Readings
for the Optional Memorial of

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos
Priest
October 5


From the Common of Pastors: For Missionaries, except the following:

COLLECT
Deus, qui ad nuntianda redemptionis mysteria, et ad maerentes sublevandos, beatum Franciscum Xaverium presbyterum, eximia caritate decorasti, eius intercessione concede, ut diligenter ad tuam gloriam hominumque salutem operemur.
O God, who made your Priest Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos
outstanding in love,
that he might proclaim the mysteries of redemption
and comfort those in affliction,
grant, by his intercession,
that we may work zealously for your glory
and for the salvation of mankind.
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.



Liturgy of the Hours
Francis Xavier Seelos


From the Common of Pastors: missionaries, except for the following:

Office of Readings


SECOND READING

From the letters of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, Priest

Place nothing ahead of God's love

This desire to bring a sacrifice to God again and again extends to everything that I ever loved in this life, and upon which my heart was set.

When I think of the beauties of nature, these do not stir up longing and melancholy, but I am filled with the greatest joy, because, since I am not giving God any real and true gifts, I can give him imagined and pretended ones. At the same time, in the overflowing of my good fortune, I cannot at all get away from the thought that in heaven God will give me those that, for him, I have forsaken in the world, and for this I also constantly pray.

And so, the novitiate and its completion, the taking of vows, the life with confreres of the Order, and above all, the insight to cherish these goods to the best of my ability, so that there is nothing left for me to desire, except to fulfill my duties better—these were the first blessings of divine mercy.

Everything was completely against my nature. But precisely the joyful acceptance of them, in God's boundless grace, made so clear to me the mystery of renunciation and patience in this world that I feel that I am much too fortunate in the possession of my religious confreres and all the spiritual and temporal blessings that are bound together with it. And what is still more, that God has exalted me so high as to announce the Gospel to the poor, and to teach, and share with them his treasures.

Every offering has value only insofar as one snatches it away from one's own benefit and dedicates it to God through this self-conquest. One loves and gives precisely because one loves, and because one considers what is given as a good, as a treasure. Love of creatures must be subordinated to the love of God, whom one is pledged to love above all things.

Time, in which we have found nothing to offer up to God, is lost for eternity. If it is only the duties of our vocation that we fulfill with dedication to the will of God; if it is the sweat of our faces that, in resignation, we wipe from our brow without murmuring; if it is suffering, temptations, difficulties with our fellowmen—everything we can present to God as an offering and can, through them, become like Jesus his Son. Where the sacrifice is great and manifold, there, in the same proportion, is the hope of glory more deeply and more securely grounded in the heart of him who makes it.


RESPONSORY          Psalm 119:1-2; Mark 8:34
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
—Blessed are they who keep his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me.
—Blessed are they who keep his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.


COLLECT
Deus, qui ad nuntianda redemptionis mysteria, et ad maerentes sublevandos, beatum Franciscum Xaverium presbyterum, eximia caritate decorasti, eius intercessione concede, ut diligenter ad tuam gloriam hominumque salutem operemur.
O God, who made your Priest Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos
outstanding in love,
that he might proclaim the mysteries of redemption
and comfort those in affliction,
grant, by his intercession,
that we may work zealously for your glory
and for the salvation of mankind.
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.



The English translation of Psalm Responses, Alleluia Verses, Gospel Verses from Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL); the English translation of Antiphons, Invitatories, Responsories, Intercessions, Psalm 95, the Canticle of the Lamb, Psalm Prayers, Non-Biblical Readings from The Liturgy of the Hours © 1973, 1974, 1975, ICEL; excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission.



 
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