Thursday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorials: St. Louis, King of France (†1270 Tunis – Tunisia). Son of Blanche of Castile, he magnificently fulfilled the role of a Christian king, and raised his eleven children in the Faith. As monarch, he defended the Church, upheld justice, loved the poor and practised heroic virtue under the 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. Also, St. Joseph Calasanz, priest (†1648 Rome). 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.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Cor 1:1-9
Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 (R.1)
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable. R.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works. R.
They discourse of the power of your terrible deeds
and declare your greatness.
They publish the fame of your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your justice. R.
Gospel – Mt 24:42-51
Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
Featured Saints
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.
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