Saturday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional memorial of St. Peter Julian Eymard, priest and founder (†1868 La Mure – France). After several years exercising his priestly ministry as a parish pastor, he entered the Marist Fathers, of which he served as provincial in Lyons. He worked especially to promote devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Eucharist and founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, with a branch for religious sisters dedicated to perpetual adoration.
Also, optional memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop (†371). Initiator of community life for diocesan clergy in the West. As first bishop of Vercelli, he consolidated the Church in the entire Piedmont region. Under persecution by the Arians, he was exiled to Palestine, Cappadocia, and finally to Sarinia, where he died.
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Lev 25:1, 8-17
The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years– so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your land. This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate. In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines. Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you may not eat of its produce, except as taken directly from the field. “In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property. Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly. On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee shall you purchase the land from your neighbor; and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops, shall he sell it to you. When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more; when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less. For it is really the number of crops that he sells you. Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 67:2-3, 5, 7-8 (R.4)
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation. R.
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide. R.
The earth has yielded its fruits;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him! R.
Gospel – Mt 14:1-12
Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.” Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.
Featured Saints
St. Stephen I, Pope (†257). Clarifying and affirming the indelible mark of Baptism, he prohibited practice of re-baptizing those who had fallen into heresy and who later repented and sought full communion with the Church. He also introduced the use of exclusively liturgical vestments, ordering that ordinary clothing never be used for the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries.
Blessed Joan of Aza (†thirteenth century). Castilian noblewoman, mother of St. Dominic Guzman, who led him along the path of virtue from childhood.
St. Peter of Osma, bishop (†1109). Monk of Cluny; sent to Spain with some companions at the request of King Alfonso VI. He was archdeacon of Toledo and later Bishop of Osma.
St. Serenus, bishop (†d. 601). In his Diocese of Marseille, France, he extended hospitality to St. Augustine of Canterbury and his companions who had been sent by St. Gregory the Great to evangelize England.
Blessed Francisco Calvo Burillo, priest and martyr (†1936). Dominican shot out or religious hatred in the village of Híjar, Spain.
Blessed Justin Maria Russolillo, priest (†1955). Priest of the Diocese of Naples and founder of the Society of Divine Vocations.
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