φως του κόσμου (To fo̱s tou kósmou)

SCRUTATIO SRIPTURAE

φως του κόσμου 

(To fo̱s tou kósmou)

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Scrutatio 

 for the 

FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD AT THE TEMPLE

=ALSO KNOWN AS=

CANDLEMASS

(FEBRUARY 2, 2015. MONDAY)

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer 

Malachi 3:1-4 / Psalm 84 / Hebrews 2:14-18 / Luke 2:22-40 

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Malachi 3:1-4 / Psalm 24:7, 8, 9, 10 / Hebrews 2:14-18 / Luke 2:22-40

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Psalm 48:10-11 and 2 

Lesson: Malachi 3:1-4   

Gradual:  Psalm 48:10-11 and 9

Tract : Luke 2:29-32

Gospel 

Luke 2:22-32

Offertory: 

Psalm 45:2

Communion Antiphon: Luke 2:26

TO TOS TOU KOSMOU ...

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD...

Let us meditate on this BLESSED FEAST OF OUR LORD through this sermon from the 7th century A.D. by Sophronius, Patriarch and Archbishop of Jerusalem entitled:

Let us receive the light whose brilliance is ETERNAL

In honor of the divine mystery that we celebrate today, let us all hasten to meet Christ. Everyone should be eager to join the procession and to carry a light.

Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ.

The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him.

The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God.

The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendor, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the light whose brilliance is eternal. Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendor.

Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.

By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. Our eyes have seen God incarnate, and because we have seen him present among us and have mentally received him into our arms, we are called the new Israel. Never shall we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in his honor.

CHRIST HAS CALLED US TO HIS KINGDOM AND GLORY

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

A Scrutatio for the 4^th Sunday of the CHRISTIAN SEASON OF EPIPHANY 

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 / Psalm 111 / I Corinthians 8:1-13 / Mark 1:21-28

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 / Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7b and 7c-9 / I  Corinthians 7:32-35 / Mark 1:21-28

Septuagesima Sunday

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Psalm 18:5-7 and 2-3 

Epistle: I Corinthians 9:24-27 and 10:1-5   

Gradual: Psalm 9:10-11 and 18-20

Tract: Psalm 130:1-4

Gospel 

Matthew 20:1-16

Offertory: 

Psalm 92:1

Communion Antiphon:

 Psalm 31:16-17

From a Letter to the Church in Smyrna written by the Bishop of Antioch from the year A.D. 70 to his death as a witness for CHRIST in A.D.107., Ignatius Theophorus (Θεοφόρος-God Bearing):

CHRIST HAS CALLED US TO HIS KINGDOM AND GLORY

From Ignatius, known as Theophorus, to the Church of God the Father and of Jesus Christ, his beloved, at Smyrna in Asia, wishing you all joy in an immaculate spirit and the Word of God. By his mercy you have won every gift and lack none, filled as you are with faith and love, beloved of God and fruitful in sanctity.

I celebrate the glory of Jesus Christ as God, because he is responsible for your wisdom, well aware as I am of the perfection of your unshakeable faith. You are like men who have been nailed body and soul to the cross of Jesus Christ, confirmed in love by his blood.

In regard to the Lord, you firmly believe that he was of the race of David according to the flesh, but God’s son by the will and power of God; truly born of the Virgin and baptized by John, that all justice might be fulfilled; truly nailed to a cross in the flesh for our sake under Pontius Pilate and the Tetrarch Herod, and of his most blessed passion we are the fruit. And thus, by his resurrection he raised up a standard over his saints and faithful ones for all time (both Jews and Gentiles alike) in the one body of his Church. For he endured all this for us, for our salvation; and he really suffered, and just as truly rose from the dead.

As for myself, I am convinced that he was united with his body even after the resurrection. When he visited Peter and his companions, he said to them: Take hold of me, touch me and see that I am not a spirit without a body. Immediately they touched him and believed, clutching at his body and his very spirit. And for this reason they despised death and conquered it. In addition, after his resurrection, the Lord ate and drank with them like a real human being, even though in spirit he was united with his Father.

And so I am giving you serious instruction on these things, dearly beloved, even though I am aware that you believe them to be so.

CHRIST IS PRESENT TO HIS CHURCH

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

A Scrutatio for the 3^rd Sunday of the CHRISTIAN SEASON OF EPIPHANY

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer

Jeremiah 3:21-4:2 / Psalm 130 / I  Corinthians 7:17-23 / Mark 1:14-20 

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Jonah 3:1-5 and 10 / Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7 and 8-9 / I  Corinthians 7:29-31 / Mark 1:14-20

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Psalm 97:7-8 and 1 

Epistle: Romans 12:16-21  

Gradual: Psalm 102:15-17

Alleluia: Psalm 97:1

Gospel 

Matthew 8:1-13

Offertory: 

Psalm 118:16-17

Communion Antiphon:

 Luke 4:22

From the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, SACROSANCTUM CONCILLIUM, paragraphs 7 to 8 and 106:

CHRIST IS PRESENT TO HIS CHURCH

Christ is always present to his Church, especially in the actions of the liturgy. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, in the person of the minister (it is the same Christ who formerly offered himself on the cross that now offers by the ministry of priests) and most of all under the Eucharistic species. He is present in the sacraments by his power, in such a way that when someone baptizes, Christ himself baptizes. He is present in his word, for it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Finally, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he himself promised: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.

