Thursday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time
Featured Saints
St. John Eudes, priest (†1680 Caen – France). Optional Memorial. For many years, he dedicated himself to preaching popular missions in diverse parishes, combatting the errors of Jansenism. He founded the Eudist Fathers, dedicated to preaching missions, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity to help wayward girls wishing to amend their lives. The saint was a great propagator of the devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. See: The Holy Name of Mary: Treasure of the Eternal Father’s Love.
St. Louis of Anjou, bishop (†1297). Nephew of King St. Louis IX, at age 22 he was raised to the Episcopal See of Toulouse, France, after embracing the Franciscan vocation.
Blessed Hugh Green, priest and martyr (†1642). Catholic priest executed in Dorchester, England, for his fidelity to the Church and to his ministry during the reign of Charles I.
Blessed Louis Flores and Peter of Zúñiga, priests, and companions, martyrs (†1622). They were captured, tortured and martyred as they disembarked at the port of Nagasaki, Japan.
St. Ezekiel Moreno y Díaz, bishop (†1906). Spanish Augustinian religious, missionary in Philippines and later Bishop of Pasto, Colombia. He contributed to the construction of the present Shrine of Our Lady of Las Lajas in Ipiales, located within his diocese.
St. Bartholomew of Simeri, abbot (†1130). Hermit from the forested region surrounding Sila, Italy. Under the inspiration of Our Lady, he gathered many disciples and built the monastery of Santa Maria Nuova Odigitria.
Blessed Jordan of Pisa, priest (†circa 1311). Dominican Florentine religious, and professor of theology in Paris. He masterfully explained sublime doctrine in simple language.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Jgs 11:29-39a
The Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and through Mizpah-Gilead as well, and from there he went on to the Ammonites. Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. “If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said, “whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the LORD. I shall offer him up as a burnt offering.” Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his power, so that he inflicted a severe defeat on them, from Aroer to the approach of Minnith (twenty cities in all) and as far as Abel-keramim. Thus were the Ammonites brought into subjection by the children of Israel. When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, “Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot retract.” She replied, “Father, you have made a vow to the LORD. Do with me as you have vowed, because the LORD has wrought vengeance for you on your enemies the Ammonites.” Then she said to her father, “Let me have this favor. Spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountains to mourn my virginity with my companions.” “Go,” he replied, and sent her away for two months. So she departed with her companions and mourned her virginity on the mountains. At the end of the two months she returned to her father, who did to her as he had vowed.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 40:5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10 (R. 8a and 9a)
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Blessed the man who makes the LORD his trust;
who turns not to idolatry
or to those who stray after falsehood. R.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.” R.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me.
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!” R.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know. R.
Gospel – Mt 22:1-14
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables
saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
