Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorials: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin. At the age of 24 she entered the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial (France). Our Lord appeared to her several times, asking that a feast be dedicated to His Sacred Heart. It was the Jesuit St. Claude de La Colombière, her spiritual director, who supported her in the initiative to make these requests known. She died in 1690, at the age of 43. (In Canada: transferred to Oct. 20.)
St. Hedwig, religious. Duchess of Silesia and of Greater Poland, she was the aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Born in Baveria, she was married at the age of 12 and had 7 children. Together with her husband, she was an advocate of the poor and founded the hospital at Wroclaw. among others. After the death of her husband and of 6 children, she took the habit of the Cistercians in the convent of Trebnitz, where her only surviving daughter was abbess. She died in 1243. (In Canada: transferred to Oct. 20.)
Mass Readings
First Reading – Gal 5:18-25
Brothers and sisters: If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 (R. see Jn 8:12)
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night. R.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers. R.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes. R.
Gospel – Lk 11:42-46
The Lord said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”
Featured Saints
In Canada, Memorial of St. Marie-Marguerite D’Youville, religious (†1771). Memorial in Canada. As a young widow, she founded a religious Association dedicated to serving the poor and the sick, which eventually became the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, commonly known as the Grey Nuns. First native-born Canadian to be canonized.
St. Gerard Majella, religious (†1755). Redemptorist coadjutor brother, he sanctified himself by fulfilling the humble duties of sacristan, gardener, gatekeeper, nurse and tailor in the monastery.
St. Gall, abbot (†645). Formed in the monastery of Bangor, Ireland, he became a disciple of St. Columban and one of his twelve companions on the mission to continental Europe, where he worked tirelessly to spread the Gospel, particularly in the region of present-day St. Gallen in Switzerland, where the Abbey-Cathedral of St. Gall stands in the place of the original hermitage he built. See: Western Civilization Passed through Their Hands.
Blessed Augustine Thevarparampil, priest (†1973). He carried out his apostolate as a parish pastor in Ramapuram, India, and laboured for the conversion of many, finding his strength in the Blessed Sacrament.
St. Lullus, bishop (†786). A monk from Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, England, who joined St. Boniface in the evangelization of Germany, becoming his closest assistant and successor, being appointed by him as Archbishop of Mainz.
St. Longinus. (†first century). Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus crucified with a lance. According to tradition, the lymph that flowed from the divine side cured him of near-blindness and converted him.
St. Anastasius, hermit ( †c. 1085). When he was a hermit on the island of Tombelaine, close to Mont Saint-Michel, he was invited by St. Hugh to enter the monastery of Cluny. He died in Pamiers, having spent his final years in solitude.
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