Wednesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Thess 3:6-10, 16-18
We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. For you know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone. On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you. Not that we do not have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat. May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. This greeting is in my own hand, Paul’s. This is the sign in every letter; this is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 128:1-2, 4-5 (R.1)
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
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.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life. 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!”
Featured Saints
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).
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