Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Baruch 1:15-22
During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed: “Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him. We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us. From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until the present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God, and only too ready to disregard his voice. And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant, at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt to give us the land flowing with milk and honey, cling to us even today. For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9(R.9)
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the corpses of your servants
as food to the birds of heaven,
the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth. R.
They have poured out their blood like water
round about Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
We have become the reproach of our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
O LORD, how long? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire? R.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low. R.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name’s sake. R.
Gospel – Lk 10:13-16
Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
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.
Image gallery
