Mass Readings

First Reading – Rom 6:19-23

Brothers and sisters: I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Responsorial Psalm – Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 (R.Ps 40:5)

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

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 12:49-53

Jesus said to His disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Featured Saints

St. Cedd, bishop (†664). A monk missionary to diverse regions of England. Ordained bishop of the East Saxons by St. Finan, he founded several churches and monasteries, including that of Lastingham, in Yorkshire. Brother of St. Chad. (Optional Memorial in England.)

St. Albinus, bishop. (†786).  Benedictine monk of Anglo-Saxon origin, one of the companions of St. Boniface in the Evangelization of Germany, appointed Bishop of  Buraburg, Hesse.

St. Fulk, bishop (†1229). Born in Piacenza, Italy, of Scottish parents. Appointed Bishop of Pavia, where he founded schools and dedicated himself the the spiritual welfare of his flock, abstaining from political affairs.

St. Eata, bishop (†circa 686). Disciple of St. Aidan. After serving as abbot in several monasteries, he became Bishop of Hexham, England, without abandoning  monastic asceticism.

St. Rusticus, bishop (†circa 461). He evangelized the people of the region of Narbonne, France, as head of that diocese, and took part in the Council of Ephesus which condemned Nestorianism.

St. Rogatianus, priest († third century). During the Decian persecution, St. Cyprian entrusted the  administration of the Church of Carthage to him. Together with St. Felicissimus, he suffered many tribulations for the love of Christ’s name.

Sts. Lucian and Marcian,  martyrs (†c. 250). According to tradition, for their Christian Faith they were burned alive in Izmit, Turkey, by order of the proconsul Sabinus, during the reign of Emperor Decius.

 Blessed Damian of Fulcheri,  priest (†1484). Dominican priest, untiring preacher in the regions of Ligouri, Lombardy and Emilia, Italy.

 Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza,  priest (†1711). Religious from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual; he was an outstanding preacher and favoured with mystical gifts .

Blessed Celine Chludzinska Borzecka, religious (†1913). She founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Rome.