Ordinary TimeFriday of the Fifteenth Week

“They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” (Exodus 12:8)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“Christians eat the flesh of the lamb every day, that is, they consume daily the flesh of the Word. “For Christ our pasch is sacrificed.” And because the law of the pasch is such that it is eaten in the evening, for this reason the Lord suffered in the evening of the world, that you may always eat of the flesh of the Word, because you are always in the evening until the morning comes. And if in this evening you shall be anxious and “in weeping and fasting” and shall lead your life in every labor of justice, you shall be able to say, “In the evening weeping shall have place and in the morning gladness.” For you shall rejoice in the morning, that is, in the world to come, if in this world you have gathered “the fruit of justice” in weeping and labor.” (Homilies on Genesus, 10)

Collect

O God,
Who show the light of Your truth
to those who go astray,
so that they may return
to the right path,
give all who for the faith they profess
are accounted Christians
the grace to reject whatever
is contrary to the name of Christ
and to strive after all that does it honor.
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. 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