Words of the Word

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

“... leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.” (Matthew 5:24-25)

Origen of Alexandria comments on these verses from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“To give assent to sin is already a completed evil, even if someone does not actually commit the deed. And by this saying our Savior, hurling us away from the cause of sins, endeavors to cut sin off completely. For when this intention is not present in our souls, neither shall the action accompany it.

In this life, this way traveled by all, you do well to accept and not ignore the suggestions of the conscience. But if you are inconsiderate and negligent in this life, conscience itself, assuming the role of a prosecutor, will accuse you before the judge. Conscience will subject to the juryman’s decision, and you will be handed over to incurable punishments. Such things you would not have suffered, if along the way you had in fact acquired goodwill toward your accuser, accepting his reproaches as offered out of goodwill. For this also the divine Evangelist John says in his letter: “If our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” (Fragment 102)

Grant that your faithful, O Lord, we pray,
may be so conformed to the paschal observances,
that the bodily discipline now solemnly begun
may bear fruit in the souls of all.
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 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: Thursday

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Saint Augustine of Hippo offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“However, Jesus did not simply command us to ask but to ask with great concern and concentration — for this is the meaning of the word he used for “seek.” For those who are seeking put aside everything else from their minds. They become concerned only with the thing that they are seeking and pay no attention at all to the circumstances. Even those who are looking for gold or servants that have been lost understand what I am saying. So this is what he meant by seeking. But by knocking Jesus meant that we approach God with intensity and passion. Therefore, O mortal, do not give up. Do not show less eagerness for virtue than desire for possessions. For you frequently sought possessions but did not find them. Nevertheless, although you knew that you could not guarantee that you would find them, you used every means of searching for them. Yet even though in this case you have a promise that you surely will receive, you do not even demonstrate the smallest fraction of that same eagerness. But if you do not receive immediately, do not despair in this way. For it is because of this that Jesus said “knock” to show that even if he does not open the door immediately we should remain at the door knocking.” (The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 23)

Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord,
a spirit of always pondering on what is right
and of hastening to carry it out,
and, since without you we cannot exist,
may we be enabled to live according to your will.
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.

From the «Roman Missal»
For the Pope, especially on the Anniversary of Election

O God, who in your providential design
willed that your Church be built
upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles,
look with favor, we pray, on Francis our Pope
and grant that he, whom you have made Peter’s successor,
may be for your people a visible source and foundation
of unity in faith and of communion.
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.

O God, shepherd and ruler of all the faithful,
look favorably on your servant Francis,
whom you have set at the head of your Church
as her shepherd;
grant, we pray, that by word and example
he may be of service to those over whom he presides
so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care,
he may come to everlasting life.
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.

O God, who chose your servant Francis
in succession to the Apostle Peter
as shepherd of the whole flock,
look favorably on the supplications of your people
and grant that, as Vicar of Christ on earth,
he may confirm his brethren
and that the whole Church
may be in communion with him
in the bond of unity, love and peace,
so that in you, the shepherd of souls,
all may know the truth and attain life eternal.
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 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: Wednesday

“Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” (Luke 11:30)

Saint Ephrem the Syrian offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“The sign of Jonah served the Ninevites in two ways. If they would have rejected it, they would have gone down to Sheol alive like Jonah, but they were raised from the dead like him because they repented. Just as in the case of our Lord, who was set for the fall and the rising of many, people either lived through his being killed or died through his death. They were asking him for a sign from heaven16 like thunder. Jonah, after he went up from within the fish, was a negative sign to the Ninevites, because he proclaimed the destruction of their city. The disciples were also this way after the resurrection of our Lord.” (Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron, 11)

Look kindly, Lord, we pray,
on the devotion of your people,
that those who by self-denial are restrained in body
may by the fruit of good works be renewed in mind.
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 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)

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.

