THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

Daily Mass Readings

Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Antiphon

Cf. Ps 25 (24): 16, 18

 

Turn to me and have mercy on me, O Lord,

for I am alone and poor.

See my lowliness and suffering

and take away all my sins, my God.

Collect

 

O God, whose providence never fails in its design,

keep from us, we humbly beseech you,

all that might harm us

and grant all that works for our good.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Reading

Tb 11:5-17

Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come.

When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father,

“Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!”

Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father:

“I am certain that his eyes will be opened.

Smear the fish gall on them.

This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes;

then your father will again be able to see the light of day.”

Then Anna ran up to her son, threw her arms around him,

and said to him, 

“Now that I have seen you again, son, I am ready to die!”

And she sobbed aloud.

Tobit got up and stumbled out through the courtyard gate.

Tobiah went up to him with the fish gall in his hand,

and holding him firmly, blew into his eyes.

“Courage, father,” he said.

Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart.

Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit’s eyes,

Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts.

When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept.

He exclaimed, “I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!”

Then he said: 

    “Blessed be God,

        and praised be his great name,

        and blessed be all his holy angels.

    May his holy name be praised

        throughout all the ages,

    Because it was he who scourged me,

        and it is he who has had mercy on me.

    Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!”

Then Tobit went back in, rejoicing and praising God with full voice 

for everything that had happened.

Tobiah told his father that 

the Lord God had granted him a successful journey;

that he had brought back the money;

and that he had married Raguel’s daughter Sarah,

who would arrive shortly,

for she was approaching the gate of Nineveh.

Tobit and Anna rejoiced 

and went out to the gate of Nineveh

to meet their daughter-in-law.

When the people of Nineveh saw Tobit walking along briskly,

with no one leading him by the hand, they were amazed.

Before them all Tobit proclaimed

how God had mercifully restored sight to his eyes.

When Tobit reached Sarah, the wife of his son Tobiah,

he greeted her: “Welcome, my daughter!

Blessed be your God for bringing you to us, daughter!

Blessed is your father, and blessed is my son Tobiah, 

and blessed are you, daughter!

Welcome to your home with blessing and joy.

Come in, daughter!”

That day there was joy for all the Jews who lived in Nineveh.

Responsorial Psalm

146:1b-2, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

 

Praise the LORD, O my soul;

    I will praise the LORD all my life;

    I will sing praise to my God while I live.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

 

The LORD keeps faith forever,

    secures justice for the oppressed,

    gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets captives free.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

 

The LORD gives sight to the blind.

The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;

    the LORD loves the just.

The LORD protects strangers.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

 

The fatherless and the widow he sustains,

    but the way of the wicked he thwarts

The LORD shall reign forever,

    your God, O Zion, through all generations! Alleluia.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

 

Alleluia

Jn 14:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Whoever loves me will keep my word,

and my Father will love him

and we will come to him.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mk 12:35-37

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,

“How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?

David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:

    The Lord said to my lord,

    ‘Sit at my right hand

    until I place your enemies under your feet.’

David himself calls him ‘lord’;

so how is he his son?”

The great crowd heard this with delight.

SAINT OF THE DAY

June 4

Blessed Angeline of Marsciano

(1377 - 1435)

Angeline was born to the Duke of Marsciano near Orvieto. She was 12 when her mother died. Three years later, the young woman made a vow of perpetual chastity. That same year, however, she yielded to her father’s decision that she marry the Duke of Civitella. Her husband agreed to respect her previous vow.

When he died two years later, Angeline joined the Secular Franciscans and with several other women dedicated herself to caring for the sick, the poor, widows and orphans. When many other young women were attracted to Angeline’s community, some people accused her of condemning the married vocation. Legend has it that when she came before the King of Naples to answer these charges, she had burning coals hidden in the folds of her cloak. When she proclaimed her innocence and showed the king that these coals had not harmed her, he dropped the case.

Angeline and her companions later went to Foligno, where her community of Third Order sisters received papal approval in 1397. She soon established 15 similar communities of women in other Italian cities.

Angeline died on July 14, 1435, and was beatified in 1825. 

