Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Week of the Fifth Sunday after the Easter Octave
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
A Reading from the first letter of Saint Peter the Apostle
1 Peter 1:1-5Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that can not fade, reserved in heaven for you, who, by the power of God, are kept by faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Lesson ii
1 Peter 1:6-12Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in diverse temptations: That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, you love: in Whom also now, though you see Him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify: when it foretold those sufferings that are in Christ, and the glories that should follow: to whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you they ministered those things which are now declared to you by those that have preached the Gospel to you, the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on Whom the angels desire to look.
Lesson iii
1 Peter 1:13-21Wherefore, having the loins of your mind girt up, being sober, trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in the revelation of Jesus Christ, as children of obedience, not fashioned according to the former desires of your ignorance: but according to Him that has called you, Who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy: Because it is written: "You shall be holy, for I am holy." And if you invoke as Father Him who, without respect of persons, judges according to every one's work: converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times for you, Who through Him are faithful in God, who raised Him up from the dead, and has given Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Lesson iv
From the Book of Saint Ambrose, Bishop, on belief in the Resurrection.
After the middle of the volumeSince it was impossible that the Wisdom of God could die, and that which could not die could not rise from the dead, He took to Himself Flesh Which could die, that Whose nature it was to die might die, and rise again. Neither was it possible that the resurrection of the dead should come otherwise than by man, "for since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:21). Man He rose since Man He died, the Manhood quickened but it was the Godhead that Quickened It. Man then, as touching the Flesh God now, over all things. For now we know Christ no longer after the Flesh, but we owe it to the Flesh that we know Him as "the first-fruits of them that sleep" (1 Corinthians 15:23) "and the first-begotten of the dead" (Apocalypse 1:15).
Lesson v
The first-fruits are of the same kind and nature as the other fruits, and they are brought as an offering to God to win His blessing on the ingathering, a holy offering made on behalf of all, and as it were the homage of restored nature. Christ then is the First-fruits of them that sleep. But is He the First-fruits of only His own loved ones that fall asleep in Him, and lie as it were untouched by death, rapt in a sweet slumber or is He the First-fruits of all the dead? But "as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). So that, as in Adam were the first-fruits of the death in which all die, even so, in Christ were the first-fruits of the resurrection, wherein all rise again. But let no man be hopeless, neither let it be a grief to the righteous to remember that to rise again will be common to all men, when he looks for that day on which the harvest of his life will nobly realize itself. All shall rise again, "but," as the Apostle says, "every man in his own order" (1 Corinthians 23. The harvest of God's mercy will be for all, but the reward of one man shall differ from another.
Lesson vi
I tell you how grievous an outrage against God it is not to believe in the resurrection. If we shall not rise again, then did Christ die in vain, then is Christ not risen? For if He rose for us, and if He had not us to rise for, then He is plainly not risen. In Him the world, in Him the heavens, in Him the earth rose again. For there shall be "a new heaven, and a new earth" (Apocalypse 21:1). For Himself He needed not to rise Whom the bands of death held not. For although He died as Man, yet was He free in the netherworld itself. Would thou care to hear how free ? "I am as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead" (Psalm 87:6). O how free was He Who was able to take up his life again at will (cf. John 10:18), even as it is written that He said "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). O how free was He Who descended into hell only to redeem others from it.
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to John
John 16:23-30At that time Jesus said unto His disciples: "Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in My name, He will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour comes when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in My name; and I say not that I will ask the Father for you: For the Father loves you Himself, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father." His disciples said to Him: "Behold, now Thou speak plainly, and speak no proverb. Now we know that Thou know all things, and need not that any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou came forth from God."
An Homily of Saint Augustine, Bishop.
Tract CII on John.We have now to consider these words of the Lord "Amen, Amen, I say unto you Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you." It has already been said in the earlier part of this discourse of the Lord, for the sake of some who ask the Father in Christ's Name and receive not, that whatsoever is asked, which tends not to salvation, is not asked in the Name of the Savior. By the words "In My Name" we must not understand the vocalization of letters and syllables, but the meaning of what is said, the honest and true meaning.
