Traditional Mass Propers: 14th Sunday after Pentecost

INTROIT
Ps. 83:10-11 O God, our Protector, look, and gaze upon the face of Your Christ. Better indeed is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Ps. 83:2-3. How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul yearns and faints for the courts of the Lord. V . Glory be . . .

COLLECT - Keep Your Church, O Lord, in Your everlasting mercy. Without Your assistance our human nature is bound to fall, so help us to shun whatever is harmful and guide us towards those things that will aid our salvation. Through our Lord . . .

EPISTLE
Gal. 5:16-24
Brethren: Walk in the Spirit: and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh: For these are contrary one to another: so that you do not the things that you would. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest: which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, Idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, Envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, Mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences.

GRADUAL
It is better to trust in the Lord than to confide in man. V. It is better to have confidence in the Lord than to rely on princes.

Alleluia, alleluia! V. Ps. 94:1 Come, let us praise the Lord with joy, let us sing joyfully to God our Saviour. Alleluia!

GOSPEL
Matthew 6:24-33

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. "Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? "And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith? "Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."

OFFERTORY
Ps. 33:8-9
The Angel of the Lord shall encamp around those who fear him, and shall deliver them. Taste and see how good is the Lord.

SECRET O Lord, grant that this offering of the Sacrifice of salvation may take away our sins and appease Your majesty. Through our Lord . . .

COMMUNION
Matthew 6:33
"Seek first the kingdom of God, and all other things shall be given you besides," said the Lord


POST COMMUNION - May Your Sacrament ever cleanse and strengthen us, O God, and lead us to eternal salvation. Through our Lord . . .

Sources: Saint Andrew Daily Missal and the Marian Missal , 1945
 

The Church's Year by Fr. Leonard Goffine: 

What is meant by serving God?

Doing the will of God, or performing faithfully and zealously all that God asks of us according to our age and condition, and for love of Him.

Who are the two masters whom we cannot serve alike?

God and Mammon or riches, whereby also, the other goods and pleasures of the world are understood. These we cannot serve at the same time, because they command things diametrically opposed to each other; for instance, God prohibits usury, theft, deceit, etc.; to which the desire for wealth impels us. God commands that we keep holy Sundays and holy days, and devote them to His service; the desire for riches tempts man to omit religious worship and to seek temporal gain; it disturbs him even in church, so that he is only present with his body, but absent in mind with his temporal goods and business.

To whom can riches be useful?

To those who, like the saints, perform works of mercy with them, and thus lay up treasures for themselves in heaven.

Why does Christ call our attention to the birds of the air and the lakes of the field?

To excite in us confidence in the providence of God, which preserves even the birds and the flowers. Surely, if God feeds the young ravens which cry to Him; (Ps. 146:9) if He nourishes the birds which neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; if He vests the flowers of the field so beautifully, how much more will He care for man whom He has made to His own image and likeness, and adopted as His child, if he only acts as such, keeps His commandments, and always entertains a filial confidence in Him.

Should we, therefore, lay aside all care and never work?

This does not follow from what has been said. Christ condemns only the superfluous cares, which cause man to forget God and to neglect the salvation of his soul. Besides, God has Himself ordered (Gen. 3:17-19) that man should obtain the fruits of the earth with much labor, that he should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. St. Paul says: “If any man will not work, neither let him eat.” (II Thess. 2:10)

What should preserve us from superfluous cares?

A firm and lively faith, that God can and will help us. That He can is evident, because He is almighty; that His will is certain, because He promises it in so many passages of Holy Writ, and because He is infinitely faithful to all His promises. Christ encourages us to this lively confidence with these, words: “All things whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive and they shall come unto you.” (Mark 11:24) Therefore the apostle also commands us to throw all cares upon the Lord, Who provides for us. (I Pet. 5:7) And why should God not care for us, since He sent us His Son and with Him all; for which reason St. Augustine says: “How can you doubt that God will give you good things, since He vouchsafed to assume evil for you!”

PRAYER O Lord Jesus! give me a firm confidence in Thy Divine Providence, and daily increase it in me, that when in necessity I may confidently believe if I seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, the rest shall be added unto me.