he took on and clothed himself in it. Whatever was divine and proper to him, he bestowed on her. He took away what was diabolical, took on what was human, conferred what was divine, so that all that the bride possessed should be the bridegroom’s also. Thus it is that he who has committed no sin, on whose lips is no deceit, can say Take pity on me, Lord, for I am weak – for he who shares in his bride’s weakness must share in her lament, and thus all that is the bridegroom’s is the bride’s also. Here is where the honor of confession comes from, and the power of forgiveness, so that it can truly be said: 
Go and show yourself to the priest!

The Church can forgive nothing without Christ, and it is Christ’s will to forgive nothing except with the Church. The Church can forgive no-one except the penitent – that is, one who has been touched by Christ – and Christ does not wish to forgive anyone who does not value the Church. 
What God has united, man must not divide, says Christ, and Paul adds, 
I am saying that this great mystery applies to Christ and the Church.

Do not sever the head from the body so that Christ is whole no longer. For Christ is not whole without the Church, nor is the Church whole without Christ. This is why he says No-one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man who is in heaven. He is the only man who can forgive sins.


Responsory

℟. I pray that they may all be one, just as you, Father,
are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.
The glory which you have given me I have given to them,
* that they may be one just as we are one.

℣. As you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world,
* that they may be one just as we are one.

Let us pray.

Since it is from you, God our Father,
that redemption comes to us, your adopted children,
look with favour on the family you love,
give true freedom to us and to all who believe in Christ,
and bring us all alike to our eternal heritage.
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.
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