Friday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, priest (+1539). Founder of the Congregation of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul, later the Barnabites, in Cremona, Italy, with the objective of reforming the customs of the clerics and of the faithful.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Am 8:4-6, 9-12
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?” We will diminish the containers for measuring, add to the weights, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun set at midday and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth and make every head bald. I will make them mourn as for an only son, and bring their day to a bitter end. Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the LORD. Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east in search of the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131 (R. Mt 4:4)
R. One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart. R.
With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands. R.
My soul is consumed with longing
for your ordinances at all times. R.
The way of truth I have chosen;
I have set your ordinances before me. R.
Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your justice give me life. R.
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands. R.
Gospel – Mt 9:9-13
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Featured Saints
St. Athanasius of Jerusalem, martyr (†451). Deacon killed by a heretic monk for spreading the doctrine of the Council of Chalcedon against Monophysitism.
St. Athanasius the Athonite, monk (†c. 1004). Instituted a small monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, initiating cenobitic life there.
St. Cyrilla, martyr (†fourth century). Widow killed for her faith during the Diocletian persecution in Cyrene, Libya. After sustaining red-hot coals with incense in her hands at length, rather than throw them to the ground and thus seem to offer incense to the gods, she was cruelly scourged with hooks.
Sts. Teresa Chen Jinxie and Rosa Chen Aixie, virgins and martyrs (†1900). They died in defence of their virginity during the Boxer Rebellion persecution in China.
St. Martha, laywoman (†551). Mother of St. Simon Stylite, whom she educated in the Faith.
Blessed George Nichols and Richard Yaxley, priests, and Thomas Belson, and Humphrey Pritchard, laymen, martyrs (†1589). Martyred in Oxford, England, during the anti-Catholic persecutions of Elizabeth I.
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