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 – Rom 3:21-30
Brothers and sisters: Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his Blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed, through the forbearance of God– to prove his righteousness in the present time, that he might be righteous and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. What occasion is there then for boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles, for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 130:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6ab(R.7)
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication. R.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
Lord, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered. R.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the LORD
more than sentinels wait for the dawn. R.
Gospel – Lk 11:47-54
The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
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). He 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). As 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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