St Augustine on the Blessings of Eternity

A reading from the book of St Augustine The City of God.

XXII, 30

How great shall be that felicity, which shall be tainted with no evil, which shall lack no good, and which shall afford leisure for the praises of God, who shall be all in all!  For I know not what other employment there can be where no lassitude shall slacken activity, nor any want stimulate to labour.  I am admonished also by the sacred song, in which I read or hear the words, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord; they will be alway praising thee.” (Ps 84:5)

Certainly that city shall have no greater joy than the celebration of the grace of Christ, who redeemed us by his blood.  There shall be accomplished the words of the psalm, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Ps 46:11) There shall be the great Sabbath which has no evening, which God celebrated among his first works, as it is written, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made.  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God began to make.” (Gen. 2:2-3) For we shall ourselves be the seventh day, when we shall be filled and replenished with God's blessing and sanctification.  There shall we be still, and know that he is God; when we are restored by him, and perfected with greater grace, we shall have eternal leisure to see that he is God, for we shall be full of him when he shall be all in all (I Cor. 15:28). 

For even our good works, when they are understood to be rather his than ours, are imputed to us that we may enjoy this Sabbath rest.  For if we attribute them to ourselves, they shall be servile; for it is said of the Sabbath, “You shall do no servile work in it.” (Deut. 5:14) Wherefore also it is said by Ezekiel the prophet, “And I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify them.” (Ezek. 20:12) This knowledge shall be perfected when we shall be perfectly at rest, and shall perfectly know that he is God.

After this period God shall rest as on the seventh day, when he shall give us (who shall be the seventh day) rest in himself. 

Suffice it to say that the seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not by an evening, but by the Lord’s day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the resurrection of Christ, and prefiguring the eternal repose not only of the spirit, but also of the body.  There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise.  This is what shall be in the end without end.  For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?

Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Domine

This verse of Psalm 4 – just sung by us at Compline – came powerfully to mind when Father proceeeded to give us Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament:

Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui, Domine: dedisti lætitiam in corde meo.

"The light of Thy countenance is signed upon us, Lord: Thou hast given joy to my heart."

Truly God has listened, has heeded the voice of my prayer, has not turned His face away from me, but blesses me by His priest, signing us with the Sacrament of His love, giving joy to my heart: "for God is potent in redonating a greater consolation", as the Imitatio Christi avers.

St Augustine comments upon this very verse in his Confessions, writing against the Manichees from following whose falsities he had been delivered, angry at them or rather pitying them for being madly hostile to the medicine of the sacraments (cf. IX, iv, 8):

'The light of your countenance, Lord, is signed upon us' (Ps 4:7).  For we are not 'the light that enlightens every man' (John 1:9).  We derive our light from you, so that we 'who were once darkness are light in you' (Eph 5:8).  If only they [the Manichees] could see the eternal to be inward!  I had tasted this...  

...there you began to be my delight, and 'you gave gladness in my heart' (Ps 4:7).  And I cried out loud when I acknowledged inwardly what I read in external words.

— Confessions, IX, iv, 10

Our small schola, with Father and some parishioners, had gathered on a rainy night to sing God's praises in the immemorial Latin plainchant, and then gone on to worship Emmanuel, God present with us in His Sacrament.  We few, we happy few...

We had supper after, and a good long discussion touching on many of the ills and worries of contemporary society.  It is indeed sad, as it was for Augustine, to think of the wider world's peoples heedless of or even actively spurning the celestial remedies at hand to the fears and dangers of our transient life, the free offer of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

St Augustine and His Conversion

Dear St Augustine, that stupor mundi, convert and confessor, bishop and doctor of the Church down all the ages!

It glads my heart to see his feast again.

He who so clearly saw that the history of mankind is the tale of two cities, the City of Man and the City of God, himself beheld the ruin of transient things, lying on his bed of pain praying the Penitential Psalms, and came to pass over from this miserable world to the Father on this very day, the 28th of August, 430, while his episcopal see was besieged by the cruel Arian Vandals, who were ravishing once-fair North Africa, putting priests and virgins to the sword.

