Friday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, priest and Doctor of the Church (+1619). Capuchin monk from Italy, who governed various provinces of his Order and acted as Papal legate on numerous diplomatic missions. Sent to Austria and Bohemia where he was an untiring preacher against the errors of Protestantism, and was appointed as the head chaplain of the imperial army, in battle against the invading Turks. He is hailed as “Doctor Apostolicus”.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Ex 11:10—12:14
Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders in Pharaoh’s presence, the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it. The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs. None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up. “This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you. “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 116:12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18 (R.13)
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good He has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. R.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of His faithful ones.
I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid;
You have loosed my bonds. R.
To You will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all His people. 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 the 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
St. Simeon Salos, hermit († fourth century). While on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, he felt called to abandon the world and withdraw to a hermitic solitude.
Blessed Gabriel Pergaud, priest and martyr (†1794). Canon Regular of St. Augustine; he was taken from the Abbey of Beaulieu during the French Revolution and imprisoned in a galley in Rochefort, where he died in inhumane conditions.
St. Alberic Crescitelli, priest and martyr (†190 0). Member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, cruelty killed close to Yangxian, in the Province of Shaanxi (China).
St. Joseph Wang Yumei, martyr (†1900). Imprisoned, beaten and beheaded for proclaiming his Faith, during the Boxer persecution in China.
St. Praxedes, virgin (†circa 491). Said to be the daughter of the Roman Senator Pudens, who was converted by St. Peter. The Basilica in Esquilino is named after her.
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