Friday of the First week in Ordinary Time

Letter to the Hebrews

4,1-5.11.

Let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed.
For in fact we have received the good news just as they did. But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened.
For we who believed enter into (that) rest, just as he has said: "As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter into my rest,'" and yet his works were accomplished at the foundation of the world.
For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works";
and again, in the previously mentioned place, "They shall not enter into my rest."
Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

Psalms

78(77),3.4bc.6c-7.8.

What we have heard and know,
And what our fathers have declared to us,
we will declare to the generation to come
The glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength.
That they too may rise and declare to their sons
that they should put their hope in God,
And not forget the deeds of God
but keep his commands.
And not be like their fathers,
a generation wayward and rebellious,
A generation that kept not its heart steadfast
nor its spirit faithful toward God.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

2,1-12.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk'?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"--
he said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

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St. Hilary of Poitiers(Bishop and Doctor of the Church (c. 315- c. 367))

SAINT HILARY OF POITIERS Bishop and Doctor of the Church (c. 315-c. 367) St. Hilary was a native of Poitiers in Aquitaine. Born and educated a pagan, it was not till middle age that he embraced Christianity, moved thereto by God presented in the Holy Scriptures. He soon converted his wife and daughter, and detached himself from anti-Christian company. At the beginning of his conversion, St. Hilary would not eat with Jews or heretics, nor salute them by the way, but he relaxed his severity for their sake: a true mirror of Christ. He received Holy Orders; and in 350, was consecrated bishop of Poitiers. The Arian heresy, under the protection of Emperor Constantine, was then at its peak. St. Hilary supported the orthodox cause in several Gallic councils, where Arian bishops formed an overwhelming majority. As a consequence, he was banished to Phrygia. He spent four years in exile composing his great Treatise on the Trinity, and many others works. In 359, he attended the Council of Seleucia in Constantinople. He went there with the council's deputies and contended with Arians and other heretics. There, he confounded the reasoning of the Arian sect, which dismayed their leaders, to the point that they asked the emperor to make the Bishop return to Gaul. Bp. Hilary traversed Gaul, Italy and Illyria, disproving heresies in their incompleteness and procuring the triumph of orthodoxy. The incompleteness of heresy and its warping of the original teachings stem from selfishness and hard reasoning. "Heresy sets the mood against the mind" (Chesterton). After seven or eight years of missionary travel, St. Hilary returned to Poitiers, where he passed away peacefully in 368.

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St. Veronica of Binasco(Religious (c. 1445-1497))

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SAINT VERONICA OF BINASCO Religious (c. 1445-1497) Veronica's parents were peasants from a village near Milan. From childhood, Veronica toiled in the fields and home, but cheerfully performed every task. Gradually, the desire for perfection grew within her. She became deaf to self-centered jokes and songs, and sometimes hid her face and wept. Illiterate, she became enamored with learning, and rose secretly at night to teach herself to read. Our Lady told her that other things were necessary, but not this. She showed Veronica three mystical letters which would teach her more than books. The first signified purity of intention; the second, abhorrence of murmuring or criticism; the third, daily meditation on the Passion. By the first, she learned to begin her daily duties for no human motive, but God alone; by the second, she finished what she had begun by attending to her own affairs - never judging her neighbor, but praying for those who manifestly erred. By the third, she forgot her own pains and sorrows in those of the Lord - weeping hourly, but silently, for sins. She experienced ecstasies, and saw in successive visions the whole life of Jesus, and many other mysteries. Yet, by a special grace, neither her raptures nor her tears ever interrupted her labors. After three years' patient waiting, Veronica was received as a lay-sister in the convent of St. Martha at Milan. The community was extremely poor, and Veronica's duty was to beg through the city for their daily food. Three years after receiving the habit, she was afflicted with a secret but constant bodily pain, yet never consented to be relieved of her labors. By exact obedience, she became a living copy of the rule, and obeyed with a smile the least hint of her Superior. She sought the hardest and most humbling occupations, but through cheerful giving enjoyed the highest favors granted to the Saints. St. Veronica passed away in 1497, after a six-months illness, in the thirtieth year of her religious profession.

misalcatolico.com

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