THE LITURGY OF THE WORD

Daily Mass Readings

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Antiphon

 Ps 47 (46): 2

 

All peoples, clap your hands.

Cry to God with shouts of joy!

Collect

O God, who through the grace of adoption

chose us to be children of light,

grant, we pray,

that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error

but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.

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

Gn 19:15-29

As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way!

Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here,

or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom."

When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD's mercy,

seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters

and led them to safety outside the city.

As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told:

"Flee for your life!

Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain.

Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."

"Oh, no, my lord!" Lot replied,

"You have already thought enough of your servant

to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life.

But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me,

and so I shall die.

Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.

It's only a small place.

Let me flee there–it's a small place, is it not?–

that my life may be saved."

"Well, then," he replied,

"I will also grant you the favor you now ask.

I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

Hurry, escape there!

I cannot do anything until you arrive there."

That is why the town is called Zoar.

The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;

at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire

upon Sodom and Gomorrah

from the LORD out of heaven.

He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain,

together with the inhabitants of the cities

and the produce of the soil.

But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Early the next morning Abraham went to the place

where he had stood in the LORD's presence.

As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah

and the whole region of the Plain,

he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.

Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain,

he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval

by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 26:2-3, 9-10, 11-12

R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.

Search me, O LORD, and try me;

test my soul and my heart.

For your mercy is before my eyes,

and I walk in your truth.

R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.

Gather not my soul with those of sinners,

nor with men of blood my life.

On their hands are crimes,

and their right hands are full of bribes.

R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.

But I walk in integrity;

redeem me, and have mercy on me.

My foot stands on level ground;

in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.

R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.

Alleluia

Ps 130:5

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

I trust in the LORD;

my soul trusts in his word.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mt 8:23-27

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.

Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,

so that the boat was being swamped by waves;

but he was asleep.

They came and woke him, saying,

"Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"

He said to them, 

"Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?"

Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,

and there was great calm.

The men were amazed and said, 

"What sort of man is this,

whom even the winds and the sea obey?"

SAINT OF THE DAY

July 4

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal

(1271 - 1336)

Elizabeth is usually depicted in royal garb with a dove or an olive branch. At her birth in 1271, her father Pedro III, future king of Aragon, was reconciled with his father James, the reigning monarch. This proved to be a portent of things to come. Under the healthful influences surrounding her early years, she quickly learned self-discipline and acquired a taste for spirituality.

Thus fortunately prepared, Elizabeth was able to meet the challenge when at the age of 12, she was given in marriage to Denis, king of Portugal. She was able to establish for herself a pattern of life conducive to growth in God’s love, not merely through her exercises of piety, including daily Mass, but also through her exercise of charity, by which she was able to befriend and help pilgrims, strangers, the sick, the poor—in a word, all those whose need came to her notice. At the same time she remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom.

Denis, too, was the object of many of her peace endeavors. Elizabeth long sought peace for him with God, and was finally rewarded when he gave up his life of sin. She repeatedly sought and effected peace between the king and their rebellious son Alfonso, who thought that he was passed over to favor the king’s illegitimate children. She acted as peacemaker in the struggle between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and his cousin James, who claimed the crown. And finally from Coimbra, where she had retired as a Franciscan tertiary to the monastery of the Poor Clares after the death of her husband, Elizabeth set out and was able to bring about a lasting peace between her son Alfonso, now king of Portugal, and his son-in-law, the king of Castile.

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

 

03/20/23