THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

Daily Mass Readings

Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena

Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Antiphon

Here is a wise virgin, from among the number of the prudent,

who went forth with lighted lamp to meet Christ, alleluia.

Collect

O God, who set Saint Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love

in her contemplation of the Lord's Passion

and her service of your Church,

grant, through her intercession,

that your people,

participating in the mystery of Christ,

may ever exult in the revelation of his glory.

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

God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Reading

Acts 5:34-42

A Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel,

a teacher of the law, respected by all the people,

stood up, ordered the Apostles to be put outside for a short time,

and said to the Sanhedrin, “Fellow children of Israel,

be careful what you are about to do to these men.

Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important,

and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed,

and all those who were loyal to him

were disbanded and came to nothing.

After him came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census.

He also drew people after him,

but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered.

So now I tell you,

have nothing to do with these men, and let them go.

For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin,

it will destroy itself.

But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them;

you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

They were persuaded by him.

After recalling the Apostles, they had them flogged,

ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus,

and dismissed them.

So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,

rejoicing that they had been found worthy

to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes,

they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 27:1, 4, 13-14

R.        One thing I seek: 

to dwell in the house of the Lord.

 

The LORD is my light and my salvation;

            whom should I fear?

The LORD is my life’s refuge;

            of whom should I be afraid?

R.        One thing I seek: 

to dwell in the house of the Lord.

 

One thing I ask of the LORD

            this I seek:

To dwell in the house of the LORD

            all the days of my life,

That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD

            and contemplate his temple.

R.        One thing I seek: 

to dwell in the house of the Lord.

 

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD

            in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD with courage;

            be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

R.        One thing I seek: 

to dwell in the house of the Lord.

 

Alleluia

Mt 4:4b

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

One does not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Jn 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.

A large crowd followed him,

because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.

Jesus went up on the mountain,

and there he sat down with his disciples.

The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,

he said to Philip, 

“Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”

He said this to test him,

because he himself knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered him,

“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough

for each of them to have a little.”

One of his disciples,

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;

but what good are these for so many?”

Jesus said, 

“Have the people recline.”

Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,

and distributed them to those who were reclining,

and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,

“Gather the fragments left over,

so that nothing will be wasted.”

So they collected them,

and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments

from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,

“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off

to make him king,

he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

SAINT OF THE DAY

April 29

Saint Catherine of Siena

(1347 - 1380)

She was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and grew up as an intelligent, cheerful, and intensely religious person. Catherine disappointed her mother by cutting off her hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance in order to attract a husband. Her father ordered her to be left in peace, 

and she was given a room of her own for prayer and meditation.

She entered the Dominican Third Order at 18 and spent the next three years in seclusion, prayer, and austerity. Gradually, a group of followers gathered around her—men and women, priests and religious. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life. Her letters, mostly for spiritual instruction and encouragement of her followers, began to take more and more note of public affairs. Opposition and slander resulted from her mixing fearlessly with the world and speaking with the candor and authority of one completely committed to Christ. She was cleared of all charges at the Dominican General Chapter of 1374.

Her public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness, 

her membership in the Dominican Third Order, and the deep impression she made on the pope. She worked tirelessly for the crusade against the Turks and for peace between Florence and the pope.

In 1378, the Great Schism began, splitting the allegiance of Christendom between two, then three, popes and putting even saints on opposing sides. Catherine spent the last two years of her life in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Pope Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the Church in its agony. She died surrounded by her “children” and was canonized in 1461.

Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. 

In 1939, she and Francis of Assisi were declared co-patrons of Italy. 

Pope Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila doctors of the Church in 1970. 

Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.

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