Mass Readings

First Reading – 2 Cor 8:1-9

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, of the grace of God that has been given to the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For according to their means, I can testify, and beyond their means, spontaneously, they begged us insistently for the favor of taking part in the service to the holy ones, and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us through the will of God, so that we urged Titus that, as he had already begun, he should also complete for you this gracious act also. Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also. I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake He became poor although He was rich, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

Responsorial Psalm – Ps 146:2, 5-6ab, 6c- 7, 8-9a (R. 1b)

R.Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.

Praise the LORD, my soul!
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live. R.

Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made Heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them. R.

Who keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free. R.

The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers. R.

Gospel – Mt 5:43-48

Jesus said to His disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for He makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Featured Saints

St. Alban, protomartyr of Britain, probably in the middle of the third century. He was a pagan soldier who gave shelter to a Catholic priest and was converted by him. To save the priest’s life, he put on the cleric’s clothes and was arrested and executed in his place.

Blessed Margaret Ball, martyr (†1584). Widow of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, during the persecution of Elizabeth I of England, she sheltered priests and religious in her home. Denounced by her own son, she was imprisoned in a dungeon in Dublin castle and died there at the age of seventy, after three years of deprivation.

Blessed Dermot O’Hurley, bishop and martyr (†1584). archbishop of Cashel, Ireland. Imprisoned and savagely tortured for months during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, he was finally hanged for refusing to renounce the Church of Rome.

St. Gobain, priest (†c. 670). Born in Ireland, he became a disciple of St. Fursey in England and from there went to France to lead a hermetic life.

St. John of Matera, abbot (†1139). Outstanding for his austerity of life and preaching, he founded the Congregation of Pulsano, of Benedictine obedience, in the region of Gargano, Italy.

Blessed Francis Pacheco, priest, and companions, martyrs (†1626). Portuguese Jesuit missionary burned alive with eight companions, in Nagasaki, Japan.

St. Methodius of Olympus, (†c. 311). bishop, theologian and martyr of the end of the Diocletian persecution.

Blessed Margaret Ebner, virgin (†1351). Dominican nun from Mödingen, Germany. She practised outstanding mortification and was a model of resignation in face of illness. She left written works on her mystical experiences.