Lesson viii
Therefore, whoever thinks of Christ as he ought not to think of the Only Son of God, such an one does not ask anything in Christ's Name, although he do actually utter letters and syllables to that effect, because by these sounds he means not the real Christ, but a fancied being who has no existence except in the speaker's imagination. But on the other hand, whoever thinks of Christ as he ought to think, that same asks in Christ's Name, and receives provided only that it be nothing against his own everlasting salvation—but if it is good for him to receive, he receives. Some things are not given at once, but are kept till a more fitting season. Such is the true interpretation of the words "He will give it to you" namely, that those things will be given which are good for them to ask. All the Saints also are heard when they ask for themselves, but not necessarily when they ask for their friends, or their enemies, or others, even as it is written, not simply "He will give it" but "He will give it to you."
Lesson ix
"Hitherto" said the Lord, "have ye asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." This their joy, which He said shall be full, is to be understood not of fleshly but of spiritual joy and when that joy is so great that it can be increased no more, then shall it without doubt be full. Whatever we ask for the fulfilling of this joy, (that is, if we thereby mean grace, if we ask for that life which is the really blessed one,) that is a thing which it is appropriate to ask in Christ's Name. If we ask anything else than this, we ask nothing, although we do actually ask something, because all things are nothing in comparison with this.
Let us pray:
O God, from Whom all good things come, grant thy humble servants that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.Lesson i
A reading from the first letter of St. Peter the Apostle
1 Peter 2:1-5Wherefore laying away all malice, and all guile, and dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions, as newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow unto salvation: Once you have tasted, you will have tasted that the Lord is sweet. Unto Whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honorable by God: Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Lesson ii
1 Peter 2:6-10Wherefore it is said in the scripture: "Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious. And he that shall believe in Him, shall not be confounded" (cf. Isaias 28:16). To you therefore that believe, He is honor: but to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner: And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal, to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe, it is their destiny. But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare His virtues, Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: Who in time past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy; but now have obtained mercy.
Lesson iii
1 Peter 2:11-17Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul, having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works, which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation. Be subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake: whether it be to the king as excelling; or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good: For so is the will of God, that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not as making liberty a cloak for malice, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
ROGATION MONDAY, TUESDAY
(Where observed in the Divine Office and local calendar.)
Lesson i
The continuation of of the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 11:5-13At that time Jesus said unto His disciples: "Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him. And he from within should answer, and say: 'Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.' Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needs. And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?
An homily of Saint Ambrose, Bishop.
Book VII on Luke 11We gather from this commandment, among other things, that we ought to pray, not only by day, but also by night. You see how that he that arose at midnight to ask three loaves of his friend, and endured in supplication, was not disappointed of that which he sought. Of what are these three loaves a figure, but of that our Mysterious Bread Which comes down from heaven. You see that if you love the Lord thy God, you may win His bounty, not only for yourself, but for others likewise. And Who can deserve more to be called our "Friend" than He Who gave His Own Body for us.
Lesson ii
From this Friend it was that David asked bread at midnight, and received it, as he said: "At midnight I rise to give thanks unto thee" (cf. Psalm 118:62). Even thus did he obtain those loaves of spiritual nourishment which he still sets before us for our refreshment. How he asked it, we know from that he said: "Every night wash I my bed" (cf. Psalm 6:7). He knew that there was no fear of waking Him Who sleeps not (cf. Psalm 120:3).Therefore let us keep in mind the things which are written for our learning, and be instant in prayer both by day and by night, to ask pardon of our sins.
Lesson iii
If David, who was such a Saint, and whose time was so taken up by the cares of a kingdom, "praised the Lord seven times a day" (Psalm 118:164), and was always present with godly zeal at the morning and evening sacrifice, what ought we to do, (who have so much the more need to pray, as the weakness of our body and mind doth so much oftener make us to fall, ) that we, wearied with this pilgrimage, and worn out by the gradual waning of our earthly day, and the changes of life, that we, I say, may not be starved of that life-giving Bread Which strengthens man's heart. The Lord teaches us to be watchful, all of us, and that, not at midnight only, but always. "And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching" (cf. Luke 12:38).
Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that we who in our tribulation are yet of good cheer because of Thy loving-kindness, may find Thee mighty to save from all dangers. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.Lesson i
A reading from the first letter of St. Peter the Apostle
1 Peter 4:1-7
Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought: for He that has suffered in the flesh, has ceased from sins: That now he may live the rest of his time in the flesh, not after the desires of men, but according to the will of God. For the time past is sufficient to have fulfilled the will of the Gentiles, for them who have walked in riotousness, lusts, excess of wine, reveling, banqueting, and unlawful worshipping of idols. They think it strange, that you run not with them into the same confusion of riotousness, speaking evil of you. Who shall render account to Him, who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to the dead: that they might be judged indeed according to men, in the flesh; but may live according to God, in the Spirit. But the end of all is at hand.Lesson ii
1 Peter 4:7-11Be prudent therefore, and watchful in prayers. But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covers a multitude of sins. Grant hospitality, one towards another, without murmuring, as every man has received grace, ministering the same one to another: as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak, as the words of God. If any man minister, let him do it, as of the power, which God administers: that in all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.
Lesson iii
1 Peter 4:12-17Dearly beloved, think not strange the burning heat which is to try you, as if some new thing happened to you; But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, you shall be blessed: for that which is of the honor, glory, and power of God, and that which is his Spirit, rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a railer, or a coveter of other men's things. But if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For the time is, that judgment should begin at the house of God.
Wednesday
VIGIL OF THE ASCENSIONLesson i
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to John
John 17:1-11At that time, Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, He said: "Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou have given Him power over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom Thou have given him. Now this is eternal life: That they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou have sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gave me to do. And now glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with Thee. I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou have given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to Me Thou gave them; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known, that all things which Thou have given Me, are from Thee: Because the words which Thou gave Me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given me: because they are Thine: And all My things are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name whom thou has given Me; that they may be one, as We also are.
An Homily of Saint Augustine, Bishop
Tract CIV on John.Our Lord, the Only-begotten and coeternal Son of the Father, was able, if need BE, in and from the form of a servant, to pray in silence but He thus manifested Himself in prayer, remembering that He is our Teacher. Thus He made known unto us the prayer which He made for us since He was so great a Master that, not only His discourse to them, but His prayer to the Father for them, is an up-building to His disciples. And if it was so for them who were there to hear, truly it is so for us also for whose instruction it hath been written down.
Lesson ii
By these words: "Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son," He shows that all time, and all that He does, or allows to be done, and the season in which He does or allows it, is likewise ordained of Him Who is not subject to time. Yes, all things which were then to come, or are yet to come now, have the reason why they should be, in the Wisdom of God, Which is Itself independent of all time. "The hour is come." We must not believe that that hour was brought on by the march of destiny, but was by ordination of God. No stars decreed irresistibly that the time was come for Christ to suffer. God forbid that the revolutions of His planets should force death on Him Who made them.
Lesson iii
Some think that the glorification of the Son by the Father was that "He spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all." But if we say that He was glorified by suffering, how much more shall we say that He was glorified by rising again. While He suffered, His humbleness was more manifested than His glory, as witnesses the Apostle, when he said, "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8) then he adds, touching His glorification, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" (ibid. 2:9-11). This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, that glorification whose first rays dawned on the Resurrection morning.
Let us pray:
O God, from Whom all good things come, grant to us Thine humble servants that by Thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by Thy merciful guidance may perform the same. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
ASCENSION THURSDAY
Lesson i
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 1:1-5The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, of all things which Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day on which, giving commandments by the Holy Ghost to the apostles whom He had chosen, He was taken up. To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion, by many proofs, for forty days appearing to them, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And eating together with them, He commanded them, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard (said He) by my mouth. For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.
Lesson ii
Acts 1:6-9They therefore who were come together, asked Him, saying: "Lord, will Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" But He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father has put in his own power: But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth. And when He had said these things, while they looked on, He was raised up: and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Lesson iii
Acts 1:10-14And while they were beholding Him going up to heaven, two men stood by them in white garments. Who also said: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus Who is taken up from you into heaven, shall come, as you have seen him going into heaven." Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount that is called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, within a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Jude the brother of James. All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Lesson iv
From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo the Great
First on the Lords Ascension.After the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein the Divine Power raised up in three days the true Temple of God Which the iniquity of the Jews had destroyed (cf. John 2:19), God was pleased to ordain, by His Most Sacred Will, and in His Providence for our instruction and the profit of our souls, a season of forty days—which season, dearly beloved brethren, ends on this day. During that season the bodily Presence of the Lord still lingered on earth, that the reality of the fact of His having risen again from the dead might be armed with all needed proof. The death of Christ had troubled the hearts of many of His disciples; their thoughts were sad when they remembered His agony upon the Cross, His giving up of the Ghost, and the lying in the grave of His lifeless Body, and a sort of hesitation had begun to weigh on them.
