Occurring Scripture for the
Hour of Matins
Sunday
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 1:1-3
The vision of Isaias the son of Amos,
which he saw concerning Juda and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias, Joathan,
Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda. Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord has spoken: "I have brought up children, and exalted
them: but they have despised Me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass
his master's crib: but Israel has not known Me, and My people have not
understood."
Lesson ii
Isaias 1:4-6
"Woe to the sinful nation, a people
laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken
the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have gone away
backwards. For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase
transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad.
From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness
therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor
dressed, nor fomented with oil."
Lesson iii
Isaias 1:7-9
"Your land is desolate, your cities are
burnt with fire: strangers devour your country before your face, and
it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies. And the daughter of
Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of
cucumbers, and as a city that is laid waste." Except the Lord of hosts
had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like to
Gomorrha.
Lesson iv
From the Sermons of Pope Saint Leo the Great
VIII on the December fast, and almsgiving.
Our Savior Himself
instructed His disciples concerning the times and seasons of the coming of
the Kingdom of God and the end of the world, and He has given the same teaching to the Church by the mouth of His
Apostles. In connection with this subject then, Our Lord bids us to beware
lest we let our hearts grow heavy through excess of meat and drink, and
worldly thoughts. Dearly beloved brethren, we know how that this warning applies
particularly to us. We know that the day is coming, and though for
a season we know not the very hour, yet this we know, that it is near.
Lesson v
Let every man then make himself ready against the coming of
the Lord, so that He may not find him making his belly his god, or the world
his chief care. Dearly beloved brethren, it is a matter of every day
experience that fullness of drink dulls the keenness of the mind, and that
excess of eating unnerves the strength of the will. The very stomach
protests that gluttony does harm to the bodily health, unless temperance
gets the better of desire, and the thought of the indigestion afterward checks
the indulgence of the moment.
Lesson vi
The body without the soul
has no desires; its sensibility comes from the same source as its movements. And it is the duty of a man
with a reasonable soul to deny something to his lower nature and to keep
back the outer man from things unseemly. Then will his soul, free from
fleshly cravings, sit often at leisure in the palace of the mind, dwelling
on the wisdom of God. There, when the roar and rattle of earthly cares are
stilled, will she feed on holy thoughts and entertain herself with the
expectation of the everlasting joy.
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to
Luke
Luke
21:25-33
At that time, Jesus said to his
disciples: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the
stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of
the roaring of the sea and of the waves; Men withering away for fear,
and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of
heaven shall be moved; And then they shall see the Son of man coming
in a cloud, with great power and majesty. But when these things begin
to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is
at hand." And He spoke to them in a similitude. "See the fig tree, and
all the trees: When they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that
summer is nigh; So you also, when you shall see these things come to
pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you,
this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."
An homily of Pope Saint Gregory the
Great
I on the Gospels
Our Lord and Savior wishes to find us
ready at His second coming. Therefore He tells us what will be the evils of
the world as it grows old, that He may wean our hearts from worldly
affections. Here we read what great convulsions will go before the end,
that, if we will not fear God in our prosperity, we may at least be scourged
into fearing His judgment when it is at hand.
Lesson viii
Immediately before the passage which
has just been read from the Gospel, are found the following words of our
Lord, "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and
great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and pestilences and famines"
[Luke 21:10-11]. Then, after a few more verses, comes today's Gospel: "There
shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the
earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring."
Now some of these things are come to pass already, and we fear the others
are not far off.
Lesson ix
In these our days we see
nation rise against nation, and their distress over all the earth, more than
we read in books has ever come to pass times passed. Ye know also how often
we hear of earthquakes overwhelming countless cities in other parts of the
world. As for pestilences, we suffer from them ourselves, with hardly any
intermission. As yet we do not see signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in
the stars; but the changes of seasons and climates warn us that we may look
for these also before long.
Collect:
Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O
Lord, and come; that from the threatening dangers of our sins, by Thy
protection we may deserve to be rescued, and be saved by Thy deliverance:
Who livest and reignest with God the Father....
Monday
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 1:16-18
"Wash yourselves, be
clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do
perversely, Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come, and accuse me,"
says the Lord: "if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as
snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool."
Lesson ii
Isaias 1:19-23
"If you be willing, and will hearken to
Me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you will not,
and will provoke Me to wrath: the sword shall devour you because the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. How has the faithful city, that was full of
judgment, become a harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.
Your silver is turned into dross: your wine is mingled with water.
Your princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love bribes, the
run after rewards. They judge not for the fatherless: and the widow's plea
comes not before them."
Lesson iii
Isaias 1:24-28
Therefore says the Lord the God of
hosts, the mighty one of Israel: "Ah! I will comfort Myself over My
adversaries: and I will be revenged of My enemies. And I will turn My
hand to you, and I will clean purge away your dross, and I will take away
all your [alloy] tin. And I will restore your judges as they were before,
and your counselors as of old. After this you shall be called the city of
the just, a faithful city. Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and
they shall bring her back in justice. And he shall destroy the wicked,
and the sinners together: and they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be
consumed."
