Tuesday of 2nd Week of Advent
Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Loreto. According to tradition, the Holy House of Nazareth was transported by the Angels in the 13th century to the Italian town of Loreto, in the province of Ancora (now enshrined in the Basilica della Santa Casa). It is identified as the house in which the Blessed Virgin was born and where the Annunciation and Incarnation took place, as well as the residence of the Holy Family after their return from Egypt.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 40:1-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. A voice says, “Cry out!” I answer, “What shall I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. So then, the people is the grass. Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever.” Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 96:1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13 (R.*)
R. The Lord our God comes with power.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day. R.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king;
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 let all the trees of the forest rejoice. R.
They shall exult 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 18:12-14
Jesus said to his disciples: “What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”
Featured Saints
St. Gregory III, Pope († 741). He was an advocate of the evangelization of the Germanic peoples, particularly by his support of St. Boniface. In opposition to the iconoclasts, he embellished the churches of Rome with sacred images.
St. Luke of Isola, bishop (†1114). Tirelessly dedicated himself to the poor of his Diocese of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, Italy, and to the formation of monks. He died in the Monastery of St. Nicholas de Viotorito, in Calabria.
St. Polydore Plasden, priest and martyr († 1591). Executed at Tyburn during the persecution of Elizabeth I, of England, declaring that said that he would rather give a thousand lives than deny his Catholic Faith.
St. Edmund Gennings, priest, and St Swithun Wells, layman, martyrs (†1591). St. Edmund, a London native, was ordained in France and returned to England as a missionary. He was arrested after celebrating a Mass at the country mansion of St. Swithun, and both were executed on the latter’s property.
St. John Roberts, martyr († 1610). Welsh-born to Protestant parents, he converted to Catholicism in his youth and joined the Benedictine Order in Valladolid, Spain, whence he left as a missionary to England, during the reign of James I. He became so well known for his heroism and charity that there was complete silence at his execution at Tyburn.
St. Amaro, martyr († circa the 4th century). Pope St. Damasus celebrates him as an innocent child whom no torture could separate from his Faith.
St. Eulalia of Merida , virgin and martyr († 304). As a maiden of twelve, during a persecution of Christians in her city, she did not hesitate to give her life for the love of God.
Blessed Marco Antonio Durando, priest (†1880). Religious from the Congregation of the Missions and founder of the Congregation of Sisters of Jesus the Nazarene in Turin, Italy.
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