Saturday of the 1st Week of Lent
Optional memorial of St. Casimir (†1484). Patron of Poland and Lithuania, son of King Casimir IV of Poland. He died at the age of 25, after a life marked by piety, abnegation and austerity, even renouncing marriage so as to better serve God and help the poor.
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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. Basinus, bishop (†705). He became a monk in the Benedictine Monastery of St. Maximinus of Trier, Germany, and was elected abbot. He was later appointed Bishop of the same city.
St. John Anthony Farina, bishop (†1888). Great pastor and educator. He founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of St. Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts, for the education of poor girls, in Vicenza, Italy.
St. Peter, abbot (†1123). Benedictine monk; elected Bishop of Policastro. Weary of the pomp of worldly life, he returned to his monastery, where, as abbot, he renewed religious discipline.
Blessed Zoltan Lajos Meszlényi, Bishop and martyr (†1951). Auxiliary Bishop of Esztergom, Hungary, he was deported to the concentration camp of Kistarcsa, where he died after eight months of unspeakable torture.
Blessed Robert Spiske, priest (†1888). Diocesan priest; he founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Hedwig in Krakow, Poland.
Blessed Humbert of Savoy, monk (†1188). Compelled to leave the cloister to attend to public duties, he soon returned to monastic life with redoubled dedication.
Blessed Marie Louise of Lamoignon, widow (†1825). After her husband was guillotined, she founded the Order of the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis in Vannes, France.
Blessed Placide Viel, virgin (†1877). French religious, elected second Superior General of the Sisters of the Christian Schools; she gave great impetus to the congregation during thirty years of governance, humbly enduring many setbacks and misunderstandings.
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