- Saturday, November 14 : Third Letter of John 1,5-8.
Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers, especially for strangers; they have testified to your love before the church. Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey. For they have set out for the sake of the Name and are accepting nothing from the pagans. Therefore, we ought to support such persons, so that we may be co-workers in the truth.
- Saturday, November 14 : Psalms 112(111),1-2.3-4.5-6.
Blessed the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commands. His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth; the upright generation shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house; his generosity shall endure forever. Light shines through the darkness for the upright; he is gracious and merciful and just. Well for the man who is gracious and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice; He shall never be moved; the just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.
- Saturday, November 14 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18,1-8.
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'" The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
- Saturday, November 14 : Saint Nerses Chnorhali
Within the city of my body is set The throne of the mind—the judge— Which fears not God, And feels no shame before men. For it is free in these matters, Knowing neither fear nor dread, And it is unashamed because, like thought itself, It remains unseen by any. Here below, my soul has become a widow—bereft of You, Of You, its heavenly Spouse— For it has brought an alien seducer Into your bridal chamber! It cries out unceasingly, the heart burning within, To the mind—its conscience— Seeking justice against its adversary: The unjust body, its fellow citizen. It seeks to restore the lower to its rightful place below, And to subordinate the higher— Just as You, O Creator, ordained: That the body should be the servant of the soul. (…) O my heavenly Judge, By Whom both heaven and earth are judged— Through this judge that dwells within my soul— Vouchsafe that I be judged as is fitting, So that, on the Day of Judgment, I may not be condemned alongside this judge, When You shall bind together The soul and the body in an indissoluble bond. And as for me—who have become a widow, bereft of You— Deign to draw me to Yourself through Your love; Be once more the Spouse of my soul, Uniting me again to You, who are the Head. As for my adversary—this body that stands against me— Bring it under Your command, That it may hearken to Your word as a servant, And hasten, without delay, to perform what is good.
- Friday, November 13 : Second Letter of John 1,4-9.
(Chosen Lady) I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father. But now, Lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning: let us love one another. For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist. Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. Anyone who is so "progressive" as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.
- Friday, November 13 : Psalms 119(118),1.2.10.11.17.18.
Blessed are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who observe his decrees, Who seek him with all their heart. With all my heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commands. Within my heart I treasure your promise, That I may not sin against you. Be good to your servant, that I may live And keep your words. Open my eyes, that I may consider the wonders of your law.
- Friday, November 13 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17,26-37.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person in the field must not return to what was left behind. Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left." They said to him in reply, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather."
- Friday, November 13 : Saint Faustina Kowalska
O day of eternity, O day so long desired, With thirst and longing, my eyes search you out. Soon love will tear the veil asunder, And you will be my salvation. O day most beautiful, moment incomparable, When for the first time I shall see my God, The Bridegroom of my soul and Lord of lords, And fear will not restrain my soul. O day most solemn, O day of brightness, When the soul will know God in His omnipotence And drown totally in His love, Knowing the miseries of exile are o'er. O happy day, O blessed day, When my heart will burn for You with fire eternal, For even now I feel Your presence, though through the veil. Through life and death, O Jesus, You are my rapture and delight. O day, of which I dreamed through all my life, Waiting long for You, O God, For it is You alone whom I desire. You are the one and only of my heart; all else is naught. O day of delight, day of eternal bliss, God of great majesty, my beloved Spouse, You know that nothing will satisfy a virgin heart. On your tender Heart I rest my brow.
- Thursday, November 12 : Letter to Philemon 1,7-20.
Beloved, I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the holy ones have been refreshed by you, brother. Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper, I rather urge you out of love, being as I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus. I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment, who was once useless to you but is now useful to (both) you and me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me. And if he has done you any injustice or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, write this in my own hand: I will pay. May I not tell you that you owe me your very self. Yes, brother, may I profit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
- Thursday, November 12 : Psalms 146(145),7.8-9a.9bc-10.
The LORD keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. the LORD sets captives free. The LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up those who were bowed down; the LORD loves the just. The LORD protects strangers. The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts. The LORD shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
- Thursday, November 12 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17,20-25.
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.' For behold, the kingdom of God is among you." Then he said to his disciples, "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. There will be those who will say to you, 'Look, there he is,' (or) 'Look, here he is.' Do not go off, do not run in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be (in his day). But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation."
- Thursday, November 12 : Catechism of the Catholic Church
According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church (1Cor 7,26) and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching. Since the Ascension Christ's coming in glory has been imminent, even though "it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority" (Acts 2,7). This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment... Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh (2Thes 2,3f.; 2Jn v.7)... The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven (Rv 21,25). God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world
