[Rank]
ln Octavam Sancti Stephani.;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide Sancti/12-26

[Rank1960]
Die Secunda Januarii;;Feria;;1;;vide Sancti/12-25

[RankTrident]
ln Octavam Sancti Stephani.;;Duplex;;3;;ex Sancti/12-26

[Rule]
vide Sancti/12-26
9 lectiones
Psalmi Dominica
Antiphonas Horas
Feria Te Deum

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the Acts of Apostles
!Acts 7:51-54
51 You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the~
Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain~
them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the~
betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
54 Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with~
their teeth at him.

[Lectio2]
!Acts 7:55-58
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw~
the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said:~
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand~
of God.
56 And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one~
accord ran violently upon him.
57 And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses~
laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul.
58 And they stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

[Lectio3]
!Acts 7:59; 8:1-2
59 And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not~
this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord.~
And Saul was consenting to his death.
1 And at that time there was raised a great persecution against the church which~
was at Jerusalem; and they were all dispersed through the countries of Judea,~
and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 And devout men took order for Stephen's funeral, and made great mourning over~
him.

[Lectio4]
From the Sermons of St Austin, Bishop (of Hippo.)
!2nd on St Stephen.
Even after the glory of yesterday, bright with the splendour of Christ our~
Saviour's Birth, this day findeth itself an illumination of its own from the~
crown of the blessed Martyr Stephen. The whole earth knoweth how manfully he~
fought and conquered for he suffered at the very fountain-head of the Church,~
that is to say, in Jerusalem. It was in the Church there that he ministered as a~
Deacon and in the youthful springtime of life dyed with his blood the lily of~
his purity. His Passion is very glorious, and many ways wonderful, and when we~
read it in the Acts of the Apostles, we seem rather to see than to hear.

[Lectio5]
Christ, the Captain of the Martyrs, hath first suffered for us, leaving us an~
example that we should follow His steps, (i Pet. ii. 21.) And truly, Blessed~
Stephen followed them, when, having confessed Christ, he was stoned to death by~
the Jews, and obtained the crown which his name had foreshown. For the meaning~
of the Greek name Stephanos is a crown. Already he had a crown for his name, a~
foreshadowing of the martyr's palm which he beareth in heaven.

[Lectio6]
Then they stoned him he did not rejoice at the thought that God would take~
vengeance on his persecutors. On the contrary, he prayed that they might be~
forgiven. For he remembered the word of the Lord, that saith Vengeance~
belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, (Heb. x. 30,) and again:~
Say not thou; I will recompense evil to mine enemies, but wait on the Lord,~
and He shall save thee. (Prov. xx. 22.) The Lord God biddeth us also be patient,~
knowing that in the great day of retribution, we, as well as His holy martyrs,~
shall be righted.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 23:34-35
In that time Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisee: Behold I send to you~
prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and~
crucify. And so on.
_
Homily by St Jerome, Priest (at Bethlehem.)
!Bk. iv. Comment, on Matth. xxiii.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets. The Jerusalem that~
killed the Prophets was not the material stone and houses, but they that dwelt~
therein. He wept over her with a father's love, as also it is written in another~
place that, when He saw the city, He wept over it. (Luke xix. 41.) How often~
would I have gathered thy children together. Here observe that Christ avoweth~
that He had been the Sender of all the former Prophets. Even as an hen gathereth~
her chickens under her wings. A similar figure is found in the Song of Moses in~
Deuteronomy, xxxii. II, As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her~
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, and beareth them on her wings.

[Lectio8]
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. God had already spoken these~
things once before, by the mouth of Jeremiah, where He saith I have forsaken~
Mine house, I have left Mine heritage; Mine inheritance is become unto Me like~
an hyaena's den. (xii. 7.) The house of the Jews, which was to be left unto~
them desolate, is that Temple, whose splendour they loved only too well, when~
they slew the Owner of it for the sake of it, and said of Christ, This is the~
heir; come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours. ( Matth. xxi.~
38.)

[Lectio9]
I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say Blessed is~
he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Here He speaketh to Jerusalem and to the~
Jewish people. The words, Blessed is He That cometh in the name of the Lord,~
were indeed spoken by babes and sucklings when the Saviour entered Jerusalem in~
triumph, and they that went before and they that followed, cried, saying, '~
Blessed is He That cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest,'~
(Mark xi. 9,) but they are originally taken from Psalm cxvii. 26. -Which Psalm~
is all evidently written in honour of the coniing of our Lord.
&teDeum

[Oratio]
O Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast dedicated the first-fruits of thy~
Martyrs with the blood of the Blessed Stephen; grant, we beseech thee, that the~
same may pray for us also, who prayed even for his murderers
$Per Dominum

[Commemoratio]
@Sancti/12-27:Octava
@Sancti/12-28:Octava
