Antiphon
Ps 13 (12): 6
O Lord, I trust in your merciful love.
My heart will rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord who has been bountiful with me.
Collect
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, always pondering spiritual things,
we may carry out in both word and deed
that which is pleasing to you.
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.
Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Reading
SIR 2:1-11
My son, when you come to serve the LORD,
stand in justice and fear,
prepare yourself for trials.
Be sincere of heart and steadfast,
incline your ear and receive the word of understanding,
undisturbed in time of adversity.
Wait on God, with patience, cling to him, forsake him not;
thus will you be wise in all your ways.
Accept whatever befalls you,
when sorrowful, be steadfast,
and in crushing misfortune be patient;
For in fire gold and silver are tested,
and worthy people in the crucible of humiliation.
Trust God and God will help you;
trust in him, and he will direct your way;
keep his fear and grow old therein.
You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy,
turn not away lest you fall.
You who fear the LORD, trust him,
and your reward will not be lost.
You who fear the LORD, hope for good things,
for lasting joy and mercy.
You who fear the LORD, love him,
and your hearts will be enlightened.
Study the generations long past and understand;
has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed?
Has anyone persevered in his commandments and been forsaken?
has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?
Compassionate and merciful is the LORD;
he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble
and he is a protector to all who seek him in truth.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
R. Commit your life to the Lord,
and he will help you.
Trust in the LORD and do good,
that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart's requests.
R. Commit your life to the Lord,
and he will help you.
The LORD watches over the lives of the wholehearted;
their inheritance lasts forever.
They are not put to shame in an evil time;
in days of famine they have plenty.
R. Commit your life to the Lord,
and he will help you.
Turn from evil and do good,
that you may abide forever;
For the LORD loves what is right,
and forsakes not his faithful ones.
R. Commit your life to the Lord,
and he will help you.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
R. Commit your life to the Lord,
and he will help you.
Alleluia
GAL 6:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
MK 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise."
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
"What were you arguing about on the way?"
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
"If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all."
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
"Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me."
February 26
Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin (1888 - 1922)
Born in Italy in 1888, the young girl lived in fear of her father, a violent man prone to jealousy and drunkenness. Her schooling was limited so that she could spend more time helping at home and working in the fields. She showed few talents and was often the butt of jokes.
In 1904, she joined the Sisters of Saint Dorothy and was assigned to work in the kitchen, bakery and laundry. After some time Maria received nurses’ training and began working in a hospital with children suffering from diphtheria. There the young nun seemed to find her true vocation: nursing very ill and disturbed children. Later, when the hospital was taken over by the military in World War I, Sister Maria Bertilla fearlessly cared for patients amidst the threat of constant air raids and bombings.
She died in 1922 after suffering for many years from a painful tumor.
Some of the patients she had nursed many years before were present at her canonization in 1961.
O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 66 (67)
Come, let us worship the Lord, the King of apostles.
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.
Come, let us worship the Lord, the King of apostles.
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.
Come, let us worship the Lord, the King of apostles.
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.
Come, let us worship the Lord, the King of apostles.
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.
Come, let us worship the Lord, the King of apostles.
Hymn
O light of light, O Dayspring bright,
Co-equal in thy Father’s light:
Assist us, as with prayer and psalm
Thy servants break the nightly calm.
All darkness from our minds dispel,
And turn to flight the hosts of hell:
Bid sleepfulness our eyelids fly,
Lest overwhelmed in sloth we lie.
Jesu, thy pardon, kind and free,
Bestow on us who trust in thee:
And as thy praises we declare,
O with acceptance hear our prayer.
O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son,
Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee,
Doth live and reign eternally.
Praise of God the creator
Psalm 18 (19)
Peter said: ‘God raised up and glorified Jesus, whom you had put to death.’
The skies tell the story of the glory of God,
the firmament proclaims the work of his hands;
day pours out the news to day,
night passes to night the knowledge.
Not a speech, not a word,
not a voice goes unheard.
