Feast of St Lucy

Saint Lucy, Virgin, Martyr

Office of Readings

Psalm 105 (106)

The Lord's goodness and his people's infidelity

Give praise to the Lord, for he is good, for his kindness is for ever.Who shall tell of his powerful deeds? Who shall proclaim the praises of the Lord? Blessed are they who keep his decrees, who do right at all times. Remember us, Lord, in your love for your people, and bring us your salvation, so that we may see the good things you have kept for your chosen ones, that we may rejoice in the joys of your people, that we may glory with those whom you have made your heirs. Like our fathers, we too have sinned: we have done wrong, we have transgressed. Our fathers, in Egypt, did not understand your miracles; they did not remember the abundance of your mercies, but rebelled as they approached the Red Sea.Still he saved them, for his own name’s sake, and to make known his mighty power.He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up. He led them through its depths as if through a desert.He saved them from the hands of those who hated them, he set them free from slavery at the hands of their enemies.The water covered their oppressors: not one was left alive.Then they believed his word, and they sang his praises. But soon they forgot what he had done, and refused to submit to his direction. They embraced desire in the desert and put God to the test in the waterless places. He gave them all they requested, he filled their hearts with his abundance. But in the camp, they grew jealous of Moses and Aaron, consecrated to the Lord. The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, covered the party of Abiram. Fire broke out against them, flames burnt up the sinners.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen

Psalm 105 (106)

At Horeb they made a calf and worshipped a statue. They exchanged the glory of their people for the likeness of a bull, that eats grass. They forgot their God, who had saved them, who had done great miracles for them in Egypt, wonders in the land of Ham, terrors at the Red Sea. Then he said that he would destroy them, but Moses, his chosen one, was there: he stood in the breach before him to turn aside his wrath, to prevent the destruction. To them, the Promised Land meant nothing, they did not believe the Lord’s word. They stayed muttering in their tents, they were deaf to the voice of the Lord. So he raised his hand against them to crush them in the desert, to scatter their seed among the nations, to disperse them in foreign lands. They made themselves followers of Baal-Peor, they ate the sacrifices of the dead. They angered the Lord by their actions, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and gave judgement, and the plague was stopped. For this, he is revered as one of the just, from generation to generation, for all eternity. At the waters of Meribah they so angered the Lord that Moses suffered on their account: they so embittered his spirit that his lips spoke rash words.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen

Psalm 105 (106)

They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had told them they must. They mingled themselves with the peoples, and learned to do as they did. They served the same idols until it became their undoing. They sacrificed their own sons and their daughters to demons. They poured out innocent blood. The blood of their own sons and daughters was sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. Their blood polluted the land, and their actions defiled them. They devoted themselves to whoring. The Lord blazed out in anger against his own people, he detested his own chosen race. He gave them into the hands of foreigners, they were conquered by those who hated them. Their enemies persecuted them and humbled them beneath their hands. Many times he freed them, but they turned him against themselves by falling back into wickedness. Still he looked upon their distress when he heard their cries. He remembered his covenant, and in his infinite kindness he repented. He made them an object of pity and kindness to all their captors. Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the nations, so that we may proclaim your holy name, and rejoice as we praise you. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from the beginning and for all time. And all the people shall cry, “Amen!.”

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen

Reading

Isaiah 29:1-8

Woe, Ariel, Ariel,city where David encamped. Let a year or two pass, let the feasts make their full round then I will lay siege to Ariel, and there will be moaning and bemoaning. You will be an Ariel for me, like David I will encamp against you, I will blockade you with palisades, and mount siege-works against you. Thrown down – you will speak from the ground, your words will come muffled by dust. Your voice will rise from the earth like a ghost’s, you will speak from the dust in a whisper. Suddenly, unexpectedly, you will be visited by the Lord of Hosts with thunder, earthquake, mighty din, hurricane, tempest, flame of devouring fire. The horde of your enemies shall be scattered like fine dust, the tyrant horde like flying chaff; the horde of all the nations at war with Ariel shall vanish like a dream, like a vision at night. And all those fighting against her ,the entrenchments besieging her, shall be like the hungry man who dreams he eats, and wakes with an empty belly, like the thirsty man who dreams he drinks and wakes exhausted, his throat parched; so shall it be with the horde of all the nations making war on Mount Zion.

