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.