Tuesday of the First Week of Lent



“Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats...” (Isaiah 55:11.)

Aphraates “the Sage” comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“For the rain and the snow do not return to heaven but accomplish in the earth the will of him that sends them. So the word that he shall send through his Christ, who is himself the Word and the Message, shall return to him with great power. For when he shall come and bring it, he shall come down like rain and snow, and through him all that is sown shall spring up and bear righteous fruit, and the word shall return to his sender; but not in vain shall his going have been, but thus shall he say in the presence of his sender, “Behold, I and the children that the Lord has given me.” And this is the voice through which the dead shall live. And this is the voice of God that shall sound from on high and raise up all the dead.” (Demonstrations, 8.)




Collect
Look upon your family, Lord,
that, through the chastening effects
of bodily discipline,
our minds may be radiant in your presence
with the strength of our yearning for you.
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


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