Saturday of the First week of Advent

Book of Isaiah

Thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you.
The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,
While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: "This is the way; walk in it," when you would turn to the right or to the left.
He will give rain for the seed that you sow in the ground, And the wheat that the soil produces will be rich and abundant. On that day your cattle will graze in spacious meadows;
The oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat silage tossed to them with shovel and pitchfork.
Upon every high mountain and lofty hill there will be streams of running water. On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall,
The light of the moon will be like that of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times greater (like the light of seven days). On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left by his blows.

Psalms

Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
He calls each by name.
Great is our LORD and mighty in power:
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."
Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give."

St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin((1474-1548))

Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548) Little is known about Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition, archaelogical and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, "El Nican Mopohua" (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters in 1556 by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions. Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name "Cuauhtlatoatzin" ("the talking eagle"). He was born at Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the most culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. When he was 50, Juan Diego was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries. On December 9, 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, on the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On December 12, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as proof. When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground, and there remained impressed an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac. With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of God. Much deeper than the exterior grace of having been chosen as Our Lady's messenger, Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment; and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and love of God and neighbor. He passed away in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on May 6, 1990, by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City, and canonized on July 31, 2002. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman of mixed native and European heritage. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image depicts that Christ is to be born again among the people of the New World. Laser scanning and scientific instruments determined that the Virgin's eyes had rested upon those present at the Cloak's first unveiling. The representation of native traditions in colors and symbols, and the image's preservation from accidental destruction, confirms that the Blessed Virgin is alive and is the Mediatrix of the human race.

St. Leocadia(Virgin and Martyr († c. 304))

SAINT LEOCADIAVirgin and Martyr( c. 304) St. Leocadia was a native of Toledo. She was arrested in 304 on Governor Dacian's order. Hearing about St. Eulalia's martyrdom, St. Leocadia prayed for the courage to die for Jesus. Soon after, she was martyred in prison. Three famous churches in Toledo bear her name. In one of those churches, most of the councils of Toledo were held. St. Leocadia is honored as the city's principal patroness. St. Leocadia's relics were kept in the Toledo Church until the incursions of the Moors. Thus they were conveyed to Oviedo. They were transferred some years afterward to the abbey of St. Guislain, near Mons, at Hainault. They were finally carried back to Toledo with great celebration and placed in the Great Church on April 26, 1589.

St. Peter Fourier()

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