Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 10:5-7, 13b-16
Thus says the LORD: Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath. Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets. But this is not what he intends, nor does he have this in mind; Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of nations not a few. For he says: “By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples, their treasures I have pillaged, and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned. My hand has seized like a nest the riches of nations; As one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; No one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!” Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wood! Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, And instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15 (R.14a)
R. The Lord will not abandon his people.
Your people, O LORD, they trample down,
your inheritance they afflict.
Widow and stranger they slay,
the fatherless they murder. R.
And they say, “The LORD sees not;
the God of Jacob perceives not.”
Understand, you senseless ones among the people;
and, you fools, when will you be wise? R.
Shall he who shaped the ear not hear?
or he who formed the eye not see?
Shall he who instructs nations not chastise,
he who teaches men knowledge? R.
For the LORD will not cast off his people,
nor abandon his inheritance;
But judgment shall again be with justice,
and all the upright of heart shall follow it. R.
Gospel – Mt 11:25-27
At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Featured Saints
Blesseds Thérèse of St. Augustine and fifteen companions, virgins and martyrs (†1794). Religious from the Carmel of Compiègne, guillotined during the French Revolution.
Blessed Ignatius de Azevedo, priest, and 39 companions, martyrs (†1570). In 1570, a large group of Portuguese Jesuits missionaries were on voyage to Brazil, headed by Blessed Ignatius when, in the region of the Canary Islands, they were attacked by French Huguenot pirates who massacred the priests out of religious hatred.
St. Marcellina, virgin (†fourth century). Sister of St. Ambrose; she received the veil of the virgins from Pope Liberius.
St. Leo IV, Pope (†855). Ordered the construction of the Vatican walls to protect the region against Saracen attacks. Defender of justice and apologist for the primacy of Peter.
St. Andrew, hermit (†1031). Went to Hungary at the request of King St. Stephen and led a life of extreme austerity in the Carpathian Mountains region.
St. Hedwig of Poland, queen (†1399). Born in Hungary, she became Queen of Poland by birthright and Grand Duchess of Lithuania through her marriage to Wladyslaw II. With her husband, she established the Catholic Faith in this Baltic country.
Sts. Justa and Rufina, virgins and martyrs (†circa 287). Sevillian sisters who were imprisoned and cruelly tortured by order of the governor Diogenian.
Blessed Paul Gojdich, bishop and martyr (†1960). While Ordinary of the Eparchy of Presov, in Slovakia, he was imprisoned by the comunist authorities, where he died after undergoing torture rather than renounce his fidelity to the Church.
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