Wednesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Paul VI, pope.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Pt 1:18-25
Beloved: Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb. He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, love one another intensely from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for: “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever.” This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 (R.12a)
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you. R
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word! R
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia. R.
Gospel – Mk 10:45
The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.” Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?” They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Featured Saints
St. Maximin of Trier, Bishop (†c. 346 France). Fearless defender of the Faith against the Arians, he welcomed St. Athanasius of Alexandria into his diocese, and for this was expelled from it by the emperor.
St. Bona de Pisa, virgin (†1207). She consecrated herself to God from her youth and embraced a life of poverty and austerity. She made frequent pilgrimages to the Holy land, to Rome and to Santiago of Compostela.
St. Ursula Ledochowska, virgin (†1939). Polish noble, foundress of the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus, and travelled untiringly on mission to Poland, Russia and Scandinavia.
Blessed Richard Thirkeld, priest and martyr (†1583). Hanged, drawn, and quartered in York, during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, for practicing his priestly ministry and for having reconciled many with the Church.
Blessed Joseph Gerard, priest (†1914). French missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, he preached the Gospel first in Durban (Indian Ocean) and later in Basutoland, in South Africa.
Blessed William Arnaud and ten companions, martyrs (†1242). Dominican religious put to death by the sword by the Cathars, near Toulouse, France, for having opposed this heresy. They died singing the Te Deum.
Blessed Gherardesca, widow (†1269). Married but childless, she decided to consecrate herself to God, together with her husband. He entered the Camaldolese monastery of Pisa, Italy, and she lived as an oblate in a cell built adjacent to the same monastery.
Image gallery
St. Gildas of Ryhs