Sunday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
Sunday takes precedence over the memorial of St. Clare of Assisi
See also:
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (R.9a)
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad. R.
Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears. R.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him. R.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him. R.
Second Reading – Eph 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Gospel – Jn 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven, ” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Featured Saints
St. Clare of Assisi, virgin (†1253). As a young woman from a noble family, she triumphed over intense opposition from her parents, in her choice to follow St. Francis of Assisi, and founded the first feminine branch of the Franciscan Order, which came to be known as the Poor Clares, or Clarists.
Blesseds John Sandys (†1586) and Stephen Rowsham (†1587), priests, and William Lampley (†1588), martyrs. Killed in England for their fidelity to the Catholic Church during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Blessed Miguel Domingo Cendra, martyr (†1936). Salesian killed in the religious persecution during the Spanish Civil War.
St. Gaugericus, Bishop (†c. 625). He governed the Diocese of Cambrai, France, for thirty-nine years, and built a chapel on the site of what would become the city centre of Brussels. Noted for performing numerous miracles.
St. Susanna, martyr (†fourth century). Young Christian beheaded in Rome by the order of Emperor Diocletian.
Blessed Louis Biraghi, priest (†1879). Priest of the Diocese of Milan, Italy, founder of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Marcellina.
St. Alexander, bishop and martyr (†third century). Consecrated Bishop of Comana, Turkey by St. Gregory, he was burned to death on a pyre by the enemies of the Faith.
St. Equitius, abbot (†c. 571). Due to his holiness of life he drew many vocations to the monasteries of the ancient province in Valeria, Italy.
Blessed Maurice Tornay, priest and martyr (†1949). Swiss born, he proclaimed the Gospel in China and Tibet, where he was murdered in an ambush, out of hatred for the Faith.
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