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
St. Walburga, abbess (†779). At the request of her brothers St. Willibald and St. Winibald, as well as St. Boniface, she left England to govern the Monastery of Heidenheim, Germany.
Blessed Sebastian of Aparicio, religious (†1600). Born in Spain, emigrated to Mexico, where he accumulated considerable wealth due to his great entrepreneurial capacity. He abandoned everything to enter the Order of Friars Minor, in which died at almost a hundred years of age. (See featured image.)
St. Nestor of Magydos, bishop and martyr (†c. 250). For professing faith in Christ crucified, he was condemned to death by crucifixion by the governor of Pamphylia, in Perge, present-day Turkey.
St. Gerland, bishop (†1100). He reorganized the Church in Sicily after obtaining freedom from Saracen dominion.
St. Lawrence Pe-Man, martyr (+1856). Baptized by St. Auguste Chapdelaine, and became his assist ant as a missionary in China. He was sentenced to capital punishment for remaining steadfast in the Faith.
St. Caesarius, physician (†369). Although he was the son of fervent Christians and brother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, he remained a pagan for most of his life. He was the physician of various emperors in Constantinople. After miraculously escaping an earthquake, he requested Baptism and did penance until the end of his life.
Bessed Ciriaco Maria Sancha y Hervás, bishop (†1909). Bishop of Toledo and Valencia, Patriarch of the West Indies and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Cardinal Sancha in Toledo, Spain.
Blessed Dominic Lentini, priest (†1828). Priest from Lauria, Italy, whose diverse and fruitful ministry was supported by humility, prayer and penance. He transformed his house into a model Catholic school.
Blessed Maria Adeodata Pisani, virgin (†1855). She was abbess in St. Peter’s Benedictine Monastery, on the Island of Malta. She strove to establish perfect observance of the Rule and to lead the nuns on the path of perfection.
Blessed Maria Ludovica De Angelis, virgin (†1962). Italian by birth, she entered the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy and dedicated herself to the care and formation of children and the sick in a hospital in La Plata, Argentina.
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