THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

Daily Mass Readings

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Religious

Antiphon

Cf. Ps 24 (23): 4, 3

 

The clean of hands and pure of heart

shall climb the mountain of the Lord

and stand in his holy place.

Collect

O God, giver of heavenly gifts,

who in Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

joined penitence to a wonderful innocence of life,

grant, through his merits and intercession,

that, though we have failed to follow him in innocence,

we may imitate him in penitence.

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

2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent envoys to Hezekiah

with this message:

“Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:

‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you

by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over

to the king of Assyria.

You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done

to all other countries: they doomed them!

Will you, then, be saved?’”

Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it;

then he went up to the temple of the LORD,

and spreading it out before him,

he prayed in the LORD’s presence:

“O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim!

You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.

You have made the heavens and the earth.

Incline your ear, O LORD, and listen!

Open your eyes, O LORD, and see!

Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.

Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations

and their lands, and cast their gods into the fire;

they destroyed them because they were not gods,

but the work of human hands, wood and stone.

Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from the power of this man,

that all the kingdoms of the earth may know

that you alone, O LORD, are God.”

Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah:

“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,

in answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria:

I have listened!

This is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, laughs you to scorn,

the virgin daughter Zion!

Behind you she wags her head,

daughter Jerusalem.

“‘For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant,

and from Mount Zion, survivors.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.’

“Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it,

nor come before it with a shield,

nor cast up siege-works against it.

He shall return by the same way he came,

without entering the city, says the LORD.

I will shield and save this city for my own sake,

and for the sake of my servant David.’”

That night the angel of the LORD went forth and struck down

one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.

So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp,

and went back home to Nineveh.

Responsorial Psalm

48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 10-11

R. God upholds his city forever.

Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised

in the city of our God.

His holy mountain, fairest of heights,

is the joy of all the earth.

R. God upholds his city forever.

Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”

is the city of the great King.

God is with her castles;

renowned is he as a stronghold.

R. God upholds his city forever.

O God, we ponder your mercy

within your temple.

As your name, O God, so also your praise

reaches to the ends of the earth.

Of justice your right hand is full.

R. God upholds his city forever.

 

Alleluia

Jn 8:12

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;

whoever follows me will have the light of life.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mt 7:6, 12-14

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine,

lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.

This is the Law and the Prophets.

“Enter through the narrow gate;

for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,

and those who enter through it are many.

How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.

And those who find it are few.”

SAINT OF THE DAY

June 21

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

(1568 - 1591)

The Lord can make saints anywhere, even amid the brutality and license of Renaissance life. Florence was the “mother of piety” for Aloysius Gonzaga despite his exposure to a “society of fraud, dagger, poison, and lust.” As a son of a princely family, he grew up in royal courts and army camps. His father wanted Aloysius to be a military hero.

At age 7 Aloysius experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers included the Office of Mary, the psalms, and other devotions. At age 9 he came from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated; by age 11 he was teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week, and practicing great austerities. When he was 13 years old, he traveled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain, and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking relief in learning about the lives of saints.

A book about the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society of Jesus, and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to persuade Aloysius to remain in his “normal” vocation. Finally he prevailed, was allowed to renounce his right to succession, 

and was received into the Jesuit novitiate.

Like other seminarians, Aloysius was faced with a new kind of penance—that of accepting different ideas about the exact nature of penance. He was obliged to eat more, and to take recreation with the other students. He was forbidden to pray except at stated times. He spent four years in the study of philosophy and had Saint Robert Bellarmine as his spiritual adviser.

In 1591, a plague struck Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital of their own. The superior general himself and many other Jesuits rendered personal service. Because he nursed patients, washing them and making their beds, Aloysius caught the disease. A fever persisted after his recovery and he was so weak he could scarcely rise from bed. 

Yet he maintained his great discipline of prayer, knowing that he would die three months later within the octave of Corpus Christi, at the age of 23.

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