[Rank]
Secunda die infra Octavam Omnium Sanctorum;;Semiduplex;;2;;vide Sancti/11-01

[Rule]
vide Sancti/11-01
9 lectiones
Matutinum et Laudes Defunctorum
No prima Vespera

[Lectio4]
From the Sermons of the Venerable Bede, Priest (at J arrow.)
!18 th on the Saints.
With what a passion of welcome doth the land above receive them that are coming home from the battle, and go forth to meet them that bear the spoils of the down - trodden foe! The men who walk in the procession of victory are mingled with women, who have conquered world and weakness together, and there also are damsels and lads who have understood more than the ancients, because they have kept the precepts of the Eternal. But besides these there is another great host, who will have entry into the everlasting Palace, even they who have kept pure the unity of the faith in the bond of peace, and the unshaken observance of the commandments given us from heaven.

[Lectio5]
Home now, therefore, my brethren, and let us enter upon the way; let us turn our faces homeward and heavenward, toward that land wherein our names are written down and we are citizens elect. We are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God, (Eph. ii. 19,) yea, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. (Rom. viii. 17.) Bravery can open, and lealty keep wide the entry for us into that city. Let us think then for awhile what is the brilliant happiness of that city that is to say, as well as we can, for what it really is, no words can utter.

[Lectio6]
Concerning that city it is written in a certain place Sorrow and mourning shall flee away. What can be more blessed than that life wherein poverty will not threaten, nor sickness weaken? There, there will be no hurts and no angering. There, there will be no envying; there, will burn no covetousness; no ambition of honour nor seeking of power will give trouble, there. There, the devil will be no more an object of fear; there, no evil spirits lie in wait; the dread of hell will be gone, there. There, there will be no death either for the body or for the soul, but life glorious in the gift of immortality.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 5:1-12
At that time: Jesus, seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him. And so on.
_
Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop (of Hippo.)
!Bk. i. on the Lord's Sermon.
 Blessed are the poor in spirit. If blessedness is to attain unto the highest wisdom, it must needs be that it begin by the being poor in spirit. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, (Ps. ex. 10,) even as, on the other hand, it is written that pride is the beginning of all sin. (Ecclus. x. i 5.) The proud covet and love earthly kingdoms. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The earth which they shall inherit I believe to be that earth whereof it is written in the cxli. Psalm, Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living. (6) And the heritage of the meek in this land is an heritage everlastingly sure and fixed, wherein the soul resteth by good will, at home there, as carnal owners rest at home in sure earthly possessions; and on the income from that land they live, as earthly owners from the income of earthly possessions; this is the home and the abiding-place of the Saints. And the meek heirs are they who when they be evil-entreated, suffer it, and are not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom. xii. 21.)

[Lectio8]
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. This mourning is sorrow for the things once loved and now lost. By turning to God, they lose things in this world which they once loved. But now their true joy is no longer in those things wherein they joyed aforetime, and by the growing love of the eternal things this their carnal mourning is abundantly comforted. They are comforted by the Holy Ghost Who chiefly for this very reason hath His title of the Comforter. They lose things temporal, but they gain the enjoyment of things eternal.

[Lectio9]
Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. They of whom He speaketh here are they who have a love for whatever is good, because it is good. And such as these shall have their hunger satisfied with that meat whereof the Lord Himself said My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work, (John iv. 34,) and their thirst slaked with that water which the same Lord Himself shall give them, whereof whosoever drinketh shall never thirst, but the water that He shall have given him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (14.) Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. He calleth them blessed which succour the needy, for, with the measure wherewith they have meted, shall it be measured unto them withal, and they shall not be left unsuccoured in their own need.