Saturday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, religious (†1641 Moulins – France). Spiritual disciple of St. Francis de Sales, under whose direction she co-founded the Visitation Sisters
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Dt 6:4-13
Moses said to the people: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. “When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat your fill, take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. The LORD, your God, shall you fear; Him shall you serve, and by His name shall you swear.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 47 and 51 (R.2)
R. I love You, Lord, my strength.
I love You, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.R.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim!
And I am safe from my enemies.R.
The LORD live! And blessed be my Rock!
Extolled be God my savior!
You who gave great victories to Your king,
and showed kindness to Your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever. R.
Gospel – Mt 17:14-20
A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before Him, and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring the boy here to Me.” Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Featured Saints
Blessed Innocent XI, Pope (†1689). He undertook an extensive work of moralizing customs. He imposed strict norms on bishops while he himself set an example of austerity.
Blessed Karl Leisner, priest and martyr (†1945). Member of the Apostolic Movement of Schönstatt; he died as a result of abuse suffered while imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, in Germany.
Blessed Florian Stepniak, priest and martyr (†1942). Franciscan Capuchin who died in a gas chamber in the concentration camp of Dachau, Germany.
Blessed Victoria Díez y Bustos de Molina, virgin and martyr (†1936). Killed by firing squad during the religious persecutions of the Spanish Civil War; she died exhorting other Catholics to martyrdom.
Sts. James Do Mai Nam, priest, Anthony Dich Nguyen and Michael Nguyen, martyrs (†1838). Priest, farmer and doctor respectively, beheaded in Nam Ðinh, Vietnam, after suffering terrible tortures.
Blessed Peter Jarrige de Puyredon, priest and martyr (†1794). Canon of Saint-Yrieix, left to die in a crowded prison-ship for refusing to take the oath of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
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