FRIDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Ember-day]
LESSON (Joel II. 23-27.) Thus saith the Lord God: And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the Lord your God: because he bath given you a teacher of justice, and he will make the early and the latter rain to come down for you as in the beginning, and the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow with wine, and oil. And I will restore to you the years, which the locust and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm hath eaten: my great host which I sent upon you. And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled: and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who bath done wonders with you: and my people shall not be confounded for ever. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: and I am the Lord your God, and there is none besides: and my people shall not be confounded for ever, saith the Lord Almighty.
EXPLANATION In the verses of the first and second chapters preceding this the prophet announces to the Jews punishments on account of their sins, and urges them to repentance; in this lesson he promises them a happy day in which the Teacher of justice, the Messiah will visit them with all graces. O happy penance which prepares for him who performs it, such great blessings both in this world and in the world to come!
GOSPEL (Luke V. 17-26.) At that time, It came to pass on a certain day, that Jesus sat teaching. And there were Pharisees and doctors of the lava sitting by, that were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was to heal them. And behold men brought in a bed a man who had the palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they, could not find by what way they might bring him in, because of the multitude, they went up upon the roof, and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the midst, before Jesus. Whose faith when he saw, he said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the Scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying: Who is this who speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? And. when Jesus knew their thoughts, answering he said to them: What is it you think in your hearts? Which is easier to say: Thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say; Arise, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the, palsy) I say to thee: Arise, take up thy bed, and go - into thy house. And immediately rising up before them, he took up the bed on which he lay: and he went away to his own house, glorifying God. And all were astonished: and they glorified God. And they were filled with fear, saying: We have seen wonderful things to-day.
[For explanation of this gospel see eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.]
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