Friday of the Second week of Lent

Book of Genesis

Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.
One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem,
Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them." "I am ready," Joseph answered.
The man told him, "They have moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, 'Let us go on to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan.
They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him.
They said to one another: "Here comes that master dreamer!
Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams."
When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: "We must not take his life.
Instead of shedding blood," he continued, "just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but don't kill him outright." His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on;
then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry.
They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt.
Judah said to his brothers: "What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood?
Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.
They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. Some Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and took him to Egypt.

Psalms

When the LORD called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?
Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them.
And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

St. Marie Eugenie of Jesus(foundress of the Religious of the Assumption (1817-1898))

Saint Marie Eugenie of JesusFoundress of the Religious of the Assumption (1817 - 1898) Anne Marie Eugenie was born in 1817, in Metz, after Napoleon's defeat and the restoration of the monarchy. She belonged to a non-believing and financially comfortable family. It seemed unlikely that she would trace a new spiritual path across the Church in France. Anne Marie's father was a follower of Voltaire and a liberal, and made his fortune in banking and in politics. Her mother provided an education, which developed Anne Marie's character and gave her a strong sense of duty. Family life developed Anne Marie's intellectual curiosity, romantic spirit, interest in social questions and a broad world view. Like her contemporary, George Sand, Anne Marie went to Mass on feast days and received the Sacraments of initiation, but did so according to custom and without real commitment. However, her First Communion was a mystical experience that foretold the secret of her future. She did not grasp its prophetic meaning until much later when she recognized it as her path towards total belonging to Jesus Christ and the Church. Anne Marie's youth was happy, but not without suffering. When she was a child, her elder brother and a baby sister passed away, which deeply affected her. Anne Marie's health was delicate and a fall from a horse left serious consequences. She was mature for her age and learned how to hide her feelings and to face up to events. Later, after a prosperous period for her father, she experienced the failure of his banks, the misunderstanding and eventual separation of her parents and the loss of all security. She had to leave her family home and go to Paris while Louis, closest to her in age and a faithful companion, went to live with their father. Eugenie went to Paris with the mother she adored, only to see her die from cholera after a few hours of illness, leaving her alone at the age of fifteen in a society that was worldly and superficial. Searching in anguish and almost desperate for the truth, she came ever-nearer to her conversion. When she was nineteen, Anne Marie attended the Lenten Conferences at Notre Dame in Paris, preached by the young Abbe Lacordaire, already well-known for his talent as orator. Lacordaire was a former disciple of Lamennais ­- haunted by the vision of a renewed Church with a special place in the world. He understood his time and wanted to change it. He understood young people, their questions and their desires, their idealism and their ignorance of both Christ and the Church. His words touched Anne Marie's heart, answered her many questions, and aroused her generosity. Anne Marie envisaged Christ as the universal liberator and his kingdom on earth established as a peaceful and just society. "I was truly converted," she wrote, "and I was seized by a longing to devote all my strength or rather all my weakness to the Church which, from that moment, I saw as alone holding the key to the knowledge and achievement of all that is good." Just at this time, another preacher, also a former disciple of Lamennais, appeared on the scene. In the confessional, Father Combalot recognized that he had encountered a chosen soul who was designated to be the foundress of the Congregation he had dreamed of for a long time. He persuaded Eugenie to undertake his work by insisting that this Congregation was willed by God who had chosen her to establish it. He convinced her that only by education could she evangelize minds, make families truly Christian and thus transform the society of her time. Anne Marie accepted the project as God's will for her and allowed herself to be guided by the Abbe Combalot. At twenty-two, Anne Marie became foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, dedicated to consecrate their whole life and strength to extending the Kingdom of Christ in themselves and in the world. In 1839, Mademoiselle Eugenie Milleret, with two other young women, began a life of prayer and study in a flat at rue Ferou near the church of St. Sulpice in Paris. In 1841, under the patronage of Madame de Chateaubriand, Lacordaire, Montalembert and their friends, the sisters opened their first school. In a relatively short time, there were sixteen sisters of four nationalities in the community. Anne Marie and the first sisters wanted to link the ancient and the new: uniting the past treasures of the Church's spirituality and wisdom with a type of religious life and education able to satisfy the demands of modern minds. It was a matter of respecting the values of the period and at the same time, making the Gospel values penetrate the rising culture of a new industrial and scientific era. The spirituality of the Congregation, centered on Christ and the Incarnation, was both deeply contemplative and dedicated to apostolic action. It was a life given to the search for God and the love and service of others. Anne Marie's long life covered almost the whole of the 19th century. She loved her times passionately and took an active part in their history. Progressively, she channeled all her energy and gifts in tending and extending the Congregation, which became her life work. God gave her sisters and many friends. One of the first sisters was Irish, a mystic and her intimate friend whom she called at the end of her life, "half of myself." Kate O'Neill, called Mother Therese Emmanuel in religion, is considered as a co-foundress. Father Emmanuel d'Alzon, became Anne Marie's spiritual director soon after the foundation; and was a father, brother or friend according to the seasons. In 1845, he founded the Augustinians of the Assumption and the two founders helped each other in a multitude of ways over a period of forty years. Both had a gift for friendship and they inspired many lay people to work with them and the Church. Together, as they followed Christ and labored with him, the religious and laity traced the path of the Assumption and took their place in the great cloud of witnesses. In the last years of her life, Mother Anne Marie Eugenie experienced a progressive physical weakening, which she lived in silence and humility - a life totally centered on Christ. She received the Eucharist for the last time on March 9, 1898, and on the 10th, she gently passed over to the Lord. She was beatified by Pope Paul VI on February 9, 1975, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on June 3, 2007, in Rome.

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste († c. 320)()

THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE ( c. 320) The forty martyrs were soldiers quartered at Sebaste in Armenia around 320 A.D. When their legion was ordered to offer pagan sacrifice, the forty men declined. As punishment, they were scourged and torn with iron hooks, chained together and left to a lingering death. In the dead of winter, the men were condemned to freeze on the icy surface of a pond. With Christ so near in the trial before death, they removed their own garments and shambled - chained - toward the pond, singing hymns. To tempt them, the secular authorities placed hot baths nearby, yet not even one renounced his faith. They remained steadfast, and passed away one by one. Among the forty, there was a young soldier who held out the longest. When the officers came to cart away the bodies, they asked him to change his mind; but the soldier's mother encouraged him to triumph. He made a sign of recognition before being carried away; loyal and true to the very end. Forever in heaven, the martyrs praise God and intercede for us until the end of time.

St. Macarius()

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