“Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil...” (Isaiah 1:16)
Saint Jerome offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:
“You are being washed; be clean.” Instead of the sacrifices named above and holocausts and the abundance of fat and the blood of bulls and goats, instead of incense and new moons, the sabbath feast day and fastings, festivals and other solemnities, the religion of the gospel is what pleases me, that you would be baptized in my blood through the washing of regeneration, which alone is able to remove sins. For no one will enter the kingdom of heaven who has not been reborn from water and the spirit. And the Lord himself, ascending to the Father, said, “Go and teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” (Commentary on Isaiah, 1)
Collect
Guard Your Church,
we pray, O Lord, in Your unceasing mercy,
and, since without You
mortal humanity is sure to fall,
may we be kept by Your constant helps from all harm
and directed to all that brings salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
we pray, O Lord, in Your unceasing mercy,
and, since without You
mortal humanity is sure to fall,
may we be kept by Your constant helps from all harm
and directed to all that brings salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
God of love,
You called Saint Katharine Drexel
to teach the message of the Gospel
and to bring the life of the Eucharist
to the Native American and
African American peoples;
by her prayers and example,
enable us to work for justice
among the poor and the oppressed,
and keep us undivided in love
in the eucharistic community of Your Church.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
You called Saint Katharine Drexel
to teach the message of the Gospel
and to bring the life of the Eucharist
to the Native American and
African American peoples;
by her prayers and example,
enable us to work for justice
among the poor and the oppressed,
and keep us undivided in love
in the eucharistic community of Your Church.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
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
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
