Saturday of the 6th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Heb 11:1-7
Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this, he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was found no more because God had taken him. Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this, he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 145:2-3, 4-5, 10-11 (R. see 1)
R. I will praise Your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless You,
and I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
His greatness is unsearchable. R.
Generation after generation praises Your works
and proclaims Your might.
They speak of the splendor of Your glorious majesty
and tell of Your wondrous works. R.
Let all Your works give You thanks, O LORD,
and let Your faithful ones bless You.
Let them discourse of the glory of Your Kingdom
and speak of Your might. R.
Gospel – Mk 9:2-13
Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” Suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, He charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked Him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He told them, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that He must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”
Featured Saints
Blessed John of Fiesole, priest (†1455). Dominican religious and painter of world renown, better known as Fra Angelico; a deeply contemplative soul, he always prayed before taking up his brush.
St. Theotonius, priest (†c. 1162). After two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, he founded the Congregation of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, Portugal.
St. Sadoth, bishop and companions, martyrs (+342). He was Bishop of Seleucia when, refusing to adore the sun, was imprisoned, repeatedly tortured and finaly executed by order of the king of Persia, Shapur II.
St. Francis Regis Clet, priest and martyr (†1820). Priest from the Congregation of the Mission born in Grenoble, France, who overcame many difficulties to proclaim the Gospel in the province of Hubei in China. After being denounced by an apostate, he suffered a long and cruel captivity and was put to death by strangulation.
St. Gertrude Comensoli, virgin (†1903). Founded the Congregation of the Sacramentine Sisters of Bergamo in that city in Italy, dedicated to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the education of girls.
Blessed William Harrington, priest and martyr (†1594). After meeting St. Edmund Campion, he converted to Catholicism was ordained a priest in Rheims. He returned to his homeland to exercise his priestly ministry among Catholics, a crime punishable by death at that time. Accordingly, when arrested, he was executed at Tyburn.
Blessed George Kaszyra, priest and martyr (†1943). Religious of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, he was burned alive in Rosica, Poland, by persecutors of the Faith.
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