[Ant 1]
thine, O Lord, is the power * the kingdom is thine. Thou art high above all the heathen grant peace in our time, O Lord.

[Versum 1]
V. Let the evening prayer ascend unto thee, O Lord.
R. And let there descend upon us thy mercy.

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the second book of Machabees
!2 Mac 6:18-22
18 Eleazar one of the chief of the scribes, a man advanced in years, and of a comely countenance, was pressed to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh.
19 But he, choosing rather a most glorious death than a hateful life, went forward voluntarily to the torment.
20 And considering in what manner he was come to ii;, patiently bearing, he determined not to do any unlawful things for the love of life.
21 But they that stood by, being moved with wicked pity, for the old friendship they had with the man, taking him aside, desired that flesh might be brought, which it was lawful for him to eat, that he might make as if he had eaten, as the king had commanded of the flesh of the sacrifice:
22 That by so doing he might be delivered from death: and for the sake of their old friendship with the man they did him this courtesy.

[Responsory1]
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[Lectio2]
!2 Mac 6:23-28
23 But he began to consider the dignity of his age, and his ancient years, and the inbred honour of his grey head, and his good life and conversation from a child: and he answered without delay, according to the ordinances of the holy law made by God, saying, that he would rather be sent into the other world.
24 For it doth not become our age, said he, to dissemble: whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar, at the age of fourscore and ten years, was gone over to the life of the heathens:
25 And so they, through my dissimulation, and for a little time of a corruptible life, should be deceived, end hereby I should bring a stain and a curse upon my old age.
26 For though, for the present time, I should be delivered from the punishments of men, yet should I not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead.
27 Wherefore by departing manfully out of this life, I shall shew myself worthy of my old age:
28 And I shall leave an example of fortitude to young men, if with a ready mind and constancy I suffer an honourable death, for the most venerable and most holy laws. And having spoken thus, he was forthwith carried to execution.

[Responsory2]
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[Lectio3]
!2 Mac 7:1-5
1 To came to pass also, that seven brethren, together with their mother, were apprehended, and compelled by the king to eat swine's flesh against the law, for which end they were tormented with whips and scourges.
2 But one of them, who was the eldest, said thus: What wouldst thou ask, or learn of us? we are ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from our fathers.
3 Then the king being angry commanded fryingpans, and brazen caldrons to be made hot: which forthwith being heated,
4 He commanded to cut out the tongue of him that had spoken first: and the skin of his head being drawn off, to chop off also the extremities of his hands and feet, the rest of his brethren, and his mother, looking on.
5 And when he was now maimed in all parts, he commanded him, being yet alive, to be brought to the Are, and to be fried in the fryingpan: and while he was suffering therein long torments, the rest, together with the mother, exhorted one another to die manfully,

[Responsory3]
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[Lectio4]
From the. Sermons of St Gregory of Nazianzus, (Patriarch of Constantinople.)
!20th. On the Maccabees.
Eleazar was the first-fruits of those who suffered before the coming of Christ, even as Stephen was the first-fruits of those who suffered after that coming. He was a Priest and an Elder, grey in years, and grey also in wisdom. Once he had sacrificed and prayed for the people, but now the time came when he offered himself to God as a burnt sacrifice without blemish, a peaceoffering for all the people, a blessed beginning in that struggle whereunto his words and his silence were alike their exhortation. He presented likewise the bodies of seven children, the offspring of his teaching, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, (Rom. xii. 1,) an oblation more glorious and more pure than any legal offering for to give the father credit of his children is most meet and right.

[Responsory4]
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[Lectio5]
There stood the noble and highminded lads, the gallant sons of a noble mother, the glorious champions of the truth, men to whom the epoch of Antiochus was an anachronism, true disciples of the Law of Moses, straitest of the observers of the rites of their forefathers, in that seven-fold number which the Hebrews bless, and which is hallowed and worshipful through the reckoning of Sabbath, there they stood, with one longing, and one aim, looking to one road to life, even to receive death for God's sake, there they stood, brethren in soul not less than in body, only covetous one of the other's death. O what a mystery They snatched at agony as at treasure, and perilled themselves for the teaching of the Law, with no more fear for what was before than regret for what was behind. Their dread was but one, even lest any should go uncrowned, lest brother should be unwillingly parted from brother, and be saved from the torment of the conflict to gain a disastrous victory.

[Responsory5]
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[Lectio6]
There stood the brave and noble mother, burning with love of her children and of God, with her heart rent as few human hearts are riven. Her agony was not so much on account of the tortures which her children suffered, as from fear lest they should shrink therefrom. She yearned not more over those who left this life than she prayed that they who were left might join them her anxiety was for the living rather than for the dead. The living were still contending, the dead had safely left the field concerning the living she was straitened in not knowing how God would receive them, the dead she knew that God had joined unto Himself.

[Responsory6]
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[Responsory7]
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[Responsory8]
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