[Rank]
Dominica III Post Epiphaniam;;Semiduplex;;5

[Rule]
9 lectiones
Symbolum Athanasium

[Oratio]
Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty to help and defend us.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Galatians
!Gal 1:1-5
1 Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead,
2 And all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.
3 Grace be to you, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present wicked world, according to the will of God and our Father:
5 To whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.

[Responsory1]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory1

[Lectio2]
!Gal 1:6-10
6 I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.
7 Which is not another, only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.
9 As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

[Responsory2]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory2

[Lectio3]
!Gal 1:11-14
11 For I give you to understand, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion: how that, beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.
14 And I made progress in the Jews' religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

[Responsory3]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory3

[Lectio4]
From the Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians by St Austin, Bishop (of Hippo.)
!Preface, Bk. iv.
The reason of the Apostle's writing to the Galatians was this that they might understand that the grace of God had worked in them that they were no longer under the law. For when the grace of the Gospel was preached to them, there had not been wanting to them some of them of the circumcision, Christians indeed in name, but who had not yet apprehended that great benefit of grace, and desiring still to be bound with burdens of the law burdens which the Lord God had laid, not upon such as serve righteousness, but upon such as serve sin, laying, that is to say, upon the unrighteous a righteous law, whereby their unrighteousness was made manifest, not taken away. For there is not anything which taketh away sin, save only the grace of faith which worketh by love.

[Responsory4]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory4

[Lectio5]
The men of the circumcision would have the Galatians, who were under grace, to be under the burdens of the law, persuading them that the Gospel profited them nothing, unless they should be circumcised, and take on them the other outward observances of the Jews' religion. Whence the Galatians began to have doubts of the Apostle Paul, by whom the Gospel had been preached to them, as one that held not the doctrine of the other Apostles, who compelled the Gentiles to come under the law.

[Responsory5]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory5

[Lectio6]
The same question is discussed in the Epistle to the Romans, but with this difference in that case the Apostle putteth an end to the discussion, and stilleth the strife which had arisen between the Jewish and the Gentile converts, in consequence of the Jews holding that they had earned the knowledge of the Gospel as a reward for their observance of the law, and grudging the same knowledge to the uncircumcised, as to men who had done nothing to deserve it; and the Gentiles, on the contrary, maintaining that they were superior to the Jews, in that they were not the murderers of the Lord. Now, in this Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle addresseth himself to those who were troubled by the authority claimed by them who were of the circumcision, and sought to bring into subjection to the law them who were of the uncircumcision.

[Responsory6]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory6

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 8:1-13
In that time when Jesus was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him: And behold a leper came and adored him. And so on.
_
Homily by St Jerome, Priest (at Bethlehem.)
!Bk. i. Comm. on Matth. viii.
When the Lord was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. They were not able to follow Him when He went up. And first there came a leper. This poor creature's disease had prevented him from hearing the Saviour's long sermon on the Mount. Let it be noted that he is the first person specially named as being healed. The second was the Centurion's servant; the third was Peter's wife's mother, who was sick of a fever at Capernaum; the fourth were they who were brought unto Christ as being troubled with evil spirits, from whom He by His word cast out the evil spirits, at the same time that He healed all that were sick.

[Responsory7]
@Tempora/Epi2-0:Responsory7

[Lectio8]
And, behold, there came a leper, and worshipped Him, saying Properly after preaching and doctrine cometh occasion for a sign, that the power of the miracle might confirm in the hearers the truth of the teaching that had gone before. Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. He that prayeth the Lord to have~
the will, doubteth not but that He hath the power. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying I will; be thou clean. As soon as the Lord put forth His Hand the leprosy departed. Let us remark how lowly and unbragging is the Lord's language. The leper had said, If Thou wilt; the Lord answereth, I will. The leper, Thou canst make me clean, the Lord, Be thou clean. Most Latin readers, misled by the identity of form in that language between the Present Infinitive Active and the Second Person Singular Present Imperative Passive of the Verb, read Christ's answer as if it were, I will to make thee clean. This is wrong. The sentences are separate. First cometh the expression of volition, I will, then the command, Be thou clean.

[Responsory8]
@Tempora/Pent01-0:Responsory8

[Lectio9]
And Jesus saith unto him See thou tell no man. What need was there to tell what his body showed? But go thy way, show thyself to the Priest. There were divers reasons why Christ should send him to the Priest. First, for humility's sake, that He might show reverence to God's Priest. Then there was a command in the law that they that were cleansed of leprosy should make an offering to the Priests. Moreover, that, when the Priests saw the leper cleansed, they might either believe in the Saviour, or refuse to believe; if they believed, that they might be saved, and, if they believed not, that they might have no excuse. Lastly, that He might give no ground for the accusation that was so often brought against Him, that He was unobservant of the law.
&teDeum

[Versum 2]
V. The Lord reigneth He is clothed with majesty.
R. The Lord is clothed with strength, and has girded Himself with power.

[Ant 2]
When Jesus was come down from the mountain, * behold, there came a leper, and worshipped Him, saying Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His Hand, and touched him, saying I will; be thou clean.

[Versum 3]
V. Let my prayer, O Lord, be set forth.
R. As incense before thee.

[Ant 3]
Lord, if Thou wilt, * Thou canst make me clean and Jesus saith to him I will; be thou clean.
