Wednesday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

First Letter of Peter

realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a (pure) heart.
You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God,
for: "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts;
but the word of the Lord remains forever." This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

Psalms

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

St. Mother Ursula (Giulia) Ledóchowska(Religious (1865 - 1939))

M. Ursula (Giulia) Ledóchowska Religious (1865-1939) "If only I knew how to love, to burn and consume oneself in love," so Giulia Ledóchowska wrote at 24 years old. She then professed vows as a novice in the Ursuline convent of Krakow. She took the name "Maria Ursula of Jesus," and the words stated above became the guidelines of her entire life. In her mothers' family of Swiss nationality, from the dynasty of the Salis, and her father's Polish family, there were many politicians, military men and ecclesiastics. They were involved in the history of Europe and the Church. She was raised in a large family where affectionate and disciplined love was given freely. The first three children, including M. Ursula, chose the consecrated life: Maria Teresa (beatified in 1975) founded the Society of S. Peter Claver, and the younger brother, Vladimiro, became the father general of the Jesuits. M. Ursula lived at the convent in Krakow for 21 years. Her love for the Lord, educational talent and sensibility toward the needs of youngsters put her at the center of attention. When women won the right to study in universities, she succeeded in organizing the first boarding house in Poland for female students: where they not only found a safe place to live and study, but also received a solid religious preparation. This passion, together with the blessing of Pope Pio X, gave her the strength to move into the heart of Russia, which was hostile toward the Church. When she left with another Sister for Petersburg where religious life was prohibited, she did not know that she was headed toward an unknown destination and that the Holy Spirit would lead her on unforeseen paths. In Petersburg, the Mother, with a steadily growing community of nuns, soon established an autonomous structure of the Ursulines. They lived discreetly, under constant surveillance by the secret police, and brought forward an intense educational and religious project that also encouraged friendship between Poles and Russians. When war broke out in 1914, M. Ursula had to leave Russia. She headed for Stockholm; and during her travels to Sweden, Denmark and Norway, her activity concentrated on education, the life of the local Church, giving aid to war victims and ecumenical work. The house where she lived with her nuns became a point of reference for people of different political and religious orientations. Her strong love for country was equaled by her love of diversity and acceptance of others. Once asked to speak of her political orientation, she promptly answered, "My policy is love." In 1920, M. Ursula, her sisters and a vast number of orphan children of immigrants returned to Poland. The Apostolic Headquarters transformed its autonomous convent to the Ursulines of the Sacred Agonising Heart ofJesus. The spirituality of the congregation is concentrated on the contemplation of the salvific love of Christ and participation in His mission by means ofeducational projects and service to others, particularly to the suffering, the lonely and the abandoned. M. Ursula educated her sisters to love God above everything else and to find God in every human being and in all creation. By means of her smile, serenity and capacity to live the ordinary, everyday routine as a privileged road toward holiness, she gave a particularly credible testimony to the personal bond with Christ. The congregation developed quickly in Poland; and on the eastern frontiers of the country, communities of the Ursuline nuns were established. In 1928, the Generalate was established in Rome along with a boarding house for girls who were economically less well-off. The Sisters began to work in the poor suburbs of Rome. In 1930, the nuns accompanied girls in search of work and established themselves in France. Wherever possible, M.Ursula founded educational and instructional work centers. She sent nuns to catechize and to work in poor parts of town. She wrote books and articles for children and youngsters. She initiated and sustained ecclesiastical organizations for children (Eucharistic Movement), for youngsters and for women. She actively participated in the life of the Church and State, thus receiving great acknowledgement and decorations from both. When she passed away in Rome on May 29, 1939, people said she died a saint. Pope John Paul II beatified M. Ursula on June 20, 1983, in Poznan, and canonized her on May 18, 2003, in Rome.

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2024 / Catholic Missal of may 2024