Lesson v
Hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples, who had been fearful at the finishing on the Cross, and doubtful of the trustworthiness of the rising again, were so strengthened by the clear demonstration of the fact, that, when they saw the Lord going up into the height of heaven, they sorrowed not; they were even filled with great joy And, in all truth, it was a great and unspeakable cause for joy to see the Manhood, in the presence of that the multitude of believers, exalted above all creatures even heavenly, rising above the ranks of the angelic armies and speeding Its glorious way where the most noble of the Archangels lie far behind, to rest no lower than that place where high above all principality and power, It took Its seat at the right hand of the Eternal Father, Sharer of His throne, and Partaker of His glory, and still of the very man's nature which the Son hath taken upon Himself.
Lesson vi
Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us also rejoice with worthy joy, for the Ascension of Christ is exaltation for us, and where the glory of the Head of the Church has passed, there is the hope of the body of the Church called to follow. Let us rejoice with exceedingly great joy, and give God glad thanks. This day, not only is the possession of Paradise made sure unto us, but in the Person of our Head we are actually begun to enter into the heavenly mansions above. Through the unspeakable goodness of Christ we have gained more than ever we lost by the envy of the devil. We, whom our venomous enemy thrust from our first happy home, we, being made of one body with the Son of God, have by Him been given a place at the right hand of the Father with Whom He liveth and reigneth, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Mark
Mark 16:14-20At length He appeared to the eleven as they were at table: and He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen Him after he was risen again. And he said to them: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believes not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. And the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God. But they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs that followed.
An Homily of Pope Saint Gregory the Great
XXIX on the GospelsI may be allowed to say that the disciples' slowness to believe that the Lord had indeed risen from the dead, was not so much their weakness as our strength. In consequence of their doubts, the fact of the Resurrection was demonstrated by many infallible proofs. These proofs we read and acknowledge. What then assures our faith, if not their doubt? For my part, I put my trust in Thomas, who doubted long, much more than in Mary Magdalene, who believed at once. Through his doubting, he came actually to handle the holes of the Wounds, and thereby closed up any wound of doubt in our hearts.
Lesson viii
Now to confirm to our minds the trustworthiness of the fact that our Lord did indeed rise again from the dead, it is well for us to remark one of the statements of Luke: "Eating together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem (Acts 1:4) and a little afterward: "While they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Ibid. v.9). Consider these words, note well these mysteries. After "eating together with them He was taken up." He ate and ascended: that the fact of His eating might show the reality of the Body in Which He went up. But Mark tells us that before the Lord ascended into heaven, "He upbraided His disciples; with their unbelief and hardness of heart." From this I know not why we should gather, but that the Lord then upbraided His disciples, for whom He was about to be parted in the body, to the end that the words which He spoke unto them as He left them might be the deeper imprinted on their hearts.
Lesson ix
When then, He had rebuked the hardness of their heart, what command did He give them? Let us hear. "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Was the Holy Gospel, then my brethren, to be preached to thing insensate, or to brute beasts, that the Lord said to His disciples: "Preach the Gospel to every creature"? Nay, but by the words "every creature" we must understand man, in whom are combined qualities of all creatures. Being man has in common with stones, life in common with trees, feeling in common with beasts, understanding in common with angels. If, then, man has something in common with every creature, man is to a certain extent every creature. The Gospel, then, if it be preached to man only, is preached to every creature.
Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that just as we believe Thine Only-Begotten Son, our Savior, to have this day ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend, and dwell with Him continuously. Through the same.FRIDAY AFTER THE ASCENSION
Lesson i
A reading from the second letter of St. Peter the Apostle
2 Peter 1:1-4Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained equal faith with us in the justice of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be accomplished in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord: As all things of his divine power which appertain to life and godliness, are given us, through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His own proper glory and virtue. By Whom He has given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.
Lesson ii
2 Peter 1:5-9And you, employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; and in knowledge, abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in patience, godliness; and in godliness, love of brotherhood; and in love of brotherhood, charity. For if these things be with you and abound, they will make you to be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that has not these things with him, is blind, and groping, having forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Lesson iii
2 Peter 1:10-15Wherefore, brethren, labor the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you shall not sin at any time. For so an entrance shall be given to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For which cause I will begin to put you always in remembrance of these things: though indeed you know them, and are confirmed in the present truth. But I think it appropriate as long as I am in this tabernacle [body], to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Being assured that the laying away of this my tabernacle is at hand, according as our Lord Jesus Christ also has signified to me. And I will endeavor, that you frequently after my decease, you may keep a memory of these things.