Indeed, in this great work which gives perfect glory to God and brings holiness to men, Christ is always joining in partnership with himself his beloved Bride, the Church, which calls upon its Lord and through him gives worship to the eternal Father.

It is therefore right to see the liturgy as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ, in which through signs addressed to the senses man’s sanctification is signified and, in a way proper to each of these signs, made effective, and in which public worship is celebrated in its fullness by the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and by his members.

Accordingly, every liturgical celebration, as an activity of Christ the priest and of his body, which is the Church, is a sacred action of a pre-eminent kind. No other action of the Church equals its title to power or its degree of effectiveness.

In the liturgy on earth we are given a foretaste and share in the liturgy of heaven, celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem, the goal of our pilgrimage, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, as minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. With the whole company of heaven we sing a hymn of praise to the Lord; as we reverence the memory of the saints, we hope to have some part with them, and to share in their fellowship; we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, who is our life, appears, and we appear with him in glory.

By an apostolic tradition taking its origin from the very day of Christ’s resurrection, the Church celebrates the paschal mystery every eighth day, the day that is rightly called the Lord’s day. On Sunday the Christian faithful ought to gather together, so that by listening to the word of God and sharing in the Eucharist they may recall the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God who has given them a new birth with a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Lord’s day is therefore the first and greatest festival, one to be set before the loving devotion of the faithful and impressed upon it, so that it may be also a day of joy and of freedom from work. Other celebrations must not take precedence over it, unless they are truly of the greatest importance, since it is the foundation and the kernel of the whole liturgical year.

THE HARMONY OF UNITY

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

A Scrutatio for the 2nd Sunday of the CHRISTIAN SEASON OF EPIPHANY

 

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer

I Samuel 3:1-20 / Psalm 63:1-8 / I Corinthians 6:11-20 / John 1:43-51

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

I Samuel 3:3b-10 and 19 / Psalm 40:2+4, 7-8a, 8b-9 and 10 / I Corinthians 6:13c-15a and 17-20 / John 1:35-42

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Psalm 66:4 and 1 

Epistle: Romans 12:6-16  

Gradual: Psalm 107:20-21

Alleluia: Psalm 148:2

Gospel 

John 2:1-11

Offertory: 

Psalm 66:1, 2, 16

Communion Antiphon: John 2:7, 8, 9, 10-11

(In the Charismatic Episcopal Church)

FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR ALMIGHTY LORD THE GIVER OF LIFE

Genesis 1:26-28a or Jeremiah 31:10-17 / Psalm 2 or 10 / Romans 8:35-39 or I Corinthians 15:19-26 / Matthew 18:1-5 or John 14:1-6

For the Church in the Philippines

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE SANTO NIÑO

Isaiah 9:1-7 / Psalm 97:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6 / Ephesians 1:3-6 and 15-18 / Mark 10:13-16

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Philippians 2:10-11 and Psalm 8:2
Epistle: Acts 4:8-12
Gradual: Psalm 106 (105):47
Alleluia: 

 Psalm 145 (144):21

Gospel
Luke 2:21

Offertory:
Psalm 89:12, 15
Communion Antiphon: Psalm 98:3

From a Letter to the Church in Ephesus written by the Bishop of Antioch from the year A.D. 70 to his death as a witness for CHRIST in A.D.107., Ignatius Theophorus (Θεοφόρος-God Bearing):

THE HARMONY OF UNITY 

It is right for you to give glory in every way to Jesus Christ who has given glory to you; you must be made holy in all things by being united in perfect obedience, in submission to the bishop and the presbyters.

I am not giving you orders as if I were a person of importance. Even if I am a prisoner for the name of Christ, I am not yet made perfect in Jesus Christ. I am now beginning to be a disciple and I am speaking to you as my fellow disciple. It is you who should be strengthening me by your faith, your encouragement, your patience, your serenity. But since love will not allow me to be silent about you, I am taking the opportunity to urge you to be united in conformity with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ, our life, without whom we cannot live, is the mind of the Father, just as the bishops, appointed over the whole earth, are in conformity with the mind of Jesus Christ.

It is fitting, therefore, that you should be in agreement with the mind of the bishop as in fact you are. Your excellent presbyters, who are a credit to God, are as suited to the bishop as strings to a harp. So in your harmony of mind and heart the song you sing is Jesus Christ. Every one of you should form a choir, so that, in harmony of sound through harmony of hearts, and in unity taking the note from God, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. If you do this, he will listen to you and see from your good works that you are members of his Son. It is then an advantage to you to live in perfect unity, so that at all times you may share in God.

If in a short space of time I have become so close a friend of your bishop—in a friendship not based on nature but on spiritual grounds—how much more blessed do I judge you to be, for you are as united with him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ to the Father, so that all things are in harmony through unity. Let no one make any mistake: unless a person is within the sanctuary, he is deprived of God’s bread. For if the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more has the prayer of the bishop and the whole Church.