Saturday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, bishop and Doctor of the Church. He entered the Company of Jesus at 18 years of age. An outstanding exegete and theologian, he fought the errors of protestantism. As a professor and Spiritual Father of the Roman College, he was the spiritual director of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, whom he guided during his last years, and as a Cardinal, he was adviser to several Popes. He died in Rome in 621.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49
Brothers and sisters: Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?” You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 56:10C-12, 13-14 (R.14)
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
Now I know that God is with me.
In God, in whose promise I glory,
in God I trust without fear;
what can flesh do against me? R.
I am bound, O God, by vows to you;
your thank offerings I will fulfill.
For you have rescued me from death,
my feet, too, from stumbling;
that I may walk before God in the light of the living. R.
Gospel – Lk 8: 4-15
When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to Jesus, He spoke in a parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, He called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” Then His disciples asked Him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand. “This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”
Featured Saints
St. Hildegard of Bingen, virgin and Doctor of the Church (†1179). Optional Memorial. Religious from the Monastery of Mount St. Rupert in Bingen (Germany), she was favoured with special mystical gifts, based upon which she composed several musical works and and wrote books on medicine, natural sciences and mystical contemplation.
St. Peter Arbues, priest and martyr (†1485). Canon Regular of the Order of St. Augustine, who fought against superstitions and heresies in the kingdom of Aragon, and was killed by hired assassins at the foot of the altar of the Cathedral of Zaragoza, Spain.
St. Satyrus of Milan, layman(†377). Brother of Sts. Ambrose and Marcellina. He lived his Faith with utmost integrity, being an example of uprightness. In his obsequies St. Ambrose delivered a sermon which is read in the Office for the Dead until today.
St. Francis Mary of Camporosso, religious(†1866). Capuchin brother, he offered his life for the salvation of the victims of a cholera epidemic that devastated Genoa, Italy.
St. Colomba of Cordoba, virgin and martyr (†853). She dedicated herself to the study of the Sacred Scriptures. During the persecutions of Muhammad I, she was beheaded and her body cast into the Guadalquivir River, whence it was retrieved by Christians.
Blessed Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, priest (†1701). Founder of the Marina Cleric of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, in Gora Kalwaria, Poland.
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