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: Monday.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, ...” (Matthew 25:35)

In an ancient work known as the Incomplete Work on Matthew, an anonymous Christian writer offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“This can also be said of teachers who gave the food of learning to those hungry for righteousness, so they might be fed and grow healthy in good actions; who administered the drink of truth to those thirsty for the knowledge of God. Teaching in the Word, they certainly fed them and also gave to drink, baptizing in the Holy Spirit those who are strangers in the world. For all souls are truly strangers on this earth who can say, “For I am your passing guest, a sojourner, like all my fathers.” Preaching the word of faith, they welcome souls from the spreading of error and make them fellow citizens and family members of the saints. They welcome Christ himself and clothe, by teaching righteousness, those who are naked and even without a garment of righteousness. As is written: “Put on, then, compassion, faith, peace and kindness.” That is to say, they clothe Christ and baptize them in Christ, as is written: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”” (Homily 54)

Convert us, O God our Savior,
and instruct our minds by heavenly teaching,
that we may benefit from the works of Lent.
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 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, Sunday

“The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:6)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa offers the following insight on this verse from today's Gospel:

“Those who have been tricked into taking poison offset its harmful effect by another drug. The remedy, moreover, just like the poison, has to enter the system, so that its remedial effect may thereby spread through the whole body. Similarly, having tasted the poison, that is the fruit, that dissolved our nature, we were necessarily in need of something to reunite it. Such a remedy had to enter into us, so that it might by its counteraction undo the harm the body had already encountered from the poison. And what is this remedy? Nothing else than the body that proved itself superior to death and became the source of our life.” (The Great Catechism, 37)

Grant, almighty God,
through the yearly observances of holy Lent,
that we may grow in understanding
of the riches hidden in Christ
and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.
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 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: the First Week: Sunday

“At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’”” (Matthew 4:10)

Saint Chromatius of Aquileia comments on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“David also prefigures this rejection of temptation when he speaks of the Lord, saying, “And the scourge did not approach his tabernacle.” No sin of diabolical scourge could come close to the body of the Lord. Therefore the Lord withstood temptations from the enemy that he might restore victory to humankind. He thereby made sport of the devil, according to what David also proclaimed: “That Leviathan, whom you made to sport in it.” And again: “He will bring low the false accuser.” And also: “You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces on the water.” In the book of Job the Lord declared that this Leviathan would be made sport of and caught in this temptation, saying, “You will draw out Leviathan with a fishhook.” (Tractate on Matthew, 14)

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: Saturday after Ash Wednesday

“Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.” (Luke 5:29)

Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel:

“People are hungry when Christ is absent and they lack the abundance of good desserts. Truly, one for whom his own virtue suffices for pleasure, who receives Christ in his own home, prepares a great feast. It is a spiritual banquet of good works, at which the rich people go without and the poor one feasts. It says, “The sons of the Bridegroom cannot fast while the Bridegroom is with them.” (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, 5)

Almighty ever-living God,
look with compassion on our weakness
and ensure us your protection
by stretching forth the right hand of your majesty.
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 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: Friday after Ash Wednesday

“Then the disciples of John approached him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast [much], but your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14)

Saint John Chrysostom comments on this verse from today’s Gospel reading:

“The reason the disciples did not fast was not because of gluttony but because of the dispensations of providence in fulfilling prophecy. At this point he uses the statement about his suffering to lay a foundation for a later time. In this way Jesus instructs the disciples in his controversies with others and is already training them to get practice in things that seem to be daunting. To make this statement directly to the disciples at this point would have been burdensome and depressing. Indeed, in places where Jesus spoke about such things after this it did disturb them. But because it was said to others in this case, its effect was much less depressing to the disciples.

Now it was likely that the disciples of John the Baptist were also thinking highly of themselves as a result of John’s suffering. Because of this Jesus also put down this inflated conceit through what he said. Nevertheless he did not yet introduce the topic of the resurrection. For it was not yet the right time. For the topic that Jesus did introduce, that he who was thought to be human would die, was only natural. But the topic of his resurrection was beyond the natural.” (The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Homily 30)

Show gracious favor, O Lord, we pray,
to the works of penance we have begun,
that we may have strength to accomplish with sincerity
the bodily observances we undertake.
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 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: Thursday after Ash Wednesday

“Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

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

“It is necessary, therefore, to receive instruction before baptism, having first removed any impediment to learning and so making ourselves fit to receive the instruction. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself confirms this assertion by his example and also by the formal injunction: “So every one of you that does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple;” and by the definitive declaration: “He that takes not up his cross daily and follows me is not worthy of me.” And then we are ready for the baptism of water, which is a type of the cross and of death, burial and resurrection from the dead.

Whoever, therefore, is worthy to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit and who has been born anew undergoes a change of abode, habits and associates, so that, walking by the Spirit we may merit to be baptized in the name of the Son and to put on Christ.” (Concerning Baptism)

Prompt our actions with your inspiration,
we pray, O Lord,
and further them with your constant help,
that all we do may always begin from you
and by you be brought to completion.
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 You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.