Catholic Missal of the day: Friday, November 23 2018
Friday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
Friday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
1. ReadingBook of Revelation
10,8-11.]I John heard a voice from heaven speak to me saying, "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
]So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. He said to me, "Take and swallow it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey."
]I took the small scroll from the angel's hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
]Then someone said to me, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."
Psalms
119(118),14.24.72.103.111.131.]In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
]Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
]The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
]How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
]Your decrees are my inheritance forever;
the joy of my heart they are.
]I gasp with open mouth,
in my yearning for your commands.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
19,45-48.]Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things,
]saying to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'"
]And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death,
]but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
St. Clement I(Pope and martyr († 100))
SAINT CLEMENT I POPE AND MARTYR( 100)Dear Brothers and Sisters, Let us devote our attention to the Apostolic Fathers, that is, to the first and second generations in the Church subsequent to the Apostles. Thus, we can see where the Church's journey begins in history.St. Clement, Bishop of Rome during the last years of the first century, was the Successor of Peter after Linus and Anacletus. The most important testimony concerning his life comes from St. Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons until 202. He attests that Clement "had seen the blessed Apostles," "had been conversant with them," and "might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing , and their traditions before his eyes" (Adversus Haer. 3, 3, 3).The authority and prestige of St. Clement were such that various writings were attributed to him, but the only one that is certainly his is the Letter to the Corinthians. Eusebius of Caesarea, the great "archivist" of Christian beginnings, presents it in these terms: "There is extant an Epistle of this Clement which is acknowledged to be genuine and is of considerable length and of remarkable merit. He wrote it in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth, when a sedition had arisen in the latter Church. We know that this Epistle also has been publicly used in a great many Churches both in former times and in our own" (Hist. Eccl. 3, 16).An almost canonical character was attributed to this Letter. At the beginning of this text - written in Greek - Clement expressed his regret that "the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves" had prevented him from intervening sooner (1, 1). These "calamitous events" can be identified with Domitian's persecution. Therefore, the Letter must have been written just after the Emperor's death and at the end of the persecution: immediately after the year 96.Clement's intervention was prompted by the serious problems besetting the Church in Corinth. The elders of the community had been deposed by some young contestants. The sorrowful event was recalled once again by St. Irenaeus who wrote: "In the time of this Clement, no small dissension having occurred among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome dispatched a most powerful Letter to the Corinthians exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the Apostles" (Adv. Haer. 3, 3, 3).Thus, we could say that this Letter was a first exercise of the Roman primacy after St. Peter's death. Clement's Letter touches on topics that were dear to St. Paul, who had written two important Letters to the Corinthians, in particular the theological dialectic, perennially current, between the indicative of salvation and the imperative of moral commitment.First of all came the joyful proclamation of saving grace. The Lord forewarns us and gives us his forgiveness, gives us his love and the grace to be Christians: his brothers and sisters. It is a proclamation that fills our life with joy and gives certainty to our action. The Lord always forewarns us with his goodness and the Lord's goodness is always greater than all our sins. However, we must commit ourselves in a way that is consistent with the gift received and respond to the proclamation of salvation with a generous and courageous journey of conversion.The Letter's immediate circumstances provided the Bishop of Rome with ample room for an intervention on the Church's identity and mission. If there were abuses in Corinth, Clement observed, the reason should be sought in the weakening of charity and of the other indispensable Christian virtues. He therefore calls the faithful to humility and fraternal love, two truly constitutive virtues of being in the Church: "Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One," he warned, "let us do all those things which pertain to holiness" (30, 1)."The Lord (delegated) peculiar services (Baptism, Last Supper, etc.) to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministries devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen" (40, 1-5). It can be noted that here, in this early first-century Letter, the Greek word "laikós" appears for the first time in Christian literature, meaning "a member of the laos"(that is, "of the People of God"). ... Each one (in the Church) ... exercises his ministry in accordance with the vocation he has received.The Father sent Jesus Christ, who in turn sent the Apostles. They then sent the first heads of communities and established that they would be succeeded by other worthy men. Everything, therefore, was made "in an orderly way, according to the will of God" (42). With these words, St. Clement underlined that the Church's structure was sacramental and not political. The action of God who comes to meet us in the liturgy precedes our decisions and our ideas. The Church is above all a gift of God and not something we ourselves created. Consequently, this sacramental structure not only guarantees the common order, but also this precedence of God's gift which we all need.Finally, the "great prayer" confers a cosmic breath to the previous reasoning. ... The prayer for rulers and governors acquires special importance. Subsequent to the New Testament texts, it is the oldest prayer extant for political institutions. Thus, in the period following their persecution, Christians, well aware that the persecutions would continue, never ceased to pray for the very authorities who had unjustly condemned them. The reason is primarily Christological: it is necessary to pray for one's persecutors as Jesus did on the Cross. But this prayer also contains a teaching that guides the attitude of Christians towards politics and the State down the centuries. In praying for the Authorities, Clement recognized the legitimacy of political institutions in the order established by God; ... and expressed his concern that the Authorities would be docile to God, "devoutly in peace and meekness exercising the power given them by " (61, 2).Another sovereignty emerges whose origins and essence are not of this world but of "the heavens above": it is that of Truth, which also claims a right to be heard by the State. ... Let us make our own the invocations of the "great prayer" in which the Bishop of Rome made himself the voice of the entire world: "O Lord, make your face to shine upon us for good in peace, that we may be shielded by your mighty hand ... through the High Priest and Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and majesty to you both now and from generation to generation, for evermore" (60-61).BENEDICT XVI General audience (March 7, 2007)
Oración
All-powerful and ever-living God,
we praise your power and glory revealed to us in the lives of all your saints.
Give us joy on this feast of Saint Clement,
the priest and martyr who bore witness with his blood
to the love he proclaimed and the gospel he preached.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
St. Columban(Abbot († 615))
SAINT COLUMBAN Abbot( 615) St. Columban was born in Ireland during the seventh century. He discerned a religious vocation early in life. For leisure, he read spiritual and theological books. After being ordained, St. Columban went to France and founded several monasteries. He denounced the immoral practices of royal and clerical persons and was exiled. He then went to Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio. St. Columban reformed clerical organizations and evangelized Europe like many Irish saints. The institutes he founded preserved Western literature and disseminated Christendom. He is the patron saint of the Columban Missionaries.
Oración
Lord,
you called Saint Columban to live the monastic life
and to preach the gospel with zeal.
May his prayers and his example
help to us to seek you above all things
and to work with all our hearts
for the spread of the faith.
Grantthis through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2018 / Catholic Missal of november 2018
Published: 2026-07-14T18:16:28Z | Modified: 2026-07-14T18:16:28Z