THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

Daily Mass Readings

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Antiphon

 Cf. Ps 17 (16):15 Cf. Ps 17 (16):15

 

As for me, in justice I shall behold your face;
I shall be filled with the vision of your glory.

Collect

Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, just as we celebrate the heavenly birthday
of the Bishop Saint Bonaventure,
we may benefit from his great learning
and constantly imitate the ardor of his charity.
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

IS 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8

When Hezekiah was mortally ill,

the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him:

“Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order,

for you are about to die; you shall not recover.”

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord:“O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly

I conducted myself in your presence,

doing what was pleasing to you!”

And Hezekiah wept bitterly.Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah:

Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David:

I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.

I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the Lord’s temple;

I will add fifteen years to your life.

I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria;

I will be a shield to this city.”Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken

and applied to the boil, that he might recover.

Then Hezekiah asked,

“What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?”Isaiah answered:

“This will be the sign for you from the LORD

that he will do what he has promised:

See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun

on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz

go back the ten steps it has advanced.”

So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.

Responsorial Psalm

IS 38:10, 11, 12ABCD, 16

R. You saved my life, O Lord; 

I shall not die.

Once I said,

“In the noontime of life I must depart!

To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned

for the rest of my years.” 

R. You saved my life, O Lord; 

I shall not die.

I said, “I shall see the LORD no more

in the land of the living.

No longer shall I behold my fellow men

among those who dwell in the world.”

R. You saved my life, O Lord; 

I shall not die.

My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent,

is struck down and borne away from me;

You have folded up my life, like a weaver

who severs the last thread.

R. You saved my life, O Lord; 

I shall not die.

Those live whom the LORD protects;

yours is the life of my spirit.

You have given me health and life.

R. You saved my life, O Lord; 

I shall not die.

Alleluia 

JN 10:27

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;

I know them, and they follow me.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel 

MT 12:1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.

His disciples were hungry

and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,

“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”

He said to the them, 

“Have you not read what David did

when he and his companions were hungry,

how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,

which neither he nor his companions

but only the priests could lawfully eat?

Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath

the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath

and are innocent?

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

you would not have condemned these innocent men.

For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

SAINT OF THE DAY

July 15

Saint Bonaventure

(1221 - 1274)

Born in Bagnorea in 1221, Saint Bonaventure was baptized John, but received the name Bonaventure when he became a Franciscan at the age of 22. Little is known about his childhood, but we do know that his parents were Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritell. It seems that his father was a physician and a man of means. 

While Saint Francis died about five years after the saint’s birth, he is credited with healing Bonaventure as a boy of a serious illness.

Saint Bonaventure’s teaching career came to a halt when the Friars elected him to serve as their General Minister. His 17 years of service were not easy as the Order was embroiled in conflicts over the interpretation of poverty. Some friars even ended up in heresy saying that Saint Francis and his community were inaugurating the era of the Holy Spirit which was to replace Jesus, the Church, and Scripture. But because he was a man of prayer and a good administrator, Saint Bonaventure managed to structure the Order through effective legislation. But more importantly, he offered the Friars an organized spirituality based on the vision and insights of Saint Francis. Always a Franciscan at heart and a mystical writer, Bonaventure managed to unite the pastoral, practical aspects of life with the doctrines of the Church. Thus, there is a noticeable warmth to his teachings and writings that make him very appealing.

Shortly before he ended his service as General Minister, Pope Gregory X created him a Cardinal and appointed him bishop of Albano. But a little over a year later, while participating in the Second Council of Lyon, Saint Bonaventure suddenly died on 

July 15, 1274. There is a theory that he was poisoned.

Saint Bonaventure left behind a structured and renewed Franciscan Order and a body of work all of which glorifies his major love—Jesus.

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