MAY 23 FERIAL DAY; ROGATION DAY 1; ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE ROSSI (1764 A.D.); SAINT JULIA (440 A.D.)

 

May 23

FERIAL DAY

(Mass of preceding Sunday)

[Requiem or Votive Mass allowed]

ROGATION DAY 1

Introit
Isa 48:20
Declare it with the voice of joy: make this to be heard, allelúja: and speak it out even to the ends of the earth. Say: The Lord hath redeemed his people, allelúja, allelúja
Ps 65:1-2
Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing ye a psalm to his name; give glory to his praise.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Declare it with the voice of joy: make this to be heard, allelúja: and speak it out even to the ends of the earth. Say: The Lord hath redeemed his people, allelúja, allelúja.

Collect
O God, from Whom all good things do come, grant to us thy humble servants that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. 

Commemoration of the MASS OF ROGATION    

The death and resurrection of Jesus have opened heaven and won the grace to avoid sin and to gain eternal happiness. But many of the consequences of sin still remain; and every person has his guilt to confess and atone for. Besides, there are the countless needs of soul and body that put all men on their knees before God. Earthquakes and other calamities afflicted Europe in the fifth century and St. Mamertus, instituted a penitential procession with public supplications in his Diocese. Hence, the special days of petition, called Rogation Days, marked by a special Mass, the Litany of the Saints, and, where possible, a procession during which the Litany is sung. It is well to join penance and fasting to all prayer. In 816 A.D., Pope Leo III introduced this Mass in Rome, and soon after it became a general observance throughout the Church.

Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that we, who in our affliction put our trust in Thy mercy, may ever be defended by the protection against all adversity. Through our Lord . . .

Lesson
Lesson from the letter of St James the Apostle
Jas 1:22-27
Dearly beloved: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.

Alleluia
Allelúja, allelúja.
V. Christ is risen and hath shone upon us whom he redeemed with his blood. Alleluia,
John 16:28
I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father. Allelúja.

GOSPEL

Continuation ☩ of the Holy Gospel according to John
R. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
John 16:23-30
In that time, Jesus said to His disciples: And in that day you shall not ask me any thing. Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh, when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in my name; and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father. His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Secret
Receive, O Lord, the prayers of thy faithful with offerings of victims, that by these services of pious devotion we may pass to heavenly glory.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. 

Commemoration of the MASS OF ROGATION 
 May these oblations, O Lord, we beseech Thee, loosen the bonds of our wickedness, and obtain for us the gifts of Thy mercy. Through our Lord . . .      

Post Communion

Grant us, O Lord, fed with the virtue of a heavenly table, to desire what is right, and to gain what we desire.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. 

Commemoration of the MASS OF ROGATION 
Favorably receive our prayers, O Lord, we beseech Thee; may we in our distress be consoled by Thy gifts and grow in love accordingly. Through our Lord . . .     

[Historical]

St. John Baptist de Rossi

Confessor, 'The Apostle of the Abandoned'

 

John was born in Voltaggio, diocese of Genoa, Italy, in 1698. He was one of four children of Carlo de Rossi and Francesca Anfosi, who were poor, but pious parents. At the age of ten, he was taken in by wealthy friends of the family who saw to it that he was well-educated.

At the suggestion of his uncle, Lorenzo de Rossi, a Church Canon, John travelled to Rome to study at the Collegium Romanum, under the Jesuits. He entered the Roman College at 13 and completed the classical course of studies but began practicing severe mortification. This practice, combined with a heavy course load and a bout of epilepsy, led to a breakdown, and he was forced to leave the college. He recuperated and completed his training at Minerva but never fully regained his former strength.

At the age of 23 he was ordained (with dispensation, due to his poor health),and celebrated his first Mass in the Roman College. He was assigned to Rome, where he worked with the poor and the sick. He concentrated especially on the hospice of Saint Galla, an overnight shelter for paupers that had been founded by Pope Celestine III. John also helped start a nearby hospice for homeless women, which he placed under the protection of St. Aloysius Gonzaga - one of his favorite saints.

For many years, John avoided hearing confessions for fear he would have a seizure in the confessional, but the bishop of Civitá Castellana convinced him it was part of his vocation; he relented, and soon became one of the most sought after confessors in Rome. He worked tirelessly, spending many hours a day hearing confessions, particularly those of prisoners, the poor and illiterate in the hospitals or in their homes. He preached to them five and six times a day in churches, chapels convents, hospitals, barracks, and prison cells, so that he became known as "the apostle of the abandoned", a second Philip Neri.

John's frail health compelled him in 1763 to move to the Trinita dei Pellegrini, where he suffered a stroke that same year and received the last sacraments. He recovered enough to resume celebrating Mass, but, in 1764, he had another stroke and died at the age of 66. He was buried at the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the Church of Trinita de Pelleghrini. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on December 8,1881. 

 

SAINT JULIA
Virgin, Martyr
Patron of Corsica
(Fifth century)

 

Saint Julia was a noble virgin of Carthage, who, when the city was taken by Genseric in 439, was sold for a slave to a pagan merchant of Syria. In the most mortifying employments of her station, by cheerfulness and patience she found a happiness and comfort which the world could not give. Whenever she was not employed in household affairs, her time was devoted to prayer and reading books of piety.

Her master, who was charmed with her fidelity and other virtues, thought proper to take her with him on one of his voyages to Gaul. When he reached the northern part of Corsica, he cast anchor and went ashore to join the pagans of the place in an idolatrous festival. Julia was left at some distance, because she would not be defiled by the superstitious ceremonies, which she openly spurned. The governor of the island, Felix, a bigoted pagan, asked who this woman was who dared to insult the gods. The merchant informed him that she was a Christian, and that all his authority over her was too weak to prevail upon her to renounce her religion; nonetheless, he found her so diligent and faithful he could not part with her. The governor offered him four of his best slaves in exchange for her. But the merchant replied, “No; all you are worth will not purchase her; for I would lose the most valuable thing I have in the world rather than be deprived of her.”

Nonetheless Felix, while the inebriated merchant was asleep, attempted to compel her to sacrifice to his gods. He offered to procure her liberty if she would comply. The Saint made answer that she was as free as she desired to be, as long as she was allowed to serve Jesus Christ. The pagan, offended by her undaunted and resolute air, in a transport of rage caused her to be struck on the face, and the hair of her head to be torn off. Finally he ordered her to be hanged on a cross until she expired. Certain monks from the isle of Gorgon transported her relics there, but in 763 the king of Lombardy transferred them to Brescia, where her memory is celebrated with great devotion.