Friday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27
Brothers and sisters: If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel. Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it. Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 84:3, 4, 5-6, 12 (R. 2)
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God. R.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God! R.
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
their hearts are set upon the pilgrimage. R.
For a sun and a shield is the LORD God;
grace and glory he bestows;
The LORD withholds no good thing
from those who walk in sincerity. 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.”
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 of Thebes, bishop and confessor (†fourth century). Egyptian anchorite who became a bishop; he survived torture during the persecutions of Galerius Maximianus and 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.
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