Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis of Assisi, (†1226). Son of a wealthy merchant of Assisi, he took part, as a young man, in military expeditions during the conflicts erupting between Italian cities at that time. After he heard Our Lord Crucified asking him to rebuild His Church, which was in ruins, he abandoned the world and founded the Order of Friars Minor, and, with St. Clare, the Franciscan Clarist Order.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Gal 1:13-24
Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions. But when He, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son to me, so that I might proclaim Him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the Apostles, only James the brother of the Lord. (As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” So they glorified God because of me.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 139:1B-3, 13-14AB, 14C-15 (R. 24b)
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
O LORD, You have probed me and You know me;
You know when I sit and when I stand;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest You scrutinize,
with all my ways You are familiar. R.
Truly You have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give You thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are Your works. R.
My soul also You knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to You
When I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth. R.
Gospel – Lk 10:38-42
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to Him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to Him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
Featured Saints
St. Petronius of Bologna, bishop (†c. 450). He renounced the office he held in the Roman Empire and dedicated himself the the service of the Church. He is celebrated for his learning and his miracles.
Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, priest (†1867). Redemptorist religious of Bavarian origin, sent on mission to the United States, he dedicated himself to the assistance of youth and of German-speaking immigrants. (USA: transferred to Ocober 5.)
St. Peter of Damascus, bishop and martyr (†1750). When his diocese of Damascus in Syria was invaded by Muslims, he was blinded and crucified, before being beheaded.
St. Aurea of Paris, abbess (†c. 667). Superior of the Abbey of St. Martial, in Paris, where 300 virgins lived under the Rule of St. Columbanus.
Blessed José Canet Giner, priest and martyr (†1936). Parish priest of the Archdiocese of Valencia who was killed by firing squad at the age of thirty-three in Gandia, as part of the anti-Catholic persecution of the Spanish Civil War.
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