Christ is the son of Mary: come, let us adore him.
Year: B(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: White.
Other saints: Bl Angelus Mazzinghi (c.1386-1438)
17 Aug (where celebrated)
Angelus was born near Florence, around the year 1386. He entered the Carmelite Order in 1413, being later ordained a priest in 1415. He was the first member of the reform movement delle selve (of the woods), which began in the convent of Santa Maria delle Selve at Lastra a Signa, west of Florence, a reform that later spread to the Carmelite Congregation of Mantua. Angelus served as prior of the reformed community from 1419 to 1430, as well as prior for two years in the community of Florence. He was a lector (teacher) in theology and was renowned for his preaching, no doubt arising from a deep love and practice of praying the Scriptures in his Carmelite life. Angelus is often depicted in iconography with flowers falling from his mouth as he preaches. He died in Florence on the 17th August 1438.
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: St Pacian (c. 310–391)
Saint Pacian (Pacianus) was bishop of Barcelona from about 365 to 391. He is Jerome’s De viris illustribus, in which Jerome praises his eloquence, learning, chastity, and holiness of life.
His writings are extant only in part in three letters and a short treatise, Paraenesis ad Poenitentiam. He discusses ecclesiastical discipline, baptism and papal primacy. He also opposes the rigorous doctrines of Novatianism, which maintained that Christians who had once given in to their persecutors could never be forgiven or re-admitted to communion.
Liturgical colour: white
White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.
| Mid-morning reading (Terce) | 1 Samuel 15:22 |
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Is the pleasure of the Lord in holocausts and sacrifices or in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness better than the fat of rams.
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| Noon reading (Sext) | Galatians 5:26,6:2 |
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We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious. You should carry each other’s troubles and fulfil the law of Christ.
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| Afternoon reading (None) | Micah 6:8 |
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What is good has been explained to you, man; this is what the Lord asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.
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