Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 58:9b-14
Thus says the LORD: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; “”Repairer of the breach,”” they shall call you, “”Restorer of ruined homesteads.”” If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice– Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 (R. 11ab)
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in Your truth.
Incline Your ear, O LORD; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to You;
save Your servant who trusts in You.
You are my God. R.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to You I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of Your servant,
for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. R.
For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon You.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading. R.
Gospel – Lk 5:27-32
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow Me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed Him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for Him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
Featured Saints
Commemoration (optional memorial) of St. Peter Damian, bishop and doctor of the Church (1072). He was obliged against his inclinations to leave monastic solitude, upon being appointed bishop and named cardinal to serve the needs of the Pope. However, he later returned to the contemplative life.
St. Robert Southwell, Priest and martyr (†1595). From a Catholic family, he became a Jesuit priest and secretly served Catholics in the London area until his arrest. He was cruelly tortured, without supplying any information to his tormentors, and finally executed at Tyburn, under Queen Elizabeth I, making the Sign of the Cross while being killed by hanging. His writings are well known.
Blessed Eleanor of Provence, queen consort of England (†1291). Born to noble parents in Aix-en-Provence, France, she was married for 37 years to to Henry III of England, and bore five children. A few years after the king’s death, she retired to the Benedictine abbey of Amesbury as a humble nun, and dedicated the last fifteen years of her life to prayer.
St. Avitus II of Clermont, bishop (†691) He became bishop of the diocese of Clermont in Auvergne, France, in 676, which he governed with holiness until his death.
St. Eustathius, bishop (†circa 338). Bishop of Antioch, exiled to Trajanopolis, present-day Bosnia, by the Emperor Constantius, for defending the Catholic Faith.
St. Germanus, abbot (†c. 667). He was killed by bandits in the monastery of Grandval, Switzerland.
Blessed Noël Pinot, priest and martyr (†1794). Pastor of Le Louroux-Béconnais, near Angers, he was guillotined during the French Revolution.
Blessed Maria Enrichetta Dominici, virgin (†1894). Religious of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne of Providence, for thirty years she held the offices of mistress of novices and prioress in Turin.
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