Collect of Sunday
Tuesday
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 2:1-3
The word that Isaias the son of Amos
saw, concerning Juda and Jerusalem. And in the last days the mountain
of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go, and say: "Come and let us go up to the mountain of
the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His
ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
Lesson ii
Isaias 2:4-6
And he shall judge the Gentiles, and
rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and
their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they be exercised any more to war. O house of Jacob,
come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For Thou hast cast
off Thy people, the house of Jacob: because they are filled as in times
past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to
strange children.
Lesson iii
Isaias 2:7-9
Collect of Sunday
Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there
is no end of their treasures. And their land is filled with horses:
and their chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they
have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.
And man has bowed himself down, and man has been debased: therefore forgive
them not.
Wednesday
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 3:1-4
For behold the sovereign, the Lord of
hosts, shall take away from Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the
strong, the whole strength of bread, and the whole strength of water.
The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the
cunning man, and the ancient. The captain over fifty, and the
honorable in countenance, and the counselor, and the architect, and the
skillful in eloquent speech. And I will give children to be their
princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them.
Lesson ii
Isaias 3:5-7
And the people shall rush
one upon another, and every man against his neighbor: the child shall make
it tumult against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. For
a man shall take hold of his brother, one of the house of his father,
saying: "You have a garment, be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your
hand." In that day he shall answer, saying: "I am no healer, and in my
house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me not ruler of the people."
Lesson iii
Isaias 3:8-11
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is
fallen: because their tongue, and their devices are against the Lord, to
provoke the eyes of His majesty. The expression on their countenance
has betrayed them: and they have proclaimed abroad their sin as did Sodom,
and they have not hid it: woe to their souls, for evils are rendered to
them. Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit
of his doings. Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his
hands shall be given him.
Collect of Sunday
Thursday
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 4:1-3
And in that day seven women shall take hold
of one man, saying: "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel:
only let us be called by your name, take away our reproach." In that
day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of
the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of
Israel. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left
in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one
that is written among the living in Jerusalem.
Lesson ii
Isaias 5:1-4
I will sing to my beloved
the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard
on a hill in a fruitful place. And he fenced it in, and picked the
stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower
in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it
should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now,
O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my
vineyard. What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I
have not done to it?
Lesson iii
Isaias 5:5-7
And now I will show you what I will do
to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be wasted: I will
break down its wall, and it shall be trodden down. And I will make it
desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be cultivated: but briers
and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of
Juda, His pleasant plant: and I looked that He should do judgment, and
behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.
Collect of Sunday
Friday
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 6:1-3
In the year that king Ozias died, I saw
the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and his train filled the
temple. Upon it stood the seraphim: the one had six wings, and the
other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they
covered his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to
another, and said: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth
is full of His glory."
Lesson ii
Isaias 6:4-7
And the lintels of the doors were moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
And I said: "Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips,
and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts. And one of
the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken
with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said:
"Behold this has touched your lips, and your iniquities shall be taken away,
and your sin shall be cleansed."
Lesson iii
Isaias 6:8-10
And I heard the voice of the Lord,
saying: "Whom shall I send? and who shall go for Us?" And I said: "Lo, here
am I, send me." And He said: "Go, and you shall say to this people:
'Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.'
Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their
eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them."
Collect of Sunday
Saturday
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 7:1-3
And it came to pass in the
days of Achaz the son of Joathan, the son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Basin
king of Syria, and Phacee the son of Romelia king of Israel, came up to
Jerusalem, to fight against it: but they could not prevail over it.
And they told the house of David, saying: "Syria has allied with Israel, and
his heart was moved with fear, and the hearts of his people, as the trees of
the woods are shaken with the wind." And the Lord said to Isaias: "Go
forth to meet Achaz, you and Jasub your son that is left [the son's name
"Shear-Jashub," is literally "a remnant (of Juda) shall return"], to the
conduit of the upper pool, in the way of the fuller's field.
Lesson ii
Isaias 7:4-6
And you shall say to him: "Be quiet:
fear not, and let not your heart be afraid of the two tails of these fire
brands, smoking with the wrath of the fury of Rasin king of Syria, and of
the son of Romelia. Because Syria hath taken counsel against you, unto
the evil of Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying: Let us go up to
Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and make the son of Tabeel
king in its midst.
Lesson iii
Isaias 7:10-15
And the Lord spoke again to Achaz,
saying: "Ask a sign of the Lord your God, either unto the depth of
hell, or unto the height above." And Achaz said: "I will not ask, and
I will not tempt the Lord." And he [Isaias] said: "Hear ye therefore,
O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that
you are grievous to my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give
you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name
shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may
know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good."
Collect of Sunday
If the third lesson is to be taken
from the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin or from a simplex feast of a
Saint, Lessons ii and iii above are concatenated.