Daily Bible Readings Thursday November 20 2008 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

November 20 2008 Thursday 33^rd Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/112008.shtml

Revelation (Apocalypse) 5:1-10
Haydock New Testament

AND I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong Angel, proclaiming with a loud voice:

Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?

And no man was able neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, to open the book, nor to look on it. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open the book, nor to see it. And one of the ancients said to me:

Weep not: behold the lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath conquered to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

And I saw: and behold in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came: and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had opened the book, the four animals, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints: And they sung a new canticle, saying:

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: because thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation: And hast made us to our God a kingdom, and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Responsorial Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
DR Challoner Text Only

Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle:
let his praise be in the church of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
and let the children of Sion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in choir:
let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery.
For the Lord is well pleased with his people:
and he will exalt the meek unto salvation.
The saints shall rejoice in glory:
they shall be joyful in their beds.
The high praises of God shall be in their mouth
This glory is to all his saints. Alleluia.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 19:41-44
Haydock New Testament

And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying:

If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are for thy peace: but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee; and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, And beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.

Haydock Commentary Apocalypse 5:1-10
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. A book written within and without.[1] Books were their skin, membranes, or parchments, and when written on both sides part of the writing appeared, though they were rolled up. — Sealed with seven seals, as containing mysteries and secrets of high importance. Wi.
• Ver. 3. No man was able,[2] &c. As to the contents, some understand the prophecies and mysteries both of the Old and New Testament; others, the events that should afterwards happen to the Church of Christ, as various persecutions against Christians. Alcazar would have the sense of these words to be, that only Christ and his Spirit could open the book to others, and make them believe and know the punishments prepared for the wicked, and the reward reserved for God’s faithful servants. Wi.
• Ver. 5. Behold the lion, of the tribe of Juda, &c. viz. Jesus Christ, who was descended from that tribe, denominated a lion on account of his great power, by which title we find him designated also in the prophecy of Jacob. Gen. xlix. 9. Calmet. — It is he who has merited by his triple victory over death, sin, and hell, the great honour of opening the book, and revealing the secrets therein contained.

Haydock Commentary Luke 19:41-44

• Ver. 41. He wept. S. Epiphanius tells us, that some of the orthodox of his time, offended at these words, omitted them in their copies, as if to shed tears, were a weakness unworthy of Christ: but this true reading of the evangelist is found in all copies, and received by all the faithful; and the liberty which those who changed them took, was too dangerous ever to be approved of by the Church. Neither do these tears argue in Jesus Christ any thing unworthy of his supreme majesty or wisdom. Our Saviour possessed all the human passions, but not the defects of them. The Stoics, who condemned the passions in their sages, laboured to make statues or automata of man, not philosophers. The true philosopher moderates and governs his passions; the Stoic labours to destroy them, but cannot effect his purpose. And when he labours to overcome one passion, he is forced to have recourse to another for help. Calmet. — Our Saviour is said to have wept six times, during his life on earth: 1st, At his birth, according to may holy doctors; 2ndly, at his circumcision, according to S. Bernard and others; 3rdly, when he raised Lazarus to life, as is related in S. John, c. xi.; 4thly, in his entry into Jerusalem, described in this place; 5thly, during his agony in the garden, just before his apprehension, when, as S. Luke remarks, (C. xxii.) his sweat was as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground; and 6thly, during his passion, when he often wept, on account of his great distress of mind, occasioned principally by the knowledge he had of the grievousness of men’s sins, and the bad use they would make of the redemption he was, through so many sufferings, procuring for them. Dionysius.
• Ver. 42. If thou also hadst known. It is a broken sentence, as it were in a transport of grief; and we many understand, thou wouldst also weep. Didst thou know, even at this day, that peace and reconciliation which God still offers to thee. Wi. — What can be more tender than the apostrophe here made use of by our Saviour! Hadst thou but known, &c. that is, didst thou but know how severe a punishment is about to be inflicted upon thee, for the numberless transgressions of thy people, thou likewise wouldst weep; but, alas! hardness in iniquity, thou still rejoicest, ignorant of the punishment hanging over thy head. Just men have daily occasion to bewail, like our blessed Redeemer, the blindness of the wicked, unable to see, through their own perversity, the miserable state of their souls, and the imminent danger they are every moment exposed to, of losing themselves for ever. Of these, Solomon cries out; (Prov. ii. 13.) They leave the right way, and walk through dark ways. We ought to imitate this compassion of our blessed Redeemer; and, as he wept over the calamities of the unfortunate Jerusalem, though determined on his destruction; so we ought to bewail the sins not only of our friends, but likewise of our enemies, and daily offer up our prayers for their conversion. D. Dionysius.
• Ver. 43. And compass thee, &c. Christ’s prophecy is a literal description of what happened to Jerusalem, under Titus. Wi.