The Sunday called Quinquagesima
the Sunday before Lent
Augustine on Psalm XV
Quinquagesima Home
O LORD which dost teach us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth; Send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
Quinquagesima is 50 days before Easter. Source of collect, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer [1549]. Reflects 1 Cor 13 on Charity. Replaced a Mideival prayer used on Shrove Tuesday, when penitients were shriven, that is absolved, of their sins
Deut x. 12 Psalm 15, 16 | 111, 112; 1 Corinthians xiii. 1. & St. Luke xviii. 31
Homily of Augustine on Psalm XV
Deut x. 12 - xi. 1
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
Psalms for Morning and Evening 15, 16 | 111, 112
1 Corinthians xiii. 1
THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.St. Luke xviii. 31
THEN Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way-side begging: and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
Scripture from 1928 Book of Common Prayer and KJV
The Collects of Thos. Cramner, Barbee and Zalh
Augustine
Psalm XV
A psalm of David himself.
1. Touching this title there is no question. "O Lord who shall sojourn
in Thy tabernacle?" (ver. 1). Although tabernacle be sometimes used
even for an everlasting habitation: yet when tabernacle is taken in its
proper meaning, it is a thing of war. Hence soldiers are called
tent-fellows, [497] as having their tents together. This sense is
assisted by the words, "Who shall sojourn?" For we war with the devil
for a time, and then we need a tabernacle wherein we may refresh
ourselves. Which specially points out the faith of the temporal
Dispensation, which was wrought for us in time through the Incarnation
of the Lord. "And who shall rest in Thy holy mountain?" Here perhaps he
signifies at once the eternal habitation itself, [498] that we should
understand by "mountain" the supereminence of the love of Christ in
life eternal. [499]
2. "He who walketh without stain, and worketh righteousness" (ver. 2).
Here he has laid down the proposition; in what follows he sets it forth
in detail.
3. "Who speaketh the truth in his heart." For some have truth on their
lips, and not in their heart. As if one should deceitfully point out a
road, knowing that there were robbers there, and should say, If you go
this way, you will be safe from robbers; and it should turn out that in
fact there were no robbers found there: he has spoken the truth, but
not in his heart. For he supposed it to be otherwise, and spoke the
truth in ignorance. Therefore it is not enough to speak the truth,
unless it be so also in heart. "Who hath practised no deceit in his
tongue" (ver. 3). Deceit is practised with the tongue, when one thing
is professed with the mouth, another concealed in the breast. "Nor done
evil to his neighbour." It is well known that by "neighbour," every man
should be understood. "And hath not entertained slander against his
neighbour," that is, hath not readily or rashly given credence to an
accuser.
4. "The malicious one hath been brought to nought in his sight" [500]
(ver. 4). This is perfection, that the malicious one have no force
against a man; and that this be "in his sight;" that is, that he know
most surely that the malicious is not, save when the mind turns itself
away from the eternal and immutable form [501] of her own Creator to
the form of the creature, which was made out of nothing. "But those
that fear the Lord, He glorifieth:" the Lord Himself, that is. Now "the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." [502] As then the things
above belong to the perfect, so what he is now going to say belongs to
beginners.
5. "Who sweareth unto his neighbour, and deceiveth him not." "Who hath
not given his money upon usury, and hath not taken rewards against the
innocent" (ver. 5). These are no great things: but he who is not able
to do even this, much less able is he to speak the truth in his heart,
and to practise no deceit in his tongue, but as the truth is in the
heart, so to profess and have it in his mouth, "yea, yea; nay, nay;"
[503] and to do no evil to his neighbour, that is, to any man; and to
entertain no slander against his neighbour: all which are the virtues
of the perfect, in whose sight the malicious one hath been brought to
nought. Yet he concludes even these lesser things thus, "Whoso doeth
these things shall not be moved for ever:" that is, he shall attain
unto those greater things, wherein is great and unshaken stability. For
even the very tenses are, perhaps not without cause, so varied, as that
in the conclusion above the past tense should be used, but in this the
future. For there it was said, "The malicious one hath been brought to
nought in his sight:" but here, "shall not be moved for ever."
Notes:
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[496] Lat. XIV.
[497] Contubernales.
[498] 2 Cor. v. 1, 2.
[499] [This Psalm is called by some of the Fathers "the Ladder of
Jacob," by which the righteous ascend to God. It is the octave of Ps.
viii., which is appropriate to the ascension of humanity in
Christ.--C.]
[500] [Malignus in the Vulgate, which the Anglican Psalter does not
follow here.--C.]
[501] Specie.
[502] Ps. cxi. 10; Ecclus. i. 14; Prov. i. 7.
[503] Matt. v. 37.
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Let us pray in the words of Augustine.
Turn we to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, and with pure hearts offer to him, so far as our
meanness can, great and true thanks, with all our hearts praying his exceeding kindness, that of
his good pleasure he would deign to hear our prayers, that by his Power he would drive out the
enemy from our deeds and thoughts, that he would increase our faith, guide our understandings,
give us spiritual thoughts, and lead us to his bliss, through Jesus Christ his Son our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[A prayer which he was wont to use after his Sermons and Lectures.]
NPNF (V1-08) St. Augustine
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