Vatican provides Bible readings for Mass to pray for continence

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Latin version of the Roman Missal, the book of prayers used for Mass, includes a special set of prayers for a Mass with the intention of praying for “continence” or self-restraint, specifically as it regards sexuality.

But until recently, the Vatican had not indicated the Scripture readings that should be used at such a Mass.

In a decree dated March 20 and with a note explaining the decree June 22, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments provided the Bible readings.

It also said the decision in 2002 to include a Mass for continence in the missal for use by the entire church is a reminder that “all the baptized are called to foster this virtue with a pure and undivided heart, and not just those who are in religious life or who are ordained, but also young people and married couples, as the Second Vatican Council clearly taught” in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

The Bible, the word of God, “allows for a true and profound understanding” of what the church is asking for when it prays for continence, the note said.

The Bible readings, it said, were chosen “to offer a complete celebration in order to ask for the grace of a chaste heart, free from the desire to dominate, to possess, to conquer, to peruse one’s ambitions in an unbridled manner and to satisfy one’s desires, often at the expense of the weakest.”

“In the Roman Missal,” the note said, “the term ‘continentia’ is used in a general way to indicate all those things which every baptized person is called to do in order to put on Christ: fighting against every form of evil, aware that one’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, a means to glorify God; following life’s path in step with the Holy Spirit, in observance of the divine commandments, and not a means to offend him by clinging to the desires and works of the flesh.”

For the first reading at the Mass, the Vatican gave celebrants the choice of two passages from the Hebrew Scriptures or three from New Testament, and there are two possibilities for the responsorial Psalm.

The Gospel reading for the Mass is either Mt 5:13-16, which begins, “You are the salt of the earth,” or Jn 15:12-17, which begins, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”

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