Thursday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden, religious (+1373). Of royal lineage, 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. She counseled kings and Popes, and founded the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, known as the Brigittines.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
This word of the LORD came to me: Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, Following me in the desert, in a land unsown. Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest; Should any presume to partake of them, evil would befall them, says the LORD. When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome. The priests asked not, “Where is the LORD?” Those who dealt with the law knew me not: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols. Be amazed at this, O heavens, and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD. Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.
Responsorial Psalm – PS 36:6-7ab, 8-9, 10-11 (R. 10a)
R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.
R. (10a) With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.
O LORD, your mercy reaches to heaven;
your faithfulness, to the clouds.
Your justice is like the mountains of God;
your judgments, like the mighty deep. R.
How precious is your mercy, O God!
The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They have their fill of the prime gifts of your house;
from your delightful stream you give them to drink. R.
For with you is the fountain of life,
and in your light we see light.
Keep up your mercy toward your friends,
your just defense of the upright of heart. R.
Gospel – 13:10-17
The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and I heal them. “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
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.
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