Thursday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time

First Letter to the Thessalonians

We have been reassured about you, brothers and sisters, in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.
For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you, for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?
Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.
Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you,
and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.

Psalms

You turn man back to dust,
saying, "Return, O children of men."
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
Prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: "Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'
and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

St. Augustine(Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPOBishop and Doctor of the Church(354-430) St. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Africa. He was brought up in the Christian faith, but was not baptized. As an ambitious schoolboy of brilliant talents and violent passions, he lost his faith and his innocence early on. He persisted in his irregular life until age 32. Being then in Milan and professing rhetoric, he tells us that the faith of his childhood had regained possession of his intellect, but he could not resolve to break the chains of evil habit. One day, stung to the heart by an account of some sudden conversions, he cried out, "The unlearned rise and storm heaven, and we, with all our learning, for lack of heart, lie wallowing here." He then withdrew into a garden, where a long and terrible conflict ensued. Suddenly, a young fresh voice (he knows not whose) broke in upon his strife with the words, "Take and read." He alighted upon the passage, "Walk honestly as in the day"; and with that, the battle was won. Augustine received baptism, returned home and gave everything to the poor and the Church. In Hippo, where he settled, he was consecrated bishop in 395. For 35 years, he was the center of ecclesiastical life in Africa and the Church's mightiest champion against heresy. His writings have been accepted everywhere as one of the principal sources of devotional thought and theological speculation. Among his many spiritual classics are Confessions and The City of God.

St. Edmund Arrowsmith()

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