Mass Readings

First Reading – Ecc 1:2; 2:21-23

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.

Responsorial Psalm – Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17 (R.1)

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night. R.

You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades. R.

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants! R.

Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands! R.

Second Reading – Col 3:1-5, 9-11

Brothers and sisters: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.

Gospel – Lk 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Featured Saints

St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest and founder (†1556). This year his memorial gives way to Sunday. Of Basque nobility, he pursued a military career in his early adulthood. Gravely wounded in battle, he underwent a radical conversion during his convalescence. After a period of recollection and study, he gathered a group of men to undertake apostolic works and with them formed the Company of Jesus, known as the Jesuit Fathers, to defend the Faith as soldiers under the banner of Christ, Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, “For the greater glory of God”.

St. Germanus of Auxerre, bishop (†448). Bishop of Auxerre, France. He was sent to England by the Pope to fight the Pelagian heresy.

Blessed John Colombini, religious (†1307). Wealthy merchant from Siena (Italy); he gave up his riches to embrace a life of extreme poverty. He founded the Congregation of Jesuati to minister to the sick.

Blessed James Buch Canals, martyr (†1936). Salesian religious, imprisoned and killed in Valencia during the Spanish Civil War.

St. Fabius, martyr (†303/304). Christian condemned to death in Caesarea (Mauritania), present day Algeria, for refusing to carry the flag of the governor in a pagan ceremony.

Blessed Franz Stryjas, martyr (†1944). Father of a family imprisoned and killed in Kalisz, Poland, after undergoing prolonged torture.

Blessed Zdenka Schelingová, virgin and martyr (†1955). Religious from the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross. She aided the escape of a priest in Trnava, Czechoslovakia, for which she was imprisoned; she died as a result of her sufferings there.

Image gallery

St. Ignatius of Loyola

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