Liturgical Calendar

In those days God tempted Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am. He said to him: Take thine only-begotten son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision: and there thou shalt offer him for a holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee. So Abraham, rising up in the night, saddled his ass: and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son. And when he had cut wood for the holocaust, he went his way to the place which God had commanded him. And on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place afar off; and he said to his young men: Stay you here with the ass: I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped will return to you. And he took the wood for the holocaust and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword. And as they two were on together, Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust? And Abraham said: God will provide Himself a victim for a holocaust, my son. So they went on together; and they came to the place which God had shown him, where he built an altar and laid the wood in order upon it; and when he had bound Isaac, his son, he laid him upon the altar upon the pile of wood. And he put forth his hand, and took the sword to sacrifice his son. And behold an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am. And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thine only-begotten son for My sake. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers, sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son. And he called the name of that place, the Lord seeth. Whereupon even to this day it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying: By My own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because Thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thine only-begotten son for My sake; I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore: thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Abraham returned to his young men, and they went to Bersabee together, and he dwelt there. In those days, it came to pass in the morning watch, and behold the Lord looking upon the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire, and of the cloud, slew their host: and overthrew the wheels of the chariots, and they were carried into the deep. And the Egyptians said: Let us flee from Israel: for the Lord fighteth for them against us. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them: neither did there so much as one of them remain. But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the sea upon dry land, and the waters were to them as a wall on the right hand and the left: and the Lord delivered Israel on that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and the mighty hand of the Lord had used against them: and the people feared the Lord, and they believed the Lord, and Moses His servant. Then Moses and the children of Israel sung this canticle to the Lord, and said: Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously honored: the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea: He has become my Helper and Protector unto salvation. He is my God, and I will honor Him: the God of my father, and I will extol Him. He is the Lord that destroys wars: the Lord is His Name. Moses therefore wrote the canticle and taught it to the children of Israel. And the Lord commanded Josue the son of Nun, and said: Take courage, and be valiant: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I have promised, and I will be with thee. Therefore after Moses wrote the words of this law in a volume, and finished it: He commanded the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. saying: Take this book, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God: that it may be there for a testimony against thee. For I know thy obstinacy, and thy most stiff neck, While I am yet living, and going in with you, you have always been rebellious against the Lord: how much more when I shall be dead? Gather unto me all the ancients of your tribes, and your doctors, and I will speak these words in their hearing, and will call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that, after my death, you will do wickedly, and will quickly turn aside from the way that I have commanded you: and evils shall come upon you in the latter times, when you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him by the works of your hands. Moses therefore spoke, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel, the words of this canticle, and finished it even to the end. Hear, O ye heavens, the things I speak, let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth. Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, As a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass. Because I will invoke the name of the Lord: Give ye magnificence to our God. The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments: God is faithful and without any iniquity, he is just and right. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, take away our reproach. In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written in life in Jerusalem. If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection.And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: for the vineyard of the Lord of host is the house of Israel. Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: give ear, that thou mayst learn wisdom. How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thy enemies' land? Thou art grown old in a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead: thou art counted with them that go down into hell. Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom: For if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in peace for ever. Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding: that thou mayst know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace. Who hath found out her place? and who hath gone in to her treasures? Where are the princes of the nations, and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth? That take their diversion with the birds of the air. That hoard up silver and gold, wherein men trust, and there is no end of their getting? who work in silver and are solicitous, and their works are unsearchable. They are cut off, and are gone down to hell, and others are risen up in their place. Young men have seen the light, and dwelt upon the earth: but the way of knowledge they have not known, Nor have they understood the paths thereof, neither have their children received it, it is far from their face. It hath not been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman. The children of Agar also, that search after the wisdom that is of the earth, the merchants of Merrha, and of Theman, and the tellers of fables, and searchers of prudence and understanding: but the way of wisdom they have not known, neither have they remembered her paths. O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of his possession! It is great, and hath no end: it is high and immense. There were the giants, those renowned men that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war. The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge: therefore did they perish. And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly. Who hath gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who hath passed over the sea, and found her, and brought her preferably to chosen gold? here is none that is able to know her ways, nor that can search out her paths: But he that knoweth all things, knoweth her, and hath found her out with his understanding: he that prepared the earth for evermore, and filled it with cattle and fourfooted beasts: He that sendeth forth light, and it goeth: and hath called it, and it obeyeth him with trembling. And the stars have given light in their watches, and rejoiced: They were called, and they said: Here we are: and with cheerfulness they have shined forth to him that made them. This is our God, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of him. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord: and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones. And he led me about through them on every side: now they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off. Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, O my people: And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord God. As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God? _` The Lord be with you. R. And with thy spirit. Let us pray. O Almighty and everlasting God, look mercifully on the devotion of Thy people about to be reborn, who like the hart pant after the fountain of Thy waters: and mercifully grant that the thirst of their faith may, by the Sacrament of Baptism, hallow their souls and bodies. The Lord be with you. R. And with thy spirit. Let us pray. O Almighty and eternal God, be present at these mysteries, be present at these sacraments of thy great goodness: and send forth the spirit of thy adoption to regenerate the new people, whom the font of baptism bringeth forth: that what is to be done by the ministry of us thy servants, may be accomplished by the effect of thy power. Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, World without end. R. Amen. The Lord be with you. R. And with thy spirit. Lift up thy hearts. R. We have them lifted up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. R. It is meet and just. It is meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, to give Thee thanks always and in all places, O holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, Who, by Thine ineffable power dost wonderfully produce the effect of Thy Sacraments: and though we are unworthy to perform such great mysteries: yet, as Thou dost not abandon the gifts of Thy grace, so Thou inclinest the ears of Thy goodness, even to our prayers. O God, Whose Spirit in the very beginning of the world moved over the waters, that even then the nature of water might receive the virtue of sanctification. O God, Who by water didst wash away the crimes of the guilty world, and by the pouring out of the deluge didst give a figure of regeneration, that one and the same element might in a mystery be the end of vice and the beginning of virtue. Look, O Lord, on the face of Thy Church, and multiply in her Thy regenerations, who by the streams of Thine abundant grace fillest Thy city with joy, and openest the font of Baptism all over the world for the renewal of the Gentiles: that by the command of Thy Majesty she may receive the grace of Thine only Son from the Holy Ghost. May He by a secret mixture of His divine virtue render this water fruitful for the regeneration of men, to the end that a heavenly offspring, conceived by sanctification, may emerge from the immaculate womb of this divine font, reborn a new creature: and may all, however distinguished either by sex in body, or by age in time, be brought forth to the same infancy by grace, their mother. Therefore may all unclean spirits, by Thy command, O Lord, depart far from hence: may the whole malice of diabolical deceit be entirely banished: may no power of the enemy prevail here: let him not fly about to lay his snares; may he not creep in by stealth: may he not corrupt with his poison. May this holy and innocent creature be free from all the assaults of the enemy, and purified by the destruction of all his wickedness. May it be a living fountain, a regenerating water, a purifying stream: that all those that are to be washed in this saving bath may obtain, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, the grace of a perfect cleansing. _` Therefore, I bless thee, O creature of water, by the living + God, by the true + God, by the holy + God: by that God Who, in the beginning, separated thee by His Word from the dry land, Whose Spirit moved over thee. _` Who made thee flow from the fountain of paradise and