June 2nd : Second reading The blood of Christ can purify our inner selfA reading from the letter of St.Paul to the Hebrews 9:11-15

June 2nd :  Second reading 

The blood of Christ can purify our inner self

A reading from the letter of St.Paul to the Hebrews 9:11-15 

Now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, which is better than the one made by men’s hands because it is not of this created order; and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement and they restore the holiness of their outward lives; how much more effectively the blood of Christ, who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.

  He brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised: his death took place to cancel the sins that infringed the earlier covenant.

The Word of the Lord.

Sequence 

Lauda, Sion

The Sequence may be said or sung in full, or using the shorter form indicated by the asterisked verses.

Sing forth, O Zion, sweetly sing

The praises of thy Shepherd-King,

  In hymns and canticles divine;

Dare all thou canst, thou hast no song

Worthy his praises to prolong,

  So far surpassing powers like thine.

Today no theme of common praise

Forms the sweet burden of thy lays –

  The living, life-dispensing food –

That food which at the sacred board

Unto the brethren twelve our Lord

  His parting legacy bestowed.

Then be the anthem clear and strong,

Thy fullest note, thy sweetest song,

  The very music of the breast:

For now shines forth the day sublime

That brings remembrance of the time

  When Jesus first his table blessed.

Within our new King’s banquet-hall

They meet to keep the festival

  That closed the ancient paschal rite:

The old is by the new replaced;

The substance hath the shadow chased;

  And rising day dispels the night.

Christ willed what he himself had done

Should be renewed while time should run,

  In memory of his parting hour:

Thus, tutored in his school divine,

We consecrate the bread and wine;

  And lo – a Host of saving power.

This faith to Christian men is given –

Bread is made flesh by words from heaven:

  Into his blood the wine is turned:

What though it baffles nature’s powers

Of sense and sight? This faith of ours

  Proves more than nature e’er discerned.

Concealed beneath the two-fold sign,

Meet symbols of the gifts divine,

  There lie the mysteries adored:

The living body is our food;

Our drink the ever-precious blood;

  In each, one undivided Lord.

Not he that eateth it divides

The sacred food, which whole abides

  Unbroken still, nor knows decay;

Be one, or be a thousand fed,

They eat alike that living bread

  Which, still received, ne’er wastes away.

The good, the guilty share therein,

With sure increase of grace or sin,

  The ghostly life, or ghostly death:

Death to the guilty; to the good

Immortal life. See how one food

  Man’s joy or woe accomplisheth.

We break the Sacrament, but bold

And firm thy faith shall keep its hold,

Deem not the whole doth more enfold

  Than in the fractured part resides

Deem not that Christ doth broken lie,

’Tis but the sign that meets the eye,

The hidden deep reality

  In all its fullness still abides.

– – – – – –

*Behold the bread of angels, sent

For pilgrims in their banishment,

The bread for God’s true children meant,

  That may not unto dogs be given:

Oft in the olden types foreshowed;

In Isaac on the altar bowed,

And in the ancient paschal food,

  And in the manna sent from heaven.

*Come then, good shepherd, bread divine,

Still show to us thy mercy sign;

Oh, feed us still, still keep us thine;

So may we see thy glories shine

  In fields of immortality;

*O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,

Our present food, our future rest,

Come, make us each thy chosen guest,

Co-heirs of thine, and comrades blest

  With saints whose dwelling is with thee.

Amen. Alleluia.

Gospel Acclamation Jn6:51

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven,

says the Lord.

Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.

Alleluia!