Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

“Watch, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” Like many other scriptural texts, this admonition is addressed to all of us, though it is formulated in such a way that it would seem to concern only Christ’s immediate audience. We can all apply it to ourselves because the Last Day and the end of the world will come for each of us on the day we depart this present life. This means we must make sure we die in the state in which we wish to appear on the Day of Judgment. Bearing this in mind each of us should guard against being led astray and failing to keep watch, otherwise the day of the Lord’s return may take us unawares. If the last day of our life finds us unprepared, then we shall be unprepared on that day also.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

The genealogy of Jesus Christ from St. Matthew’s Gospel is read to us. It is a custom handed down by holy Church with a beauty and mystery of its own. For behold how in truth this reading puts before us at dead of night that ladder which Jacob saw at night in his sleep (Gn 28,12). Supported on the topmost rung of the ladder where it reached heaven the Lord appeared to Jacob and promised him that his posterity would inherit the earth… Now, as we know, “all these things happened to them in figure” (1Cor 10,11). The ladder by which the Lord appeared to be supported prefigured the family-tree of Jesus Christ which the holy Gospel-writer so drew up as to come through Joseph. It is by Joseph that our Lord as a small child is supported. Through the gate of heaven (Gn 28,17)…, that is, through the Blessed Virgin, our Lord, a tiny child for our sake, comes crying… The words that Jacob in his sleep heard the Lord say, “And in thy posterity shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”, are fulfilled by the birth of Christ. The divine writer, bearing in mind this very point, put the names of Rahab the prostitute and Ruth the Moabite into his genealogy. For he saw that Christ was made flesh not for the Jews alone, but also for the Gentiles, inasmuch as he deigned to accept ancestors from among the Gentiles… Sprung therefore from two races, Jew and Gentile, as from two sides of the ladder, the ancestors from their different rungs support Christ our Lord emerging from heaven. The holy angels come up and go down and all the elect are first humbled to receive faith in his Incarnation that they may be afterward lifted up to see the glory of his divinity.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Today the Virgin Mary rises gloriously to heaven. She completes the happiness of angels and saints. For it was she whose simple word of greeting made the child in his mother’s womb leap for joy (Lk 1:44). What, then, must have been the rejoicing of the angels and saints when they found themselves able to hear her voice, see her face, and rejoice in her blessed presence! And what a great feast her glorious Assumption is for us, beloved brethren, what reason for happiness and cause for joy today! Mary’s presence brightens the whole world, so greatly do the heavens shine, lightened by the brilliance of the most holy Virgin. Therefore it is altogether fitting that the heavens resound with thanksgiving and praise. Yet isn’t it also right that, just as heaven rejoices in Mary’s presence, we of the this world should mourn her absence? Not at all. Let us not weep since we have no lasting city here below (Heb 13:14) but seek that to which the Virgin Mary has come today. If even now we are registered among that city’s inhabitants then it is fitting that we should call it to mind today…, share its joy, participate in the rejoicing that gladdens God’s city today; for today it falls like dew upon our earth. Yes, she, our queen, has gone before us and has been received with so great a glory that we, her humble servants, may trustfully follow our sovereign, crying [with the Bride of the Song of Songs]: “Draw us! We will run to the sweet scent of your perfumes!” (cf. Sg 1:3-4). Pilgrims on earth, we have sent our advocate before us…, the mother of mercy who will successfully plead our salvation.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

“Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” (Lk 1:28) Could anything transcend the joy that is yours, O Virgin Mary? Could anything surpass this grace?… Truly, you are “blessed among women” (Lk 1:42), for you have changed the condemnation of Eve into a blessing. Because of you, and through you, Adam, who was hitherto cast down and condemned, received a blessing. Truly, “you are blessed among women”, for through you the blessing of the Father came to mankind and reprieved them from the age-old sentence. Truly, “you are blessed among women”, because through you your ancestors found salvation. You were to give birth to the Savior who would win for them God’s salvation. Truly, “you are blessed among women”, for without the seed of man you bore the fruit that gives a blessing to the whole earth and frees it from being condemned to produce only thorns. Truly, “you are blessed among women”, for though you are a woman like any other woman you will in actual fact become the mother of God. If the one to be born of you is in truth God incarnate, you rightly deserve to be called ‘she who gave birth to God’, inasmuch as you truly do give birth to God.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

“A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” Christ did not say, “somebody went down” but ” a man went down”, because this passage concerns all humanity. For humanity, as a result of Adam’s sin, left Paradise, our tranquil home on high, where there was no suffering and which was filled with wonders; this place was rightly called Jerusalem, a name which means “God’s Peace “. And all mankind fell towards Jericho, a hollow and low country, where the heat is stifling. Jericho is the feverish life of this world, a life that separates us from God… And once humanity had thus turned away from the right road towards this life, a troop of wild demons came to attack us like a band of robbers. They stripped us of the clothing of perfection, and left us no trace of the strength of mind, purity, justice, or prudence, or anything else which characterizes the divine image (Gn 1:26); but striking us repeatedly by the blows of various sins, they knocked us down and finally left us half dead. (…) The Law given by Moses passed by, but it lacked strength; it did not lead humanity to a complete cure; it did not raise us up from where we lay (…) For the Law offered sacrifices and offerings “which could not make perfect those who practised this worship” for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins” (He 10:1.4). (…) Finally a Samaritan came to pass. Christ deliberately gives himself the name Samaritan (…). For he himself came to us, carrying out the intention of the Law and showing by his acts “who is our neighbor” and what it is “to love others as oneself”.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team