[Rank]
ln Octavam Nativitatis Beatae Mariae Virginis;;Semiduplex;;2;;ex Sancti/09-08

[Rule]
ex Sancti/09-08;
9 lectiones
Doxology=Nat

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the book of Canticles
!Song 8:5-6
5 Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning~
upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was~
corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.
6 Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as~
death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.

[Lectio2]
!Song 8:7-9
7 Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man~
should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as~
nothing.
8 Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in~
the day when she is to be spoken to?
9 If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door,~
let us join it together with boards or cedar.

[Lectio3]
!Song 8:10-14
10 I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence~
as one finding peace.
11 The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same~
to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of~
silver.
12 My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two~
hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy~
voice.
14 Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon~
the mountains of aromatical spices.

[Lectio4]
From the Sermons of St Cyril, Pope of Alexandria
!Against Nestorius.)
Behold a joyful congregation of all the Saints, who have come together with glad~
hearts at the bidding of Holy Mary, Mother of God, and always a Virgin. Praise~
and glory be unto thee, O Holy Trinity ! Who hast called us unto this Feast !~
Praise be to thee also, Holy Mother of God ! Thou art the priceless Pearl of~
earth, thou art the undying lamp, thou art the crown of virginity, thou art the~
staff of the orthodox faith, thou art the everlasting temple, thou art the~
limits of the Illimitable, thou art Mother and Maiden, wherethrough cometh He of~
whom the Gospels tell, that Blessed One Who cometh in the Name of the Lord !

[Lectio5]
Through thee is the name of the Trinity hallowed, through thee is the precious~
Cross preached and worshipped throughout all the world. Through thee there is~
joy in heaven, through thee Angels and Archangels shout aloud, through thee the~
devils are put to flight, and man is recalled to Paradise. Through thee every~
creature once in bondage to idols turneth to the knowledge of the truth, through~
thee believers come to holy Baptism, through thee Churches are built in all the~
earth.

[Lectio6]
By thy help, the heathen turn to repentance. What more ? Through thee the~
Only-begotten Son of God, He in Whom is Life, and the Life is the Light of men,~
hath shined upon them that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. Through~
thee the Prophets have prophesied, through thee the Apostles have preached~
salvation unto the Gentiles. Who can set forth all thy praise, O Mary, Mother~
and Maiden ? Dearly beloved brethren, let us glorify her, while we worship her~
Son, the Sinless Bridegroom of the Church, unto Whom be honour and glory for~
ever and ever. Amen.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 1:1-17
The Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of~
Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob. And so on.
_
Homily by St John Chrysostom, Patriarch (of Constantinople.)
!2nd on Matthew.
Is it not startling to hear that the ineffable God, Whom words cannot describe,~
nor thought grasp, and Who is in all things equal to the Father, was pleased to~
come to us through the womb of a virgin, to be made of a woman, and* to take for~
forefathers David and Abraham ? But why should I speak of David and Abraham ? It~
is more astounding still that He took for ancestresses those women whom I have~
just above named, (Thamar, and Ruth, and Bathsheba.) But when thou hearest this,~
stir up thy mind, and look not down, upon the lowly elements. Wonder rather at~
this, that the very and beloved Son of the Eternal God was content to become the~
Son of David, that He might give thee power to become a son of God ; to have His~
own servant for His forefather, that He might make God Himself His servants'~
Father.

[Responsory7]
@Sancti/07-02:Responsory7

[Lectio8]
Thou seest how glad tidings these be even from the beginning. If thou be busy~
about such things as concern thine own honour, learn to believe such from the~
things which concern Him. For even by the measure of man's understanding it is~
harder to make God man than to hallow a man into a son of God. When therefore~
thou hearest that the Son of God is likewise the Son of David and Abraham, doubt~
no more that thou, which art a son of Adam, shalt be a son of God. He would not~
so have humbled Himself, had it not been to exalt us. He was born according to~
the flesh that thou mightest be born according to the Spirit ; He was born of a~
woman that thou mightest cease to be the child of a

[Responsory8]
@Sancti/07-02:Responsory8

[Lectio93]
!Commemoratio for the Holy Martyr Nicomede.
This Nicomede was a Priest who was ordered to be seized during the persecution~
of the Christians by the Emperor Domitian, because he had buried the body of the~
Virgin Felicula, who had been slain by the Count Flaccus for confessing the~
Christian Faith. He was led to the statues of the gods, and forasmuch as he~
stoutly disobeyed the command to sacrifice to them, since sacrifice is due only~
to the one true God Who reigneth in heaven, he was flogged with scourges loaded~
with lead until he sealed his testimony by giving up his spirit to God. The said~
Count Flaccus ordered his body to be thrown into the floods of the Tiber, but~
Justus, clerk to Nicomede, sought diligently for it until he found it, and~
buried it honourably upon the road to Mentana, hard by the walls of the city.
&teDeum

[Commemoratio]
!Commemoratio S. Nicomedis.
@Commune/C2:Oratio proper
Give ear, O Lord, to our supplications, and that the prayers of thy blessed
martyr Nicomedes, for whose feast we are making ready, graciously pour upon us
thine everlasting mercy.
$Per Dominum
