Universalis
    (other days)
Thursday of the 1st week of Lent 
 (optional commemoration of Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest)

Using calendar: Eastern Mediterranean. You can choose a country.

Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us. Come, let us adore him.
Or: O that today you would listen to his voice: harden not your hearts.

Year: C(I). Psalm week: 1. Liturgical Colour: Violet.

Saint Bernardino of Siena (1380 - 1444)

Bernardino (“Little Bernard”) was born in Tuscany. His parents died when he was a child. While still a student at the University of Siena he took charge of the hospital there when an epidemic killed most of the staff. Later he looked after a bedridden aunt until her death; and then, at the age of 22, he became a Franciscan.
  Inspired by St Vincent Ferrer, he was an energetic and popular preacher and spent years travelling on foot through Italy preaching to enormous audiences. He denounced usury, promoted peace among the warring Italian cities, and worked hard for the reform and discipline of the Franciscan order, and for church unity.
  Bernardino’s achievements before he became a Franciscan show what the young can achieve if given the chance. Let us try not to confirm them in a culture of enforced irresponsibility, but to encourage each of them to give to others whatever they have been called into this world to give.
  See the articles in Wikipedia and the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Other saints: Bl. Columba of Rieti OP (1467 - 1501)

20 May (where celebrated)
Dominican Sister and Virgin.
  Blessed Columba was born in Rieti, Italy, in 1467. She was clothed with the habit of the Dominican Sisters of Penance at Rieti. Following in the footsteps of Saint Catherine of Siena, she showed an admirable charity towards the poor, the sick and the dying. In Perugia she founded a convent of sisters where she made profession and became prioress in 1490. There she was noted for her work of reconciliation for which she received the name “Dove of Peace.” She died there on the feast of the Ascension, May 20, 1501.

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

Second Reading: Saint Asterius of Amasea (c.350 - c.410)

Asterius was made Bishop of Amasea between 380 and 390 AD, after having been a lawyer. He was born in Cappadocia and probably died in Amasea in modern Turkey, then in Pontus. Little is known about him, but his lively and vigorous sermons paint a clear picture of the life of the period.

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)Isaiah 55:6-7 ©
Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near. Let the wicked man abandon his way, the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving.
Noon reading (Sext)Deuteronomy 30:2-3 ©
If you return to the Lord your God, if you obey his voice with all your heart and soul in everything I enjoin on you today, you and your children, then the Lord your God will bring back your captives and will have pity on you.
Afternoon reading (None)Hebrews 10:35-36 ©
Continue to have confidence, since the reward is so great. You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.

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Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.
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