Let us rejoice in the Lord, with songs let us praise him.
Year: B(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: Green.
St Augustine Zhao Rong and his Companions, Martyrs
Augustine Zhao Rong was one of the Chinese soldiers who escorted Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse to his execution. Moved by his patience, he asked to be baptized, and in due course was sent to the seminary and ordained a priest. He was arrested and savagely tortured. He died in 1815.
With him are celebrated 119 of his companions in martyrdom in China between 1648 and 1930 (including Bishop Dufresse).
Official persecution of Christians by the Emperors ceased in 1842, but violent anti-religious sentiments persisted, and in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, Christians were particularly attacked and many thousands were killed.
Other saints: Saint Kilian (- 689)
Ireland
He was born in County Cavan, Ireland. He was a missionary bishop and the apostle of Franconia, which is nowadays the northern part of Bavaria, in the late 7th century. He preached the Gospel in Würzburg and converted the local Duke and much of the population. He was martyred by beheading, possibly at the behest of the Duke’s wife, possibly because she was the widow of the Duke’s brother and Kilian had declared her subsequent marriage to the Duke to be illegal. See the article in
Catholic Encyclopaedia.
Other saints: Saint Withburga (- 743)
East Anglia
Withburga was the youngest daughter of King Anna of East Anglia. After her father had fallen in battle she took the veil and lived mostly in East Dereham, a nunnery which she had founded. After her death c.743, her body was stolen by monks from Ely and enshrined there.
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: Pope St Clement I
Clement was Bishop of Rome after Peter, Linus and Cletus. He lived towards the end of the first century, but nothing is known for certain about his life. Clement’s letter to the Corinthian church has survived. It is the first known Patristic document, and exhorts them to peace and brotherly harmony.
Liturgical colour: green
The theological virtue of hope is symbolized by the colour green, just as the burning fire of love is symbolized by red. Green is the colour of growing things, and hope, like them, is always new and always fresh. Liturgically, green is the colour of Ordinary Time, the orderly sequence of weeks through the year, a season in which we are being neither single-mindedly penitent (in purple) nor overwhelmingly joyful (in white).
| Mid-morning reading (Terce) | Jeremiah 31:33 |
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This is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive – it is the Lord who speaks. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people.
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| Noon reading (Sext) | Jeremiah 32:40 |
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I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not cease in my efforts for their good, and I will put respect for me into their hearts, so that they turn from me no more.
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| Afternoon reading (None) | Ezekiel 34:31 |
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You, my sheep, are the flock I shall pasture, and I am your God – it is the Lord who speaks.
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