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Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us. Come, let us adore him.

Year: B(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: Violet.

Other saints: St John of Egypt (304 - 394)

27 Mar (where celebrated)

At the age of 25, John left his home and became a monk. He lived under the tutelage of a wise hermit and when his master died, John decided to withdraw into a more remote cave on Mount Lycos. There he lived a very strict life, devoting himself to prayer and manual work. People started to visit him, since he was able to perform miracles, heal the sick and read people’s hearts. He died in 394, at the age of 90.

About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:

Second Reading: St Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430)

Augustine was born in Thagaste in Africa of a Berber family. He was brought up a Christian but left the Church early and spent a great deal of time seriously seeking the truth, first in the Manichaean heresy, which he abandoned on seeing how nonsensical it was, and then in Neoplatonism, until at length, through the prayers of his mother and the teaching of St Ambrose of Milan, he was converted back to Christianity and baptized in 387, shortly before his mother’s death.

Augustine had a brilliant legal and academic career, but after his conversion he returned home to Africa and led an ascetic life. He was elected Bishop of Hippo and spent 34 years looking after his flock, teaching them, strengthening them in the faith and protecting them strenuously against the errors of the time. He wrote an enormous amount and left a permanent mark on both philosophy and theology. His Confessions, as dazzling in style as they are deep in content, are a landmark of world literature. The Second Readings in the Office of Readings contain extracts from many of his sermons and commentaries and also from the Confessions.

Liturgical colour: violet

Violet is a dark colour, ‘the gloomy cast of the mortified, denoting affliction and melancholy’. Liturgically, it is the colour of Advent and Lent, the seasons of penance and preparation.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)	1 Timothy 2:4-6
God our saviour wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth. For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all. He is the evidence of this, sent at the appointed time.

Noon reading (Sext)	Romans 15:3
Christ did not think of himself. The words of scripture apply to him: the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

Afternoon reading (None)	Hebrews 9:28
Christ offers himself only once to take the faults of many on himself, and when he appears a second time, it will not be to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting for him.