Saturday of the Fourth week of Lent

Book of Jeremiah

I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.
Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: "Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more."
But, you, O Lord of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!

Psalms

O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion's prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet."
Others said, "This is the Messiah." But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this one."
So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?
They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
Then each went to his own house,

St. Francis of Paula(Hermit (1416-1508))

SAINT FRANCIS OF PAULA Hermit(1416-1508) When he was fifteen, St. Francis left his home at Paula in Calabria, Italy to live as a hermit in a cave by the sea. In time, disciples gathered around him. In 1436, he founded the "Minims," so called to show that they were the least of monastic Orders. The monks observed a perpetual Lent, and never touched meat, fish, eggs, or milk. Francis himself made a rock his bed. His best garment was a hair-shirt, and he subsisted on boiled herbs. As his body withered, his faith grew powerful, and he "did all things in Him who strengthened me." He cured the sick, raised the dead, averted plagues, expelled evil spirits, and brought sinners to penance. A famous preacher, instigated by a few misguided monks, set to work to preach against St. Francis and his miracles. The Saint took no notice of it, and the preacher, finding that he made no way with his hearers, determined to see the poor hermit in person. The Saint received him kindly, gave him a seat by the fire, and listened to a long exposition of his own frauds. He then quietly took some glowing embers from the fire, and closing his hands upon them unhurt, said, "Come, Father Anthony, warm yourself, for you are shivering for want of a little charity." Fr. Anthony, falling at the Saint's feet, asked for pardon, and then, having received his embrace, quitted him, became the latter's panegyrist, and attained himself to greater perfection. When the avaricious King Ferdinand of Naples offered St. Francis money for his convent, St. Francis told him to give it back to his oppressed subjects; and softened the king's heart by causing blood to flow from the coins.Louis XI of France, trembling at the approach of death, sent for St. Francis to ward off the foe whose advance neither his fortresses nor his guards could check. St. Francis went, by the Pope's command, and prepared Louis XI for a holy death. The successors of Louis showered favors on the Saint; his Order spread throughout Europe, and his name was reverenced through the Christian world.He passed away at the age of ninety-one, on Good Friday, 1507, with the crucifix in his hand and Jesus' name on his lips.

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2022 / Catholic Missal of april 2022