Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop
St. Martin of Tours, Bishop of this city, appointed in 371. He was born in Hungary and abandoned a military career in order to become a religious. It was during his time as a soldier that the famous episode took place of his cutting his cloak in half to clothe a beggar suffering from the cold. He went on to found several monasteries, including that of Ligugé, o the oldest in Europe.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Jn 4-9
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father. But now, Lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning: let us love one another. For this is love, that we walk according to His commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist. Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18 (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. R.
Blessed are they who observe His decrees,
who seek Him with all their heart. R.
With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from Your commands. R.
Within my heart I treasure Your promise,
that I may not sin against You. R.
Be good to Hour servant, that I may live
and keep Your words. R.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of Your law. R.
Gospel – Lk 17:26-37
Jesus said to His disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, someone who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise one in the field must not return to what was left behind. Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left.” They said to Him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”
Featured Saints
St. Veranus, bishop (†fifth century). Governed the Diocese of Vence, France with wisdom and sanctity; he supported the letter of St. Leo the Great against monophysitism.
St. Theodore the Studite, abbot (†826). Abbot of the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople; under his governance were formed saints and martyrs who died as victims of the iconoclast persecutions.
St. Bartholomew, abbot (†1055). Disciple of St. Nilus of Rossano, whom he helped found the Abbey of St. Mary of Grottaferrata, near Rome; he developed this monastery into a school of arts and sciences.
St. Marina de Omura, virgin and martyr (†1634). Dominican tertiary who was imprisoned and burned alive in Nagasaki, Japan, for her Christian Faith.
Blessed Vincent Eugene Bossilkov, bishop and martyr (†1952). Religious of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, he was tortured and shot by the Bolshevist regime in Bulgaria for refusing to renounce the Pope.
Blessed Vincenza Maria, virgin (†1855). With Blessed Charles Steeb, she founded the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, Italy.
Blessed Alice Kotowska, virgin and martyr (†1939). Religious from the Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection, she was killed by a Nazi firing squad in Laski Piasnica, Poland.
Image gallery
