Thursday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Jb 19:21-27
Job said: Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me! Why do you hound me as though you were divine, and insatiably prey upon me? Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record: That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever! But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him, And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 27:7-8A, 8B-9ABC, 13-14 (R.13)
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks. R.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper: cast me not off. R.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD. R.
Gospel – Lk 10:1-12
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”
Featured Saints
Sts. Andrew de Soveral and Ambrose Francisco Ferro, priests, and 28 lay companions, protomartrys of Brazil († 1645). These two priests were massacred with their parishioners gathered for Mass, by armed natives led by Dutch Calvinists. The number of Catholics hacked to death out of hatred for the Faith was in fact close to two hundred, but only 30 of them could be identified.
St. Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop († First century). Converted by St. Paul In the Aeropagus of Athens, he became the first bishop of this city.
St. Maximian, bishop (†c. 410). Bishop of Bagai, present-day Algeria. He repeatedly underwent torture at the hands of heretics, and was thrown from the top of a tower. Left for dead, he nevertheless recuperated and continued his labours for the Catholic Faith.
St. Cyprian of Toulon, bishop (†after 543). Disciple of St. Caesarius of Arles, he defended the true doctrine on grace in a number of councils.
The Two St. Ewalds, priests and martyrs (†695). These two Northumbrian priests of the same name were distinguished as “Ewald the Black” and “Ewald the Fair”. Having set out from England to evangelize in the German region of Westphalia, they were martyred near Dortmund, by local pagans. St. Bede records several wonders associated with their bodies after death.
St. Gerard of Brogne, abbot (†959). Founder of the monastery of Brogne and reformer of the Benedictan abbey of Saint-Ghislain, Belgium. After instilling monastic discipline in Flanders and eventually becoming the superior of eighteen other abbeys in France, he returned to Broan to end his days as a hermit.
St. Hesychius, monk († Fourth century). A disciple of St. Hilarion and his companion in pilgramage, he died in Maiuma, Palestine.
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