Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
First Week of Advent
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 1:1-3The 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 21:25-33At 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 GospelsOur 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....
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 1:24-28Therefore 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
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 2:1-3The 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 2:4-6And 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 2:7-9Collect 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.
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 3:1-4For 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 3:5-7And 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 3:8-11For 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
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 4:1-3And 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 5:1-4I 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 5:5-7And 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
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 6:1-3In 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 6:4-7And 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 6:8-10And 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
Lesson i
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaias
Isaias 7:1-3And 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 7:4-6And 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 7:10-15And 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.
