Saturday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Ru 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17
Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz, of the clan of her husband Elimelech. Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go and glean ears of grain in the field of anyone who will allow me that favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter,” and she went. The field she entered to glean after the harvesters happened to be the section belonging to Boaz of the clan of Elimelech. Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter! Do not go to glean in anyone else’s field; you are not to leave here. Stay here with my women servants. Watch to see which field is to be harvested, and follow them; I have commanded the young men to do you no harm. When you are thirsty, you may go and drink from the vessels the young men have filled.” Casting herself prostrate upon the ground, Ruth said to him, “Why should I, a foreigner, be favored with your notice?” Boaz answered her: “I have had a complete account of what you have done for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death; you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know previously.” Boaz took Ruth. When they came together as man and wife, the LORD enabled her to conceive and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the LORD who has not failed to provide you today with an heir! May he become famous in Israel! He will be your comfort and the support of your old age, for his mother is the daughter-in-law who loves you. She is worth more to you than seven sons!” Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him his name, at the news that a grandson had been born to Naomi. They called him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 128:1b-2, 3, 4, 5 (R.4)
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear Him.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in His ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored. R.
You wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table. R.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD. R.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life. R.
Gospel – Mt 23:1-12
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in Heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Featured Saints and commemorations
Our Lady of Częstochowa. Patroness of Poland. See: The Miracle on the Vistula.
Bl. Dominic of the Mother of God Barberi, priest (+1849). He journeyed from Italy to work for the conversion of England.
St. Ninian, bishop (+432), the earliest known bishop to have visited Scotland.
Blessed Jacques Retouret, priest and martyr (†1794). Carmelite religious from the monastery of Limoges, who during the French Revolution was imprisoned on a galley, where he died of hypothermia.
St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars, virgin (†1897). Spanish religious; she founded the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly.
St. Joan Elizabeth Bichier des Âges, virgin (†1838). She founded the Congregation of the daughters of the Cross in Maillé, France, to educate children and care for the sick.
Blessed Laurentia Harasymiv, virgin and martyr (†1952). Religious from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, in Ukraine, she aided the faithful, in the absence of priests who had disappeared in Soviet concentration camps. She was arrested and deported to the concentration camp of Kharsk, Siberia, where she died of tuberculosis.
Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified Baouardy, virgin (†1878). Born in Galilee and educated in France, she entered the Discalced Carmelites and founded the convents of the Order in Mangalore (India) and Bethlehem (Palestine).
Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá, layman (†1905). Son of a Mapuche chieftain of Patagonia. He desired to become a missionary priest, dedicated to the conversion of his people, but died of tuberculosis at age 19, before his dream could be fulfilled.
St. Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High (cf. Gn 14: 18-20). His priesthood prefigures that of Christ (cf. Hb 5:6).
Image gallery
