Feast of the Holy Innocents

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents.  The first Nocturn readings at Matins in the Benedictine Office are from Jeremiah 31: 15-23, while the Gospel is St Matthew 2:13-18.

The Second Nocturn readings are from a sermon of St Caesarius (sometimes ascribed to St Augustine, as it is over at the Divinum Officium website where you can also find the third Nocturn readings by St Jerome):

(Reading 5): Dearly beloved brethren, today we keep the birthday of those children, who, as we are informed by the Gospel, were massacred by the savage King Herod. Therefore let earth rejoice with exceeding joy, for she is the mother of these heavenly soldiers, and of this numerous host. The love of the vile Herod could never have crowned these blessed ones as hath his hatred.

(Reading 6): For the Church testifieth by this holy solemnity, that whereas iniquity did specially abound against these little saints, so much the more were heavenly blessings poured out upon them.Blessed art thou, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, which hast suffered the cruelty of King Herod in the slaughter of thy children; who art found worthy to offer at once to God a whole white-robed army of guileless martyrs!

(Reading 7): Surely, it is well to keep their birthday, even that blessed birthday which gave them from earth to heaven, more blessed than the day that brought them out of their mother's womb. Scarcely had they entered on the life that now is, when they obtained that glorious life which is to come.

(Reading 8): We praise the death of other martyrs because it was the crowning act of an undaunted and persistent testimony; but these were crowned at once. He That maketh an end to this present life, gave to them at its very gates that eternal blessedness which we hope for at its close. They whom the wickedness of Herod tore from their mothers' breasts are rightfully called the flowers of martyrdom; hardly had these buds of the Church shown their heads above the soil, in the winter of unbelief, when the frost of persecution nipped them.

Feast of St John the Evangelist

The readings for today's feast at Matins in the traditional Benedictine Office are as follows:

Nocturn I: First Letter of St John 1:1-10; 2:1-5a
Nocturn II: From St Jerome on Ecclesiastical Writers; Commentary on Galatians
Nocturn III: Homily of St Augustine

All can be found on the Divinum Officium website.  Here are the Second Nocturn readings, arranged as for the Benedictine Office:

(Reading 5): The Apostle John whom Jesus loved was a son of Zebedee, and brother of the Apostle James, who was beheaded by Herod soon after our Lord suffered. He was the last of the Evangelists to write his Gospel, which he published at the request of the Bishops of Asia, against Cerinthus and other heretics, and particularly against the then spreading doctrine of the Ebionites, who asserted that Christ had had no existence before Mary. It was therefore needful for the Evangelist to declare His Eternal and Divine Generation.

(Reading 6):In the fourteenth year after Nero, Domitian stirred up the second persecution, and John was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he wrote his Apocalypse, which hath been explained by Justin the Martyr and Irenaeus.

(Reading 7): When Domitian was killed, the Senate annulled all his acts, on account of his savage cruelty, and the Apostle returned to Ephesus, during the reign of Nerva. He remained at Ephesus until the time of Trajan, and founded and governed all the Churches of Asia. There, in an extreme old age, he died, in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord's passion, and was buried near the city.

(Reading 8):The Blessed Evangelist John lived at Ephesus down to an extreme old age, and, at length, when he was with difficulty carried to the Church, and was not able to exhort the congregation at length, he was used simply to say at each meeting, My little children, love one another. At last the disciples and brethren were weary with hearing these words continually, and asked him, Master, wherefore ever sayest thou this only? Whereto he replied to them, worthy of John, It is the commandment of the Lord, and if this only be done, it is enough.

St Stephen the Protomartyr

Today is the feast of St Stephen, whose story is recorded in Acts 6:1-10; 7: 55-60 (first nocturn readings at Matins).  Here are the second Nocturn readings, from a Sermon of St Fulgenius (from Divinum Officium):

(Reading 5): Yesterday we were celebrating the birth in time of our Eternal King; to-day we celebrate the victory, through suffering, of one of His soldiers. Yesterday our King was pleased to come forth from His royal palace of the Virgin's womb, clothed in a robe of flesh, to visit the world; to-day His soldier, laying aside the tabernacle of the body, entereth in triumph into the heavenly palaces. The One, preserving unchanged that glory of the Godhead which He had before the world was, girded Himself with the form of a servant, and entered the arena of this world to fight sin; the other taketh off the garments of this corruptible body, and entereth into the heavenly mansions, where he will reign for ever. The One cometh down, veiled in flesh; the other goeth up, clothed in a robe of glory, red with blood.

