Catholic Missal of the day: Thursday, January 24 2019

Thursday of the Second week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Second week in Ordinary Time

1. Reading

Letter to the Hebrews

7,25-28.8,1-6.

]Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
]It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.
]He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself.
]For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.
]The main point of what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
]a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.
]Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.
]If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.
]They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle. For he says, "See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
]Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.

Psalm

Psalms

40(39),7-8a.8b-9.10.17.

]Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
]then said I, “Behold I come.”
]“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
]To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
]I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
]May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you,
and may those who love your salvation
say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”

Gospel

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

3,7-12.

]Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
]Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
]He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him.
]He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him.
]And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God."
]He warned them sternly not to make him known.

---

St. Francis of Sales(Doctor of the Church († 1622))

SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES Bishop and Doctor of the Church (1566-1622) St. Francis of Sales was a nobleman whose family ruled Haute-Savoie, France. He was privately tutored at religious colleges and had a grand political-military career marked out for him by his father. He was initially afraid for his soul, but his prayers before the Black Madonna reassured him of God's eternal, unfailing love. St. Francis' father did not accept his son's religious vocation and only consentedwhen Francis was given a position in Geneva. St. Francis ministered in territories near Geneva under constant threat of violence from Calvinists. He worked under the auspices of the Duke of Savoy, together with his cousin Louis of Sales. It is stated that he converted 72,000 Calvinists. His simple sermons, rooted in love and without condemnation for heretics became the touchstone for countless conversions. St. Francis preached in Annecy, France, where the king welcomed him as a courtier in spite of the latter's excesses. St. Francis thus became a consultant to noblemen on many matters and even on welcoming Teresa of Avila's order in France. He was consecrated coadjutor bishop of Geneva in 1602 at the Pope's behest and founded religious communities. Together with St. Jane Frances of Chantal, he founded the Order of the Visitation in Annecy, which soon spread across Europe. At times, St. Francis' gentleness toward heretics and sinners nearly scandalized his friends. One of them said, "Francis of Sales will go to Paradise of course, but I am not so sure of the Bishop of Geneva. I am almost afraid his gentleness will play him a shrewd turn." "Ah," said the Saint, "I would rather account to God for too great gentleness than for too great severity. Is not God all love? God the Father is the Father of mercy; God the Son is a Lamb; God the Holy Spirit is a Dove that is gentleness itself." His elegant, powerful preaching, rooted in God's love and mercy, led him to author several spiritual classics, including "Introduction to the Devout Life" and "Treatise on the Love of God." His spirituality has made him the father of religious communities the world over. St. Francis declined excess provisions, dignities and the great see of Paris. Hepassed away in Avignon in 1622. The following words from scripture well-summarize his influence: "Goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Ps. 23:6).

misalcatolico.com

---

Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2019 / Catholic Missal of january 2019