Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us. Come, let us adore him.
Or: O that today you would listen to his voice: harden not your hearts.
Year: C(I). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: Violet.
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: Saint Theophilus of Antioch (- c.184)
He was born a pagan, somewhere near the Tigris and Euphrates, and was led to Christianity by studying the Scriptures and especially the prophets. He became Bishop of Antioch in about 169. The Apology to Autolycus is his sole surviving work. In it he explains and defends Christianity to a pagan friend, drawing most of his evidence and arguments from the Old Testament.
Liturgical colour: violet
Violet is a dark colour, ‘the gloomy cast of the mortified, denoting affliction and melancholy’. Liturgically, it is the colour of Advent and Lent, the seasons of penance and preparation.