Sunday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Ez 33:7-9
Thus says the LORD: You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear Me say anything, you shall warn them for Me. If I tell the wicked, “O wicked one, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (R.8)
R. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to Him. R.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For He is our God,
and we are the people He shepherds, the flock He guides. R.
Oh, that today you would hear His voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tempted Me;
they tested me though they had seen My works.” R.
Second Reading – Rom 13:8-10
Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet, ” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Gospel – Mt 18:15-20
Jesus said to His disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
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.
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