Let us listen for the voice of the Lord and enter into his peace.
Year: B(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: Green.
St Henry (973 - 1024)
He was born in Bavaria in 973 and succeeded to the dukedom at the age of 22. He became Holy Roman Emperor in 1014. He was noted for his support for the reform of the Church and for his encouragement of its missionary activity. He set up many bishoprics, and he and his wife Cunegunda founded many monasteries. He died in 1024 and was canonized by Pope Eugenius III in 1146.
Saturday memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary
‘On Saturdays in Ordinary Time when there is no obligatory memorial, an optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is allowed.
‘Saturdays stand out among those days dedicated to the Virgin Mary. These are designated as memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This memorial derives from Carolingian times (9th century), but the reasons for having chosen Saturday for its observance are unknown. While many explanations of this choice have been advanced, none is completely satisfactory from the point of view of the history of popular piety.
‘Whatever its historical origins may be, today the memorial rightly emphasizes certain values to which contemporary spirituality is more sensitive. It is a remembrance of the maternal example and discipleship of the Blessed Virgin Mary who, strengthened by faith and hope, on that “great Saturday” on which Our Lord lay in the tomb, was the only one of the disciples to hold vigil in expectation of the Lord’s resurrection. It is a prelude and introduction to the celebration of Sunday, the weekly memorial of the Resurrection of Christ. It is a sign that the Virgin Mary is continuously present and operative in the life of the Church.’
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2001), §188
Other saints: St Teresa of Los Andes
13 Jul (where celebrated)
Juana Fernández Solar was born in Santiago, Chile on 13 July 1900. Her parents Miguel Fernández and Lucia Solar raised her in the Christian faith along with her three brothers and two sisters. She grew up surrounded by her extended family. Juana was educated in the college of French nuns of the Sacred Heart. At age fourteen, she became strongly convinced that God was calling her to the life of a religious.
Juana’s desire was realised on 7 May 1919, when she entered a tiny monastery of Discalced Carmelite Nuns in the township of Los Andes, some 90 kilometres away from her hometown of Santiago. On 14 October Juana was clothed in the Carmelite habit and began her novitiate with the religious name Teresa of Jesus. She expressed a fervour for her mission to make God known and loved. Early in the following year Sister Teresa contracted typhus and faced both interior struggles and physical suffering. On 7 April, because of danger of death, she made her religious profession and soon after, on the evening of 12 April 1920, entered into the loving embrace of the God she desired. Juana’s life on earth was short, but like those Carmelites named Teresa before her, she discovered the simplicity of faith in living, believing and loving.
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: 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) | Deuteronomy 8:5-6 |
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The Lord your God was training you as a man trains his child. Keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and so follow his ways and reverence him.
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| Noon reading (Sext) | 1 Kings 2:2-3 |
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Be strong and show yourself a man. Observe the injunctions of the Lord your God, following his ways and keeping his laws, his commandments, his customs and his decrees, so that you may be successful in all you do and undertake.
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| Afternoon reading (None) | Jeremiah 6:16 |
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Put yourselves on the ways of long ago and enquire about the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it then, and you shall find rest.
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