Monday, 25 February 2008
ST. MATTHIAS, Apostle (II)
“Matthias, one of the seventy-two disciples of Jesus, was chosen as Apostle in the place of Judas. St. Matthias preached the Gospel for more than thirty years in Judea, Cappadocia, Egypt and Ethiopia. he was stoned, A.D. 80.”

Collect: O God, who didst join blessed Matthias to the company of Thine Apostles, grant, we beseech Thee, that through his intercession, we may ever be conscious of Thy loving kindness towards us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who livest and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Lesson: From the Acts of the Apostles, 1:15-26.
[Matthias is chosen in place of Judas.]
Gospel: Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, 11:25-30.
[Christ calls to Him such as are sensible of their burdens.]

MONDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT (III)
(Day of fast – traditional)

Collect: Pour forth in Thy mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, Thy grace into our hearts: that as we abstain from bodily food, so we may also restrain our senses from hurtful excesses. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who livest and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Lesson: From the Fourth Book of Kings, 5:1-15.
[This Epistle speaks to us of Naaman, the general of the King of Syria’s army. He was cured by bathing in the Jordan, although he did not belong to the race of Israel. Naaman is a figure of the heathen or Gentile whom the Church by baptism cures of the leprosy of sin.]
Gospel: Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke, 4:23-30.
[Naaman, the general of the king of Syria, did not belong to the race of Israel, but he was cured by bathing in the Jordan. Let us renew ourselves in the spirit of our baptism by cleansing our hearts in the salutary bath of penitence. This will cure us of the impurity, the leprosy of the soul, called sin]

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)