[Rank]
ln Octavam Nativitatis Beatae Mariae Virginis;;Semiduplex;;2;;vide C11

[Rule]
vide C11
9 lectiones

[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 bid- 
ding 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 Sin- 
less 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 be- 
gat 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 Eter- 
nal 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 fore- 
father, that He might make God Him- 
self 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 ac- 
cording to the flesh that thou might- 
est 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 Nocomedus, for whose feast we are making ready, graciously pour upon us~
thine everlasting mercy.
$Per Dominum
