Ordinary Time Week 27: Friday

“But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order.” (Luke 11:25)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“The unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul was still committing fornication against God and was with its lovers, the demons. Afterward it said, “I will return to my first husband,” and came to Christ, who “created” it from the beginning “in his image.” Necessarily the adulterous spirit gave up his place when it saw the legitimate husband. Christ received us, and our house has been “cleansed” from its former sins. It has been “furnished” with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful that they who have been initiated know. This house does not deserve to have Christ as its resident immediately unless its life and conduct are so holy, pure and incapable of being defiled that it deserves to be the “temple of God.” It should not still be a house, but a temple in which God dwells. If it neglects the grace that was received and entangles itself in secular affairs, immediately that unclean spirit returns and claims the vacant house for itself. “It brings with it seven other spirits more wicked,” so that it may not be able again to be expelled, “and the last state of that kind of person is worse than the first.” It would be more tolerable that the soul would not have returned to its first husband once it became a prostitute than having gone back after confession to her husband, to have become an adulteress again. There is no “fellowship,” as the apostle says, “between the temple of God and idols,” no “agreement between Christ and Belial.” (Homilies on Exodus, 8)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
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

Ordinary Time Week 10: Tuesday

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

”Salt is useful for so many purposes in human life! What need is there to speak about this? Now is the proper time to say why Jesus’ disciples are compared with salt. Salt preserves meats from decaying into stench and worms. It makes them edible for a longer period. They would not last through time and be found useful without salt. So also Christ’s disciples, standing in the way of the stench that comes from the sins of idolatry and fornication, support and hold together this whole earthly realm.” (Fragment, 91)

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Ordinary Time Collect

O God, from whom all good things come,
grant that we, who call on You in our need,
may at Your prompting discern what is right,
and by Your guidance do it.
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.

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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

Easter, Week 4: Tuesday

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

”For “no one snatches us away from his hands,” according to what was said in the Gospel according to John. Yet it is not written that just as no one snatches us away, no one also falls from his hands. For one who is self-determined is free. And, I say, no one will snatch us away from the hand of God, no one can take us. But we are able to fall from his hands if we are negligent.” (Homilies on Jeremiah, 18)

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Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, celebrating the mysteries of the Lord’s Resurrection,
we may merit to receive the joy of our redemption.
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.

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The Lord is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Lent, Week 2: Tuesday

“The greatest among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 23:11)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

I wish everyone might hear this, and most of all deacons, priests and bishops, especially those who think to themselves that these were not the words written: “He who exalts himself will be humbled.” On this basis, they then act as if they do not know that he said, “He who has humbled himself will be exalted.” They do not hear him who said, “Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly of heart.” They thought themselves to be self-inspired and through this inspiration fell “into the judgment of the devil.” They had not thought of critically examining their false humility. They would have done better to have remembered the word of wisdom that says, “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself, and you will find grace before God.” It was the Lord who provided the pattern for this process. No matter how great he was, he humbled himself. For “though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.” (Commentary on Matthew, 12)

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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. Amen.

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O God, who through the Bishop Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
led your Church in a wonderful way
to a deeper sense of the mysteries of salvation,
grant us, through his intercession,
that we may so acknowledge your Son
as to have life ever more abundantly.
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.

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

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Lent, Week 2: Sunday

“And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:2)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“But some may ask, when he was transfigured before those who were led up by him into the lofty mountain, did he appear to them in the form of God or in the preincarnate form that he earlier had? Did he appear to those left below in the form of a servant, but to those who had followed him after the six days to the lofty mountain, did he have not the form of a servant but the form of God? Listen carefully, if you can, and at the same time be attentive spiritually. It is not simply said that he was transfigured, but with a certain necessary addition. Both Matthew and Mark have recorded this: he was transfigured before them. Is it therefore possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some but not before others?

Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let him be simply apprehended. There he is beheld both “according to the flesh” and at the same time in his true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how he was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold his works and hear his words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When he is transfigured, his face shines as the sun, that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine to them not simply as the sun but as he is demonstrated to be, the sun of righteousness.” (Commentary on Matthew, 12)

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O God, who have commanded us
to listen to your beloved Son,
be pleased, we pray,
to nourish us inwardly by your word,
that, with spiritual sight made pure,
we may rejoice to behold your glory.
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.

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

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Lent, Week 1: Tuesday

“Give us today our daily bread...” (Matthew 6:11)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

Since some understand from this that we are commanded to pray for material bread, it will be well to refute their error here and to establish the truth about the epiousion (ἐπιούσιον, supersubstantial) bread. We must ask them how it could be that he who commanded us to ask for great and heavenly favors should command us to intercede with the Father for what is small and of the earth, as if he had forgotten — so they would have it — what he had taught. For the bread that is given to our flesh is neither heavenly, nor is the request for it a great request.

We, on our part, following the Master himself who teaches us about the bread, shall treat the matter explicitly. In the Gospel according to John he says to those who had come to Capernaum seeking for him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.” One who has eaten of the bread blessed by Jesus and is filled with it tries all the more to understand the Son of God more perfectly and hastens to him. Hence his admirable command: “Labor not for the meat that perishes but for that which endures to life ever-lasting, which the Son of Man will give you.” The “true bread” is that which nourishes the true humanity, the person created after the image of God.” (On Prayer, 27)

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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. Amen.

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

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Ordinary Time Week 5: Sunday.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)

In commenting upon this verse from today’s Gospel proclaimed at Sunday Mass, Origen of Alexandria writes:

“Salt is useful for so many purposes in human life! What need is there to speak about this? Now is the proper time to say why Jesus’ disciples are compared with salt. Salt preserves meats from decaying into stench and worms. It makes them edible for a longer period. They would not last through time and be found useful without salt. So also Christ’s disciples, standing in the way of the stench that comes from the sins of idolatry and fornication, support and hold together this whole earthly realm.” (Fragment 91)

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Keep Your family safe, O Lord,
with unfailing care,
that, relying solely on the hope
of heavenly grace,
they may be defended always
by Your protection.
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.

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