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Collect
Merciful God,
who by your Spirit raised up your servant Teresa of Avila
to reveal to your Church the way of perfection:
grant that her teaching
may awaken in us a longing for holiness,
until we attain to the perfect union of love
in Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Mark 15.42-47
When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.
Psalm 94
Lord God to whom vengeance belongs,
O God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out in majesty.
Rise up, O Judge of the earth;
give the arrogant their just deserts.
Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph?
How long shall the evildoers boast
and pour out such impudent words?
They crush your people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
They murder the widow and the stranger;
the orphans they put to death.
And yet they say, ‘The Lord will not see,
neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.’
Consider, most stupid of people;
you fools, when will you understand?
He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?
He that formed the eye, shall he not see?
He who corrects the nations, shall he not punish?
He who teaches the peoples, does he lack knowledge?
The Lord knows every human thought,
that they are but a breath.
Blessed are those whom you chasten, O Lord,
whom you instruct from your law;
That you may give them rest in days of adversity,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
For the Lord will not fail his people,
neither will he forsake his inheritance.
For justice shall return to the righteous,
and all that are true of heart shall follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take my part against the evildoers?
If the Lord had not helped me,
my soul would soon have been put to silence.
And when I said, ‘My foot has slipped’,
your loving mercy, O Lord, upheld me.
In the multitude of cares that troubled my heart,
your comforts have refreshed my soul.
Will you have anything to do with the throne of wickedness,
which fashions evil through its law?
They gather together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the Lord has become my stronghold
and my God the rock of my trust.
He will turn against them their own wickedness
and silence them through their own malice;
the Lord our God will put them to silence.