Day 19 : 18 March
Hear our voice, O Lord, according to your faithful love.
Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):
| Deuteronomy 4.1-9 | Psalm 147.12-20 | Matthew 5.17-19 |
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. (Psalm 147.16)
The reason we flee silence
Unfortunately, in seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful and attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self. It is a harrowing journey, a death to self—the false self—and no one wants to die. But it is the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love. And it begins with silence. We cannot give ourselves in love if we do not know and possess ourselves. This is the great value of silence. It is the pathway to all we truly want.
—M. Basil Pennington, quoted in Friends of silence newsletter 34(1), Nov., 2011
W. A. Mozart. Requiem Mass in D Minor
English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, cond. John Eliot Gardiner at Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona, Dec. 1991.
VII - Domine, Jesu Christe
| Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu. Libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum. Sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam. Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus. | Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, liberate the souls of the faithful, departed from the pains of hell and from the bottomless pit. Deliver them from the lion's mouth, lest hell swallow them up, lest they fall into darkness. Let the standard-bearer, holyMichael, bring them into holy light. Which was promised to Abraham and his descendants. |
VIII - Hostias
| Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus. Tu sucipe pro animabus illis, quaram hodie memoriam facimus. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam, Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus. | Sacrifices and prayers of praise,Lord, we offer to You. Receive them in behalf of those souls we commemorate today. And let them, Lord, pass from death to life, which was promised to Abraham and his descendants. |
May God our Redeemer show us compassion and love. Amen.