Thursday of the Nineteenth week in Ordinary Time

Book of Joshua

Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses.
Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come to a halt in the Jordan when they reach the edge of the waters."
So Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD, your God."
He continued: "This is how you will know that there is a living God in your midst, who at your approach will dispossess the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.
The ark of the covenant of the LORD of the whole earth will precede you into the Jordan.
When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the LORD, the Lord of the whole earth, touch the water of the Jordan, it will cease to flow; for the water flowing down from upstream will halt in a solid bank."
The people struck their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them.
No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark waded into the waters at the edge of the Jordan, which overflows all its banks during the entire season of the harvest,
than the waters flowing from upstream halted, backing up in a solid mass for a very great distance indeed, from Adam, a city in the direction of Zarethan; while those flowing downstream toward the Salt Sea of the Arabah disappeared entirely. Thus the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
While all Israel crossed over on dry ground, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD remained motionless on dry ground in the bed of the Jordan until the whole nation had completed the passage.

Psalms

When Israel came forth from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from an alien people,
Judah became God's holy place,
Israel, God's domain.
The sea beheld and fled;
the Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams;
the hills, like lambs of the flock.
Why was it, sea, that you fled?
O Jordan, that you turned back?
You mountains, that you skipped like rams?
You hills, like lambs of the flock?

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.'
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?'
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."
When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

St. Maximilian Kolbe(Priest and Martyr (1894-1941))

St. Maximilian KolbePriest and Martyr(1894-1941) Raymond Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894, in Zdunska Wola, Poland, when it was occupied by Russia. The Kolbe home was poor but full of love. His parents, hardworking and religious, educated their three sons and gifted them with rectitude. Around 1906, an event took place that marked a fundamental milestone in his life. His mother related the event a few months after her son's martyrdom. "I knew ahead of time, based on an extraordinary event that took place in his infancy, that Maximilian would die a martyr. I just don't recall if it took place before or after his first confession. Once I did not like one of his pranks and I reproached him for it: 'My son, what ever will become of you?' Later, I did not think of it again, but I noticed that the boy had changed so radically, he was hardly recognizable. We had a small altar hidden between two dressers before which he used to often retire without being noticed and he would pray there crying. In general, he had a conduct superior to his age, always recollected and serious and when he prayed he would burst into tears. I was worried, thinking he had some sort of illness so I asked him: 'Is there anything wrong? You should share everything with your mommy!' Trembling with emotion and with his eyes flooded in tears, he shared: 'Mama, when you reproached me, I pleaded with the Blessed Mother to tell me what would become of me. At Church I did the same; I prayed the same thing again. So then the Blessed Mother appeared to me holding in her hands two crowns: one white the other red. She looked at me with tenderness and asked me if I wanted these two crowns. The white one signified that I would preserve my purity and the red that I would be a martyr. I answered that I accepted them...(both of them). Then the Virgin Mary looked at me with sweetness and disappeared.' The extraordinary change in the boys' behavior testified to me the truth of what he related. He was fully conscious and as he spoke to me, with his face radiating; it showed me his desire to die a martyr." When he was 13, he entered the Franciscan Fathers Seminary in the Polish city of Lvov, which was occupied by Austria. It was in the seminary where he adopted the name Maximilian. He later completed his studies in Rome. Before his ordination as a priest in 1918, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to Our Lady. He spread the movement through a magazine entitled "The Knight of the Immaculata." "We should conquer the universe and each soul, now and in the future until the end of time, for the Immaculata and through her for the Sacred Heart of Jesus" (St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, The Knight of the Immaculata). Maximilian went to Japan and then to India, where he furthered the Movement. After a few years in Japan, he was summoned back to Poland, largely due to his ever-declining health. Three years later, in the midst of the Second World War, he was imprisoned along with other friars and sent to concentration camps in Germany and Poland. In February of 1941, he was again imprisoned and sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where in spite of the terrible living conditions, he continued his ministry. On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. Father Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. He was the last to die after two weeks of starvation, thirst and neglect. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982 as a Martyr of Charity.

Bl. Eberhard()

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2025 / Catholic Missal of august 2025