SAINT ANTHONY

Abbot

Anthony was born in Egypt of wealthy Christian parents at about the middle of the third century. After the death of his parents, he left the world and sought the solitude of the desert. Although Anthony undertook severe mortifications to overcome the ceaseless temptations he endured, yet he saw the secret of Christian sanctity not in bodily chastisement but in love of God. So many disciples followed him that he founded two monasteries on the bank of the Nile, and directed the lives of his monks according to the Gospel precept of perfection. This patriarch of all monks died in the year 356 in a cave near the Red Sea, at the age of 105.

Mass of an Abbot, except

PRAYER

Let the Blessed Abbot Anthony intercede for us, O Lord. May his prayers win us Your help, since our own actions cannot merit it. Through Our Lord . . .

GOSPEL

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, "Let your loins be girt and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you that he will gird himself and make them sit down to meat and passing will minister unto them. And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not the Son of man will come."

SECRET PRAYER

May the offerings we lay upon Your sacred altar, O Lord, bring us closer to our salvation through the intercession of the blessed abbot Anthony. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and rules with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER

May the Sacrament we have received and the prayers of the blessed abbot Anthony protect us, O Lord. Grant also that we may imitate the virtues of this saint who is our intercessor with You in Heaven. Through Our Lord . . .