It is said that soon after an Imperial messenger arrived in doomed Hippo, bearing a purple scroll all written with gold characters, summoning him to the Council of Ephesus, where the Fathers assembled would soon condemn Nestorius and declare Holy Mary to be Mother of God - but this Light of the West had already departed for the pure light of Truth above.

May he pray for me, that I be converted entirely to the Lord; may he pray for all nations, that they all turn and be saved. As the Saint so beautifully and truly put it,

Fecisti nos ad te, Domine, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te.

(Thou hast made us for Thyself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rest in Thee.)

******

Famously, St Augustine's conversion in the summer of 386 (which, like St Paul's, had a feast all its own in calendars of congregations - such as the Dominicans - adhering to his Rule, on the 15th of May - see an online Breviarium S.O.P., page 337ff) was proximately triggered by his opening the Scriptures, upon hearing mysterious voices chanting Tolle, lege; his eye fell upon Romans xiii, 13f:

Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy: but put on the Lord Jesus Christ: and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences.

Thus was answered his well-known imperfect prayer during his time of wandering with divided heart - "Lord, grant me chastity, but not yet." Thus were superabundantly rewarded all his stumbling steps toward the light. Thus were answered the endless prayers and tears of St Monica, his mother, to whose piteous intercession, under God, is attributed the grace of his conversion!

Handing on the scroll to St Alypius, his friend, who was thereupon converted by reading the next verse (Romans xiv, 1 - "Now him that is weak in faith, take unto you: not in disputes about thoughts"), Augustine experienced no more doubts or dismay, and was baptized by St Ambrose at the Easter Vigil at Milan, on the 24th of April 387. Pious fancy has these two later canonized saints and Doctors extemporizing the Te Deum at the moment of St Augustine's reëmergence from the font: well may we sing Te Deum and Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam, on such a great feast!

Here is the old Dominican collect for the feast of St Augustine's conversion:

Deus, qui ineffabili providentia beatum Augustinum ab errorum tenebris ad lucem evangelicæ veritatis adduxisti: da nobis, quæsumus, ut, qui ejus [hodie] Conversionem colimus, ejusdem ad te precibus, actus nostros in melius reformemus. Per...

(God, Who didst bring blessed Augustine by Thine unspeakable Providence from the darkness of error to the light of Gospel truth: give unto us, we beseech, that we who observe his Conversion [to-day], at the prayers of the same to Thee, may reform our actions for the better. Through...)

This would be a very suitable daily prayer. St Philip Neri used to declare upon recovering from any illness that he really purposed to begin to reform his life, considering that all his efforts thus far were nugatory - and this was the set resolve of a saint! Much the more so ought worldlings pray at least for grace to at last slough off sin and walk manfully in the way of Christ.

The Conversion of St Paul, the Conversion of St Augustine, and, may one add the Conversion of soon-to-be-Blessed John Henry Newman (9th October 1845, when he was received into the Church by Bl Dominic Barberi, C.P.*) - these, together with the anniversary of one's own embrace of the Faith, should be days kept with solemnity and ever remembered.

[* This holy priest once converted two anti-Catholic youths on the spot, when they observed that the stones they threw at him in their bigoted violence he picked up and kissed!]

Invention of St Stephen

Don't you love suppressed feasts? While I'm nowadays adhering to the Little Office of Our Lady, in the '62 Breviary yesterday (Monday) was a feria - but had previously been the feast of the Discovery of the Relics of St Stephen, who happens to be my confirmation patron.

