Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Featured Saints
Blessed Francisco of Jesus Mary and Joseph Palau, priest (†1872). Religious of the Discalced Carmelite Order. He suffered violent persecutions during the exercise of his priestly ministry and, due to false accusations, was exiled to the Island of Ibiza. Providence favoured him with abundant mystical gifts and visions of future events in the Church. See also: Do Not Permit this Outrage!
St. John Nepomucene, priest and martyr (†1393). A great preacher, he was called to the court o Prague by King Wenceslaus IV. For refusing to reveal the queen’s Confession to the king, the latter ordered him to be tortured and drowned in the Vitava River.
Blessed Ambrose Sansedoni of Siena, priest (†1287). Dominican religious formed by St. Albert the Great and fellow-student of St. Thomas Aquinas.
St. Martin of Braga, bishop (†circa 579). Bishop of Braga, Portugal, who converted the Spanish Seuvi of his diocese from the Arian heresy. He enriched the Church with his writings.
St. Joseph Bilczewski, bishop (†1923). He did much pastoral activity in the Diocese of Lviv, Ukraine, and with ardent charity dedicated himself to the development of customs and doctrinal formation of the clergy and the faithful.
St. Archippus, companion of St. Paul the Apostle, mentioned in the letters to Philemon and the Colossians.
St. Mary Josepha of the Heart of Jesus, virgin (†1912). Foundress of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus in Bilbao, Spain.
Blessed Hippolytus Galantini, layman (†1619). Founder of the Brotherhood of Christian Doctrine, he dedicated himself to the catechetical formation of the poor and humble.
Blessed Jeanne Véron, virgin and martyr (†1794). Companion of Blessed Françoise Trehét in caring for the sick children of Dampierre, France. She was guillotined for sheltering priests who had refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Jer 11:18-20
I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings. Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.”
But,You, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, let me witness the vengeance You take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!
Responsorial Psalm – 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12 (R. 2a)
R. O Lord, my God, in You I take refuge.
O LORD, my God, in You I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion’s prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me. R.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God. R.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day. R.
Gospel – Jn 7:40-53
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will He?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest Him,
but no one laid hands on Him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, “Why did you not bring Him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
“Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?”
They answered and said to him,
“You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Then each went to his own house.
