THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

Daily Mass Readings

Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Antiphon

Jer 29: 11, 12, 14

 

The Lord said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction.

You will call upon me, and I will answer you,

and I will lead back your captives from every place.

Collect

As we venerate the glorious memory

of the most holy Virgin Mary,

grant, we pray, O Lord, through her intercession,

that we, too, may merit to receive

from the fullness of your grace.

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 Mc 6:18-31

Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes,

a man of advanced age and noble appearance,

was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork.

But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement,

he spat out the meat,

and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture,

as people ought to do who have the courage to reject the food

which it is unlawful to taste even for love of life.

Those in charge of that unlawful ritual meal took the man aside privately,

because of their long acquaintance with him,

and urged him to bring meat of his own providing,

such as he could legitimately eat,

and to pretend to be eating some of the meat of the sacrifice

prescribed by the king;

in this way he would escape the death penalty,

and be treated kindly because of their old friendship with him.

But Eleazar made up his mind in a noble manner,

worthy of his years, the dignity of his advanced age,

the merited distinction of his gray hair,

and of the admirable life he had lived from childhood;

and so he declared that above all

he would be loyal to the holy laws given by God.

He told them to send him at once

to the abode of the dead, explaining:

"At our age it would be unbecoming to make such a pretense;

many young people would think the ninety-year-old Eleazar

had gone over to an alien religion.

Should I thus pretend for the sake of a brief moment of life,

they would be led astray by me,

while I would bring shame and dishonor on my old age.

Even if, for the time being, I avoid the punishment of men,

I shall never, whether alive or dead,

escape the hands of the Almighty.

Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now,

I will prove myself worthy of my old age,

and I will leave to the young a noble example

of how to die willingly and generously

for the revered and holy laws."

Eleazar spoke thus,

and went immediately to the instrument of torture.

Those who shortly before had been kindly disposed,

now became hostile toward him because what he had said

seemed to them utter madness.

When he was about to die under the blows,

he groaned and said:

"The Lord in his holy knowledge knows full well that,

although I could have escaped death,

I am not only enduring terrible pain in my body from this scourging,

but also suffering it with joy in my soul

because of my devotion to him."

This is how he died,

leaving in his death a model of courage

and an unforgettable example of virtue

not only for the young but for the whole nation.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. The Lord upholds me.

O LORD, how many are my adversaries!

Many rise up against me!

Many are saying of me,

"There is no salvation for him in God."

R. The Lord upholds me.

But you, O LORD, are my shield;

my glory, you lift up my head!

When I call out to the LORD,

he answers me from his holy mountain.

R. The Lord upholds me.

When I lie down in sleep,

I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.

I fear not the myriads of people

arrayed against me on every side.

R. The Lord upholds me.

Alleluia

1 Jn 4:10b

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

God loved us, and sent his Son

as expiation for our sins.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Lk 19:1-10

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,

who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,

was seeking to see who Jesus was;

but he could not see him because of the crowd,

for he was short in stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,

who was about to pass that way.

When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,

"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,

for today I must stay at your house."

And he came down quickly and received him with joy.

When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying,

"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner."

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,

and if I have extorted anything from anyone

I shall repay it four times over."

And Jesus said to him,

"Today salvation has come to this house

because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.

For the Son of Man has come to seek

and to save what was lost."

SAINT OF THE DAY

November 21

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, 

in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church.

As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was 3 years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.

Though it cannot be proven historically, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose. It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary. It emphasizes that the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth continued through her early childhood and beyond.

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

08/06/23