Wednesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Featured Saints
St. Louis, King of France (†1270 Tunis – Tunisia). Optional Memorial. Son of Blanche of Castile, he magnificently fulfilled the role of a Christian king. He had eleven children who were raised in the Faith. As monarch, he defended the Faith, upheld justice, loved the poor and practiced heroic virtue under he most trying circumstances. Friend of the Dominican Friar Thomas Aquinas. He built the famous Sainte Chapelle to receive the relic of the crown of thorns. During the Crusades, in Tunis, he contracted the plague and died there.
St. Joseph Calasanz, priest (†1648 Rome). Optional Memorial. Founder of the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God and the Religious Schools, patiently facing the most onerous obstacles and the most painful misjudgements in the realization of his vocation.
St. Severus, abbot (†fifth century). Wisely governed the monastery he founded in Agde, France.
Blessed Maria Troncatti, virgin (†1969). Daughter of Our Lady Help of Christians who carried out a long and generous apostolate among the Shuar, or Jibaro people of Ecuador.
St. Aredius, abbot (†591). Founded the monastery of Attanum, near Limoges, France, where he was abbot. He made many journeys to Gaul to spread the Gospel.
St. Gregory of Utrecht, abbot (†775). Disciple of St. Boniface who accompanied him in the evangelization of Germany, and was appointed by him as abbot of the Monastery of St. Martin in Utrecht.
Blessed Mary of the Assumption and Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, virgin (†1885). Founded the Congregation of Tertiary Franciscan Missionary Sisters in Cordoba, Argentina.
St. Thomas of Hereford, bishop (†1282). Son of an English Baron, he taught Canon Law in Oxford and served as Lord Chancellor of England before being ordained Bishop of Hereford. Noted for his charity towards the poor and his personal austerity and abnegation.
St. Menas of Constantinople, bishop (†552). As Patriarch of Constantinople, he strove to reverse the harm done by the Monophysite heresy and to re-establish religious peace in the Middle East.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Thes 2:9-13
You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers. As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom and glory. And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12ab (R.1)
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there. R.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast. R.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day. R.
Gospel – Mt 23:27-32
Jesus said,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”
