The Lessons Appointed for Use on |
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Juana Inés de la Cruz |
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Monastic and Theologian, 1695 |
Preface of a Saint (2)
Almighty God, Source of all knowledge, we give you thanks for the witness of your servant Juana Inés de la Cruz in her fierce passion for learning and creativity. Teach us to be faithful stewards of our minds and hearts, so that, following her example, we might forever proclaim the riches of your unending love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Jesus Christ who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Judith said,
Begin a song to my God with tambourines,
sing to my Lord with cymbals.
Raise to him a new psalm;
exalt him, and call upon his name.
For the Lord is a God who crushes wars;
he sets up his camp among his people;
he delivered me from the hands of my pursuers.
The Assyrian came down from the mountains of the north;
he came with myriads of his warriors;
their numbers blocked up the wadis,
and their cavalry covered the hills.
He boasted that he would burn up my territory,
and kill my young men with the sword,
and dash my infants to the ground,
and seize my children as booty,
and take my virgins as spoil.
But the Lord Almighty has foiled them
by the hand of a woman.
For their mighty one did not fall by the hands of the young men,
nor did the sons of the Titans strike him down,
nor did tall giants set upon him;
but Judith daughter of Merari
with the beauty of her countenance undid him.
For she put away her widow’s clothing
to exalt the oppressed in Israel.
She anointed her face with perfume;
she fastened her hair with a tiara
and put on a linen gown to beguile him.
Her sandal ravished his eyes,
her beauty captivated his mind,
and the sword severed his neck!
The Persians trembled at her boldness,
the Medes were daunted at her daring.
Miserere mei, Deus
8 You have noted my lamentation;
put my tears into your bottle; *
are they not recorded in your book?
9 Whenever I call upon you, my enemies will be put to flight; *
this I know, for God is on my side.
10 In God the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust and will not be afraid, *
for what can mortals do to me?
11 I am bound by the vow I made to you, O God; *
I will present to you thank-offerings;
12 For you have rescued my soul from death and my feet from stumbling, *
that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
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