Saturday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Featured Saints
St. John Gabriel Perboyre, martyr (†1840). French priest of the Congregation of the Missions, he went to preach the Gospel in China. He was imprisoned and subjected to various torments during almost a year, and finally strangled to death on a cross.
St. Paphnutius, bishop and confessor (†fourth century). Egyptian bishop; he survived torture during the persecutions of Galerius Maximianus. He defended the divinity of Our Lord against Arianism at the Council of Nicaea.
St. Patiens, bishop (†480). In the diocese of Lyon, France, He laboured in the conversion of heretics and in aiding the needy, particularly the populations oppressed by hunger in cities on the Rhone and Saone Rivers.
St. Daniel (or Deiniol) Wyn, (†584). Bishop and abbot in Bangor, Wales.
Sts. Hyacinth and Protus, martyrs (†Third century), Rome.
St. Elias Speleota, abbot (†960). ) He went on pilgrimage for Rome, where he took the habit of St. Basil, and led the life of a penitent in the cave of Melicuccà, Italy.
Blessed Peter of Alcántara Villanueva Larráyoz, martyr (†1936). Religious from the Order of St. John of God killed in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.
Blessed Bonaventure of Barcelona, religious (†1648). Franciscan brother who founded several convents for spiritual retreats in Roman territory. He was favoured with the gift of discernment of spirits and that of contemplation.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Tm 1:15-17
Beloved: This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 113:1b-2, 3-4, 5 and 6-7 (R.2)
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forever. R.
From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory. R.
Who is like the LORD, our God,
and looks upon the heavens and the earth below?
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor. R.
Gospel – Lk 6:43-49
Jesus said to his disciples:
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
