Sarx

Note the parts that are repeated daily on the Ash Wednesday Post

Today’s Station: San Vitale

Missa:
GO AUTEM

INTROIT: Psalm 16:15
But as for me, I will appear before Thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear. (Ps. 16: 1) Hear, O Lord, my justice: attend to my supplication. v. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Repeat But as for me…

COLLECT:
Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that, with the sacred fast to purify us, Thou mayest cause us to come with sincere minds to the holy things that are before us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God world without end. Amen

EPISTLE: Genesis 37:6-22
In those days Joseph said to his brethren: Hear my dream which I dreamed. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field: and my sheaf rose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about, bowed down before my sheaf. His brethren answered: Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion? Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. He dreamed also another dream, which he told to his brethren saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon and eleven stars worshipping me. And when he had told this to his father, and brethren, his father rebuked him, and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren worship thee upon the earth? His brethren therefore envied him: but his father considered the thing with himself. And when his brethren abode in Sichem, feeding their father’s flocks, Israel said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he had answered: I am ready; he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cattle: and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem: and a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked what he sought. But he answered: I seek my brethren, tell me where they feed the flocks. And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go down to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain. And when they saw him afar off, before he came nigh them, they thought to kill him. And said one to another: Behold the dreamer cometh. Come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit; and we will say: Some evil beast hath devoured him: and then it shall appear what his dreams shall avail him: and Ruben hearing this, endeavored to deliver him out of their hands, and said: Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit, that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands and to restore him to his father.

GRADUAL: Psalm 119: 1,2
In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and He heard me. V. O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue.

TRACT:Psalm 120: 10
O Lord, repay us not according to the sins we have committed, nor according to our iniquities. V. (Ps. 78: 8-9) O Lord, remember not our former iniquities: let Thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.
(Here all kneel down) Help Us, O Lord our Saviour: and for the glory of Thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for Thy name’s sake.

GOSPEL: Matthew 21: 33-46
At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitude of the Jews and the chief priests: “There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof: and the husbandmen laying hands on the servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more. than the former, and they did to them in like manner; and last of all he sent to them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But the husbandmen seeing the son, said among themselves, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance; and taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say to Him, He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due season.” Jesus saith to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? By the Lord this hath been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.” And when the chief priests and pharisees had heard His parables, they knew that He spoke of them; and seeking to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they held Him as a prophet.

A Homily on the Gospel Passage From Matins for the Day
by St. Ambrose the Bishop

Different writers may find different meanings for the term Vineyard, but Isaias saith plainly that the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel. Who but God planted this vineyard? He it was that let it out to husbandmen whilst he himself went into a far country. Now the Lord, who is everywhere present, moveth not from place to place. Nonetheless he is nigh only to them that seek, him. From such as regard him not, he standeth afar off. For a long time he tarried away, lest he might seem to ask too early for the fruits of his vineyard. Where kindness is greatest, there ingratitude is worst.

Thus it is well said, according to Matthew, that he hedged it round about ; that is, he fenced it with the wall of his own divine protection, lest it be too open to the ravages of spiritual wild beasts. And he digged a wine-press in it. After what manner are we to understand the wine-press, save perchance in the same way that certain Psalms are inscribed? to wit : For the Presses. That is to say, In such a Psalm the mysteries of the Lord’s compassion do seethe and overflow, like as fermenting new-made wine, working under the power of the Holy Ghost. Whence also it was said of them upon whom the Holy Ghost was outpoured : These men are full of new wine. God therefore digged a winepress, whereinto the inner fruitfulness of the grapes, to wit, our own reasonable service of God, might overflow with spiritual richness by the ferment of the Spirit.

And he built a tower : that is, the watch-tower of the Law. And so this his vineyard, thus fenced about, furnished with a press, and adored with the goodly structure of the Law, he let out to Jewry. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen. Well doth he call it the time of the fruit, not the time of the in-gathering. For Jewry yielded him no fruit ; the Lord had no in-gathering from that vineyard of which he said : When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth thorns. Verily, that wine-press overflowed ; not with the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, not with the new wine of the Spirit, but with the blood of the Prophets, brutally shed.

OFFERTORY: Psalm 39:14-15
Look down, O Lord, to help me: let them be confounded and ashamed together, that seek after my soul to take it away: look down, O Lord, to help me.

SECRET:
May this sacrifice, O Lord, both remain in us by its action and be made strong in operation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son. Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God world without end. Amen

COMMUNION: Psalm 11: 8
Thou, O Lord, wilt preserve us: and keep us from this generation for ever.

POSTCOMMUNION:
Make us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, direct our course so that we who have received the pledge of eternal salvation may be able to attain it. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God world without end. Amen

PRAYER OVER THE PEOPLE
Grant unto Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, health of soul and body; that cleaving to good works, thy may deserve ever to be defended by the strength of Thy protection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God world without end. Amen