Friday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
When Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: “O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD’s temple; I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city.” Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken and applied to the boil, that he might recover. Then Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?” Isaiah answered: “This will be the sign for you from the LORD that he will do what he has promised: See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced.” So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.
Responsorial Psalm – Is 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16 (R. see 17b)
R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.
Once I said,
“In the noontime of life I must depart!
To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned
for the rest of my years.” R
I said, “I shall see the LORD no more
in the land of the living.
No longer shall I behold my fellow men
among those who dwell in the world.”R
My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent,
is struck down and borne away from me;
You have folded up my life, like a weaver
who severs the last thread. R
Those live whom the LORD protects;
yours is the life of my spirit.
You have given me health and life.R
Gospel – Mt 12:1-8
Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
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). He 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). He travelled 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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