Friday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time
In the USA, memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin (†1917). She founded the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and left her native Italy with her followers to embark on a mission in the United States, where she dedicated herself to caring for immigrants with outstanding charity. She died in Chicago, at Columbus Hospital, which she had founded as part of her work (Celebrated in the General Calendar on December 22.)
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 John 4-9
[Chosen Lady:] 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 – 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 your 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. Homobonus (†1197). Merchant from Cremona, Italy, who excelled in charity toward the poor and abandoned children.
St. Nicholas I, Pope (†867). He consolidated the authority of the Roman Pontiff throughout the Church.
Sts. Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychian, martyrs (†473). For refusing to adhere to the Arian heresy, they were exiled from Spain to Africa and tortured before being executed.
St. Maxellendis, virgin and martyr (†670). Having chosen Christ as spouse, she refused the fiancé to whom she had been promised, and he killed her by the sword in Cambrai, France.
St. Augustina Pietrantoni, virgin (†1894). Religious of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity who cared for victims of tuberculosis in Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome. She died there after being stabbed by an enraged patient.
Blesseds Peter Vicev and Josafat Siskov, priest and martyrs (†1952). Religious from the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption. During the Communist regime in Bulgaria, they were imprisoned on the accusation of spying and conspiracy against the “people’s power” and killed by firing squad in Sofia.
Blessed John Gonga Martínez, martyr (†1936). Lay catechist from the city of Carcaixent, near Valencia, killed during the Spanish Civil War; known for his many works of charity.
Blessed María Patrocinio Giner Gómis of St. John, virgin and martyr (†1936). Religious from the Clarist Missionaries, killed in Portichol, near Valencia, during the Spanish Civil War.
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