Friday of the 20th 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 – Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22
Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land; so a man from Bethlehem of Judah departed with his wife and two sons to reside on the plateau of Moab. Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion died also, and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband. She then made ready to go back from the plateau of Moab because word reached her there that the LORD had visited His people and given them food. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her. Naomi said, “See now! Your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!” But Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Thus it was that Naomi returned with the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, who accompanied her back from the plateau of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10 (R.1b)
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made Heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them. R.
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free. R.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers. R.
The fatherless and the widow He sustains,
but the way of the wicked He thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia. R.
Gospel – Mt 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested Him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
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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