Tuesday 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 – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3a, 14-17
We ask you, brothers and sisters, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. To this end he has also called you through our Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 96:10, 11-12, 13 (R. 13b)
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity. R.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult. R.
Before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy. R.
Gospel – Mt 23:23-26
Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”
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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