Friday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Sir 6:5-17
A kind mouth multiplies friends and appeases enemies, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him. For one sort is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress. Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame. Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes. When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants; But if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you. Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends. A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35 (R.35a)
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes. R.
In your statutes I will delight;
I will not forget your words. R.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law. R.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds. R.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart. R.
Lead me in the path of your commands,
for in it I delight. R.
Gospel – Mk 10:1-12
Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached him and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Featured Saints
Sts. Marana and Cyra, virgins (†fifth century). They lived in silence in a small enclosure in a secluded location just outside of Beroea, Syria, in harsh conditions, receiving their daily food through a window.
Blessed Daniel Brottier, priest (+1936). Born in France, he was sent to the missions in Senegal, but for health reasons was obliged to return to his homeland, where he dedicated himself to the education of orphaned children in Auteuil.
Blessed Charles Gnocchi, priest (†1956). He founded the work “Pro Juventute Foundation,” today called the Work of Don Gnocchi, to aid the war maimed and the children of survivors.
Blessed Timothy Trojanowski, priest and martyr (†1942). Franciscan religious from the Friary of Niepokalanów, Poland. he worked with St. Maximilan Kolbe in the distribution of the Militia of the Immaculata magazine. He was arrested during the Second World War and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he died.
St. Romanus, abbot (†463). Following the example of the ancient anchorites, he lived as a hermit in the region of Jura, France, and became the spiritual father of many monks.
Image gallery