A holy priest, Lucian, of the bishopric of Jerusalem, received a vision in 415: it was Gamaliel, communicating to him the burial place of himself, and with him his son, Abibas, and also Nicodemus and St Stephen, bidding him summon Bishop John, that the relics of all these be uncovered for the glory of God and the comfort of the Church. The buried bodies of the saints again saw the light of day, the wonders they worked and the veneration they inspired presaging their coming glorification at the General Resurrection, on the 26th of December that year (hence the date of the main feast of St Stephen); the feast of the Invention of the Relics of St Stephen (and of St Gamaliel and St Nicodemus) was later fixed on the 3rd of August, probably in memory of the dedication of a church in his honour.

These sacred relics were very soon dispersed throughout the Church of God: St Augustine records the triumphal reception of portions of St Stephen's relics in North Africa, where, as at Jerusalem, it pleased the Lord to work miracles through them, and of many St Augustine himself was eye-witness: public cures abounded - at Hippo alone, seventy miracles were attested, including three raised from the dead, and the same happened elsewhere. It is interesting that what the Fathers beheld proven beyond doubt is scoffed at by the mistrustful blind guides of our present age.

To Rome relics of St Stephen came also - God willing, come September I shall visit them, where they are buried beside St Lawrence the great Martyr-Deacon of Rome, at his basilica without the Walls.

I refer interested readers to an earlier posting of mine (for St Stephen's Day, 2007), giving Collects, Sequences, Antiphons and such in his honour. The Collect for the Discovery is as follows:

Da nobis, quæsumus, Domine, imitari quod colimus: ut discamus et inimicos diligere; quia ejus inventionem celebramus, qui novit etiam pro persecutoribus exorare Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum: Qui tecum vivit et regnat...

(Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to imitate what we worship: that we may learn to love even our enemies: for we celebrate his finding, who thought to pray even for his persecutors to Our Lord Jesus CHrist Thy Son, Who with Thee liveth and reigneth...)

St Augustine on the Passion

Yesterday and to-day, the Church bids us read at Matins the commentary of St Augustine on verses of Psalm 63, which he rightly interprets in the context of the Lord's Passion, the suffering of the Saint of saints and the true and faithful Witness, the Prince of Martyrs: for "the New the Old reveals, the Old the New conceals".  Here are the extracts used on Good Friday and Holy Saturday (although I haven't been able to fill up a missing part of Lesson vi):

Good Friday

Lesson iv

You have protected me from the gathering together of malignants, and from the multitude of men working iniquity (Psalm 63:2). Now upon Himself our Head let us look. Like things many Martyrs have suffered: but nothing does shine out so brightly as the Head of Martyrs; in Him rather let us behold what they have gone through. Protected He was from the multitude of malignants, God protecting Himself, the Son Himself and the Manhood which He was carrying protecting His flesh: because Son of Man He is, and Son of God He is; Son of God because of the form of God, Son of Man because of the form of a servant: having in His power to lay down His life: and to take it again. (John 10:18) To Him what could enemies do? They killed body, soul they killed not. Observe. Too little therefore it were for the Lord to exhort the Martyrs with word, unless He had enforced it by example. 

Lesson v

You know what a gathering together there was of malignant Jews, and what a multitude there was of men working iniquity. What iniquity? That wherewith they willed to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. So many good works, He says, I have shown to you, for which of these will you to kill Me? (John 10:32) He endured all their infirm, He healed all their sick, He preached the Kingdom of Heaven, He held not His peace at their vices, so that these same should have been displeasing to them, rather than the Physician by whom they were being made whole: for all these His remedies being ungrateful, like men delirious in high fever raving at the physician, they devised the plan of destroying Him that had come to heal them; as though therein they would prove whether He were indeed a man, that could die, or were somewhat above men, and would not suffer Himself to die. The word of these same men we perceive in the wisdom of Solomon: with death most vile, say they, let us condemn Him; let us question Him, for there will be regard in the discourses of Him; for if truly Son of God He is, let Him deliver Him. (Cf. Wisdom 2:20,18.)

