SAINT JEROME

Readings of the day: RB 7:31-33

Mass: Zechariah 2:5-9;14-15a; Resp. Psalm (Jer. 31); Luke 9:43b-45

The Council is clear in explaining why we are to be lovers of the Word: “For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons and daughters, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life” (Dei Verbum, 21).

Today’s liturgy is rich with reminders for the faithful to embrace the Word as the everlasting source of the spiritual life, apt for the celebration of Saint Jerome who did not mince words: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (Saint Jerome in Dei Verbum, 25). 

One may look to the Presidential Prayers and both antiphons for inspiration. Included here are my favorites.

O God, who gave the Priest Saint Jerome

a living and tender love for Sacred Scripture,

grant that your people

may be ever more fruitfully nourished by your Word

and find in it the fount of life.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

(Collect, Mass)

Lord, God, your words were found and I consumed them;

your word became the joy and the happiness of my heart.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

SAINT JEROME, INTERCEDE FOR US.