The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Year: C(I). Psalm week: 4. Liturgical Colour: White.
Saint Apollinaris, Bishop, Martyr
He was bishop of Ravenna, probably in the late second century, and was probably martyred there. Devotion to him was already common in the seventh century.
Other saints: Saint Thorlak (1133-1193)
Denmark, Finland, Sweden
Thorlak Thorhallsson was born in 1133 at Hlíðarendi in the see of Skálholt in southern Iceland. He was ordained a deacon before he was fifteen and a priest at the age of eighteen. He studied abroad at Paris with the Victorines and then studied canon law at Lincoln. He returned to Iceland in 1165 and founded a monastery of Canons Regular at Þykkvabær. There he devoted himself to a strictly religious life, refusing to marry (many other Icelandic priests were married) and devoting himself to reciting the Our Father, the Creed, and a hymn, as well as fifty Psalms.
Thorlak was consecrated bishop of Skálholt by Augustine of Nidaros and worked to regulate the Augustinian Rule in Iceland, as well as to eradicate simony, lay patronage, and clerical incontinency.
He died on 23 December 1193 and after having been informally venerated as a saint for many centuries he was officially canonised by Pope John Paul II, who named him patron saint of Iceland.
Other saints: St Elijah, Father of the Carmelites (1-2 Kings, Prophet)
20 Jul (where celebrated)
On this day, together with the eastern rites of the Catholic Church, Carmelites commemorate the feast of the prophet Elijah. In Hebrew, Elijah means “My God is YHWH”. Elijah is held as a model of the contemplative life, particularly by Carmelites who first gathered on Mount Carmel, where Elijah contested the worship of the one true God of the Israelite people against that of the prophets of Baal. The Scriptures describe Elijah as a man who lived in the presence of God and whose zeal for the true God led him into moments of encounter with God both in silence and through his prophetic action. The inspiration found in the person of Elijah pervades the history of the Carmelite Order from its very beginnings and so he is also named “Father of all Carmelites”.
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: St Peter Chrysologus (380 - 450)
Peter was born and died in Imola in northern Italy. He was made bishop of Ravenna, the new capital of the Roman Empire, and was responsible for many of the building works there. The name “Chrysologus” means “golden speech”, and was given to Peter because he was such a gifted preacher; unfortunately, most of his writings have perished, and only a collection of short sermons remains.
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) | Acts 4:11-12 © |
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This Jesus is ‘the stone rejected by you the builders, but which has proved to be the keystone.’ For of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.
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| Noon reading (Sext) | (1 Peter 3:21-22) © |
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Now you are saved by baptism. This is not the washing off of physical dirt but a pledge made to God from a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has entered heaven and is at God’s right hand.
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| Afternoon reading (None) | Colossians 3:1-2 © |
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Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth.
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