Tuesday, 15 January, 2008
ST. PAUL, the first Hermit, Confessor (III)
“The founder of the eremitical life retired at the age of fifteen into the desert and lived there in exercise of prayers and penances for more than a hundred years. He died in A.D. 343.”

Collect: O God, who sendest us joy year by year on the feast of blessed Paul Thy Confessor which we are now keeping: mercifully grant on this day of his heavenly birth that we may grow like him in deed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.

St. Maurus, Abbot (Comm.)
“One of the first disciples of St. Benedict, he introduced the Holy Rule of the latter into France. He died A.D. 584.”

Collect: May the intercession of blessed Maurus, the Abbot, commend us unto Thee, we beseech Thee, O Lord: so that what we cannot acquire by any merits of ours, we may obtain by his patronage. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.

Epistle: From Bl. Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, 3:7-12.
Gospel: Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, 11:25-30.

[1] Remarks are abstracted from The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual, from Editio Typica of the Roman Missal and Breviary, 1962
(Baronius Press Limited, London, 2004, in conjunction with the Fraternal Society of St. Peter, www.baroniuspress.com)