Their sound is spread throughout the earth,
their message to all the corners of the world.
At the ends of the earth he has set up
a dwelling place for the sun.
Like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
it rejoices like an athlete at the race to be run.
It appears at the edge of the sky,
runs its course to the sky’s furthest edge.
Nothing can hide from its heat.
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.
Peter said: ‘God raised up and glorified Jesus, whom you had put to death.’
Psalm 63 (64)
A prayer against enemies
The Lord sent his angel and delivered me from the power of Herod.
Listen, O God, to my voice;
keep me safe from fear of the enemy.
Protect me from the alliances of the wicked,
from the crowd of those who do evil.
They have sharpened their tongues like swords,
aimed poisonous words like arrows,
to shoot at the innocent in secret.
They will attack without warning, without fear,
for they are firm in their evil purpose.
They have set out to hide their snares
– for they say, “Who will see us?”
They have thought out plans to commit wicked deeds,
and they carry out what they have planned.
Truly the heart and soul of a man
are bottomless depths.
And God has shot them with his arrow:
in a moment, they are wounded –
their own tongues have brought them low.
All who see them will shake their heads;
all will behold them with fear
and proclaim the workings of God
and understand what he has done.
The just will rejoice and hope in the Lord:
the upright in heart will give him glory.
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.
The Lord sent his angel and delivered me from the power of Herod.
Psalm 96 (97)
The glory of God in his judgements
A bright cloud overshadowed them and they heard the voice of the Father, saying,
‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’
The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice,
let the many islands be glad.
Clouds and dark mist surround him,
his throne is founded on law and justice.
Fire precedes him,
burning up his enemies all around.
His lightnings light up the globe;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains flow like wax at the sight of the Lord,
at the sight of the Lord the earth dissolves.
The heavens proclaim his justice
and all peoples see his glory.
Let them be dismayed, who worship carved things,
who take pride in the images they make.
All his angels, worship him.
Zion heard and was glad,
the daughters of Judah rejoiced
because of your judgements, O Lord.
For you are the Lord, the Most High over all the earth,
far above all other gods.
You who love the Lord, hate evil!
The Lord protects the lives of his consecrated ones:
he will free them from the hands of sinners.
A light has arisen for the just,
and gladness for the upright in heart.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord
and proclaim his holiness.
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.
A bright cloud overshadowed them and they heard the voice of the Father, saying,
‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’
Lord, to whom shall we go?
– You have the words of eternal life.
Reading
Acts 11:1-18
The apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the pagans too had accepted
the word of God, and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the Jews criticised him and said,
‘So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them, have you?’
Peter in reply gave them the details point by point:
‘One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,’ he began
‘I fell into a trance as I was praying and had a vision of something
like a big sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners.
This sheet reached the ground quite close to me.
I watched it intently and saw all sorts of animals and wild beasts –
everything possible that could walk, crawl or fly.
Then I heard a voice that said to me, “Now, Peter; kill and eat!”
But I answered: Certainly not, Lord;
nothing profane or unclean has ever crossed my lips.
And a second time the voice spoke from heaven,
“What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.”
This was repeated three times, before the whole of it was drawn up to heaven again.
Just at that moment, three men stopped outside the house where we were staying;
they had been sent from Caesarea to fetch me,
and the Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going back with them.
The six brothers here came with me as well, and we entered the man’s house.
He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house who said,
“Send to Jaffa and fetch Simon known as Peter;
he has a message for you that will save you and your entire household.”
I had scarcely begun to speak
when the Holy Spirit came down on them in
the same way as it came on us at the beginning, and I remembered that the Lord had said,
“John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”
I realised then that God was giving them the identical thing he gave to us
when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ;
and who was I to stand in God’s way?’
This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God.
‘God’ they said ‘can evidently grant even the pagans the repentance that leads to life.’
Responsory
I have prayed for you, Peter,
that your faith may not fail;
when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers.
