wednesday 12 August 2020
St Jane Frances de Chantal (1572 – 1641)
She was born in Dijon, in France, in 1572. She married a nobleman called de Chantal, by whom she had six children whom she brought up in the faith. She founded the Order of the Visitation and guided it wisely. She died in 1641.
Green
Entrance Antiphon: Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23
Look to your covenant, O Lord, and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever. Arise, O God, and defend your cause, and forget not the cries of those who seek you.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: Ezekiel 9:1-7, 10:18-22
As I, Ezekiel, listened, God shouted, ‘Come here, you scourges of the city, and bring your weapons of destruction.’ Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. In the middle of them was a man in white, with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar. The glory of the God of Israel rose off the cherubs where it had been and went up to the threshold of the Temple. He called the man in white with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt and said, ‘Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who deplore and disapprove of all the filth practised in it.’ I heard him say to the others, ‘Follow him through the city, and strike. Show neither pity nor mercy; old men, young men, virgins, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.’ So they began with the old men in front of the Temple. He said to them, ‘Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses, and go.’ They went out and hacked their way through the city. The glory of the Lord came out from the Temple threshold and paused over the cherubs. The cherubs spread their wings and rose from the ground to leave, and as I watched the wheels rose with them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. This was the creature that I had seen supporting the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I was now certain that these were cherubs. Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings. Their faces were just as I had seen them beside the river Chebar. Each moved straight forward.
Psalm 112(113):1-6
R/ Above the heavens is the glory of the Lord.
- Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! May the name of the Lord be blessed both now and for evermore!
- From the rising of the sun to its setting praised be the name of the Lord! High above all nations is the Lord, above the heavens his glory.
- Who is like the Lord, our God, who has risen on high to his throne yet stoops from the heights to look down,to look down upon heaven and earth?
Gospel Acclamation: Ps 110:7, 8
Alleluia, alleluia! Your precepts, O Lord, are all of them sure; they stand firm for ever and ever. Alleluia!
Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector. ‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven. ‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church, for in your mercy you have given them to be offered and by your power you transform them into the mystery of our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Ps 147: 12, 14
O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord, who gives you your fill of finest wheat.
Prayer after Communion
May the communion in your Sacrament that we have consumed, save us, O Lord, and confirm us in the light of your truth. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
We cannot live without disagreements as humans. But if we have any squabbles with anyone, these practical steps may help us. The first thing we can do is Understanding and advice for the friend or colleague. To point out in a very discreet and private way, his faulty attitude so that he can change for the better, for every human deserves his dignity and must be treated as such. If this does not work out, we could employ a second method which is to get a friend’s collaboration. There could be a third step should this fail, especially when it gets to the level of a public scandal, we may take him to higher and appropriate authorities. If we don’t shun evil, then «the same punishment awaits evildoers than the complacent who tolerate them» (St. Bernard).