Wednesday of the 6th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Gen 8:6-13, 20-22
At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark. In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth. He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back. In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up. Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: “Never again will I doom the earth because of man since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done. As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19 (R.17a)
R. R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. R.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones. R.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. R.
Gospel – Mk 8:22-26
When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?” Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly. Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”
Featured Saints
St. Conrad Confalonieri (†1351). Worldly Italian nobleman who during a hunt, started a fire in a forest, which spread and caused extensive devastation and the near-execution of an innocent peasant. Deeply shaken, he exonerated the man and changed his life. His wife became a Poor Clare nun and he took the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, dying after forty years of penance and prayer.
Blessed Alvarez of Cordoba, priest (†circa 1430). Dominican priest, famed for his preaching and contemplation of Our Lord’s Passion. He spent most of his life in Cordoba, Spain.
St. Quodvultdeus, bishop (†439). Exiled from Carthage with all of his clergy by the Arian King Genseric, he died as a confessor of the Faith in Naples.
St. Mansuetus, bishop (†circa 680). In his diocese in Milan, he fought tirelessly to extirpate the heresy of Monothelitism.
St. Lucy Yi Zhenmei, martyr (+1862). Consecrated herself to God while still young. Aided the missions as a catechist. Beheaded for defending the Faith.
Blessed Boniface of Lausanne, bishop (†1260). He renounced the government of the Diocese of Lausanne, Switzerland to live as a Cistercian monk in the Monastery of La Chambre in Belgium.
Blessed Joseph Zaplata, religious and martyr (†1945). Member of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, deported from Poland to the concentration camp of Dachau, Germany, where deplorable conditions brought about his sickness and death.
Blessed Elizabeth Picenardi, virgin (†1468). Born in Cremona, Italy, she consecrated herself to God, taking the habit of the Order of the Servants of Mary. She was assiduous in study and meditation on Sacred Scripture
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