Lesson vi

For they have whet like a sword their tongues (Psalm 63:3). Which says another Psalm also, Sons of men; their teeth are arms and arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword. Let not the Jews say, we have not killed Christ. For to this end they gave Him to Pilate the judge, in order that they themselves might seem as it were guiltless of His death. For when Pilate said to them: You put him to death, they responded: It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. [...] But if he is guilty because he did it though unwillingly, are they innocent who compelled him to do it? By no means. But he gave sentence against Him, and commanded Him to be crucified: and in a manner himself killed Him; ye also, O you Jews, killed Him. Whence did ye kill Him? With the sword of the tongue: for you did whet your tongues. And when did ye smite, except when you cried out, Crucify, Crucify? (Luke 23:21)

Holy Saturday

Lesson iv

There shall draw near a man to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted (Psalm 63:7). They said, Who shall see us? They failed in searching searchings (Psalm 63:6), evil counsels. There drew near a man to those same counsels, He suffered Himself to be held as a man. For He would not have been held except He were man, or have been seen except He were man, or have been smitten except He were man, or have been crucified or have died except He were man. There drew near a man therefore to all those sufferings, which in Him would have been of no avail except He were Man. But if He were not Man, there would not have been deliverance for man. There has drawn near a Man and a deep heart, that is, a secret heart: presenting before human faces Man, keeping within God: concealing the form of God, wherein He is equal with the Father, (Philippians 2:6) and offering the form of a servant, wherein He is less than the Father.

Lesson v

To what did they bring those their searchings, in which searchings they failed, so that even, when the Lord was dead and buried, they set guards at the tomb? For they said to Pilate, That deceiver; by this name the Lord Jesus Christ was called, for the comfort of His servants when they are called deceivers; they say therefore to Pilate, That deceiver said when yet living, After three days I will rise again: (Matthew 27:63-66) Command therefore the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day: lest perhaps his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people: He is risen from the dead: and the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate saith to them: You have a guard.  Go, guard it as you know.  And they departing, made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone and setting guards.

Lesson vi

They set for guards soldiers at the sepulchre. At the earth quaking, the Lord rose again: such miracles were done about the sepulchre, that even the very soldiers that had come for guards were made witnesses, if they chose to tell the truth: but the same covetousness which had led captive a disciple, the companion of Christ, led captive also the soldier that was guard of the sepulchre. We give you, they say, money; (Matthew 28:12-13) and say ye, while yourselves were sleeping there came His disciples, and took Him away. Truly they failed searching searchings. What is this that thou sayest, O unhappy astuteness? To what extent hast thou not abandoned the light of the counsel of piety, and have immersed thyself in the depths of cunning, that this thou sayest: Say, that is, you sleepers, his disciples came, and stole him away? Sleeping witnesses ye adduce: truly you yourself hast fallen asleep, that in searching such devices hast failed.

Lazarus as Everyman

Lazarus is Everyman; every man is Lazarus.  (Significantly, in Hebrew, Lazarus is אלעזר, that is, Elʿāzār or Eleazar, meaning "God [has] helped".)  So Augustine thinks: "Someone saith: How by Lazarus is signified the sinner, and why by the Lord is he so loved?   Let him hear Him saying: I came not to call the just, but sinners.  For if God had not loved sinners, He had not come down to earth from heaven."  (Lesson iii at Matins, from his Tract 49 on St John's Gospel.)  Amazing and astounding should it ever appear to us, that "God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son, that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (St John iii, 16) - this truth should be grasped in astonishment ever new.  

Moreover, why was all mankind fallen and sitting in the darkness and shadow of death?  St Augustine goes on: "And hearing Jesus, He said unto them: This infirmity is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God be glorified."  What awesome mystery, stupefyingly so: that the Fall and the languishing of man in sin is not intended to issue in man perishing everlastingly (every Lenten feria at Prime we repeat the Lord's asseveration, Nolo mortem peccatoris, sed ut magis convertatur, et vivat: "I do not will the death of the sinner, but more that he be converted, and live"), but rather original sin and all ensuing actual sin is to be turned, not into misery here and punishment hereafter, but into the means for giving God the glory, and precisely through the exaltation of Christ - on His Cross.