(Reading 6): The One cometh down amid the jubilation of angels; the other goeth up amid the stoning of the Jews. Yesterday the holy angels were singing, Glory to God in the highest; to-day there is joy among them, for they receive Stephen into their company. Yesterday the Lord came forth from the Virgin's womb; to-day His soldier is delivered from the prison of the body.

(Reading 7): Yesterday Christ was for our sakes wrapped in swaddling bands; to - day He girdeth Stephen with a robe of immortality. Yesterday the new-born Christ lay in a narrow manger; to-day Stephen entereth victorious into the boundless heavens. The Lord came down alone that He might raise many up; our King humbled Himself that He might set His soldiers in high places.Why brethren, it behoveth us to consider with what arms Stephen was able, amid all the cruelty of the Jews, to remain more than conqueror, and worthily to attain to so blessed a triumph.

(Reading 8): Stephen, in that struggle which brought him to the crown whereof his name is a prophecy, had for armour the love of God and man, and by it he remained victorious on all hands. The love of God strengthened him against the cruelty of the Jews; and the love of his neighbour made him pray even for his murderers. Through love he rebuked the wandering, that they might be corrected; through love he prayed for them that stoned him, that they might not be punished. By the might of his love he overcame Saul his cruel persecutor; and earned for a comrade in heaven, the very man who had done him to death upon earth.

Happy Christmas!

c12th St Alban's Psalter

The second Nocturn readings at Matins today are from a Sermon of Pope St Leo (from Divinum Officium but divided as in the Benedictine Breviary):

(Reading 5): Dearly beloved brethren, Unto us is born this day a Saviour, Luke ii. 11. Let us rejoice. It would be unlawful to be sad to-day, for today is Life's Birthday; the Birthday of that Life, Which, for us dying creatures, taketh away the sting of death, and bringeth the bright promise of the eternal gladness hereafter. It would be unlawful for any man to refuse to partake in our rejoicing. All men have an equal share in the great cause of our joy, for, since our Lord, Who is the destroyer of sin and of death, findeth that all are bound under the condemnation, He is come to make all free.

(Reading 6): Rejoice, O thou that art holy, thou drawest nearer to thy crown! Rejoice, O thou that art sinful, thy Saviour offereth thee pardon! Rejoice also, O thou Gentile, God calleth thee to life! For the Son of God, when the fulness of the time was come, which had been fixed by the unsearchable counsel of God, took upon Him the nature of man, that He might reconcile that nature to Him Who made it, and so the devil, the inventor of death, is met and beaten in that very flesh which hath been the field of his victory.

(Reading 7): When our Lord entered the field of battle against the devil, He did so with a great and wonderful fairness. Being Himself the Almighty, He laid aside His uncreated Majesty to fight with our cruel enemy in our weak flesh. He brought against him the very shape, the very nature of our mortality, yet without sin. Heb. iv. 15. His birth however was not a birth like other births for no other is born pure, nay, not the little child whose life endureth but a day on the earth. To His birth alone the throes of human passion had not contributed, in His alone no consequence of sin had had -part. For His Mother was chosen a Virgin of the kingly lineage of David, and when she was to grow heavy with the sacred Child, her soul had already conceived Him before her body. She knew the counsel of God announced to her by the Angel, lest the unwonted events should alarm her. The future Mother of God knew what was to be wrought in her by the Holy Ghost, and that her modesty was absolutely safe.

(Reading 8): Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Ghost: Who, for His great love wherewith He loved us, hath had mercy on us and, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, Eph. ii. 4, 5, that in Him we might be a new creature, and a new workmanship. Let us then put off the old man with his deeds (Col. iii. 9); and, having obtained a share in the Sonship of Christ, let us renounce the deeds of the flesh. Learn, O Christian, how great thou art, who hast been made partaker of the Divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4, and fall not again by corrupt conversation into the beggarly elements above which thou art lifted. Remember Whose Body it is Whereof thou art made a member, and Who is its Head, (1 Cor. vi. 15.) Remember that it is He That hath delivered thee from the power of darkness and hath translated thee into God's light, and God's kingdom, (Col. i. 13.)

Vigil of the Nativity

The Matins readings of the day (on Matthew 1:18-21) are from a Homily of St Jerome (from Divinum Officium):

Reading 1: Why was the Lord conceived of an espoused virgin rather than of a free? First, for the sake of the genealogy of Mary, which we have obtained by that of Joseph. Secondly, because she was thus saved from being stoned by the Jews as an adulteress. Thirdly, that Himself and His mother might have a guardian on their journey into Egypt. To these, Ignatius, the martyr of Antioch, has added a fourth reason namely, that the birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would naturally suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.