THE LITURGY OF HOURS

The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office or the Work of God (Opus Dei), is the daily prayer of the Church, marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer.  The Hours are a meditative dialogue on the mystery of Christ, using scripture and prayer.  At times the dialogue is between the Church or individual soul and God; at times it is a dialogue among the members of the Church; and at times it is even between the Church and the world.  The Divine Office "is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the Father." (SC 84)  The dialogue is always held, however, in the presence of God and using the words and wisdom of God.  Each of the five canonical Hours includes selections from the Psalms that culminate in a scriptural proclamation.  The two most important or hinge Hours are Morning and Evening Prayer. These each include a Gospel canticle:  the Canticle of Zechariah from Luke 1:68-79 for Morning Prayer (known as the Benedictus), and the Canticle of Mary from Luke 1:46-55 for Evening Prayer (known as the Magnificat). The Gospel canticle acts as a kind of meditative extension of the scriptural proclamation in light of the Christ event.  Morning and Evening Prayer also include intercessions that flow from the scriptural proclamation just as the Psalms prepare for it.

In the Hours, the royal priesthood of the baptized is exercised, and this sacrifice of praise is thus connected to the sacrifice of the Eucharist, 

both preparing for and flowing from the Mass.

"The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day, the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. Moreover, the reading from the Word of God at each Hour (with the subsequent responses or troparia) and readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal more deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the psalms, and prepare for silent prayer." (CCC 1177)

OFFICE OF READINGS

"The office of readings seeks to provide God's people, and in particular those consecrated to God in a special way, with a wider selection of passages from sacred Scripture for meditation, together with the finest excerpts from spiritual writers. Even though the cycle of scriptural readings at daily Mass is now richer, the treasures of revelation and tradition to be found in the office of readings will also contribute greatly to the spiritual life" (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours [GILH], no. 55).

https://www.universalis.com/0/readings.htm

LAUDS - Morning Prayer

"As is clear from many of the elements that make it up, morning prayer is intended and arranged to sanctify the morning. St. Basil the Great gives an excellent description of this character in these words: "It is said in the morning in order that the first stirrings of our mind and will may be consecrated to God and that we may take nothing in hand until we have been gladdened by the thought of God, as it is written: 'I was mindful of God and was glad' (Ps 77:4 [Jerome's translation from Hebrew]), or set our bodies to any task before we do what has been said: 'I will pray to you, Lord, you will hear my voice in the morning; I will stand before you in the morning and gaze on you' 

(Ps 5:4-5)."

"Celebrated as it is as the light of a new day is dawning, this hour also recalls the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the true light enlightening all people (see Jn 1:9) and "the sun of justice" (Mal 4:2), "rising from on high" (Lk 1:78). Hence, we can well understand the advice of St. Cyprian: "There should be prayer in the morning so that the resurrection of the Lord may thus be celebrated" (GILH, no. 38).

https://www.universalis.com/0/lauds.htm

TERCE - Mid-Morning Prayer

"Following a very ancient tradition Christians have made a practice of praying out of private devotion at various times of the day, even in the course of their work, in imitation of the Church in apostolic times. In different ways with the passage of time this tradition has taken the form of a liturgical celebration.

"Liturgical custom in both East and West has retained midmorning, midday, and midafternoon prayer, mainly because these hours were linked to a commemoration of the events of the Lord's passion and of the first preaching of the Gospel" 

(GILH, no. 74-75).

https://www.universalis.com/0/terce.htm

SEXT - Mid-Day Prayer

 https://www.universalis.com/0/sext.htm

NONE - Afternoon Prayer

 https://www.universalis.com/0/none.htm

VESPERS - Evening Prayer

"When evening approaches and the day is already far spent, evening prayer is celebrated in order that 'we may give thanks for what has been given us, or what we have done well, during the day.' We also recall the redemption through the prayer we send up 'like incense in the Lord's sight,' and in which 'the raising up of our hands' becomes 'an evening sacrifice' (see Ps 141:2). This sacrifice 'may also be interpreted more spiritually as the true evening sacrifice that our Savior the Lord entrusted to the apostles at supper on the evening when he instituted the sacred mysteries of the Church or of the evening sacrifice of the next day, the sacrifice, that is, which, raising his hands, he offered to the Father at the end of the ages for the salvation of the whole world.' Again, in order to fix our hope on the light that knows no setting, 'we pray and make petition for the light to come down on us anew; we implore the coming of Christ who will bring the grace of eternal light.' Finally, at this hour we join with the Churches of the East in calling upon the 'joy-giving light of that holy glory, born of the immortal, heavenly Father, the holy and blessed Jesus Christ; now that we have come to the setting of the sun and have seen the evening star, we sing in praise of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…'" 

(GILH, no. 39).

https://www.universalis.com/0/vespers.htm

COMPLINE - Night Prayer

"Night prayer is the last prayer of the day, said before retiring, even if that is after midnight" (GILH, no. 84).The Psalms that are chosen for Night Prayer are full of confidence in the Lord.

https://www.universalis.com/0/compline.htm

ABOUT TODAY

https://www.universalis.com/0/today.htm