The Lord takes worse than dross, and makes of it better than gold.  What hope, then, for everyman: even when dead in sin as Lazarus, there is hope that (though "he stinketh") he shall be called forth from the massa damnata, and by the Lord raised up - "Lazarus, come forth!"

Ancient Spanish Lenten Lectio Continua

In St Augustine's day, the sacred liturgy in Africa began with the entry of the bishop and clergy in silence... once all were assembled in due order, the pontiff pronounced the customary salutation and blessing, "The Lord be with you," over all the clergy and people, and thereupon the readings began.

There are suspicions that the North African Rite resembled that which developed in ancient Spain, persisted and developed during Visigothic times, endured the Moorish occupation, and survived the Reconquista, being retained above all in the Capilla Muzarabe at Toledo Cathedral; in 1500, the noted humanist Cardinal Ximenes had the ancient manuscript missals and office books reëdited and printed, ne prorsus interirent; and in our own day these have been restored to their original purity, by being stripped of mediæval accretions from the local Romano-Toledan use: one day perhaps I'll be in Toledo (or elsewhere in Spain) and assist at such a Mozarabic Mass.

In the meanwhile, it is interesting to note that only on Sundays outside of Lent (including the first Sunday of Lent - the Fast begins on the Monday after!), and on feasts, does the Mozarabic Mass begin with a processional chant (the Prælegendum, equivalent to the Roman Introit), continue with the Gloria in excelsis and following prayer (not so much a collect as an expatiation upon themes of the Gloria, with perhaps a seasonal or festal emphasis), and then, after not before the prayer (shewing the preceding material to be of later introduction) have an introductory Dominus sit semper vobiscum (the Mozarabic Rite is customarily prolix, hence the interpolated sit semper) before the readings are read.  Instead, on ferias, fasts, and all days of Lent, even Sundays, even now, the Mozarabic Rite begins most starkly, as St Augustine would have done, with a silent entrance of the clergy, and only "The Lord be ever with you" before the first lesson from Scripture.

A few Lents ago, I decided for meditation to read over the Lenten readings for Mass supplied in the Mozarabic Rite: they turned out to consist in a fourfold lectio semi-continua (many passages regarding right conduct from Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus or Sirach; a tour through the Old Testament from the Fall to the Prophet Elias; more or less straight through the Catholic Epistles of James, I & II Peter, and I John; and St John's Gospel, chapters 1 to 12) that I found profitable. (For any interested, I append below a table derived from a Spanish and Latin Mozarabic website that has put much useful material online.)  

[Bear in mind that Mozarabic Lenten Terce, Sext and None also have, at least according to the Breviarium Gothicum, long Scripture lessons, that in particular cover most of the historical books of the Old Testament from the Fall to the destruction of Jerusalem.]

Now, ordinarily the ancient Spanish Mass had three lections: one from the Prophets, one from an Apostle (that is, from one of their Epistles), and one from the Gospels; between the Prophet and Apostle came a chant, the Psallendum (the little-item-to-be-psalmed - rather like a Gradual), while, by a strange decision of an early Council of Toledo, the Alleluia and verse (the Laudes, or praises) is deferred until after the Gospel, unlike in other liturgies where it serves to introduce it.  However, in Lent, there are four readings, the first in a sense taking the place of the absent introductory chants and prayer: the Rite has a reading from the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, then one from the historical books, then one from an Apostle, and finally a Gospel passage.  On Wednesdays and Fridays, in place of the Psallendum before the Apostle, sad texts, called Threni, are chanted (these resemble the Roman Tract).

(All of the following references are to the chapters and verses of the Neo-Vulgate, except that the numbering of the psalms follows the Vulgate.)

