[Officium]
Dominica VI Post Epiphaniam

[Oratio]
Grant us, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, ever to think such things as be reasonable, and in every word and work of ours, to do always that is well pleasing in thy sight.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the letter of St. Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews
!Heb 1:1-4
1 God, who, at sundry times and in diverse manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all,
2 In these days hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high.
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent name than they.

[Lectio2]
!Heb 1:5-9
5 For to which of the angels hath he said at any time, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
6 And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith: And let all the angels of God adore him.
7 And to the angels indeed he saith: He that maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
8 But to the Son: thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
9 Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

[Lectio3]
!Heb 1:10-14
10 And: Thou in the beginning, O Lord, didst found the earth: and the works of thy hands are the heavens.
11 They shall perish, but thou shalt continue: and they shall all grow old as a garment.
12 And as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail.
13 But to which of the angels said he at any time: Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?

[Lectio4]
From the Sermons of St. Athanasius, Pope (of Alexandria.)
!2nd against the Arians.
If the heretics had but known the person, the matter, and the times of the Apostle who spoke, they would never have spoken of Godhead as if It were human, nor borne themselves so wickedly, and withal so foolishly against Christ. It will be permitted to us to return, and to take again the first words of the Lesson. The Apostle then saith God, Who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son and again, a little farther on: When the Son had purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better than the angels as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. The Apostle here expressly nameth the times wherein God hath spoken unto us by His Son, and wherein the Same His Son hath purged our sins; for when hath He spoken unto us by His Son, when did the Son purge our sins, or when was He born a Man, but since God spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets, namely, in these last days?

[Lectio5]
The Apostle, about to enter on the subject of the Word's human dispensation and the last days, naturally mentioneth first that God had not up to those days been silent, but had spoken unto the fathers by the Prophets and, after the Prophets had discharged their office, and the law had been given by the ministry of angels, that the Son also came down unto us to minister and then he addeth, being made so much better than the angels, to show that as the Son differeth from a servant, so is the ministry of the Son better than the duty and office of servants.

[Lectio6]
The Apostle, therefore, seeing the difference between the new ministry and the old, maketh very bold in writing and speaking to the Jews. For this cause, therefore, he doth not compare the details of the two ministries, and then come to the general conclusion that the new was greater or more honourable than the old, (lest any should understand that the two ministries were of the same kind, and that the conclusion that the new is better is arrived at by comparing the degrees in each of things which they had in common,) but he saith that the Son was made better, to distinguish at once and completely the nature of the Son from the nature of things created.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 13:31-32
At that time, Jesus said to to the people a parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. And so on.
_
Homily by St. Jerome, Priest (at Bethlehem.)
!Book II Comment. on Matth. xiii.
The kingdom of heaven is the proclamation of the Gospel, and that knowledge of the Scriptures, which leadeth unto life, and whereof it is said to the Jews: The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matth. xxi. 43) Therefore is this kingdom like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. By the man that sowed it in his field, many understand to be meant the Saviour, because He is the Sower That soweth in the souls of believers; others understand every man that soweth good seed in his own field, that is, in himself and in his own heart.

[Lectio8]
Who is he that soweth, but our own mind and soul, which take the grain from preaching, and by nourishing it in the soil, cause it to sprout in the field of our own breast? The preaching of the Gospel is the least of all doctrines. He that preacheth, for his first lesson, God made man, Christ dead, and the stumbling-block of the Cross, receiveth at first but little credit. Compare such teaching as this with the doctrines of the Philosophers, with their books, their magnificent eloquence, and their rounded sentences, and thou shalt see how the grain of the Gospel, when it is sown, is the humblest of all seeds.

[Lectio9]
But when the doctrines of men grow up, there is therein nothing piercing, nothing healthy, nothing life-giving. The plant is drooping, and delicate, and soft. There are herbs and grass whereof it may truly be said that the grass withereth and the flower fadeth. (Isa. xl. 8.) But the grain of Gospel seed, though, when it was sown, it seemed to be the least of all seeds, when once it is rooted in the soul of man, or in the whole world, groweth not into an herb, but becometh a tree so that the birds of the air (whereby we may understand, either the souls of believers, or the (angelic) powers bound to the service of God,) come and lodge in the branches thereof. I consider that the branches of the Gospel tree, which groweth from the grain of mustard-seed, are the diverse developments of doctrine, on which the birds above mentioned find resting-places.
&teDeum

[Ant 2]
The kingdom of heaven * is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which is the least of all seeds, but, when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs.

[Ant 3]
The kingdom of heaven * is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.