“Then Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” (Luke 19:45-46)
Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:
“God does not want his temple to be a trader’s lodge but the home of sanctity. He does not preserve the practice of the priestly ministry by the dishonest duty of religion but by voluntary obedience. Consider what the Lord’s actions impose on you as an example of living. He taught in general that worldly transactions must be absent from the temple, but he drove out the moneychangers in particular. Who are the moneychangers, if not those who seek profit from the Lord’s money and cannot distinguish between good and evil? Holy Scripture is the Lord’s money.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, 9)
O God,
Who gladden us each year with the feast day
of your handmaid Saint Cecilia,
grant, we pray,
that what has been devoutly handed down
concerning her may offer us examples
to imitate and proclaim the wonders
worked in his servants by Christ your Son.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Who gladden us each year with the feast day
of your handmaid Saint Cecilia,
grant, we pray,
that what has been devoutly handed down
concerning her may offer us examples
to imitate and proclaim the wonders
worked in his servants by Christ your Son.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Click here for a link to the Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings Second Reading from Saint Augustine on this Memorial Saint Cecilia.
Glory to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen!
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen!