TEMPUS QUADRAGESIMÆ

In primo Dominico Quadragesimæ, id est, de carnes tollendas 

Historical Lection: 1 K 19,3-14

Psallendum: Ps 78,8-9a

Apostle: 2 Cor 5,20-6,10

Gospel: Mt 4,1-11 

Laudes: (first year) Ps 77,1

(second year) Ps 18,11;118,103 

Missa ieiunii de II feria inchoante Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 2,1-9

Historical Lection: Gen 3,1-19

Psallendum: Ps 101,14-15

Apostle: Jas 1,1-12

Gospel: Jn 1,1-14

Laudes: Ps 21,24.27 

Feria III in prima hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 6,1-8

Historical Lection: Gen 12,1-20

Psallendum: Ps 132,1-2

Apostle: Jas 1,13-21

Gospel: Jn 1,15-28

Laudes: Ps 52,4.5-6 

Feria IV in prima hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 13,22-14,11

Historical Lection: Ex 34,27-34

Threni: Lam 1,1: Jer 9,1;14,17; Lam 2,19;1,5; Jer 5,6

Apostle: Jas 1,22-25

Gospel: Jn 1,29-34

Laudes: Ps 70,23a.22a 

Feria V in prima hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 20,5-13

Historical Lection: Gen 7,1-24

Psallendum: Ps 7,7b-8a.10a

Apostle: Jas 1,26-27

Gospel: Jn 1,35-51

Laudes: Ps 102,1-2 

Feria VI in prima hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 29,1-15

Historical Lection: Gen 31,17-44

Threni: Jer 9,18; Is 22,4;21,3-4; Jer 4,31

Apostle: Jas 2,1-13

Gospel: Jn 2,12-23

Laudes: Ps 103,33-34 

Sabbatum in prima hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 29,19-30

Historical Lection: Gen 33,1-20

Psallendum: Ps 33,23.20

Apostle: Jas 2,21-26

Gospel: Jn 3,16-21

Laudes: Ps 112,1-2 

In secundo Dominico Quadragesimæ, missa de muliere samaritana 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 14,33-15,8

Historical Lection: Gen 41,1-45a

Psallendum: Ps 26,9b-10.7

Apostle: Jas 2,14-23

Gospel: Jn 4,3-42

Laudes: Ps 68,31.35 

Feria II in secunda hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 16,16-32

Historical Lection: Gen 42,3-25

Psallendum: Ps 37,16-17a.18

Apostle: Jas 3,1-13

Gospel: Jn 3,22-36

Laudes: Ps 135,1-2a 

Feria III in secunda hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 13,1-10

Historical Lection: Gen 47,1-15

Psallendum: Ps 119,1-2

Apostle: Jas 4,1-10

Gospel: Jn 5,19-30

Laudes: Ps 104,1a.4 

Feria IV in secunda hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 27,23-28,5

Historical Lection: Éx 2,11-25

Threni: Job 33,26.25; Is 13,7; Job 33,19.22.24.18.30

Apostle: Jas 4,11-17

Gospel: Jn 5,19a.31-38

Laudes: Ps 146,1.3.7a 

Feria V in secunda hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 28,6-13

Historical Lection: Ex 5,1-23

Psallendum: Ps 120,1-2

Apostle: Jas 5,1-6

Gospel: Jn 5,19a.39-6,2

Laudes: Ps 68,31-32 

Feria VI in secunda hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 18,15-21

Historical Lection: Ex 13,3-22

Threni: Job 15,14-16;10,9;14,15-17

Apostle: Jas 5,7-15

Gospel: Jn 6,3-14

Laudes: Ps 108,30-31 

Sabbatum in secunda hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 28,14-28

Historical Lection: Ex 14,1-14

Psallendum: Ps 139,5b.9b

Apostle: Jas 5,16-20

Gospel: Jn 6,15-23

Laudes: Ps 139,2-5a 

In tertio Dominico Quadragesimæ, missa de cæco nato dicenda 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 20,17-28

Historical Lection: Núm 22,2-23,10

Psallendum: Ps 35,8a.11-12

Apostle: 1Jn 1,5-9

Gospel: Jn 9,1-38

Laudes: Ps 104,1a.4 

Feria II in tertia hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 29,1-14