The truth concerning me did not come to you from any human being,
but was given to you directly by my Father in heaven;
when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers.
Reading
From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
The Church of Christ rises on the firm foundation of Peter's faith
Out of the whole world one man, Peter, is chosen to preside at the calling of all nations,
and to be set over all the apostles and all the fathers of the Church.
Though there are in God’s people many shepherds,
Peter is thus appointed to rule in his own person those whom Christ
also rules as the original ruler.
Beloved, how great and wonderful is this sharing of his power that God
in his goodness has given to this man. Whatever Christ has willed to be shared in
common by Peter and the other leaders of the Church,
it is only through Peter that he has given to others
what he has not refused to bestow on them.
The Lord now asks the apostles as a whole what men think of him.
As long as they are recounting the uncertainty born of human ignorance,
their reply is always the same.
But when he presses the disciples to say what they think themselves,
the first to confess his faith in the Lord is the one who is first in rank among the apostles.
Peter says:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replies:
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you,
but my Father who is in heaven.”
You are blessed, he means,
because my Father has taught you.
You have not been deceived by earthly opinion,
but have been enlightened by inspiration from heaven.
It was not flesh and blood that pointed me out to you,
but the one whose only-begotten Son I am.
He continues:
And I say to you. In other words, as my Father has revealed to you my godhead,
so I in my turn make known to you your pre-eminence.
You are Peter:
though I am the inviolable rock, the cornerstone that makes both one,
the foundation apart from which no one can lay any other,
yet you also are a rock, for you are given solidity by my strength,
so that which is my very own because of my power is common
between us through your participation.
And upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
On this strong foundation, he says, I will build an everlasting temple.
The great height of my Church,
which is to penetrate the heavens, shall rise on the firm foundation of this faith.
The gates of hell shall not silence this confession of faith;
the chains of death shall not bind it.
Its words are the words of life.
As they lift up to heaven those who profess them,
so they send down to hell those who contradict them.
Blessed Peter is therefore told:
To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth is also bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.
The authority vested in this power passed also to the other apostles,
and the institution established by this decree has been continued in all the leaders
of the Church. But it is not without good reason that what is bestowed on all is
entrusted to one. For Peter received it separately in trust because
he is the prototype set before all the rulers of the Church.
Responsory
Before I called you away from your boat, Simon Peter,
I knew you for my own;
I have appointed you leader of my people.
I have delivered to you the keys of the kingdom.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven;
whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.
I have delivered to you the keys of the kingdom.
Hymn
Te Deum
God, we praise you; Lord, we proclaim you!
You, the Father, the eternal –
all the earth venerates you.
All the angels, all the heavens, every power –
The cherubim, the seraphim –
unceasingly, they cry:
“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts:
heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory!”
The glorious choir of Apostles –
The noble ranks of prophets –
The shining army of martyrs –
all praise you.
Throughout the world your holy Church proclaims you.
– Father of immeasurable majesty,
– True Son, only-begotten, worthy of worship,
– Holy Spirit, our Advocate.
You, Christ:
– You are the king of glory.
– You are the Father’s eternal Son.
– You, to free mankind, did not disdain a Virgin’s womb.
– You defeated the sharp spear of Death,
and opened the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in you.
– You sit at God’s right hand, in the glory of the Father.
– You will come, so we believe, as our Judge.
And so we ask of you: give help to your servants,
whom you set free at the price of your precious blood.
Number them among your chosen ones in eternal glory.
The final part of the hymn may be omitted:
Bring your people to safety, Lord, and bless those who are your inheritance.
Rule them and lift them high for ever.
Day by day we bless you, Lord: we praise you for ever and for ever.
Of your goodness, Lord, keep us without sin for today.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us.
Let your pity, Lord, be upon us, as much as we trust in you.
In you, Lord, I trust: let me never be put to shame.
Let us pray.
Almighty God,
as you built your Church on the rock of Peter’s faith,
grant that with such a firm foundation
we may hold fast in every storm.
We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.
