MARCH 2020 ® DAILY PRAYER FOR TODAY’S CATHOLIC Canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus) Luke 1:68-79 lessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; Bhe has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Give Us This Day® Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday V V V V V V V 1 First Week of Lent 2 3 4 5 6 7 [St. Katharine Drexel] [St. Casimir] [Sts. Perpetua and Felicity] Kimberly Hope Belcher ✛ St. David of Wales ✛ St. Teresa Verzeri ✛ Bd. Concepción ✛ St. Gerasimus ✛ Jean-Pierre ✛ Sts. Perpetua Sr. Ruth Burrows Fr. Daniel Horan Cabrera de Armida Nancy Dallavalle de Caussade and Felicity Within the Word: Our Deepest Thomas Merton Fr. John Meoska Clarence Jordan Desires Sr. Joan Cook V V V V V V V 8 Second Week of Lent 9 10 11 12 13 14 [St. Frances of Rome] Pope Francis ✛ St. Catherine ✛ Harriet Tubman ✛ St. Teresa Margaret ✛ St. Symeon the New ✛ Bd. Agnellus of Pisa ✛ St. Maximilian of Bologna St. Paschasius Redi Theologian Valerie Schultz St. Catherine of Siena Within the Word: “Everything I Have Mark Strobel Radbertus Sr. Julia Upton Jay Cormier Is Yours” Sr. Barbara Reid 15 Third Week of Lent V 16 V 17 V 18 V 19 W 20 V 21 V [St. Patrick] [St. Cyril of Jerusalem] St. Joseph ✛ St. Louise de Marillac ✛ Franziska Jägerstätter ✛ St. Cyril of Jerusalem ✛ Antonio de Andrade ✛ Mother Catherine ✛ St. Nicholas Flue Megan McKenna Fr. Kevin O’Brien St. Augustine Fran Rossi Szpylczyn Edward Hahnenberg Spalding Sr. Macrina Sr. Ephrem Wiederkehr Within the Word: The Art of Broken Hollermann Things Alice Camille 22 Fourth Week of Lent V 23 V 24 V 25 W 26 V 27 V 28 V [St. Turibius Annunciation of of Mogrovejo] the Lord Richard Gaillardetz ✛ St. Rebecca Ar-Rayès ✛ St. Oscar Romero ✛ Johan van Hulst ✛ Walter Hilton ✛ Mothers of the ✛ Maria von Trapp Kathy McGovern Sr. Joan Chittister J. Peter Nixon Judith Valente Disappeared Fr. Paddy Gilger Within the Word: Seeing and St. Hildegard Believing Mary Elizabeth Sperry of Bingen 29 Fifth Week of Lent V 30 V 31 V Rachelle Linner ✛ St. John Climacus ✛ St. Maria Skobtsova Tertullian Sr. Melannie Svoboda Within the Word: A Story for Anyone and Everyone Fr. Michael Patella Key ✛ Blessed Among Us by Robert Ellsberg Reflection / Within the Word Author [ ] Optional Memorial Vestment colors: V Violet W White Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday V V V V V V V 1 First Week of Lent 2 3 4 5 6 7 [St. Katharine Drexel] [St. Casimir] [Sts. Perpetua and Felicity] Kimberly Hope Belcher ✛ St. David of Wales ✛ St. Teresa Verzeri ✛ Bd. Concepción ✛ St. Gerasimus ✛ Jean-Pierre ✛ Sts. Perpetua Sr. Ruth Burrows Fr. Daniel Horan Cabrera de Armida Nancy Dallavalle de Caussade and Felicity Within the Word: Our Deepest Thomas Merton Fr. John Meoska Clarence Jordan Desires Sr. Joan Cook V V V V V V V 8 Second Week of Lent 9 10 11 12 13 14 [St. Frances of Rome] Pope Francis ✛ St. Catherine ✛ Harriet Tubman ✛ St. Teresa Margaret ✛ St. Symeon the New ✛ Bd. Agnellus of Pisa ✛ St. Maximilian of Bologna St. Paschasius Redi Theologian Valerie Schultz St. Catherine of Siena Within the Word: “Everything I Have Mark Strobel Radbertus Sr. Julia Upton Jay Cormier Is Yours” Sr. Barbara Reid 15 Third Week of Lent V 16 V 17 V 18 V 19 W 20 V 21 V [St. Patrick] [St. Cyril of Jerusalem] St. Joseph ✛ St. Louise de Marillac ✛ Franziska Jägerstätter ✛ St. Cyril of Jerusalem ✛ Antonio de Andrade ✛ Mother Catherine ✛ St. Nicholas Flue Megan McKenna Fr. Kevin O’Brien St. Augustine Fran Rossi Szpylczyn Edward Hahnenberg Spalding Sr. Macrina Sr. Ephrem Wiederkehr Within the Word: The Art of Broken Hollermann Things Alice Camille 22 Fourth Week of Lent V 23 V 24 V 25 W 26 V 27 V 28 V [St. Turibius Annunciation of of Mogrovejo] the Lord Richard Gaillardetz ✛ St. Rebecca Ar-Rayès ✛ St. Oscar Romero ✛ Johan van Hulst ✛ Walter Hilton ✛ Mothers of the ✛ Maria von Trapp Kathy McGovern Sr. Joan Chittister J. Peter Nixon Judith Valente Disappeared Fr. Paddy Gilger Within the Word: Seeing and St. Hildegard Believing Mary Elizabeth Sperry of Bingen 29 Fifth Week of Lent V 30 V 31 V Rachelle Linner ✛ St. John Climacus ✛ St. Maria Skobtsova Jean Vanier Sr. Melannie Svoboda Within the Word: A Story for Anyone and Everyone Fr. Michael Patella March 2020 Give Us ® ThısDayDAILY PRAYER FOR TODAY’S CATHOLIC Peter Dwyer, Publisher ◆ Mary