O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer" (Ps. xvii. 5-7, 2, 3). Glory be to the Father, etc.
Prayer.
Graciously hear the prayers of Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins, may be mercifully delivered, for the glory of Thy name. Through Our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE, i. Cor. ix. 24 x. 5.
Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things, and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should be come a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ), but with the most of them God was not well pleased.
NOTE. Reflect, O Christian, what we poor sinners ought to be willing to do to gain heaven when the great apostle suffered so much to obtain eternal life.
Prayer.
O Jesus, assist me, that with Thy holy grace I may follow the example of St. Paul, and endeavor to deny myself, to chastise my body, and, by continual exercise of every virtue, to obtain perfection and everlasting life. Amen.
GOSPEL. Matt. xx. 1-16.
At that time Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: The
