Catholic Missal of the day: Sunday, March 12 2017
Second Sunday of Lent
Second Sunday of Lent
1. ReadingBook of Genesis
12,1-4a.]The LORD said to Abram: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.
]I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
]I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you."
]Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Psalms
33(32),4-5.18-19.20.22.]Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
]He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
]See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
]To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
]Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield,
]May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
Second Letter to Timothy
1,8b-10.]Beloved: So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.
]He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
]but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew
17,1-9.]Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
]And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
]And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.
]Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
]While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."
]When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.
]But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and do not be afraid."
]And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
]As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, "Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
St. Luigi Orione(Priest (1872-1940))
Saint Luigi Orione Priest (1872-1940) St. Luigi Orione was born in Pontecurone, the diocese of Tortona, on June 23, 1872. He entered the Franciscan Friary of Voghera (Pavia) at 13 years old, but left after one year because of poor health. From 1886 to 1889, he was a pupil of St. John Bosco at the Valdocco Oratory (Youth Center) in Turin. On October 16, 1889, St. Luigi joined the diocesan seminary of Tortona. As a young seminarian, he devoted himself to serving others through the San Marziano Society for Mutual Help and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. On July 3, 1892, he opened the first Oratory in Tortona for the Christian formation of boys. On October 15, 1893, he started a boarding school for poor boys on the Saint Bernardine estate. He was ordained a priest on April 13, 1895, together with six pupils from the boarding school. He then opened new houses in Mornico Losana (Pavia), Noto in Sicily, Sanremo and Rome. Seminarians and priests comprised the first core group of St. Luigi's "Little Work of Divine Providence." The Hermits of Divine Providencewere founded in 1899. The Sons of Divine Providencewere founded on March 21, 1903, after Bp. Mgr. Ignio Bandi's canonical approval. The congregation "co-operates to bring the little ones, the poor and the people, to the Church and to the Pope, by means of the works of charity," and professes a fourth vow of special "faithfulness to the Pope." In the first Constitutions of 1904, among the aims of the new Congregation, was working to "achieve the union of the separated Churches." Inspired by a profound love for the Church and for the salvation of souls, St. Luigi engaged with the problems of his time, such as the freedom and unity of the Church, the Roman question, modernism, socialism and the Christian evangelization of industrial workers.He rushed to assist the victims of the earthquakes of Reggio and Messina (1908) and the Marsica region (1915). He was afterward appointed vicar general of the Diocese of Messina for three years by Saint Pius X. On June 29, 1915, twenty years after the foundation of the Sons of Divine Providence, St. Luigi added to the "single tree of many branches" the Congregation of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity. Alongside them, he placed the Blind Sisters, Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Later, the Contemplative Sisters of Jesus Crucified were also founded.For lay people, he set up the associations of the "Ladies of Divine Providence," the "Former Pupils," and the "Friends." More recently, the Don Orione Secular Institute and the Don Orione Lay People's Movement have come into being. Following the First World War (1914-1918), the number of schools, boarding houses, agricultural schools, charitable and welfare works increased. Among his most enterprising and original works, he set up the "Little Cottolengos" for the care of the suffering and abandoned. The shelters were usually built on the outskirts of large cities to act as "new pulpits" from which to speak of Christ and of the Church, "true beacons of faith and of civilization." St. Luigi first sent his religious to Brazil in 1913. They subsequently expanded to Argentina and Uruguay (1921), Palestine (1921), Poland (1923), Rhodes (1925), the USA (1934), England (1935) and Albania (1936). From 1921 to 1922, and from 1934 to 1937, he made two missionary journeys to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. St. Luigi was entrusted with sorting out problems and healing wounds, both inside the Church and in society. He was a preacher, a confessor and a tireless organiser of pilgrimages, missions, processions, live cribs and other popular manifestations and celebrations of the faith. He loved Our Lady deeply and fostered devotion to Her by every means possible. Through the manual labor of his seminarians, the shrines of Our Lady of Safe Keeping in Tortona and Our Lady of Caravaggio in Fumo were built. In the winter of 1940, with the intention of easing his heart and lung complications, he went to the Sanremo house, even though, as he said, "it is not among the palm trees that I would like to die, but among the poor who are Jesus Christ." Only three days later, on March 12, 1940, surrounded by his confreres, he passed away while sighing, "Jesus, Jesus! I am going." St. Luigi's body was found uncorrupted at its first exhumation in 1965. It has been exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the shrine of Our Lady of Safe Keeping in Tortona ever since October 26, 1980 - the day he was declared blessed by Pope John Paul II. St. Luigi was canonized on May 16, 2004.
St. Maximilian()
Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2017 / Catholic Missal of march 2017
Published: 2026-07-14T18:16:16Z | Modified: 2026-07-14T18:16:16Z