Corpus Christi at Ii Vespers

CORPUS CHRISTI AT II VESPERS

Simple Mode (see p. 997-998 above)

On Magnificat, Antiphon. Tone v.

O sacred banquet, * wherein Christ is received, the memory of his passion is

renewed; the soul with grace is filled, and a pledge of future glory is

bestowed, al- le- lu- ia. E u o u a e.

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

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THE HOMILIES AND COLLECTS

ON SUNDAYS

arranged in order, from the third to the last

after Pentecost

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THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

COLLECT

GOD, the protector of them that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal. Through.

The Lesson from the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke

Lesson vij Ch. l5

HEN drew near unto Jesus all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the rest.

Homily by S. Gregory the Great Homily 35 on the Gospels

OU have heard in the Gospel lesson, my brethren, that the publicans and sinners drew near unto the Redeemer; and they were received, so that they not only spoke with him, they even ate with him. And when the Pharisees saw this, they were scornful. You may gather from this that true righteousness is compassionate, whereas false righteousness is scornful. However, the righteous also are wont to he scornful towards sinners. But one kind of scorn springs from a form of pride, whereas the othcr comes from zeal for discipline.

Lesson viij

HEY are scornful, indeed, but not as scorners; they are disappointed, but not without hope; they are moved to inflict punishment, but they do not cease to love: for though they outwardly pour forth reproaches for the sake of discipline, yet do they inwardly maintain the gentlencss of charity. They often have a higher opinion of those they correct than they have of themselves; they think that those whom they judge are better than than they are. Clearly, in such a case, they both guard those under their care through discipline, and themselves through humility.

Lesson ix

N the other hand, those who are wont to be haughty through false righteousness, despise everyone else and show no mercy to the weak; and, since they will not believe that they are sinners themselves, for that very reason they become worsc sinners. Clearly, to be numbered among these are those

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Homily by S. Jerome, Priest Bk.4. Comm. on Matt. Ch.24

HEN we are called upon to understand what we read, it is shown that there is a mystery in these words. Now we read in Daniel as follows: In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. The Apostle is also speaking of this when he says: There shall come that man of sin, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God: even he whose coming isafter the working of Satan, and he shall destroy them. and banish from God all who shall receive him.

 BIeased is the people * Whom the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: O Israel, thou art the work of mine own hands, thou art mine own inheritance.

 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Whom the.

Lesson viij

UT this prophecy may also be understood to mean simply Antichrist, or else the statue of Cæsar which Pilate erected in the temple, or the equestrian statue of Hadrian which stands even to this present day on the site of the Holy of holies. The word, Abomination, in the Old Testament also means, Idol; and, Desolation is added because the idol was placed in the temple that was desolated and destroyed.

One Seraph cried unto another, and said, * Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. * The whole earth is full of his glory.

There are Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word. and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are One. Holy, holy. Glory be. The whole.

Lesson ix

BOMINATION of desolation may also be understood as all perverse dogma: and when we see it stand in the holy place, that is, in the Church, we must flee from Judæa to the mountains, that is, we must leave the letter that killeth and Jewish perversity, and make our way to the everlasting hills, from which God sheds his light ineffably: we must be on the housetop where the fiery darts of the devil cannot reach us, nor must we come down to take anything out of the house of our former conversation, nor seek the things that we left behind; but instead we must labour in the spiritual field of the Scriptures, so that we may reap fruit from it; nor must we have two coats, for that was forbidden to the Apostles.

Te Deum Laudamus, p.24.

On Benedictus, Antiphon. Tone j, 3.

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RANT to us, O Lord, we beseech thee: that the course of this world may be peaceably ordered by thy governance; and thy Church may rejoice in godly quietness. Through.

The Lesson from the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke

Lesson vij Ch. 5

S the people pressed upon Jesus to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret. And the rest.

