Saturday of the 1st Week of Lent
Mass Readings
First Reading – Dt 26:16-19
Moses spoke to the people, saying: “This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8 (R. 1b)
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart. R.
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes! R.
I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me. 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 and sisters 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. Clement Mary Hofbauer, priest (†1820). Redemptorist religious born in Moravia, Czech Republic, he was sent on mission to Warsaw, where he preached for two decades. Upon returning to Vienna, he undertook the reform of ecclesiastical discipline in Austria and succeeded in drawing many renowned scientists and artists to enter the Church.
St. Louise de Marillac, widow (†1660). With St. Vincent de Paul she founded the Institute of the Daughters of Charity, in Paris, to care for the poor, sick, and the abandoned.
St. Zachary, Pope (†752). He governed the Church with wisdom and prudence, stopped the invasion of the Lombards, taught the Franks to govern justly, provided the German peoples with churches and promoted the unity of the Eastern Church.
St. Leocrita (or Lucretia), virgin and martyr (†859). Born to a noble Muslim family of Cordoba, Spain, she was beheaded for refusing to renounce the Catholic Faith.
Blessed Jan Adalbert Balicki, priest (†1948). Rector of the seminary of Przemysl, Poland. He consecrated most of his ministry to the administration of the Sacrament of Penance and formation of young seminarians.
Blessed Artemide Zatti, religious (†1951). Salesian Coadjutor Brother who dedicated his life to caring for the sick in a hospital in Patagonia, Argentina.
Blessed William Hart, priest and martyr (†1538). Suffered martyrdom in England, during the persecutions of Elizabeth I.
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