[Officium]
Dominica XIV Post Pentecosten

[Oratio]
Keep, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy, and because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 6:24-33
At that time, Jesus said unto His disciples: No man can serve two masters. And so on.
_
Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.
!Bk. ii. on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, ch. xiv.
“No man can serve two masters,” and this is further explained “for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” These words we ought carefully to weigh, for the Lord showeth straightway who be the two masters whom we have choice of: “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Mammon is a term which the Hebrews are said to use for riches. It is also a Carthaginian word for the Punic for “gain” is “mammon.”

[Lectio8]
He which serveth mammon, serveth that evil one who hath perversely chosen to be lord of these earthly things, and is called by the Lord “the prince of this world.” (John xiv. 30.) Of these two masters, either a man will hate the one and love the other, that is God or he will hold to the one and despise the other. He which serveth mammon holdeth to an hard and destroying master, for he is led captive by his lust, and sold a slave to the devil, and him loveth no man is there any man that loveth the devil And yet there be that hold to him.

[Lectio9]
“Therefore, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on”, lest, albeit such things are not idle, but needful to be sought after, yet the seeking for things even needful should divide the heart and our intention should be corrupted when we do something as it were mercifully that is, lest, when we would seem to be seeking another's good, it should be profit to ourselves, rather than benefit to him, that we seek and therefore we seem not to ourselves to sin, because we would seek things not idle, but needful.
&teDeum

[Ant 2]
Take no thought, saying: What shall we eat? * or: What shall we drink? For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, alleluia.

[Ant 3]
Seek ye first the kingdom of God * and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, alleluia.