A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
Click on photo for this corporal work of mercy!

Sunday 31 January 2021

It is Septuagesima Sunday. What is that, you ask? Does it matter? There is still

 

Nor, has there been since the Monday after the Last Sunday After Pentecost or the Solemnity of Christ the King, if you prefer. Yes, it has been that long. Advent, Christmastide, in a few days Candlemas. All gone. It joins Lent, Holy Week, the Triduum, Eastertide and all the great spring feasts from 2020. Will we have Easter in church this year? (For more on the Gesimas you can read here)

What am I bid?

All gone. Gone for a virus invented in a lab in Wuhan and used to beat the world into cowardice and submission. A virus with a 99.7% survival rate depending upon your age where government and church has failed to protect the most vulnerable and persecuted and prosecuted the rest. Church? Yes. When have you heard Thomas Cardinal Collins or his ilk speak out against the fact that some nursing homes in this Archdiocese have 100% of patients with the CCP virus and the inaction of government to protect the vulnerable? Please, find me the statement. This, is what happens when you take government money to pay your staff, including priests!

The Ford government reduced the number for religious rituals to ten. The Cardinal then outdid him and went to 0! He has now backtracked a little and offers now a Sunday service of Holy Communion. Other bishops in Ontario, St. Catharines, Pembroke and Peterborough, have managed to continue on. 

Ten. Why?

It is the Minyan, the congregational quorum of adult men (post Bar Mitzvah) for there to be sufficient sanctity for the recitation of certain public prayers in a synagogue.

Doug Ford reduced from 30% church and religious attendance to ten to satisfy the Jewish need for a congregation. We, as Catholics, can't even muster the courage to match them.

There are two evangelical churches whose elders and members are being persecuted and prosecuted in Ontario. One in Aylmer and another in Waterloo. These people have more courage than our Cardinal who had the power nearly a year ago to tell the Ontario government that churches would not be closing. He had the bully pulpit.

We were given a child to do a man's job.

Clearly, he was never Bar Mitzvahed.

At least, pray this today.


INTROIT Ps. 17:5, 6, 7

The moaning of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell enveloped me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and from His holy temple He heard my voice.

Ps. 17:2, 3. I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my support, my refuge, and my deliverer.

V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT

O Lord, we beg You to kindly hear the prayers of Your people. We are being justly punished for our sins, but be merciful and free us for the glory of Your name. Through Our Lord . . .

Commemoration of SAINT JOHN BOSCO

John Bosco (1815-88) grew up on a Piedmont farm in Italy. While still a student-priest at Turin, he began his mission for the abandoned boy apprentices of the early industrial era, who roamed uncared for on the streets of the city. Priests and Brothers gathered about John Bosco as his work developed, and formed the Salesian Order, named in honor of St. Francis of Sales. He also founded a community of Sisters to aid needy girls. Today, the missioners of John Bosco carry on his ideals of gentleness and charity among poor children in Asia, Africa, and South America, as well as in Europe and North America.

O God, You made Your confessor St. John a father and teacher for the young and willed that he should found in Your Church flourishing new communities under the protection of the Virgin Mary. Enkindle in us the same fire of love to seek after souls and serve You alone. Through Our Lord . . .

EPISTLE I Cor. 9:24-27; 10:1-5

Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud: and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea: And did all eat the same spiritual food: And all drank the same spiritual drink: (And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ.) But with most of them God was not well pleased.

GRADUAL Ps. 9:10-11, 19-20

You are a helper to those in need, in time of distress. Let those who know You trust in You, O Lord, for You do not forsake those who seek You. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor shall the patience of the poor forever perish. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail.

TRACT Ps. 129:1-4

Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the prayer of Your servant.

V. If You, O Lord, shall mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?
V. But with You there is merciful forgiveness, and because of Your law I have waited for You, O Lord.

GOSPEL Matt. 20:1-16

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable:"The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle. And he said to them: 'Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just.' And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: 'Why stand you here all the day idle?' They say to him: 'Because no man hath hired us.' He saith to them: 'Go ye also into my vineyard.' And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: 'Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first.' When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: And they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, Saying: 'These last have worked but one hour. and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats.' But he answering said to one of them: 'friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good?' So shall the last be first and the first last. For many are called but few chosen."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 91:2

It is good to praise the Lord, and to sing to Your name, O Most High.

SECRET

Accept our offerings and prayers, O Lord. Cleanse us by this heavenly rite, and in Your mercy hear our petitions. Through Our Lord . . .

Commemoration of SAINT JOHN BOSCO

Accept, O Lord, our offering of this perfect host of salvation. May we love You in all things and above all things so that our lives may praise and glorify You. Through Our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Ps. 30:17-18

Let Your face shine upon Your servant, and save me in Your kindness. Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You.

POSTCOMMUNION

O Lord, may the faithful be strengthened by the reception of Your Sacramental Gifts. And having received them, may they hunger after them still; and through hungering may they come constantly to be nourished by them. Through Our Lord . . .

Commemoration of SAINT JOHN BOSCO

We have partaken of the sacred mystery of Your Body and Blood, O Lord. remind us always of our obligation of gratitude through the intercession of Your blessed confessor saint John; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

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