Thursday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Heb 3:7-14
The Holy Spirit says: Oh, that today you would hear His voice, “Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion in the day of testing in the desert, where your ancestors tested and tried me and saw my works for forty years. Because of this I was provoked with that generation and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’” Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11 (R. 8)
R. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. R.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.” R.
Forty years I was wearied of that generation;
I said: “This people’s heart goes astray,
they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger:
“They shall never enter my rest.” R.
Gospel – Mk 1:40-45
A leper came to Him and kneeling down begged Him and said, “If You wish, You can make me clean.” Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, He dismissed him at once. Then He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to Him from everywhere.
Featured Saints
St. Marguarite Bourgeoys, virgin (†1700). Memorial in Canada. Born in Troyes, France. As a young woman she felt called to consecrate her life to God and to travel to Canada to evangelize among the native Indians and settlers, where there was great need. In Montreal, she she founded the Sisters of Notre-Dame to carry out this work.
St. Martin of the Holy Cross, priest (†1203). Canon Regular of León, Spain, he was very well versed in Sacred Scripture and celebrated for his ascetical writings.
St. Anthony Maria Pucci, priest (†1892). He entered the Servite Order and until the end of his life he dedicated himself heroically to the salvation of souls as a parish priest in Viaregio (Italy).
St. Benedict Biscop, abbot (†c. 690). He aimed at increasing the knowledge of the science of the love of Christ of the religious of the monastery of Wearmouth, England.
St. Aelred, abbot (†circa 1166). He left the court of the King David of Scotland to enter the Cistercian Order. He became abbot of Revesby and Rielvaux Monasteries.
St. Bernard of Corleone, religious (†1667). After a troubled youth, he became a Capuchin in Caltanisetta, Italy, and an outstanding devotee of the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin.
St. Arcadius, martyr (†circa 304). Died after torture in Caesarea in Mauritania, Algeria, for refusing to sacrifice to idols.
Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, priest and martyr (†1944). Imprisoned during the persecution in Thailand, he died of a contagious disease contracted while aiding the sick in prison.
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