by | Nov 17, 2022 | Evangelium

Friday 18 th november 2022

The Dedication of

the Basilicas of

Ss Peter and Paul

 

The Basilica of St Peter, today known as the Vatican Basilica, is the seat of Catholicity and is built over the tomb of St Peter, the first Pope. Over Paul’s grave is built another magnificent Catholic Basilica, St Paul’s Outside the Walls. In the anniversary of the dedication of the basilicas of St Peter at the Vatican and St Paul in the Via Ostiense, we join a tradition of  honouring the two greatest apostles of Christ.

 

 

Entrance Antiphon : Jer 29: 11, 12, 14

The Lord said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. You will call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will lead back your captives from every place.

 

Collect

Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. 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 : Apocalypse 10:8-11

I, John, heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. ‘Go,’ it said ‘and take that open scroll out of the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.’ I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, ‘Take it and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.’ So I took it out of the angel’s hand, and swallowed it; it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, ‘You are to prophesy again, this time about many different nations and countries and languages and emperors.’

 

Psalm 118(119):14,24,72,103,111,131

R/ Your promise is sweet to my taste, O Lord.

 

  1. I rejoiced to do your will as though all riches were mine. Your will is my delight; your statutes are my counsellors.
  2. The law from your mouth means more to me than silver and gold. Your promise is sweeter to my taste than honey in the mouth.
  3. Your will is my heritage for ever, the joy of my heart. I open my mouth and I sigh as I yearn for your commands.

 

Gospel Acclamation : cf.2Tim1:10

Alleluia, alleluia! Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death and he has proclaimed life through the Good News. Alleluia!

 

Gospel : Luke 19:45-48

Jesus went into the Temple and began driving out those who were selling. ‘According to scripture,’ he said ‘my house will be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a robbers’ den.’He taught in the Temple every day. The chief priests and the scribes, with the support of the leading citizens, tried to do away with him, but they did not see how they could carry this out because the people as a whole hung on his words.

 

Prayer over the Offerings

Grant, O Lord, we pray, that what we offer in the sight of your majesty may obtain for us the grace of being devoted to you and gain us the prize of everlasting happiness. Through Christ our Lord.

 

Communion Antiphon : Ps 72: 28

To be near God is my happiness, to place my hope in God the Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

We have partaken of the gifts of this sacred mystery, humbly imploring, O Lord, that what your Son commanded us to do in memory of him may bring us growth in charity. Through Christ our Lord.

 

Meditation

Most of us can hardly imagine Jesus ever getting angry. The Gospel text presents us with such an image or picture of Jesus. He goes into the temple, makes a whip out of the cord, overturns the tables of the moneychangers and drives them out of the temple. Jesus does not condone extortion within the house of the Father.