Daily Bible Readings Saturday March 21 2009 3rd Week of Lent

March 21 2009 Saturday Third Week of Lent
Saint of the Day – Blessed John of Parma

About the sources used. The readings on this site are from the Haydock Bible according to the daily Lectionary readings for the American Roman Catholic Church. The Haydock Bible contains traditional Catholic commentary and is free from copyright. Due to verse numbering differences and pastoral deletions in the actual Lectionary, these readings may at times vary from the actual readings.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/032109.shtml

Hosea 6:1-6 (Osee)
Douay-Rheims Challoner

In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord. For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us. He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.

What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning. For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.

Responsorial Psalm 50:3-4, 18-21ab (Ps 51 NAB/Hebrew)
DR Challoner Text Only

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
a contrite and humbled heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise.
Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion;
that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.
Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice,
oblations and whole burnt offerings

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 18:9-14
Haydock New Testament

He spoke also this parable to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others.

Two men went up into the temple, to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican: The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, nor such as this publican:

I fast twice in the week: I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift his eyes towards heaven: but struck his breast, saying;

O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Haydock Commentary Hosea 6:1-6
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. Early, or in haste. All the people will repent. C.
• Ver. 2. Cure us. God is always ready to receive penitents. W.
• Ver. 3. Third. In a short time the Lord will easily set us free. But the prophet refers more directly to the resurrection of the faithful, and of Christ. Eph. ii. 5. and 1 Cor. xv. 4. C. — S. Paul mentions the third day according to the Scriptures, which nowhere else so clearly specify it. W. See S. Jer. S. Cyp. Sanct. 9. — Know. Hitherto we have been reproached with voluntary ignorance in adoring idols. C. iv. 6. We will amend. — His, Christ’s. — Rain. It falls only in autumn and in spring. Deut. xi. 14. C.
• Ver. 4. Mercy. Heb. chesed, (H.) “piety,” &c. (Grot.) whence the word Assideans is derived. 1 Mac. ii. 42. The captives flattered themselves, that as soon as they began to entertain sentiments of repentance, God would relieve them. But he answers that their virtue is inconstant, and that they must suffer in proportion to their crimes.
• Ver. 5. Mouth. I have ordered my prophets to denounce death unto them, and to treat them roughly, like a piece of marble designed for a statue. Sept. &c. “I have slain thy prophets,” &c. by Elias, Jehu, &c. The former sense is preferable. — Thy judgments, or condemnation. C. — Heb. “and thy judgments light shall go forth.” H. — Pocock labours hard, but in vain, to explain this; as all the old versions, except the Vulg. have, “my judgments as the light,” &c. Heb. letters may probably have been ill joined, (Kennicott) as Meibomius suspects they have been also. Jer. xxiii. 33. Here umospoti caur, “my judgments as the light,” &c. is exchanged for umishpatec or. This would be very easy when words were written undivided, as in ancient MSS. H. — “Some transcriber upon hearing umishpatecaor, from the person dictating to him, writ umishpateca or instead of umishpate caor. Kennicott, Diss. 1.
• Ver. 6. Mercy: sincere piety. v. 4. — Sacrifice. They had offered many. C. v. 6. C. — “My victims are the salvation of the faithful, and the conversion of sinners.” S. Jer. — Knowledge, of a practical nature, which was deficient. C. iv. 6. and vi. 4. C.

Haydock Commentary Luke 18:9-14

• Ver. 9. In this chapter we have three examples of prayer: one of the persevering widow; another of the poor publican, who solicits the divine mercy by the acknowledgment of his crimes; and the third of the proud Pharisee, who only goes to the temple to pronounce his own panegyric, and enter upon a accusation of his humble neighbour, whose heart is unknown to him. Calmet.
• Ver. 11. The Pharisee standing. The Greek is, standing by himself, i.e. separated from the rest. Some understand this term, standing, as if in opposition to kneeling or prostrating, which they suppose to be the general posture in which the Jews offered up their prayers, and that of the humble publican. The Christians borrowed this practice from them. We see the apostles and disciples praying on their knees: Acts vii. 59, ix. 40, xx. 36. In the Old Testament, we see the same observed. Solomon, (3 K. viii. 54.) Daniel, (vi. 10.) and Micheas, (vi. 6.) prayed in that posture. Others however, think that the people generally prayed standing, as there were neither benches nor chairs in the temple. Calmet. — There are four ways by which men are guilty of pride: 1st, By thinking they have any good from themselves; 2nd, by thinking that though they have received it from above, it was given them as due to their own merits; 3rd, by boasting of the good they do not possess; and fourthly, by desiring to be thought the only persons that possess the good qualities of which they thus pride themselves. The pride of the Pharisee seems to have consisted in attributing to himself alone the qualities of which he boasted. S. Greg. mor. l. xxiii, c. 4. — He who is guilty of publicly speaking against his neighbour, is likewise the cause of much damage to himself and others. 1st, He injures the hearer; because if he be a sinner, he rejoices to find an accomplice; if he be just, he is tempted to vanity, seeing himself exempt from the crimes with which others are charged. 2nd, He injures the Church, by exposing it to be insulted for the defects of its members. 3rd, He causes the name of God to be blasphemed; for, as God is glorified by our good actions, so is he dishonoured by sin. 4th, He renders himself guilty, by disclosing that which it was his duty not to have mentioned. S. Chrys. Serm. de Phar. et Pub.
• Ver. 12. See how the Pharisee here, by pride, lays open to the enemy his heart, which he had in vain shut against him by fasting and prayer. It is in vain to defend a city, if you leave the enemy a single passage, by which he may enter in. S. Greg. mor. l. xix. c. 12.
• Ver. 14. If any one should ask why the Pharisee is here condemned for speaking some few words in his own commendation, and why the like sentence was not passed on Job, who praised himself much more; the difference is evident: the former praised himself without any necessity, merely with an intention of indulging his vanity, and extolling himself over the poor publican; the latter, being overwhelmed with misery, and upbraided by his friends, as if, forsaken of God, he suffered his present distress in punishment of his crimes, justifies himself by recounting his virtues for the greater glory of God, and to preserve himself and others in the steady practice of virtue, under similar temptations. Theophylactus.