commanded thee to water the whole earth with thy four rivers. Who, changing thy bitterness in the desert into sweetness made thee fit to drink, and produced thee out of a rock to quench the thirsty people. I bless + thee also by our Lord Jesus Christ, His only Son: Who in Cana of Galilee changed thee into wine by a wonderful miracle of His power. Who walked upon thee with dry foot, and was baptized in thee by John in the Jordan. Who made thee flow out of His side together with His Blood, and commanded His disciples that such as believed should be baptised in thee, saying: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Do thou, almighty God, mercifully assist us who observe this commandment: do Thou graciously inspire us. Do Thou with Thy mouth bless these clear waters: that besides their natural virtue of cleansing the body, they may also prove efficacious for the purifying of the soul. May the virtue of the Holy Ghost descend into all the water of this font. And make the whole substance of this water fruitful for regeneration. Here may the stains of all sins be washed out; here may human nature, created in Thine image, and reformed to the honor of its Author, be cleansed from all the filth of the old man: that all who receive the Sacrament of regeneration, may be born again new children of true innocence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son: Who shall come to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire. R. Amen. May this font be sanctified and made fruitful with the oil of salvation for all them who shall be born anew of its waters unto life everlasting. R. Amen. May this pouring in the chrism of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the comforter, be made in the name of the Holy Trinity. R. Amen. Let this mindling of the chrism of santification, with the oil of unction, and of the water of Baptism, be likewise made in the name of the Father + and of the Son + and of the Holy + Ghost. R. Amen. r. Lord, have mercy. r. Christ, have mercy. r. Lord, have mercy. r. God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us. r. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. r. God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us. r. Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us. r. Holy Mary, pray for us. r. Holy Mother of God, pray for us. r. Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us. r. Saint Michael, pray for us. r. Saint Gabriel, pray for us. r. Saint Raphael, pray for us. r. All ye holy Angels and Archangels, pray for us. r. All ye holy orders of blessed Spirits, pray for us. r. Saint John the Baptist, pray for us. r. Saint Joseph, pray for us. r. All ye holy Patriarchs and Prophets, pray for us. r. Saint Peter, pray for us. r. Saint Paul, pray for us. r. Saint Andrew, pray for us. r. Saint John, pray for us. r. All ye holy Apostles and Evangelists, pray for us. r. All ye holy Disciples of the Lord, pray for us. r. Saint Stephen, pray for us. r. Saint Lawrence, pray for us. r. Saint Vincent, pray for us. r. All ye holy Martyrs, pray for us. r. Saint Silvester, pray for us. r. Saint Gregory, pray for us. r. Saint Augustine, pray for us. r. All ye holy Bishops and Confessors, pray for us. r. All ye holy Doctors, pray for us. r. Saint Anthony, pray for us. r. Saint Benedict, pray for us. r. Saint Dominic, pray for us. r. Saint Francis, pray for us. r. All ye holy Priests and Deacons, pray for us. r. All ye holy Monks and Hermits, pray for us. r. Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us. r. Saint Agnes, pray for us. r. Saint Cecilia, pray for us. r. Saint Agatha, pray for us. r. Saint Anastasia, pray for us. r. All ye holy Virgins and Widows, pray for us. r. All ye holy Saints of God, intercede for us. r. Be merciful, spare us, O Lord. r. Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Lord. r. From all evil, deliver us, O Lord. r. From all sin, deliver us, O Lord. r. From everlasting death, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through the mystery of Thy holy incarnation, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through Thy coming, deliver us, O Lord. Through Thy Nativity, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through Thy Baptism and holy fasting, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through Thy Cross and Passion, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through Thy Death and Burial, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through Thy holy Resurrection, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through Thy wonderful Ascension, deliver us, O Lord. r. Through the coming of the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, deliver us, O Lord. r. In the day of judgement, deliver us, O Lord. r. We sinners, beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst spare us, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to govern and preserve Thy holy Church, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to preserve our Apostolic Prelate, and all orders of the Church in holy religion, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to humble the enemies of holy Church, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to give peace and true concord to Christian kings and princes, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to confirm and preserve us in Thy holy service, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst render eternal blessings to all our benefactors, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to give and preserve the fruits of the earth, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to grant eternal rest to all the faithful departed, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to hear us, we beseech Thee to hear us. r. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord. r. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord. r. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. r. Christ, hear us. r. Christ, graciously hear us.