Historical Lection: Núm 14,1-24

Psallendum: Ps 101,14-15

Apostle: 1Pe 1,1-12

Gospel: Jn 6,24-29

Laudes: Ps 21,24.27 

Feria III in tertia hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 29,19-27

Historical Lection: Jos 8,30-9,2

Psallendum: Ps 132,1-2

Apostle: 1Pe 1,13-25a

Gospel: Jn 6,30-35

Laudes: Ps 62,4.5-6 

Feria IV in tertia hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 21,22-31

Historical Lection: Judg 1,1-26

Threni: Job 7,20-21.7.19-21.16

Apostle: 1Pe 2,25-3,9

Gospel: Jn 6,35-40

Laudes: Ps 70,23a.22a 

Feria V in tertia hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 22,17-29

Historical Lection: Judg 2,6-23

Psallendum: Ps 7,7b-8a.10a

Apostle: 1Pe 4,7-11

Gospel: Jn 6,41-47

Laudes: Ps 102,1-2 

Feria VI in tertia hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 9,1-3.8-13;8,11-12

Historical Lection: Judg 16,4-31

Threni: Lam 1,18; Is 47,6; Lam 1,5;4,11;1,4;3,3-4.7-8

Apostle: 1Pe 4,13-19

Gospel: Jn 8,2-11

Laudes: Ps 103,33-34 

Sabbatum in tertia hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 25,2-12

Historical Lection: Judg 21,1-25

Psallendum: Ps 33,23.20

Apostle: 1Pe 5,5-11

Gospel: Jn 6,43.48-58

Laudes: Ps 112,1-2 

In quarto Dominico Quadragesimæ, missa in mediante dia festo 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 14,11-22

Historical Lection: 1Sam 1,1-20

Psallendum: Ps 70,5.19b-20a.21b.10b-12a.3c-5a

Apostle: Jas 3,14-18

Gospel: Jn 7,2-30

Laudes: Ps 70,23-24 

Feria II in quarta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 4,1-11

Historical Lection: 1Sam 3,1-19

Psallendum: Ps 37,16-17a.18

Apostle: 2Pe 1,1-11

Gospel: Jn 6,53.58-63a

Laudes: Ps 135,1-2a 

Feria III in quarta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 15,22-33

Historical Lection: 1Sam 6,1-19

Psallendum: Ps 119,1-2

Apostle: 2Pe 1,12-21

Gospel: Jn 6,61a.63b-70

Laudes: Ps 104,1a.4 

Feria IV in quarta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 13,14-21

Historical Lection: 1Sam 12,1-23

Threni: Lam 1,11.9.8; Job 16,11; Lam 2,16;1,8

Apostle: 2Pe 2,1-8

Gospel: Jn 7,32-38

Laudes: Ps 146,1.3.7a 

Feria V in quarta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 12,5-15

Historical Lection: 1Sam 6,1-19

Psallendum: Ps 119,1-2

Apostle: 2Pe 1,12-21

Gospel: Jn 6,61a.63b-70

Laudes: Ps 104,1a.4 

Feria VI in quarta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 26,18-28

Historical Lection: 1Sam 16,1-12

Threni: Job 16,7a.8.10-11.13-14

Apostle: 2Pe 3,3-9

Gospel: Jn 8,21-30

Laudes: Ps 108,30-31 

Sabbatum in quarta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 24,15-25

Historical Lection: 1Sam 20,11-21,1

Psallendum: Ps 139,5b.9b

Apostle: 2Pe 3,10-18

Gospel: Jn 8,31-59

Laudes: Ps 139,2-5a 

In quinto Dominico Quadragesimæ, missa de Lazaro dicenda 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 47,24-29;

