Wednesday of the Twenty-first week in Ordinary Time

First Letter to the Thessalonians

2,9-13.

You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers.
As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children,
exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you conduct yourselves as worthy of the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that,in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not as a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.

Psalms

139(138),7-8.9-10.11-12ab.

Where can I go from your spirit?
from your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew

23,27-32.

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.'
Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!"

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St. Jeanne Jugan()

St. Jeanne JuganFoundress of Religious CommunitySt. Jeanne Jugan is the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 1982, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009, her virtues and intercession are everlasting. She grew up in a small town in revolutionary France. When those who openly practiced their faith were either imprisoned or killed, Jeanne received her faith formation from her mother and a group of women who belonged to a lay movement.When Jeanne was 4, her father was lost at sea. Her mother found odd jobs to make ends meet. While a young girl, Jeanne worked as a shepherdess. She also knit and spun wool. A while later, she went on to work as a maid for a wealthy family. Despite having a modest education, Jeanne's heart was ablaze with love and devotions for Jesus and Mary. Now, barely out of her teens, St. Jeanne felt the call of divine love. She told her mother, "God wants me for himself. He is keeping me for a work which is not yet founded." After, she set to work among the poor in a local hospital.One cold winter night, Jeanne encountered Jesus in the person of an elderly, blind, infirm woman, who was dying in the cold. Jeanne carried the woman home, lifted her up the stairs to her small room, and placed the woman in her bed. Henceforth, Jeanne would sleep in the attic as she made her home into a refuge for the destitute and marginalized in revolutionary France.God instilled great fervor and zealousness in Jeanne. Many women responded to the call, the invitation to serve. By the working of the Holy Spirit, a religious community was born. The local citizens were struck by their spirit of humble service, and called the group the Little Sisters of the Poor; and the name stuck. From then on, their order spread across France and beyond.Although the Order's foundress, Jeanne was early-on demoted by eclesiastical authorities, and an ambitious priest was placed in charge. Jeanne was sent out begging by the new Superior of the Order she had founded. In time, Jeanne was placed in retirement. At the time of her passing, 27 years later, the nacent Little Sisters had no idea Jeanne was their foundress. St. Jeanne said, "We are grafted onto the Cross, and we must carry it joyfully." Her rich spiritual reflections continue yielding grace and illuminating spiritual realities.In her words:"Be very little before God." ... "It is so good to be poor, ... (relinquishing everything), and depending on God for everything." ... "God will help us; the work is His."

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St. Fiaker(Anchorite († c. 670))

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SAINT FIAKER Anchorite( c. 670) St. Fiaker was born in Ireland and educated by a bishop, who some say was Conan, Bishop of Soder or the Western Islands. Rejecting worldly vanity, he renounced a splendid career to live as a mystic. He then sailed to France to maintain holy solitude. Divine Providence conducted Fiaker to St. Faro, who was the Bishop of Meaux. When they met, the prelate discerned Fiaker's marks of extraordinary virtue and ability, and gave the latter a solitary dwelling in a forest called Breuil. In this place, the holy Anchorite cleared the ground of trees and briers, made himself a cell, a small garden, and built an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in which he spent a great part of the days and nights in devout prayer. He tilled his garden and labored with his own hands for subsistence. Fiaker constantly maintained the presence of God, and only necessity or charity interrupted his exercises. Many approached him for advice, and the poor of spirit for divine gifts. Following the Trish monks' rule, he never had a woman enter his personal enclosure. St. Chillen, or Kilian, an Irish nobleman, visited St. Fiaker on his return from Rome. With time under Fiaker's disciple, St. Kilian went on to preach in the neighboring dioceses with every bishops' approval. Selfless and loyal to the end, St. Fiaker awaits us, the Church Militant, on the threshold of heaven, praying and interceding for us until the end of time.

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St. Pammachius()

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misalcatolico.com

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2023 / Catholic Missal of august 2023