Friday of the 2nd Week of Advent
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 48:17-19
Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. If you would hearken to My commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea; Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their name never cut off or blotted out from My presence.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 (R.see John 8:12)
R. Those who follow You, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on His law day and night. R.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers. R.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes. R.
Gospel – Mt 11:16-19
Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”
Featured Saints
Blessed Maria Victoria Fornari Strata, widow (†1617). A model of prayer and obedience from her youth. After her husband’s death, she founded the Order of the Celestial Annonciades in Genoa, Italy, to honour the Blessed Virgin in the mystery of the Annunciation.
St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli, widow (†1651). Daughter of the Doge of Genoa, Italy, she founded and directed the Work of the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge of Mount Calvary, to help those in need. Her motto was: Serve God in the poor.
St. Valerian, bishop and martyr († fifth century). Bishop of Abbenza (present-day Africa) who at the age of eighty, was attacked by Arian Vandals and left in the streets to die of exposure when he refused to submit to their demands.
St. Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa, virgin (†1855). Founded the Institute of the Handmaids of Charity in Brescia, Italy.
Blessed Marino, abbot (†1170). Promoted the splendour of the Liturgy in the Benedictine Abbey of Cava de’ Tirreni, Italy, and demonstrated admirable fidelity to the Pope.
Blessed Charles Steeb, priest (†1856). Born in Germany to a Lutheran family, he converted and was ordained a priest. He founded the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, Italy.
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