Historical Lection: 1Sam 26,1-24

Psallendum: Ps 37,22.8.18.20b-21

Apostle: 1Jn 5,16-20

Gospel: Jn 11,1-52

Laudes: Ps 139,2-5a 

Feria II in quinta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 48,1-23

Historical Lection: 1Sam 27,1-12

Psallendum: Ps 101,14-15

Apostle: 1Jn 1,10-2,6

Gospel: Jn 10,1-16

Laudes: Ps 21,24.27 

Feria III in quinta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 10,26-34

Historical Lection: 2Sam 6,1-23

Psallendum: Ps 132,1-2

Apostle: 1Jn 2,7-17

Gospel: Jn 10,17-21

Laudes: Ps 62,4.5-6 

Feria IV in quinta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Prov 23,1-8.12-14

Historical Lection: 2Sam 7,1-19

Threni: Job 30,1.9-10.12-13.16

Apostle: 1Jn 2,18-29

Gospel: Jn 10,22-42

Laudes: Ps 70,23a.22a 

Feria V in quinta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 37,20-30

Historical Lection: 2Sam 9,1-13

Psallendum: Ps 7,7b-8a.10a

Apostle: 1Jn 3,1-17

Gospel: Jn 12,20-28

Laudes: Ps 102,1-2 

Feria VI in quinta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 44,1;46,16-23

Historical Lection: 2Sam 24,2-15

Threni: Jer 11,18-20;18,23

Apostle: 1Jn 3,18-24

Gospel: Jn 12,29-36

Laudes: Ps 103,33-34 

Sabbatum in quinta hebdomada Quadragesimæ 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 44,1-15

Historical Lection: 1K 2,1-11

Psallendum: Ps 33,23.20

Apostle: 1Jn 4,1-6

Gospel: Jn 12,37-50

Laudes: Ps 112,1-2 

HEBDOMADA MAIOR 

In Dominico in ramis palmarium 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 3,2-17

Historical Lection: Dt 11,18-32

Psallendum: Ps 33,12.2-4.6.23.9

Apostle: Gál 1,3-12

Gospel: Jn 11,55-12,13 

Laudes: (first year) Ps 135,1-2

(second year) Ps 145,1b-2a 

Feria II in hebdomada maiore 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 3,18-24

Historical Lection: 2K 2,1-14

Psallendum: Ps 139,9b.2-3

Apostle: 1Jn 4,7-16

Gospel: Jn 7,43-8,2

Laudes: Ps 117,14.13 

Feria III in hebdomada maiore 

Sapiential Lesson: Si 18,1-12

Historical Lection: 2K 4,8-37

Psallendum: Ps 108,24-26.22.31

Apostle: 1Jn 4,16-5,4

Gospel: Jn 8,12-20

Laudes: Ps 118,121.122 

Feria IV in hebdomada maiore

Sapiential Lesson: Si 46,6-21

Historical Lection: 2K 5,1-14

Threni: Lam 1,12;4,11-13;1,16; Jer 9,18; Lam 1,22

Apostle: 1Jn 5,5-15

Gospel: Mt 26,2-16

Laudes: Ps 17,2b-3a 

St Augustine for Ash Wednesday

Here is an extract from the first of to-day's Lessons at Matins, from St Augustine's work on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount:

Maniféstum est... omnem nostram intentiónem in interióra gáudia dírigi: ne foris quæréntes mercédem, huic sæculo conformémur, et amittámus promissiónem tanto solidióris atque firmióris, quanto interióris beatitúdinis, qua nos elégit Deus confórmes fíeri imáginis Fílii sui.

...it is evident that our every action should be directed towards the attainment of an interior life, which alone giveth true happiness. For if contrariwise we seek our reward in outward things, we shall be conformed to the fashion of this world [Romans xii, 2], and thus forfeit God's promise of happiness, to wit, that we shall be conformed to the image of his Son [Romans viii, 29]. Such happiness, inasmuch as it concerneth inward things, is all the more certain and enduring.

Busy

It's been a very busy week for me so far...  best wishes for Monday's feast of St Louis, King of France, for Wednesday's of St Monica, and for today, the feast of the incomparable St Augustine.