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Summary of comments of this office by Dom Schuster, in his work L'année liturgique.
The characteristics of the propers of this Sunday's Mass are quite similar to those of the preceding Sunday.
The antiphon of the Introït belongs to Psalm 69: "Incline unto my aid, O God: O Lord, make haste to help me." The holy liturgy has made of this verse one of its favorite prayers, because it admirably expresses the conditions of our virtue on earth.
The Gradual respond, after the reading, is taken from Psalm 33, which is an alphabetic psalm: "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall ever be in my mouth."
The versicle of the Alleluia is taken from Psalm 87, and in the Gregorian Antiphonary it reappears as the Offertory of the nocturnal Mass of the Ember Day at St. Peter's: "O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried in the day, and in the night before Thee."
The versicle of the Offertory comes from Exodus (32:11-14); it relates to a passage of today's Epistle. Musically, it is one of the most exquisite pieces of the Gregorian repertory, with its repeat of one phrase. In it Moses prays while God, in response to the idolatrous cult offered to the golden calf, wanted to destroy the Israelites. Moses pleads the merits of the Patriarchs of old, and recalls the magnificent promises which they had received; at his prayer, God is appeased.
The verse for the Communion, borrowed from Psalm 103, can be accommodated to the Holy Eucharist as well as to the harvest season: God is admirable in His works; each year He draws forth from the earth everything necessary to nourish the immense family of all the living.
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