Lessons iv-ix are recited if the Octave of the Ascension is observed
Lesson iv
From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo the Great.
Second for the Lord's Ascension.Dearly beloved brethren, that mysterious thing, our salvation, which the Maker of the universe thought worth purchasing with His Own Precious Blood, was aimed at by Him, in the dispensation of His humility, from the hour wherein He was born in the flesh, till the moment when, at the end of the Passion, He cried on the Cross: "It is finished." Although from under the form of a servant many marks of His Godhead shone forth, yet, as a whole, the work of those three-and-thirty years was to manifest the truth of the Manhood Which the Son of God had taken into Himself. But when the suffering was all over, and the bands of death were broken, (that death which had lost all its power by seeking to bind Him Who knew no sin,) then was weakness changed into strength, mortality into immortality, insult into that glory which the Lord Jesus Christ, on so many occasions, made manifest by so many and infallible proofs, until the day came when that triumphant procession of victory, which He had led from the realms of shattered death, followed Him with unimaginable pomp into the heavens.
Lesson v
On the solemn Feast of the Passover the cause of our joy was that Christ had risen again. This day we rejoice because that He has ascended up into heaven. We call to mind and justly celebrate that day on which our lowly nature was, in the Person of Christ, borne up high above all the heavenly armies, above all the circles of Angels, beyond the heights of all the Powers, even to where Christ is sitting on the right hand of the Father. Our foundations are laid, and our house is built upon this succession of the works of God and His grace is made more wonderful by this, that, though the visible Object of worship is removed from among men, the faith of the Church doth not grow weak, nor her hope wavering, nor her love cold.
Lesson vi
It is the back-bone of a strong mind and the eye of a trusty soul, to believe unhesitatingly that which is not seen with the bodily eyes, and to center all love where there can be no experimental knowledge. This it is which is the only thing we can have of godliness—for how could a man be justified through faith, if the saving objects were objects of sight? There was a man who would not believe in the Resurrection of Christ until he had examined by sight, and touched the marks of the Passion in the Divine Body, and the Lord said to him "Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed—blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29).
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Mark
Mark 16:14-20At length He appeared to the eleven as they were at table: and He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen Him after he was risen again. And he said to them: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believes not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. And the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God. But they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs that followed.
An Homily of Pope Saint Gregory the Great
XXIX on the Gospels (Part II)"He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned." Perhaps some man will say within himself: "I have already believed, and therefore I shall be saved." Thou has said well, if thou show thy faith by thy works. He only has a true faith whose life doth not give the lie to his confession. Hence it is that Paul said, of some who were falsely faithful: "They profess that they know God but in works they deny Him" (Titus 1:16). And John likewise said: "He that says, I know Him and keeps not His commandments, is a liar" (1 John 2:4).
Lesson viii
As it stands, it is into our lives that we must look for proof of the reality of our faith. Then only are we truly Christ's faithful people when our works are the fulfillment of our profession. The day whereon we were baptized we bound ourselves to renounce all the works of the old enemy, and all his pomps. Therefore let every one of you now turn his inward eye upon his own behavior, and if, since his baptism, he hath kept that promise which he made before it, let him know that he is in very truth one of Christ's faithful ones and let him rejoice.
Lesson ix
But if he has utterly broken his promise, if he has fallen away to work iniquity, and to lust after the pomps of the world, let us see if he now knows how to weep over his backsliding. By the merciful Judge that man is not punished as a perjurer who in the end tells the truth, even though he lied at first. Because Almighty God does, in His tender kindness, receive our contrition, that, in His judgment, He declares us not guilty of that which we have done amiss.
SATURDAY AFTER ASCENSION
Lesson i
A reading from the second letter of Saint Peter the Apostle
2 Peter 3:1-7Behold this second epistle I write to you, my dearly beloved, in which I stir up and admonish your sincere mind: That you may be mindful of those words which I told you before from the holy prophets, and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, saying: "Where is His promise or His coming?" for since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they are willfully ignorant of, that the heavens were before, and the earth out of water, and through water, consisting by the word of God. The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men.
Lesson ii
2 Peter 3:8-13But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord delays not His promise, as some imagine, but deals patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat? But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promises, in which justice dwells.
