Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Fourth Week of November
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Osee
Osee 1:1-3The word of the Lord, that came to Osee the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas king of Israel. The beginning of the Lord's speaking by Osee: and the Lord said to Osee: "Go, take a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord." So he went, and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived and bore him a son.
Lesson ii
Osee 1:4-7And the Lord said to him: "Call his name Jezrahel: for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And in that day I will break in pieces the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrahel." And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and He said to him: "Call her name, Without mercy [Lo-Ruhamah]: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them. And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them by the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen."
Lesson iii
Osee 1:8-11And she weaned her that was called Without mercy. And she conceived, and bore a son. And He said: "Call his name, Not my people [Lo-ammi]: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God."
Lesson iv
From The City of God, of Saint Augustine, Bishop
Book xviii. chapter 28As to the Prophet Osee, the deeper his meaning, the harder to pierce. But somewhat may be gotten out of him, and, as I promised, I will give it here. He said: "And it shall come to pass that, in the place where it shall be said to them, 'Ye are not My people,' there it shall be said to them "Ye are the sons of the living God." This was understood even by the Apostles as a prophetic witness to the call of the Gentiles, who until their time had not been God's people (Romans 9:24-26).
Lesson v
And since the converted Gentiles are the spiritual children of Abraham, and are therefore rightly called Israelites, he (Osee) goes on, and says: "Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land" (1:11) If we went on expounding this, we would water down the flavor of the prophetic statement. Let there be remembered, however, that Corner Stone, and let there be acknowledged those twain walls, (which It binds in one,) the Jews and the Gentiles, one called the children of Judah and the other the children of Israel, bound together under One Head, and coming up out of the land.
Lesson vi
Concerning those who are now Israelites according to the flesh, that will not now believe in Christ, but shall believe hereafter, (that is, their children shall believe, for these shall die, and go to their own place,) this same prophet gives witness, where he says: "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a King, and without a Prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an Altar, and without a Priest, and without oracles" (3:4). To whom is it not manifest that such is the state of the Jews now?
Lesson i
From the Book of the Prophet Osee
Osee 4:1-3"Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord shall enter into judgment with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood has touched blood. Therefore the land shall mourn, and every one that dwells in it shall languish with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air: yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered together."
Lesson ii
Osee 4:4-6"But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for your people are like those who contradict the priest. And you shall fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with you: in the night I have made your mother to be silent. My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, that you shall not do the office of priesthood to Me: and you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children."
Lesson iii
Osee 4:7-10"According to the multitude of them so have they sinned against Me: I will change their glory into shame. They shall eat the sins of My people, and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity. And there shall be like people like priest: and I will visit their ways upon them, and I will repay them their devices. And they shall eat and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not observing His law.
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Joel
Joel 1:1-4The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Phatuel. "Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. That which the palmerworm left, the locust has eaten: and that which the locust has left, the bruchus has eaten: and that which the bruchus has left, the mildew has destroyed.
Lesson ii
Joel 1:5-7"Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take delight in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up upon My land, strong and without number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion's whelp. He has laid My vineyard waste, and has pulled off the bark of My fig tree: he has stripped it bare, and cast it away; its branches are made white."
Lesson iii
Joel 1:8-11"Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned: The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
Lesson i
From the Book of the Prophet Joel
Joel 3:1-3"For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem: I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for My people, and for my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land. And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink."
Lesson ii
Joel 3:4-7"But what have you to do with Me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? Will you revenge yourselves on Me? and if you revenge yourselves on Me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head. For you have taken away My silver and my gold: and My desirable and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples. And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country. Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads."
Lesson iii
Joel 3:8-12"And I will sell your sons, and your daughters by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it. Proclaim ye this among the nations: 'prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up. Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: 'I am strong.' Break forth, and come, all ye nations, from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all your strong ones to fall down. Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about."
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Amos
Amos 1:1-2The words of Amos, who was among herdsmen of Thecua: which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas king of Israel two years before the earthquake. And he said: "The Lord will roar from Sion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem: and the beautiful places of the shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel is withered."
Lesson ii
Amos 1:3-5Thus says the Lord: "For three crimes of Damascus, and for four I will not convert it: because they have thrashed Galaad with iron rods. And I will send a fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the houses of Benadad. And I will break the bar of Damascus: and I will cut off the inhabitants from the plain of the idol, and him that holds the scepter from the house of pleasure: and the people of Syria shall be carried away to Cyrene," says the Lord.
Lesson iii
Amos 1:6-8Thus says the Lord: "For three crimes of Gaza, and for four I will not convert it: because they have carried away a perfect captivity to shut them up in Edom. And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the houses thereof. [8] And I will cut off the inhabitants from Azotus, and him that holds the scepter from Ascalon: and I will turn my hand against Accaron, and the rest of the Philistines shall perish," says the Lord God.
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Abdias
Abdias Verse 1-4The vision of Abdias. Thus says the Lord God to Edom: "We have heard a rumor from the Lord, and he has sent an ambassador to the nations: 'Arise, and let us rise up to battle against him!' Behold I have made you small among the nations: you are exceedingly contemptible. The pride of your heart has lifted you up, who dwell in the clefts of the rocks, and set up your throne on high: who says in his heart: 'Who shall bring me down to the ground?' Though you be exalted as an eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars: thence will I bring you down," says the Lord.
Lesson ii
Abdias Verse 5-7"If thieves had gone in to you, if robbers by night, how would you have held your peace? would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers had come in to you, would they not have left you at the least a cluster? How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things? They have sent you out even to the border: all the men of your confederacy have deceived you: the men of your peace have prevailed against you: they that eat with you shall lay snares under you: there is no wisdom in him."
Lesson iii
Abdias Verse 8-11"Shall not I in that day," says the Lord, "destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? And your valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau. For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against your brother Jacob, confusion shall cover you, and you shall perish for ever. In the day when you stood against him, when strangers carried away his army captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem: you also were as one of them."
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Jonas
Jonas 1:1-4Now the word of the Lord came to Jonas the son of Amathi, saying: "Arise, and go to Ninive the great city, and preach in it: for the wickedness thereof is come up before me." And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord. But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken.
Lesson ii
Jonas 1:5-8And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it: and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep. And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him: "Why are you fast asleep? rise up, call upon your God, if so be that God will think of us, that we may not perish." And they said every one to his fellow: "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know why this evil is upon us." And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas. And they said to him: "Tell us for what cause this evil is upon us, what is your business? of what country are you? and where are you going? or of what people are you?
Lesson iii
Jonas 1:9-12And he said to them: "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord the God of heaven, who made both the sea and the dry land." And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him: "Why have you done this?" (for the men knew that he fled from the face of the Lord: because he had told them.) And they said to him: "What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea flowed and swelled." And he said to them: "Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you."
In an Office of three lessons, ii and iii above are concatenated and the third is taken from the proper of saints
or the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
