Tuesday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. On this day in 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, in Aylesford, England, entrusting the brown scapular to him. Under this title, the Carmelites venerate the Mother of God, for it was on Mount Carmel that the Prophet Elijah beheld the small cloud that represented Her. On this Mount the Carmelite Order has its earliest roots, being first constituted by hermits dedicated to contemplation.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 7:1-9
In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it. When word came to the house of David that Aram was encamped in Ephraim, the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind. Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field, and say to him: Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans, and of the son Remaliah, because of the mischief that Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, plots against you, saying, “Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.” Thus says the LORD: This shall not stand, it shall not be! Damascus is the capital of Aram, and Rezin is the head of Damascus; Samaria is the capital of Ephraim, and Remaliah’s son the head of Samaria. But within sixty years and five, Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation. Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 48:2-3a, 3b-4, 5-6, 7-8 (R. see 9d)
R. God upholds his city for ever.
Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth. R
Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
is the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold. R
For lo! the kings assemble,
they come on together;
They also see, and at once are stunned,
terrified, routed. R
Quaking seizes them there;
anguish, like a woman’s in labor,
As though a wind from the east
were shattering ships of Tarshish. R.
Gospel – Mt 11:20-24
Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the nether world. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Featured Saints
St. Athenogenes, bishop and martyr (†c. 305). He endured the terrible martyrdom of being burned alive in Sebaste, Armenia, leaving as an inheritance to his flock a hymn to the Holy Spirit.
St. Mary Magdalen Postel, virgin (†1846). During the French Revolution, she used her goods to help the sick and the faithful. After peace was established, she founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Mercy in Saint-Sauveur-leVicomte, France.
St. Teresa Zhang Hezhi, martyr (†1900). Executed by lances along with her two sons during the Boxer persecution in China for refusing to adore local divinities.
Blessed Aimée of Jesus de Gordon, virgin, and companions, martyrs (†1794). Having refused to abandon religious life, they were condemned and guillotined in Orange during the French Revolution.
Blessed Ermengard, abbess (†866). Great-granddaughter Charlemagne; while still young, she abandoned the splendours of the court to enter the Monastery of Chiemsee, Bavaria, of which she became abbess.
Blessed Bartholomew of the Martyrs, bishop (†1590). Dominican religious elected Archbishop of Braga, Portugal; he wrote various spiritual and theological works.
Blesseds André de Soveral, priest, and Domingos Carvalho, layman, martyrs (†1645). Massacred by Dutch Calvinist soldiers close to Natal, Brazil, as Fr. André, a Jesuit, was celebrating Mass.
Blesseds John Sugar, priest, and Robert Grissold, layman, martyrs (†1604). Tortured and killed during the reign of James I of England, the first for having exercised the priestly ministry in England, and the second for assisting him.
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