Saturday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional memorials: St. Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and Doctor of the Church (+444 – Alexandria, Egypt). He presided as papal legate over the Council of Ephesus, which declared that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of God.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19
The Lord has consumed without pity all the dwellings of Jacob; He has torn down in his anger the fortresses of daughter Judah; He has brought to the ground in dishonor her king and her princes.On the ground in silence sit the old men of daughter Zion; They strew dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth; The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.Worn out from weeping are my eyes, within me all is in ferment; My gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, As child and infant faint away in the open spaces of the town.In vain they ask their mothers, “Where is the grain?” As they faint away like the wounded in the streets of the city, And breathe their last in their mothers’ arms.To what can I liken or compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Zion? For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you?Your prophets had for you false and specious visions; They did not lay bare your guilt, to avert your fate; They beheld for you in vision false and misleading portents.Cry out to the Lord; moan, O daughter Zion! Let your tears flow like a torrent day and night; Let there be no respite for you, no repose for your eyes.Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch; Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 74:1b-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21 (R.19b)
R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your flock which you built up of old,
the tribe you redeemed as your inheritance,
Mount Zion, where you took up your abode. R.
Turn your steps toward the utter ruins;
toward all the damage the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
Your foes roar triumphantly in your shrine;
they have set up their tokens of victory.
They are like men coming up with axes to a clump of trees. R.
With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the sanctuary.
They set your sanctuary on fire;
the place where your name abides they have razed and profaned. R.
Look to your covenant,
for the hiding places in the land and the plains are full of violence.
May the humble not retire in confusion;
may the afflicted and the poor praise your name. R.
Gospel – Mt 8:5-17
When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour his servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.
Featured Saints and Commemorations
Our Lady of Perpetual Help. An ancient title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, invoking Her unfailing maternal refuge and succor in any need, embodied in the celebrated byzantine-style icon which is venerated in the Church of St. Alphonsus de Liguori in Rome.
Blesseds Nykyta Budka (+1949) and Vasyl Velychkovsky(+1973), bishops and martyrs. Optional Memorial in Canada.
St. Samson, priest (†560). Doctor of Roman origin, he built a hospital in Constantinople to care for the poor; reputed to have cured the Emperor Justinian I of an illness.
St. Arialdus, deacon and martyr (†1066). He was cruelly tortured and killed in Milan, Italy, for his tenacious opposition of simony and depraved customs.
St. Thomas Toan, martyr (†1840). Chief catechist of the mission of Trung Linh, in Nam Đinh, Vietnam, he suffered torture in prison and died of privation.
Blessed Benvenuto of Gubbio, religious (†c. 1232). Franciscan who humbly cared of the sick, living the life of the poor Christ. He died near Bovino, Italy.
Blessed Marguerite Bays, virgin (†1879). Franciscan tertiary from Fribourg, Switzerland, who, without neglecting her life of prayer, untiringly dedicated herself to various works of lay apostolate.
Bl. Louise Thérèse de Montaignac de Chauvance, virgin (†1885). Foundress of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart in Moulins, France. She promoted the restoration of churches and stimulated popular religious fervour.
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