Homily by S. Ambrose, Bishop Bk. 4 on Luke Ch. 7

HEN the Lord bestowed his manifold healing on so many people, neither time nor place could keep back the crowds that pressed upon him, seeking to be healed. Evening fell; they still followed him: he came to the shore of the lake; they still surged on: and thererore he entered into Peter's ship. This is that ship, which, according to Matthew, was yet tossed about. but according to Luke, it was full of fishes: thus we may learn that at first the Church suffered storms, but was afterwards filled with souls. For the fishes are the men who swim through this life. In Matthew's account Christ sleeps in the midst of his disciples: in Luke's he gives commands. For in the hearts of the lukewarm he sleeps: in the perfect he watches.

Lesson viij

HAT ship is not tossed which is steered by wisdom; unfaithfulness is not on board, the wind of faith fills its sails. How could it be tossed, when he on whom the Church is founded is in command? A storm arises where there is littleness of faith: here there is safety, where there is perfect love. And if others are told to let down their nets, yet to Peter alone is it said, Launch out into the deep: that is, into the depths of doctrine. For what is more profound than to discern thc depths of the riches of God, to know the Son of God, and to make profession of the Divine generation? Although the human mind cannot comprehend this by reasoning, yet it can be grasped by profound faith.

Lesson ix

OR although I am not to know how he was born, yet am I not to be in ignorance of the fact that he was born. I know not the manner of his generation, but I acknowledge the Author of that generation. We were not present when he was born Son of God the Father, but we were present when he was declared Son of God the Father. If we believe not God, whom shall we believe? For all that we believe, we believe either through sight or through hearing: sight often fails, but faith cometh by hearing.

Te Deum Laudamus, p. 24.

On Benedictus, Antiphon. Tone j, 3.

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RANT, we beseech thee, almighty God: that we, ever meditating those things that be reasonable and pleasing unto thee, may both in word and deed fulfil the same.Through.

The Lesson from the Holy Gospel according to S. Matthew

Lesson vij Ch. 13

ESUS said unto his disciples; The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of

mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. And the rest.

Homily by S. Jerome, Priest Bk. 2 Comm. on Matt. Ch. 13, v. 32

HE Kingdom of heaven is the preaching of the Gospel and the knowledge of the Scriptures which leads to life and concerning which it was said to the

Jews, The Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit of it. This Kingdom therefore is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field. The man who sows in his field is understood by many to be the Saviour, because he sows in the minds of them that believe: by others, a man himself is the one who sows in his own field, that is in himself and in his heart.

Lesson viij

HO is the sower but our perception and our mind? And it, receiving the grain of preaching and tending the young shoot, with the water of faith makes it burgeon in the soil of his own breast The preaching of the Gospel is the least of all systems of knowledge. For at the first instruction the preaching is hardly believed that God became Man, that Christ died, and the scandal of the Cross. Compare teaching of this kind with the dogmas of the philosophers, with their books, the splendour of their eloquence, the careful arrangement of their discourses, and you will see how much less than the other seeds is the sowing of the Gospel.

Lesson ix

UT when they, the seeds of the philosophers, are fully grown, they reveal nothing that is pungent, nothing lively, nothing vital. But the whole body of their teaching is feeble, rotten, soft; springs up abundantly into herbs and grasses, which swiftly become parched and perish. But this preaching of the Gospel, which in the beginning seemed but small, when it has been sown in the heart of the believer, or in the whole world, does not grow up into herbs but into a tree, so that the birds of the air, which we must takc to mean the souls of the believers, or celestial spirits devoted to the service of God come and dwell in its branches. I think the branches of the Gospel tree which grew from the grain of mustard are the varieties of dogma in which each one of the aforesaid birds takes its rest.

Te Deum Laudamus, p. 24.

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consequence, be great and meet for the kingdom of heaven, but yet he ascends a certain step. He will be perfected, however, if he be not angry without a cause; and if he shall do this he will be much further removed from murder. Therefore he who teaches that we should not be angry does not break the law that we should not kill, but fulfils it; so that we preserve our innocence both outwardly while we do not kill, and in our heart when we are not angry.

