Gospel 2-8-24. Luke 12:35-40. St John of Matha, Confessor.
Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands.
Sint lumbi vestri praecincti, et lucernae ardentes in manibus vestris,
36 And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.
et vos similes hominibus exspectantibus dominum suum quando revertatur a nuptiis : ut, cum venerit et pulsaverit, confestim aperiant ei.
37 Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.
Beati servi illi quos, cum venerit dominus, invenerit vigilantes : amen dico vobis, quod praecinget se, et faciet illos discumbere, et transiens ministrabit illis.
38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
Et si venerit in secunda vigilia, et si in tertia vigilia venerit, et ita invenerit, beati sunt servi illi.
39 But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.
Hoc autem scitote, quoniam si sciret paterfamilias, qua hora fur veniret, vigilaret utique, et non sineret perfodi domum suam.
40 Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.
Et vos estote parati : quia qua hora non putatis, Filius hominis veniet.
With St Felix of Valois, St John founded the Order of the Trinitarians for the ransoming of captives who had fallen into the hands of the Mohammedans. He died A.D. 1213.
