Mass Readings

First Reading – Is 6:1-8

They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

Responsorial Psalm – PS 93:1AB, 1CD-2, 5 (R.1a)

R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.

The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength. R.

And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD. R.

Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed:
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days. R.

Gospel – Mt 10:24-33

Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

Featured Saints

Blessed Joanna Scopelli, virgin (†1491). Carmelite religious; prioress of a monastery which she founded in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She was outstanding for her devotion to Our Lady and for her austere penances.

St. Joachim He Kaizhi, martyr (†1839). Catechist, strangled to death for his Christian Faith in Kouy-Yang, city of Guizhou province, China.

St. Veronica Giuliani, abbess (†1727). At age seventeen she entered the Monastery of Città di Castello (Italy) as a Capuchin nun. She lived there for fifty years as a religious and mystically participated in the Passion of Christ.

St. Nicholas Pieck, priest, and companions, martyrs (†1572). Franciscan priest tortured and strangled to death by Calvinists together with 10 religious from his Order and eight secular priests in Brielle, Holland, for defending the Primacy of the Pope and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Blessed Marie-Anne-Madeleine de Guilhermier and Marguerite-Marie-Anne of the Angels, virgins and martyrs (†1794). Ursuline nuns martyred during the religious persecutions of the French Revolution.

Blessed Fidelis Chijnacki, martyr (†1942). Capuchin monk imprisoned during the occupation of Poland and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp.

Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified Petkovič, virgin (†1966). Founded the Franciscan Congregation of the Daughters of Mercy in the Diocese of Dubrovnik, Croatia.