Friday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Cor 11:18, 21-30
Brothers and sisters: Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. To my shame I say that we were too weak! But what anyone dares to boast of (I am speaking in foolishness) I also dare. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they children of Israel? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I am talking like an insane person). I am still more, with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, far worse beatings, and numerous brushes with death. Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 (R. see 18b)
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad. R.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears. R.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.R.
Gospel – Mt 5:3
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”
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.
Image gallery
