Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

Brethren, let us “sing to the Lord a new song.” (Ps 149:1) To the old man, the old song; to the new man, a new song. The Old Testament is an old song, the New Testament a new song. The first covenant concerns mostly temporal and earthly promises. People who remain attached to the things of the earth still sing an old song. In order to sing the new song, a person must love eternal things. That love is both new and eternal; it is always new, because it never grows old. But if we think about it, this love is very old. How could it be new? My brethren, was eternal life born yesterday? Eternal life is Christ and, as God, he was not born yesterday. For “In the beginning was the Word (…) and the Word was God. He was present to God in the beginning. Through him all things came into being, and apart from him nothing came to be.” (Jn 1:1 f.) If he made what is old, what is he other than eternal, co-eternal with the Father? It is we who, by sin, have fallen into senescence (…). Human beings have become old as a consequence of sin. It is by God’s grace that we are renewed. All who are thus renewed in Christ sing a new song for they are beginning to be established in eternal life.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Jesús partió el pan. Si no hubiera partido el pan ¿cómo hubieran llegado hasta nosotros las migajas? Pero él lo partió y repartió; “lo repartió y dio a los pobres” (Sl 111,9 Vlg). Lo ha roto por gracia, para romper la cólera del Padre y la suya. Dios lo había dicho: nos hubiera exterminado si su Único “su elegido, no se hubiera puesto en la brecha frente a él, para apartar su cólera del exterminio” (Sl 105, 23). Se puso delante de Dios y lo apaciguó; por su fuerza indefectible, se mantuvo de pié, no roto. Pero él mismo, voluntariamente, ha roto, ha ofrecido su carne hecha pedazos por el sufrimiento. Es ahí que “quebró el escudo” (Sl 75,4) “rompió la cabeza del dragón” (Sl 73,14), a todos nuestros enemigos, en su cólera. Allí rompió, en cierta manera, las tablas de la primera alianza a fin de que no estemos ya más bajo la Ley. Allí quebró el yugo de nuestra cautividad. Quebró todo lo que nos quebraba a nosotros para reparar todo lo que en nosotros estaba roto y para “dejar libres a los oprimidos” (Is 58,6). En efecto, estábamos “cautivos de hierros y miserias” (Sl 106,10). Buen Jesús, todavía hoy, aunque tú hayas quebrado la cólera, partido el pan para nosotros, pobres mendigos, todavía tenemos hambre… Parte este pan cada día para los que tienen hambre. Porque hoy y todos los días podamos recoger algunas migajas, y cada día tengamos de nuevo necesidad de nuestro pan cotidiano. “El pan nuestro de cada día, dánosle hoy” (Lc 11,3). Si tú no nos lo das ¿quién nos lo dará? En nuestra pobreza y necesidad, no tenemos a nadie que nos parta el pan, nadie para alimentarnos, nadie para rehacer nuestras fuerzas, nadie si no eres tú, oh Dios nuestro. En toda consolación que nos envías, recogemos las migajas de este pan que nos partes y saboreamos “cuán dulce es tu misericordia” (Sl 108, 21 Vlg).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Let us pay attention, all my brothers, to what the Lord says: “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you,” for our Lord Jesus Christ, Whose footprints we must follow (cf. 1Pt 2,21), called His betrayer “friend” (Mt 26,50) and gave Himself willingly to those who crucified Him. Our friends, then, are all those who unjustly afflict upon us trials and ordeals, shame and inju­ries, sorrows and torments, martyrdom and death. We must love them greatly for we will possess eternal life because of what they bring upon us.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Lord Jesus, how well I know you have no wish to allow these people here with me to remain hungry but to feed them with the food you distribute, and so, strengthened with your food, they will have no fear of collapsing from hunger. I know, too, that you have no wish to send us away hungry, either… As you have said: you do not want them to collapse on the way, meaning to collapse in the byways of this life, before reaching the end of the road, before coming to the Father and understanding that you come from the Father… Our Lord takes pity, then, so that none may collapse along the way… Just as he makes it rain on the just as well as the unjust (Mt 5:45) so he feeds the just as well as the unjust. Was it not thanks to the strength of the food that the holy prophet Elijah, when he was collapsing on the way, was able to walk for forty days? (1Kgs 19:8). It was an angel who gave that food to him but, in your case, it is Christ himself who feeds you. If you preserve the food you have received in this way then you will walk, not forty days and forty nights… but for forty years, from your departure from the borders of Egypt to your arrival in the land of plenty, the land where milk and honey flow (Ex 3:8)… And so Christ shares out the foodstuffs and, there is no question, he wants to give it to all. He withholds it from no one for he provides for everyone. Nevertheless, when he breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples, unless you hold out your hands to receive your portion, you will collapse along the way… This bread that Jesus breaks is the mystery of the Word of God: it increases as it is distributed. With only a few words Jesus has provided abundant nourishment for all peoples. He has given us his words as bread and, while we are tasting them, they increase in our mouths… Even as the crowds are eating, the pieces increase and become more numerous to such an extent that, in the end, the leftovers are even more plentiful than the loaves that were shared.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

I beg you to listen to what the Lord had to say when he stretched out his hand towards his disciples: “Here are my mother and my brethren”; and, “whoever does the will of Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother”. Are we to take it from this that the Virgin Mary did not do the will of the Father, she who by faith believed, by faith conceived; she who was chosen to bring forth salvation on our behalf and who was by Christ created that Christ in her might be created ? Indeed and indeed she did the Father’s will and it is a greater thing for Mary that she was Christ’s disciple than that she was his mother. It is a happier thing be his disciple than to be his mother. Blessed then is Mary who bore her Lord in her body before she gave him birth… Mary is holy. Mary is blessed. Yet the Church is greater than she is. What reason do I bring? Mary is part of the Church. She is a holy member of the Church; she is the holy member; she is the member above all members; hut she is still one member of the whole body… Brothers, listen very closely: you are members of Christ’s body and you are the body of Christ (1Cor 12,27). And this is how you are what he said: “Here are my mother and my brothers.” But how does this prove you are Christ’s mother? He goes on: “Whoever hears and whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister and mother.”

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team