Lent: Saturday of the Second Week

“And will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our iniquities? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins...” (Micah 7:19)

Saint Basil the Great offers the following insight on this verse from today's First Reading:

“The Lord sits enthroned over the flood.” A flood is an overflow of water that causes all lying below it to disappear. It cleanses all that was previously filthy. Therefore he calls the grace of baptism a flood, so that the soul, being washed well of its sins and rid of the old person, is suitable henceforth as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Further, what is said in the twenty-first psalm agrees with this. For after he has said, “I have acknowledged my sin, and my injustice I have not concealed,” and also, “For this shall every one that is holy pray to you,” he then said, “And yet in a flood of many waters, they shall not come near him.” Indeed, sin shall not come near to one who received baptism for the remission of his transgressions through water and the Spirit. Something akin to this is found in the prophecy of Micah: “Because he delights in mercy, he will turn again and have mercy on us. He will put away our iniquities and will cast them into the bottom of the sea.” (Homilies on the Psalms, 28)

Collect

O God,
Who grant us by glorious healing
remedies while still on earth
to be partakers of the things of heaven,
guide us, we pray, through this present life
and bring us to that light in which you dwell.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen