Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Week of the 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
From the fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 1:1-4And Moab rebelled against Israel, after the death of Achab. And Ochozias fell through the lattices of his upper chamber which he had in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, saying to them: "Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, whether I shall recover of this my illness." And an angel of the Lord spoke to Elias the Thesbite, saying: "Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them: 'Is there not a God in Israel, that you go to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron?" Wherefore, thus says the Lord: "From the bed, on which you have gone up, you shall not come down, but you shall surely die.'"
Lesson ii
4 Kings 1:4-6And Elias went away. And the messengers turned back to Ochozias. And he said to them: "Why have you come back?" But they answered him: "A man met us, and said to us: 'Go, and return to the king, that sent you, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: Is it because there was no God in Israel that you send to Beelzebub the god of Accaron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed, on which you art gone up, but then shall surely die.'"
Lesson iii
4 Kings 1:7-10And he said to them: "What manner of man was he who met you, and spoke these words?" But they said: "A hairy man with a girdle of leather about his loins." And he said: "It is Elias the Thesbite." And he sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty men that were under him. And he went up to him, and as he was sitting on the top of a hill, said to him: "Man of God, the king has commanded that you come down." And Elias answering, said to the captain of fifty: "If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume you , and your fifty." And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him, and the fifty that were with him.
Lesson iv
From the sermons of Saint Augustine, Bishop
CCI for the Season.Dearly beloved brethren, in the Lessons which are now being read to us day by day, I have often warned you that we must not follow the deathful letter, to the abandonment of the quickening spirit. For as the Apostle says: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6). If we will understand only the plain meaning of the letter, we shall get little or no edification from our readings in the Divine Scriptures. All these things we hear were types and images of things.
Lesson v
The Blessed Elias was a type of the Lord our Savior. Just as Elias was rejected by the Jews, so was the true Elias, our Lord, rejected and despised by the same Jews. Elias went away out of his own country, and Christ left the synagogue. Elias went into the desert, and Christ came into the world. Elias, when he was in the desert, was fed by ravens, and Christ in the desert of this world is comforted by the faith of the Gentiles.
Lesson vi
For the ravens which, at the command of the Lord, ministered to Elias, were a type of the flock of Gentiles. Wherefore also it is said for the Gentile Church: "I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem" (Canticles 1:4)! Why is the Church black but beautiful? She is black by nature, but beautiful by grace. Why is she black by nature? Because she must needs own: "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 50:7). Why is she beautiful? "Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 50:9).
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 19: 41-47At that time, when Jesus drew near Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: "If you had known, and that in this your day, the things that are to your peace: but now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and encompass you, and straiten you on every side, and beat you flat to the ground, and your children who are in you: and they shall not leave in you a stone upon a stone, because you did not known the time of your visitation." And entering into the temple, he began to cast out the sellers therein, and those who bought, saying to them: "It is written, 'My house is the house of, prayer' (Isaias 56:7), but you have made it a den of thieves." And he was teaching daily in the temple.
An Homily of Pope Saint Gregory the Great
XXXIX on the Gospels.No man that has read the history of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Princes Vespasian and Titus, can be ignorant that it was of that destruction that the Lord spoke when He wept over the ruin of the city. It is these Princes that are pointed at where it is said "For the days shall come upon you that your enemies shall cast a trench about you." The truth of what follows: "They shall not leave in you one stone upon another" is even now fulfilled in the change of site of the city, which hath been re-built round about that place outside the gates, where the Lord was crucified, while the ancient city hath been, as I am told, rooted up from the very foundations.
Lesson viii
What the sin of Jerusalem was which brought upon her the punishment of this destruction, we find written after "Because you knew not the time of your visitation." The Maker of men, through the mystery of His Incarnation, was pleased to visit her, but she remembered not to fear and to love Him. Hence also the Prophet Jeremias, rebuking the hardness of man's heart, called the birds of the air to testify against it, saying "The stork in the heaven knows her appointed time and the turtle, and the swallow, and the crane, observe the time of their coming but my people know not the judgment of the Lord" (Jeremias 8:7).
Lesson ix
The Savior wept over the ruin of the unfaithful city, while she herself did not yet knew that it was coming. "If you had known," said He, even you—and we may understand Him to have meant—"you would have wept, in place of making merry as you now do, not knowing what hangs over you." And hence He said farther: "at least in this day, the things which belong to your peace." While she was giving herself up to fleshly pleasures, and casting no look ahead upon coming sorrows, she had still for a day in her power the things which might have brought her peace.
Let us pray:
O Lord, let thy merciful ears be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 2:5-7The sons of the prophets that were at Jericho, came to Eliseus, and said to him: "Do you know that this day the Lord will take away your master?" And he said: "I know it: hold your peace." And Elias said to him: "Stay here, because the Lord has sent me as far as the Jordan." And he said: "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you; and the two went on together. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets followed them, and stood in sight at a distance: but the two stood by the Jordan.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 2:8-10And Elias took his mantle and folded it together, and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there, and they both passed over on dry ground. And when they were gone over, Elias said to Eliseus: "Ask what you want me to do for you, before I be taken away from you." And Eliseus said: 'I beseech you that in me may be double your spirit." And he answered: "You have asked a hard thing: nevertheless if you see me when I am taken from you, you shall have what you have asked: but if you see me not, you shall not have it."
Lesson iii
4 Kings 2:11-13And as they went on, walking and talking together, behold a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eliseus saw him, and cried: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof." And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own garments, and rent them in two pieces. And he took up the mantle of Elias, that fell from him: and going back, he stood upon the bank of the Jordan,
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 3:6-9And king Joram went out that day from Samaria, and mustered all Israel. And he sent to Josaphat king of Juda, saying: "The king of Moab has revolted from me, come with me against him to do battle." And he answered: "I will come up: he that is mine, is yours: my people, your people: and my horses, your horses." And he said: "Which way shall we go up?" But he answered: "By the desert of Edom." So the king of Israel, and the king of Juda, and the king of Edom went, and they fetched a compass of seven days' journey, and there was no water for the army, and for the beasts, that followed them.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 3:10-13And the king of Israel said: "Alas, alas, alas, the Lord hath gathered us three kings together, to deliver us into the hands of Moab." And Josaphat said: "Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may beseech the Lord by him?" And one of the servants of the king of Israel answered: Here is Eliseus the son of Saphat, who poured water on the hands of Elias. And Josaphat said: "The word of the Lord is with him." And the king of Israel, and Josaphat king of Juda, and the king of Edom went down to him. And Eliseus said to the king of Israel: "What have I to do with you? go to the prophets of your father, and your mother."
Lesson iii
4 Kings 3:13-18And the king of Israel said to him: "Why has the Lord gathered together these three kings, to deliver them into the hands of Moab?" And Eliseus said to him: "As the Lord of hosts lives, in whose sight I stand, if I did not reverence the face of Josaphat king of Juda, I would not have hearkened to you, nor looked on you. But now bring me a minstrel." And when the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said: "Thus says the Lord: 'Make the channel of this torrent full of ditches.' For thus says the Lord: 'You shall not see wind, nor rain: and yet this channel shall be filled with waters, and you shall drink, you and your families, and your beasts.' And this is a small thing in the sight of the Lord: moreover he will deliver also Moab into your hands."
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 4:1-4Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: you servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him. And Eliseus said to her: "What will you have me to do for you? Tell me, what have you in your house? And she answered: "I your handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil, to anoint me." And he said to her: "Go, borrow of all you neighbors empty vessels, not a few. And go in, and shut you door, when you art within, and you sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels: and when they are full take them away."
Lesson ii
Kings 4:5-10So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured in. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: "Bring me yet another vessel." And he answered: "I have no more." And the oil stood. And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: "Go, sell the oil, and pay you creditor: and you and you sons live of the rest." And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam: now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread; and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread. And she said to her husband: "I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passes by us. Let us therefore make him a little chamber, and put a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that when he comes to us, he may abide there."
Lesson iii
4 Kings 4:11-17Now there was a certain day when he came and turned in to the chamber, and rested there. And he said to Giezi his servant Call this Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood before him, He said to his servant: "Say to her 'Behold you have diligently served us in all things, what will you have me to do for you? have you any business, and do you want me to speak to the king, or to the general of the army?" And she answered: "I dwell in the midst of my own people." And he said: "What will she then that I do for her?" And Giezi said: "Do not ask, for she hath no son, and her husband is old." Then he bid him call her: And when she was called, and stood before the door. He said to her: "At this time, and this same hour, if life accompany, you shall have a son in your womb." But she answered: "Do not, I beseech you, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid." And the woman conceived, and brought forth a son in the time, and at the same hour, that Eliseus had said.
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 6:24-27And it came to pass after these things, that Benadad king of Syria gathered together all his army, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and so long did the siege continue, till the head of an ass was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cabe of pigeon's dung [possibly a plant substance]], for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying: "Save me, my lord O king." And he said: "If the Lord doth not save you, how can I save you? out of the [empty] barnfloor, or out of the [empty] winepress?"
Lesson ii
4 Kings 6:27-32And the king said to her: "What ails you?" And she answered: "This woman said to me: 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day: 'Give you son that we may eat him.' And she hath hid her son." When the king heard this, he rent his garments, and passed by upon the wall. And all the people saw the haircloth which he wore within next to his flesh. And the king said: "May God do so and so to me, and may he add more, if the head of Eliseus the son of Saphat shall stand on him this day." But Eliseus sat in his house, and the ancients sat with him.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 6:32-33, 7:1So he sent a man before: and before that messenger came, he said to the ancients: "Do you know that this son of a murderer has sent to cut off my head? Look then, when the messenger shall come, shut the door, and suffer him not to come in: for behold the sound of his master' s feet is behind him." While he was yet speaking to them, the messenger appeared who was coming to him. And he said: "Behold, so great an evil is from the Lord: what shall I look for more from the Lord?" And Eliseus said: "Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord: 'Tomorrow about this time a bushel of fine hour shall be sold for a stater, and two bushels of barley for a stater, in the gate of Samaria.'"
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 8:1-3And Eliseus spoke to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying: "Arise, and go you and your household, and sojourn where ever you can find: for the Lord has exiled a famine, and it shall come upon the land seven years." And she arose, and did according to the word of the man of God: and going with her household, she sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days. And when the seven years were ended, the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines, and she went forth to speak to the king for her house, and for her lands.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 8:4-6And the king talked with Giezi, the servant of the man of God, saying: "Tell me all the great things that Eliseus has done." And when he was telling the king how he had raised one dead to life, the woman appeared, whose son he had restored to life, crying to the king for her house, and her lands. And Giezi said: "My lord O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Eliseus raised to life." And the king asked the woman: and she told him. And the king appointed her a eunuch, saying: "Restore her all that is hers, and all the revenues of the lands, from the day that she left the land, to this present."
Lesson iii
4 Kings 8:7-10Eliseus also came to Damascus, and Benadad king of Syria was sick: and they told him, saying: "The man of God is come hither." And the king said to Hazael: "Take presents, and go to meet the man of God, and consult the Lord by him, saying: 'Can I recover from my illness?" And Hazael went to meet him, taking with him presents, and all the good things of Damascus, the burdens of forty camels. And when he stood before him, he said: "you son Benadad the king of Syria sent me to you, saying: "Can I recover from my illness?" And Eliseus said to him: "Go tell him: You shall recover—but the Lord has shown me that he shall surely die." [The king would recover, but Hazael would murder him. c.f. verse 15]
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 9:1-5And Eliseus the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, slid said to him: "Gird up your loins, and take this little bottle of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Galaad. And when you have come there, you shall see Jehu the son of Josaphat the son of Namsi: and going in you shall make him rise up from amongst his brethren, and carry him into an inner chamber. Then taking the little bottle of oil, you shall pour it on his head, and shall say: Thus says the Lord: 'I have anointed you king over Israel. And you shall open the door and flee, and shall not stay there.'" 4 So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went awry to Ramoth Galaad, and went in there: and behold the captains of the army were sitting: and he said: "I have a word to you , O prince." And Jehu said: "To us all?" And he said: "To you, O prince."
Lesson ii
4 Kings 9:6-10And he arose, and went into the chamber: and he poured the oil upon his head, and said: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'I have anointed you king over Israel, the people of the Lord. And you shall cut off the house of Achab you master, and I will revenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezabel. And I will destroy all the house of Achab, and I will cut off from Achab him that pisses against the wall, and him that is shut up, and the meanest in Israel. And I will make the house of Achab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, and like the house of Baasa the son of Ahias. And the dogs shall eat Jezabel in the field of Jezrahel, and there shall be no one to bury her." And he opened the door and fled.
On feast days and in the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lessons ii and iii are concatenated and the third lesson is from the feast or the Saturday Office.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 11-13Then Jehu went forth to the servants of his lord: and they said to him: "Are all things well? why came this mad man to you ?" And he said to them: "You know the man, and what he said." But they answered: "It is false, but rather you tell us." And he said to them: "Thus and thus did he speak to me: and he said: Thus says the Lord: 'I have anointed you king over Israel." Then they made haste and every man taking his garment, laid it under his feet, after the manner of a judgment seat, and they sounded the trumpet, and said: "Jehu is king."
