In the Catholic Church, Baruch 3:9–38 is used in the liturgy of Holy Saturday during Passiontide in the traditional lectionary of scriptural readings at Mass. A similar selection occurs during the revised liturgy for the Easter Vigil.
Baruch 1:14 – 2:5; 3:1–8 is a liturgical reading within the revised Roman Catholic Breviary for the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Friday Office of Readings. The subject is the prayer and confession of sin of a penitent people:
Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our fathers, have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him. … And the Lord fulfilled the warning he had uttered against us…. Lord Almighty, … Hear… and have mercy on us, who have sinned against you… (Baruch 1:15–18; 2:1; 3:1–2)
St. Augustine’s reflection, which is paired with this reading, on this occasion speaks of prayer: “[S]ince this [that we pray for] is that peace that surpasses all understanding, even when we ask for it in prayer we do not know how to pray for what is right…”; from there he explains what it means that the Holy Spirit pleads for the saints.
Baruch 3:9–15, 24–4:4 is a liturgical reading for the Saturday of the same week. The theme is that the salvation of Israel is founded on wisdom: “Learn where prudence is, … that you may know also where are length of days, and life, where light of the eyes, and peace. Who has found the place of wisdom, who has entered into her treasuries? … She is the book of the precepts of God, … All who cling to her will live… Turn, O Jacob, and receive her: … Give not your glory to another, your privileges to an alien race.” Paired with this on the same day is a reading from St. Peter Chrysologus, d. AD 450, who quotes the Apostle: “let us also wear the likeness of the man of heaven”.