Reading

A book on virginity, by St Ambrose

You light up your grace of body with the radiance of your mind. You are one of God’s people, of God’s family, a virgin among virgins; you light up your grace of body with your splendour of soul. More than others, you can be compared to the Church. When you are in your room, then, at night, think always on Christ, and wait for his coming at every moment. This is the person Christ has loved in loving you, the person he has chosen in choosing you. He enters by the open door; he has promised to come in, and he cannot deceive. Embrace him, the one you have sought; turn to him, and be enlightened; hold him fast, ask him not to go in haste, beg him not to leave you. The Word of God moves swiftly; he is not won by the lukewarm, nor held fast by the negligent. Let your soul be attentive to his word; follow carefully the path God tells you to take, for he is swift in his passing. What does his bride say? I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hear me. Do not imagine that you are displeasing to him although you have called him, asked him opened the door to him, and that this is the reason why he has gone so quickly; no, for he allows us to be constantly tested. When the crowds pressed him to stay, what does he say in the Gospel? I must preach the word of God to other cities, because for that I have been sent. But even if it seems to you that he has left you, go out and seek him once more. Who but holy Church is to teach you how to hold Christ fast? Indeed, she has already taught you, if you only understood her words in Scripture: How short a time it was when I left them before I found him whom my soul has loved. I held him fast, and I will not let him go. How do we hold him fast? Not by restraining chains or knotted ropes but by bonds of love, by spiritual reins, by the longing of the soul. If you also, like the bride, wish to hold him fast, seek him and be fearless of suffering. It is often easier to find him in the midst of bodily torments, in the very hands of persecutors. His bride says: How short a time it was after I left them. In a little space, after a brief moment, when you have escaped from the hands of your persecutors without yielding to the powers of this world, Christ will come to you, and he will not allow you to be tested for long. Whoever seeks Christ in this way, and finds him, can say: I held him fast, and I will not let him go before I bring him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me. What is this “house,” this “room,” but the deep and secret places of your heart? Maintain this house, sweep out its secret recesses until it becomes immaculate and rises as a spiritual temple for a holy priesthood, firmly secured by Christ, the cornerstone, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell in it. Whoever seeks Christ in this way, whoever prays to Christ in this way, is not abandoned by him; on the contrary, Christ comes again and again to visit such a person, for he is with us until the end of the world.

Concluding Prayer
Almighty God, may the splendour of your glory dawn in us and dispel all the darkness of the night so that at the coming of your only-begotten Son we may be seen to be children of the light.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
Amen

Contemplation on the Feast of St Lucy

As I read the Psalms and the prophecy of Isaiah, I couldn't help but hear the heart of God that always calls to His people. He reminds us of His loving kindnesses. He also reminds us of our sins and how He dealt with our spiritual ancestors in the Exodus from Egypt. He tells us these stories so that we won't make the same mistakes. He tells us that He will have pity if we but turn to Him. Then He will make war on our enemies.

The reading from St Ambrose on virginity is a deeper calling still than we read in the Psalms.
I am so amazed at the provision of God, in that His Church makes a place for those who hear the call to a life of total devotion to the Lord. The religious life of the Sisters and Brothers and Priests who have answered the call to celibacy, the call to a true marriage to the Lord, is a sign to us that God is always calling all of us to intimacy. No matter what our vocation is, we are all called to prepare our hearts for the Bridegroom.

Peace be with you

About St Lucy - From Wikipedia

Saint Lucy, also known as Saint Lucia or Saint Lukia, (283 – 304) was a wealthy young Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint by both Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Her feast day in the West is 13 December, by the unreformed Julian calendar the longest night of the year; with a name derived from lux, lucis "light", she is the patron saint of those who are blind. Saint Lucy is one of the very few saints celebrated by members of the Lutheran Church among the Scandinavian peoples, who take part in Saint Lucy's Day celebrations that retain many elements of Germanic paganism. Saint Lucy is one of seven women, aside from the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.
Her hagiography tells us that Lucy was a Christian during the Diocletian persecution. She consecrated her virginity to God,[1] refused to marry a pagan, and had her dowry distributed to the poor. Her would-be husband denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her, the guards stabbed and killed her.
The oldest record of her story comes from the fifth-century accounts of saints' lives.[2] By the sixth century, her story was widespread, so that she appears in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory I.[3] At the opening of the eighth century Aldhelm included a brief account of her life among the virgins praised in De laude virginitatis, and in the following century the Venerable Bede included her in his Martyrology.[4] In medieval accounts, Saint Lucy's eyes are gouged out prior to her execution. In art, her eyes sometimes appear on a plate that she is holding.
Until 1861 relics of Saint Lucy were venerated in a church dedicated to her in Venice; after its demolition, they were translated to the church of San Geremia.