Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

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

The soul that really loves God and Christ, even if it has done thousands of good works, thinks it has done nothing because of its insatiable hunger for God. Even if it has exhausted the body through fasting and vigils, it believes that it has not yet begun to be virtuous. In spite of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly revelations and mysteries, it believes that it has not yet done anything because of its immense and insatiable love of the Lord. In faith and in love, it is always hungry and thirsty. Persevering in prayer, it insatiably desires the mysteries of grace and to acquire every virtue. Wounded by love of the heavenly Spirit, animated by an ardent desire for its heavenly Spouse, it aspires to the grace of perfect, mysterious and ineffable communion with him, in the sanctification of the Spirit. It is waiting for the veils to fall before his face and that it might see its Spouse face to face in the spiritual and indescribable light, that it be united to him in all certainty, that it be transformed into the image of his death. In the soul’s great desire to die for Christ, it awaits with certainty its deliverance from sin and from all the darkness of the passions. Thus purified by the Spirit, sanctified in body and soul…, it has been made worthy to welcome the true King, Christ himself.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team