Saturday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, religious (+1373). Of royal lineage, she was endowed with mystical revelations from a young age, sometimes of a prophetic nature, others regarding the Passion of Christ. She was given in marriage to Prince Ulfo of Nercia and had eight children. Becoming a widow after twenty years of marriage, she embraced the consecrated life and was sent by Our Lord on various missions in which she counseled kings and Popes, and founded the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, known as the Brigittines. Patroness of Sweden, and one of the patron Saints of Europe.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Jr 7: 1-11
The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place. Put not your trust in the deceitful words: “This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!” Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor; if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm, will I remain with you in this place, in the land I gave your fathers long ago and forever. But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss! Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not, and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears my name, and say: “We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again”? Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11 (R.2)
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God. R.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God! R.
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength. R.
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked. R.
Gospel – Mt 13:24-30
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”
Featured Saints
St. Ezekiel, prophet. He admonished the Chosen People for their infidelities, and prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation to Babylon.
Blessed Basile Hopko, bishop and martyr (†1976). Auxiliary Bishop of Presov, imprisoned and tortured by the Slovakian government; he contracted a serious illness which led to his death.
St. Valerian of Cimiez, bishop (†circa 460). Monk appointed Bishop of Lérins, France. He wrote a work on the lives of the saints for the edification of religious and people in general.
Blessed Jane of Orvieto, virgin (†1306). Religious of the Sisters of Penance of St. Dominic; ardent devotee of the Lord’s Passion.
Blessed Krystyn Gondek, priest and martyr (†1942). Polish Franciscan sent to Dachau concentration camp, Germany, where he died from torture.
Blessed Peter Ruiz, priest and martyr (†1936). Director-General of the Fraternity of Diocesan Worker Priests and founder of the Disciples of Jesus Institute. He was martyred in Toledo, Spain during the Civil War.
St. John Cassian, priest (†c. 435). After living as a monk in Palestine and a hermit in Egypt, he founded the Abbey of St. Victor in Marseille, France, composed of two separate communities for men and women.
Image gallery
