Friday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Featured Saints
St. Nicholas of Tolentino, priest (†1305). From the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine; undertaking his divinely inspired mission, he laboured for the salvation of souls in Tolentino, Italy, for thirty years, working many wonders and bringing about a spiritual renewal there.
St. Autbert, Bishop (†c.725). Bishop of Avranches, France, he ordered the construction of a shrine in honour of St. Michael on Mount Tombe. The edifice, enlarged over the years, is today the famous abbey of Mont Saint-Michel
St. Theodard, bishop and martyr (c. 670). Bishop of Tongeren-Maastrich, master of St. Lambert.
St. Ambrose Edward Barlow, priest and martyr (†1641). Catholic convert from Anglicanism, he became a Benedictine priest abroad and returned to England, where he secretly ministered to Catholics of the Lancaster region for 24 years, before being arrested and executed there.
St. Nemesius, martyr(†251). Denounced as a Christian during the reign of Decius, he was scourged and burned alive in Alexandria, Egypt.
St. Pulcheria, empress and virgin (†453). Daughter of Arcadius, Byzantine Emperor. At the age of fifteen, she made a vow of virginity and transformed her living quarters into a into a place of hermitic reclusion, edifying the court with her example. She exercised an important role in the convocation of the 3rd council of Ephesus.
Blessed Sebastian Kimura and Francisco Morales, priests, and companions, martyrs (†1622). Cruelly tortured and killed with 50 other Catholics (priests, religious, couples, youths, catechists, widows and children), in Nagasaki, Japan.
Blessed Jacques Gagnot, priest and martyr (†1794). Carmelite religious who, during the French Revolution, was imprisoned in a sordid galley in Rochefort, where he died, consumed by illness.
Mass Readings
First Reading 1 Tm 1:1-2, 12-14
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true child in faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:1b-2a and 5, 7-8, 11 (R.cf.5)
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot. R.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. R.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever. R.
Gospel Lk 6:39-42
Jesus told his disciples a parable:
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