Reading 2: Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. She was found, that is, by Joseph, but by no one else. He had already almost an husband's privilege to know all that concerned her. Before they came together. This doth not imply that they ever did come together the Scripture merely showeth the absolute fact that up to this time they had not done so.

Reading 3: Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. If any man be joined to a fornicatress they become one body; and according to the law they that are privy to a crime are thereby guilty. How then can it be that Joseph is described as a just man, at the very time he was compounding the criminality of his espoused? It must have been that he knew her to be pure, and yet understood not the mystery of her pregnancy, but, while he wondered at that which had happened, was willing to hold his peace.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

This Sunday is the fourth in Advent, and the week marks the start of Christmastide (note that there are of course twelve days of Christmas!).

This week in the Benedictine Office

Sunday 22 December – Fourth Sunday of Advent, Class I

Matins readings:

Nocturn I:  Isaiah 35: 1-10; Is 41:1-4

Nocturn II: Sermon of Pope St Leo

Nocturn III: Homily of St Gregory the Great

Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

Monastic Diurnal (MD): MD 45* ff; at Vespers O Rex gentium MD 36*

Antiphonale Monasticum (AM): AM 226 ff; O Antiphon, AM211

Monday 23 December – Monday in the fourth week of Advent, Class II

Matins readings: Is 41:8-16

MD: Antiphons from MD 37*; Ordinary of Advent; Benedictus antiphon (Ecce completa) MD 45*; O Emmanuel, MD 36*

AM: Antiphons AM 212; Benedictus antiphon AM 220; O antiphon, AM 211

Tuesday 24 December - Vigil of the Nativity, Class I

Matins readings: Nocturn I: Homily of St Jerome; Nocturn II: Romans 1:4

MD: Antiphons and proper texts, MD 54* ff

AM: AM 232

CHRISTMASTIDE

I Vespers of the Nativity of Our Lord, MD 58* ff ; AM 236ff

Wednesday 25 December – The Nativity of Our Lord, Class I with a Second Class Octave

Matins readings: Isaiah 9:1-6, 40:1-8; 52:1-6; Sermon  21 of St Leo; Homilies of St Jerome, St Gregory, St Ambrose and St Augustine; Gospel: Mt 1:1-16

 MD 61* ff; AM 240 ff

Thursday 26 December – St Stephen, Protomartyr, Class II

Matins readings: Acts 6:1-10 & 7:54-60; Sermon of St Fulgentius; Homily of St Jerome; Mt 23:34-39

MD 83* ff; AM 250 ff

Friday 27 December – St John the Evangelist, Class II

Matins readings: I John 1:1-10, 2:1-5; St Jerome on Ecclesiastical writers and commentary on Galatians; Homily of St Augustine; John 21:19-24

MD 90* ff; AM 255ff

 Saturday 28 December - Holy Innocents, Class II

Matins readings: Jeremiah 31:15-23; Sermon of St Caesarii; Homily of St Jerome; Mt 2:15-18

MD 97* ff; AM 260 ff

Sunday 29 December – Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity, Class II [in some places, St Thomas Beckett, Class I]

Matins readings: Romans 1:1-19; Sermon of St Leo; Homily of St Ambrose; Luke 2:33-40

MD 77* ff; AM 265 ff

Feast of St Thomas

Today is the feast of the apostle Thomas.

The readings at Matins are:

Nocturn I: Common of Apostles (I Corinthians 4:1-15)
Nocturn II: on the life of the saint (see below) and sermon of St Gregory
Nocturn III: Homily of St Gregory (also at Divinum Officium)
Gospel: John 20: 24-29

On the life of St Thomas:

(Reading 5): The Apostle Thomas, called Didymus, or the Twin, was a Galilean. After the descent of the Holy Ghost, he went into many provinces to preach Christ's Gospel. He gave knowledge of the rules of Christian faith and life to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, and Bactrians. He went last to the East Indies. Here he provoked the anger of one of the idolatrous kings, because the holiness of his life and teaching, and the number of his miracles, drew many after him, and brought them to the love of Christ Jesus. He was therefore condemned, and slain with lances. He crowned the dignity of the Apostleship with the glory of martyrdom, on the Coromandel coast, not far from Madras.