Saturday of the 4th Week of Lent
Mass Readings
First Reading – Jer 11:18-20
I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings. Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.” But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12 (R. 2a)
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion’s prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me. R.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God. R.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day. R.
Gospel – Jn 7:40-53
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Featured Saints
St. Vincent Ferrer, priest (†1419). This Spanish Dominican distinguished himself as a great missionary preacher of conversion and penance at a time when Christianity was torn by the Western Schism.
St. Gerald, abbot (†1095). He entered monastic life in Corbie, his birthplace, and became abbot of St. Vincent of Laon. An influx of vocations led him to found several monasteries, including Sauve-Majeure in Aquitania.
St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, virgin (†1258). Augustinian religious, prioress of the convent of Mont Cornillon in Liège, Belgium. She was favoured with mystical experiences that played a major role in establishing the Feast of Corpus Christi by Urban IV.
St. Catherine Thomas, virgin (†1574). She entered the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in Palma de Mallorca, Spain; outstanding for her abnegation and dedication.
St. Maria Crescenzia Höss, virgin (†1744). Novice Mistress and then superior of the Convent of Franciscan Tertiaries Nuns in Mayerhoff, Germany, which she ruled with kindness and wisdom.
St. Irene, virgin and martyr (†304). Born in Thessalonica, she converted to Christianity, together with her sisters Agape and Chionia. She was burned alive during the Diocletian persecution.
Blessed Mariano da Mata Aparicio, priest (†1983). Spanish Augustinian priest, who, for more than twenty years served as a teacher, spiritual director and pastor at St. Augustine College in São Paulo, Brazil.
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