Christ has appeared to us: come, let us adore him.
Year: C(I). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: White.
Other saints: Bl. Bernard Scammacca OP (1430 - 1487)
11 Jan (where celebrated)
Dominican Friar and Priest.
Blessed Bernard was born in Sicily in the year 1430. As a young man he suffered a serious leg wound which became the means of his conversion from a life of dissipation. He entered the Dominican Order in 1452 and strove to conform himself to Christ crucified through works of charity, acts of penance and contemplation of the Passion. Bernard was especially known for his care of the sick and the poor and he established a hospital to serve them. He promoted the regular life in the Order and was a gifted preacher. He died on January 11, 1487.
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: Faustus of Riez (405/10 - 490/95)
Faustus was born in Britain, though there is some disagreement as to whether this means the island of Great Britain or Less Britain, that is, Brittany. As a young man he entered the monastery of Lérins, on an island off the coast of the French Riviera, where he was elected abbot at a remarkably young age, in 439, on the elevation of his predecessor, Maximus, to the nearby bishopric of Riez. (St Vincent of Lérins, another monk of this abbey, is another author of a Second Reading: he died in about 445). When Maximus died in about 466, Faustus succeeded him as bishop. He wrote extensively on the Trinity and on grace and free will and took part in the controversies of the time on these subjects. It is heartening to note that the same volume of our Liturgy of the Hours contains readings from both Faustus and one of his opponents, Fulgentius of Ruspe.
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) | Ezekiel 20:41-42 |
|---|
I will welcome you like an appeasing fragrance when I bring you out from among the peoples. I mean to gather you together from the foreign countries in which you have been scattered and through you I intend to display my holiness for all the nations to see. You will learn that I am the Lord.
|
| Noon reading (Sext) | Ezekiel 34:11-12 |
|---|
I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered.
|
| Afternoon reading (None) | Micah 2:12 |
|---|
I am going to gather all Jacob together, I will gather the remnant of Israel, bring them together like sheep in the fold; like a flock in its pasture they will fear no man.
|