Lesson iii
2 Peter 3:14-18Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before Him unspotted and blameless in peace. And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation; as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.
Lessons iv-ix are recited if the Octave of the Ascension is observed
Lesson iv
From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo the Great.
II on the Ascension.And so the seen Presence of our Redeemer in the Body was changed for an unseen Presence in the Sacraments, and hearing was given to the Church in place of seeing, that her faith, rightly so called, might be the more victorious and steadfast and that teaching, which the hearts of all her children are called on to hear, is a teaching enlightened by rays from heaven. This faith, strengthened by the Ascension of the Lord, and established by the gift of the Holy Ghost, neither bonds, nor imprisonment, nor exile, nor famine, nor fire, nor savage beasts, nor those forms of death, finely wrought in cruelty, wherein they that persecute us are well skilled, have been able to scare. For this faith there have striven throughout the whole world, even unto the out-pouring of their blood, not men only, but women also, not little lads only, but tender maidens. This is the faith which hath cast out devils, healed diseases, raised the dead.
Lesson v
Hence even the blessed Apostles themselves, who had been comforted by so many miracles and taught by so many discourses, were sickened by the horrors of their Lord's Passion, and received but doubtfully the assurance of His Resurrection, till after the Lord's Ascension and then fared on so bravely, that all that had been fearful to them before became joyful then. The reason was that they had lifted up all their mind to think of the Godhead of Him Who sits at the right hand of the Father. They asked no longer for a seen Presence, when their spiritual eye had caught the fact that, even as, when He had come down to earth, He had not left His Father, so now that He was gone up into heaven, He had not left His disciples. So then it was, dearly beloved brethren, that the Son of man more excellently and more sacredly revealed Himself as the Son of God, when He had withdrawn Himself again into that glory which He had with the Father before the world was. In some unspeakable way He began to be more present, as touching His Godhead, when He removed Himself farther from us, as touching His Manhood.
Lesson vi
Then it was that a better instructed faith began intellectually to approach the idea of a Son equal to the Father, and no longer to need to handle in Christ the bodily Matter, Which is of a nature as touching which He is inferior to the Father since, Its nature still remaining in the glorified Body, the faith of believers was summoned to that place where the Only-Begotten Son, Who is equal to the Father, is felt, not by the application of a bodily hand, but by the effort of a spiritually minded intellect. Hence it was that after His Resurrection, when Mary Magdalene, (in whom was there represented the Person of the whole Church,) wished to handle the Lord, He said "Touch Me not for I am not yet ascended to My Father" (John 20:17) that is 'I will no more that thy nearness to Me should be a nearness of body to Body, nor that thine experience of Me should henceforward be one proceeding from fleshly experiment for that, I appoint thee an higher world, I make ready for thee a nobler form of it than this after that I have ascended to My Father, a time will come when thou shall indeed touch Me, but after a manner more perfect, more real than this, even a time when thou shall lay hold on that which thou touch not now, and believe that which thou see not now.'
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Mark
Mark 16:14-20At length He appeared to the eleven as they were at table: and He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen Him after he was risen again. And he said to them: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believes not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. And the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God. But they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs that followed.
An Homily of Pope Saint Gregory the Great
XXIX on the Gospels (Part III)"And these signs shall follow them that believe In My Name they shall cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." My brethren, these signs do not follow us. Do we, then, not believe? Nay. The truth is, these things were needful when the Church was young. That she might grow by the increase of the faithful, she needed to be nourished with miracles. Even so we, when we plant a young tree, continually water and tend it till we see that it hath taken firm root in the earth but when once it hath taken firm root, it can grow of itself. Hence, Paul said of tongues "Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not" (1 Corinthians 14:22).
Lesson viii
We have a deeper matter of thought concerning these signs and mighty works. It is the work of the holy Church to do every day spiritually that which the Apostles then did carnally. When her Priests, armed with the power of exorcism, lay their hands upon believers, and command evil spirits to dwell no longer in their souls, what is it they do but cast out devils When Christ's faithful people themselves give up the language of their old life, and speak the wonderful works of God, the glory and power of their Maker, telling of them with all their strength, what is it they do then but speak with new tongues When either the one or the other does by his exhortation charm the wickedness out of his neighbor's heart, what is it he dos but take up serpents?
Lesson ix
Commemoration of the Saint of the day from the Proper of Saints
