The Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time • Saint Lawrence • Saint Clare • Saint Maximilian Kolbe • The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary • Liturgical Colours: Green/Red/White

“The Bonds of Love” comes from the Office of Readings in the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time. A title the seraphic virgin Saint Catherine of Siena gave to her prayer for God’s mercy and the pardon of others, rather than herself. The week that follows we’ll see what it means to carry and be carried away: God fostering Israel “like one who raises an infant to his cheek”; Saint Lawrence pouring out his life for the poor and then for Christ; Saint Clare gazing upon Christ’s reflection so she might resemble Him for others; Saint Maximilian Kolbe taking a stranger’s death upon himself, and Mary carrying Christ in her body until, at the Assumption, she is carried by Him into glory.

Sunday‘s Office of Readings opens the week with Saint Catherine of Siena, pleading God’s mercy, not for her own soul but for everyone else’s:

• “Greater glory is given to your name for pardoning a multitude of your creatures than if I alone were pardoned for my great sins against your majesty. It would be no consolation for me to enjoy your life if your holy people stood in death.”— Second Reading, Office of Readings, Sunday (Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin, from a dialogue On Divine Providence)

Saint Catherine calls this passage “The bonds of love” — and the First Reading that same day, from the prophet Hosea, shows where she learned to pray this way. God speaks of Israel not as a nation he governs but as a child he carries:

• “I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheek.”
  — First Reading, Office of Readings, Sunday (From the book of the prophet Hosea 11:1-11 (God is always merciful))

Monday, the Feast of Martyr Saint Lawrence, shows what it costs to carry the burning fire of Christ’s love and charity all the way to the end. Lawrence was a deacon of the Roman Church, responsible distributing the Church’s goods to the poor, for ministering the sacred blood of Christ. Saint Augustine’s homily connects that profound duty to his martyrdom:

• “Lawrence was a deacon of the Church at Rome. There he ministered the sacred blood of Christ; there for the sake of Christ’s name he poured out his own blood.”
  — Second Reading, Office of Readings, Feast of Saint Lawrence, Saint Augustine, bishop, (From a sermon (He ministered the sacred blood of Christ))

Tuesday, on the Memorial of Saint Clare, we witness that carrying turned inward, toward daily discipline. Writing to Blessed Agnes of Prague, Saint Clare describes Christ as a “mirror without cloud” to be looked at and studied daily, so Christ’s image might be carried outward into the world:

• “Queen and bride of Jesus Christ, look into the mirror daily and study well your reflection… In this mirror blessed poverty, holy humility and ineffable love are also reflected. With the grace of God the whole mirror will be your source of contemplation.”
  Second Reading, Office of Readings, Memorial of Saint Clare, From a letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague by Saint Clare, virgin (Behold the poverty, humility and love of Christ))

Wednesday and Thursday will widen this circle further. Wednesday’s Office of Readings will pair a First to a Second Reading, an Old Testament prophecy (Micah 4:1-2) to a complementary patristic reading written by Saint Augustine (a discourse on the psalms). Thursday, Saint Gregory of Nyssa makes it clear that anyone who carries Christ can no longer afford to carry a grudge:

• “Gloriously has God slain enmity, in order to save us; may we never risk the life of our souls by being resentful or by bearing grudges… No, since we possess Christ who is peace, we must put an end to this enmity…”
  — Second Reading, Office of Readings, Thursday, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, bishop (From a treatise on Christian Perfection, (We possess Christ, our peace, our light))

Friday the Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe arrives. In a Nazi concentration camp, Saint Kolbe offered his own life in place of a stranger condemned to starvation and death. His Morning Prayer antiphon names the conviction that made it possible:

• “Christ will be exalted in me whether I live or die. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
  — Benedictus Antiphon, Morning Prayer, Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe

This amazing modern day saint, not only did he carry Christ’s image, he let himself be spent the way Christ was spent, in place of another.

Saturday closes the week with the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the one who carried Christ in her own body now carried, at the end of her life, into his glory. From Pope Pius XII’s apostolic constitution:

• “…what is commemorated in this feast is… her triumph over death and her glorification in heaven, after the pattern set by her only Son, Jesus Christ.”
  — Second Reading, Office of Readings, Pope Pius XII, (From the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (Your body is holy and excelling in splendor))

Saint Catherine begged to carry the sins of others. Saint Lawrence carried Christ’s gifts to the poor and his own blood to martyrdom. Saint Kolbe carried a stranger’s death. And Mary — who carried God himself in her womb — was finally carried home. The Hours will teach us this week: the bonds of love, expressions of our faith, run in both directions: we carry, and we are carried.

For so many years, our work depended on people praying for people they will never meet, in bonds of love that don’t require ever knowing each other’s names. If the Hours have carried you, or if you have carried someone else through them, please consider supporting our work, including our ongoing Spanish Liturgy of the Hours project. divineoffice.org/contribute

✞Pray Office of Readings for the Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr

✞Pray Office of Readings for the Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin

✞Pray Morning Prayer for the Memorial Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

✞Pray Morning Prayer for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

With gratitude,
The Divine Office Team