Stommes, Editor Ælred Senna, OSB, Associate Editor Catherine Donovan, Associate Publisher Robert Ellsberg, “Blessed Among Us” Author Irene Nowell, OSB, Liturgical Editor, Morning and Evening Susan Barber, OSB, Intercessions Editorial Advisors James Martin, SJ ◆ Irene Nowell, OSB Carolyn Y. Woo ◆ Timothy Radcliffe, OP Kathleen Norris ◆ Ronald Rolheiser, OMI www.giveusthisday.org Give Us This Day, Liturgical Press PO Box 7500, Collegeville, MN 56321-7500 Customer Service: 888-259-8470, [email protected] © 2020 by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. Printed in the United States of America. Give Us This Day® (ISSN 2159-2136, print; 2166-0654, large print; 2159-2128, online) is published monthly by Liturgical Press, an apostolate of Saint John’s Abbey, 2950 Saint John’s Road, Collegeville, Minnesota. Rev. John Klassen, OSB, Abbot. For complete publication information see page 380. Published with the approval of the Committee on Divine Worship, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. CONTENTS March 2020 ◆ Volume 10, Issue 3 Temptation in Everyday Clothing Fr. Michael Casey ................... 5 Teach Us to Pray: Almsgiving as Prayer Fr. James Martin ............... 7 The Angelus Mary Stommes ........................................ 8 Prayers and Blessings ............................................. 10 Prayer at Night .................................................. 14 Daily Prayer . 17 Order of Mass .................................................. 334 Liturgy of the Word (with Holy Communion) ...................... 366 Guide to Lectio Divina ........................................... 369 Hymns ........................................................ 370 About the Cover Br. Ælred Senna .................................. 379 Temptation in Everyday Clothing Fr. Michael Casey ach year, the First Sunday of Lent presents us with the Eimage of Christ tempted in the desert. Mark, the earliest Gospel, does not detail the temptations but says simply that Jesus “was in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:13). There is no mention of fasting. What the evangelist seems to be intimating is that the Spirit brought Jesus into a different space, where he experienced something of the inner division common to us all—on the one hand, the ravening beasts of instinctual desires, on the other, the subtle nurturing of the angels, calling him to a spiritual existence. The forty days of temptation are an image of the whole of Jesus’ life. Like us in all things except sin, he was faced with the recurring challenge of moral choice. We tend to think temptation is a dramatic event. As did Matthew and Luke. In scenes beloved by illustrators, they followed a source that presented Jesus engaged in verbal jousting with the devil. Likewise, in portraying the temptations of the desert hermit St. Antony of Egypt, artists filled their canvases with lurid figures attempting to seduce the saint from the way of virtue. Perhaps dramatic temptation is easier to rebuff— precisely because it is dramatic and, therefore, visible. If we recall the insight of Hannah Arendt who spoke about “the banality of evil,” we will probably appreciate that the major work of temptation happens in everyday clothing. It is 5 6 almost invisible. It is so much part of daily life that we have ceased to pay much attention to it. Just as Christ was driven out into the desert, we need times of withdrawal in order to become mindful of the dynamics operative throughout our lives. This means taking a step back from the distracting activities that prevent our consciences from looking too closely at the way we are living. Doing this will certainly expose us to the blessing of temptation. Instead of blindly following the prompting of our instincts we will be challenged to make a choice. When we fast, what we eat is a matter of deliberate decision, not an automatic search for gratification. Food never seems so attractive as when we turn our backs on it. So our addictions seem more powerful if they are resisted: the siren call of the internet becomes louder when we turn off our devices. We go into the desert in order to find freedom, but we do so under threat. St. Bernard once wrote that doing penance is more a matter of endurance than of extra activity; it is learning to put up with inevitable hardships.