We continue this liturgical year’s task with a look into Colossians 1:12-20, our pericope for Holy Mass at the Epistle for this last Sunday of October. As the last October Sunday, it is the Feast of Christ the King in the Church’s 1962 calendar. In the Novus Ordo Christ as King is celebrated on the…
You know the story of Esther during the Babylonian Exile. Wicked Haman plotted to get the King to kill all the Jews. Esther foiled his plan and instead the Jews were able to slay their enemies. You know the story of Job. He was a righteous man whom Satan tormented with God’s permission to test…
Context is always important. First, where are we in the liturgical year for this 20th Sunday after Pentecost Historically, this is the 5th Sunday after the Feast of St. Cyprian. Obviously, this is a telling of Sundays that existed before numbering them after Pentecost. The great liturgist, Bl. Ildefonso Schuster informs us that The computation…
For the 19th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo we venture into a Lesson from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (4:23-28). [Brethren]: Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting…
Our glimpse into the Epistle reading for Sunday’s Holy Mass in the Vetus Ordo of the Roman Rite continues for this coming 18th Sunday after Pentecost. Bl. Ildefonso Schuster, the great liturgist and once Cardinal Archbishop of Milan (+1954) informs us that our ancient Roman forbears identified this Sunday as the “third after the ‘birthday’…
The Lesson or Epistle for Mass on the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time in the Vetus Ordo is from Ephesians 4:1-6. [Brethren:] I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another…
This week, for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo, we are in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 3:13-21. Paul penned this letter, along with that to the Colossians and to Philemon probably during his first imprisonment in Rome, around 62 AD. This 16th Sunday was once reckoned as the 1st after from…
We come now to the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, which in an older way of thinking was called Quinta post Sancti Laurentii… the 5th after St. Lawrence, who was so beloved of the Romans. In fact, most of the Sundays of the year had station churches, not just the Sundays of Advent or days of…
We continue with this year’s assignment, present some thoughts about the Epistle reading for Sunday’s Holy Mass in the Vetus Ordo of the Roman Rite. Some weeks I feel like Sisyphus, shoving the great border up the hill (Sunday) only for it to roll back down so that I have an even bigger climb (the…
For some weeks we had Pauline readings from the Letters to the Corinthians. We begin this Sunday with pericopes from the Letter to the Galatians. The Epistle reading for this 13th Sunday after Pentecost (or as our ancient Roman forebears would have called it, the 3rd after St. Lawrence, which shows how important the saint…
In the flow of our green Vetus Ordo Sundays, this 12th Sunday after Pentecost brings the last selection from Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians. Next week we begin with Galatians. The order of our readings is very ancient, older in fact than the institution of the Divine Office. Hence, for our ancient Roman forebears, these…