Lesson viij

HERE is therefore a gradation in the sins referred to, so that first one is angry, and keeps that feeling unexpressed in his heart; but if now that emotion shall draw forth an exclamation of anger not having any definite meaning, but giving evidence of that feeling of the mind by the very fact of the outbreak wherewith he is assailed with whom one is angry, this is certainly more than if the rising anger were restrained by silence. But if there is heard not merely an exclamation of anger, but also a word by which the party using it now indicates and signifies a distinct censure of him against whom it is directed, who doubts but that it is something more than if merely an exclamation were uttered?

Lesson ix

OOK now also at the three degrees of liability: to the judgment, to the council, to the gehenna of fire. For in the judgment an opportunity is still given for defence. In the council, however, although there is wont to be a judgment, yet because the very fact of a distinction being made compels us to acknowledge that there is a certain difference in this passage: the pronouncing of the sentence seems to belong to the council, inasmuch as it is not now the case of the accused himself that is in question, whether he is to be condemned or not, but a conferring with one another on the part of those who judge to what punishment they ought to condemn him, who, it is clear, is to be condemned, Thc gehenna of fire, though, does not treat as a doubtful matter either the condemnation, like the judgment, or the punishment of him who is condemned, like the council; for in the gehenna of fire both the condemnation and the punishment of him who is

condemned are certain.

Te Deum Laudamus, p. 24.

On Benedictus, Antiphon. Tone viij, 1.

Ye have heard that it was said * to them of old time,Thou shalt not kill; and

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On Magnificat, Antiphon. Tone j, 2.

Save us, Lord, * we per- ish: rebuke the winds and the sea, O God, and

make a great calm. Canticle Magnificat, p.209.

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THE FIFTH SUNDAY THAT REMAINED OVER

AFTER THE EPIPHANY

COLLECT

LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy household in continual godliness: that they who do lean only upon the hope of thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by thy protection. Through.

The Lesson from the Holy Gospel according to S. Matthew

Lesson vij Ch. 13

ESUS spake this parable unto the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. And the rest.

Homily by S. Augustine, Bishop 17 on S. Matthew

HEN those who had been set over the Church behaved in careless fashion or when the Apostles received the sleep of death, the devil came and sowed his seed upon those whom the Lord called the evil sons. But the question is asked, Were they heretics, or Catholics living evil lives? For even heretics can be called evil sons, because they have been begotten from the same seed of the Gospel and in the Name of Christ, though they are turned by their crooked beliefs to false doctrines.

Lesson viij

UT this he says, that they were sown in the midst of the wheat as though those men seem to be meant who are of the one communion. Yet since the Lord interpreted the field itself not as the Church, but as this world, they are rightly understood as the heretics, because not in the fellowship of the one Church, or of the one faith, but in the fellowship of the name Christian only are they mingled in this world with the good. But they who, holding the same faith are

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FTER that woman, who may be taken as a type of the Church, has been cured of an issue of blood, after the Apostles have been sent out to prcach the

Gospel of the kingdom of God, the food of divine grace is bestowed. But note on whom it is bestowed. Not on the leisured, not on those in cities, such as those who occupy high places in the synagogues or in the state: but on those who are seekin~ Christ in desert places. Men who are not haughty, it is they who are received by Christ; and the Word of God converses with them, not of worldly matters, but of the kingdom of God. And if any of them are suffering from the sores of fleshly passions, then he gladly grants them healing.

Lesson viij

ONSEQUENTLY, those whom he healed from the pain of their wounds, those he also freed from fasting by giving them spiritual food. Therefore no

one receives the bread of Christ who has not first been healed; and those who have

been called to his feast are first healed through his call. If there were a lame man, he would receive the power to walk, so that he could come; if one were deprived of his eyesight, he could not enter the house of the Lord, unless his sight were restored.

Lesson ix

N all cases the order of the mystery is retained, so that first the wounds are healed through remission of sins, and afterwards the food of the heavenly table abounds: however, this multitude is not yet refreshed with stronger meat, nor is it fed with the body and blood of Christ, as are the fasting hearts of those of stronger faith. I have fed you, says the Apostle, with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. The five loaves are, as it were, milk; but the stronger meat is the Body of Christ; the stronger drink is the Blood of the Lord.