Wednesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – Col 3:1-11
Brothers and sisters: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and ncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 145:2-3, 10-11, 12-13ab (R. 9)
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable. R.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might. R.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations. R.
Gospel – Lk 6:20-26
Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. “Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
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. See also: He Spoke Always for God and of God
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.
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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