EMBER FRIDAY AFTER PENTECOST; SAINT BONIFACE (754 A.D.) Bishop and Martyr

EMBER FRIDAY 

AFTER PENTECOST

SAINT BONIFACE
Bishop and Martyr

DOUBLE / RED
From healthy life come activity and joy. God shares His life with man and gives him the infused virtues and spiritual gifts. These abiding habits are more than a mere capacity for good: they are a positive inclination to good; they counter the inclinations to evil that bedevil souls. The good that each person does is an outflow, a continuation, of the impulse to good that God places in that person. This hour-to-hour goodness is the marching victory of Christ, His Holy Spirit's wonder of the moment. It touches all souls of good will and releases the springs of joy.

INTROIT Ps. 70:8, 23 
Let my mouth be filled with Your praise, alleluia! that I may sing Your glory, alleluia! My lips shall shout for joy as I sing to You, alleluia, alleluia!
Ps. 70:1-2. In You, O Lord, have I placed my trust; let me never be put to shame. deliver me in Your justice and rescue me.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
O merciful God, may Your Church, which owes its unity to the Holy Spirit, never be troubled by the attacks of her enemies. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of SAINT BONIFACE
The apostle of Germany, St. Boniface (c. 679-755), was an Englishman of strong, serene character who entered the Benedictine Order at an early age. When he was 40, Boniface led a little band of English missioners to the Continent. During his mighty apostolic work of the following 35 years, he was undeviating in his obedience to the directives of the Holy See. He had the gift of inspiring others with the fire of his apostolic zeal, so that many English monks and nuns came eagerly to his aid. In addition to Christianizing and civilizing a great part of Germany and Holland, he regenerated the Church in neighboring Frankland, at the request of the Pope. At the age of 75, Archbishop Boniface converted and baptized thousands of pagans in Holland. There, on June 5, 755, he and his companions were attacked by a band of fanatical idolaters and brutally martyred.


O God, by the zeal of Your holy martyr, Bishop Boniface, You have brought many nations to know and bow to Your holy name. May we, in honoring his feast, know the benefits of his powerful intercession with You. Through our Lord . . .

LESSON Joel 2:23-24, 26-27
Thus says the Lord God: "O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the Lord your God: because he hath given you a teacher of justice, and he will make the early and the latter rain to come down to you as in the beginning. And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overfiow with wine, and oil. And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God; who hath 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 yonr God, and there is none besides: and my people shall not be confounded forever," says the Lord almighty.

Alleluia, alleluia! V. Sap. 12:1
O how good and sweet is Your Spirit within us, O Lord! Alleluia! (Here all kneel.) V. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. 

SEQUENCE
Holy Spirit, come and shine
On our souls with beams divine
Issuing from your radiance bright.
Come, O Father of the poor,
Ever bounteous of your store,
Come, our heart's unfailing light.

Come, Consoler, kindest, best,
Come our bosom's dearest guest,
Sweet refreshment, sweet repose.
Rest in labor, coolness sweet, 
Tempering the burning heat,
Truest comfort of our woes.

O divinest light, impart
Unto every faithful heart
Plenteous streams from love's bright flood.
But for your blest Deity,
Nothing pure in man could be;
Nothing harmless, nothing good.

Wash away each sinful stain;
Gently shed your gracious rain
On the dry and fruitless soul.
Heal each wound and bend each will,
Warm our hearts benumbed and chill,
All our wayward steps control.

Unto all your faithful just,
Who in you confide and trust,
Deign the sevenfold gift to send.
Grant us virtue's blest increase,
Grant a death of hope and peace,
Grant the joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia!

GOSPEL Luke 5:17-26 
And it came to pass on a certain day, as he sat teaching, that there were also Pharisees and doctors of the law 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 the power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say to thee to: 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."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 145:2
Praise the Lord, O my soul; I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live, alleluia!

SECRET 
We offer this Sacrifice before You, O Lord. Let it be consumed by the divine fire of the Holy Spirit which enkindled the hearts of the disciples of Christ, Your Son. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord . . .

Commemoration of SAINT BONIFACE
Pour out Your rich blessings, O Lord, upon this Sacrifice, that through it we may come closer to our sanctification and be made joyful on the feast of Your holy martyr, Bishop Boniface. Through our Lord . . .


COMMUNION ANTIPHON John 14:18
I will not leave you orphans; I will come again to you, alleluia! and your heart shall be joyful, alleluia!

POSTCOMMUNION 
O Lord, we have received the gift of Your Blessed Sacrament. we now humbly ask that this Sacrifice, which You bid us offer in Your memory, may give us strength against our weakness; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

Commemoration of SAINT BONIFACE
We have been made holy by this life-giving Sacrifice, O Lord. May we always be aided by the prayers of Your holy martyr, Bishop Boniface, whom You gave us as a protector and a guide. Through our Lord . . .