Saturday November 23, 2024
ST CLEMENT I, P.M. & ST COLUMBANUS, ABB (Opt Mem)
BVM on Saturday
Office: Psalter Week 1
Mass and Preface of day or Memorial or BVM
Vestment: Red/Green/White
Today’s Rosary: The Joyful Mystery
Click HERE for the Previous Catholic Daily Reading
Vespers I of the Solemnity of Christ the King
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
“These two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. ”
A reading from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 11:4-12)
I, John, was told: “[Behold, my two witnesses;]” these are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands which stand before the Lord of the earth. And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to afflict the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud.
The word of the Lord.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 144: 1.2.9-10 (R. 1a)
R/. Blest be the Lord, my rock.
Blest be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle,
who prepares my fingers for war. R/.
He is my merciful love, my fortress;
he is my stronghold, my saviour,
my shield in whom I take refuge.
He brings peoples under my rule. R/.
R/. Blest be the Lord, my rock.
To you, O God, will I sing a new song;
I will play on the ten-stringed harp
to you who give kings their victory,
who set David your servant free
from the evil sword. R/.
ALLELUIA 2 Timothy 1:10
Alleluia. Our Saviour Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
“’He is not God of the dead, but of the living ,”
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 20:27-40)
At that time: There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for its that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no. children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers, the first took a wife, and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? for the seven had her as wife.” And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him.” And some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have Spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question. ’
The Gospel of the Lord.
TODAY’S REFLECTION
The gospel of today reveals two important points about our life after death as believers. First, the resurrection is a reality that nobody can deny. God is God of the living, not of the dead. Second, those accounted worthy to enter heaven will be immortal and are children of God and equal to angels. If we are destined to rise again and live as immortal beings, i.e. as children of God, our life in this world has to be in conformity with such a destiny. If we are children of God in the next life, so are we in this life too. It is when we live as children of God that this world becomes heaven. Every family, institution and organization will be like a miniature heaven when we live the status of the children of God.
TODAY’S SAINT AND QUOTE: Blessed Miguel Pro – November 23rd
Do your children delight in the stories of spies and ninjas? It’s time to teach them about Blessed Miguel Pro. Ok — so Blessed Miguel wasn’t a ninja, but he had to carry out the duties of the priesthood in secret, adopting disguises to conceal his identity from the Mexican government.
We ought to speak, shout out against injustices, with confidence and without fear. We proclaim the principles of the Church, the reign of love, without forgetting that it is also a reign of justice.
PERSONAL DEVOTIONAL
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10
- Give me the will-power to stand for you always.
- O Lord, endear my spirit with the Joy of serving you always my Lord and my God.
- Pray for all children of God who have failed in their vow of holiness that they will return to the Lord and renew their vows of holiness.
Let Us Pray,
PRAYER OF ST. PIO OF PIETRELCINA
Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have you present so that I do not forget you, you know how easily I abandon you.
Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak, and I need you strength, that I may not fall so often, stay with me, Lord, for you are my life, and without you, I am without fervor.
Stay with me, Lord, for you are my light, and without you, I am in darkness.
Stay with me, Lord, to show me your will.
Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love you very much, and always be in your company.
Stay with me, Lord, if you wish me to be faithful to you.
Stay with me, Lord, for as poor as my soul is, I want it to be a place of consolation for you, a nest of love.
Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close, and life passes; death, judgment, eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need you. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need you, my Jesus, in this night of exile!
Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers. I need you. Let me recognize you as your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.
Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to you, if not by communion, at least by grace and love.
Stay with me, Jesus, I do not ask for divine consolation, because I do not merit it, but the gift of your presence, oh yes, I ask this of you!
Stay with me, Lord, for it is you alone I look for, your love, your Grace, your Will, your Heart, your Spirit, because I love you and ask no other reward but to lobe you more and more. With a firm love, I will love you with all my heart while on earth and continue to love you perfectly during all eternity. Amen.
