Catholic Missal of the day: Saturday, May 6 2017
Saturday of the Third week of Easter
Saturday of the Third week of Easter
1. ReadingActs of the Apostles
9,31-42.]The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.
]As Peter was passing through every region, he went down to the holy ones living in Lydda.
]There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been confined to bed for eight years, for he was paralyzed.
]Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed." He got up at once.
]And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
]Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated means Dorcas). She was completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving.
]Now during those days she fell sick and died, so after washing her, they laid (her) out in a room upstairs.
]Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay."
]So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs where all the widows came to him weeping and showing him the tunics and cloaks that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
]Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, "Tabitha, rise up." She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up.
]He gave her his hand and raised her up, and when he had called the holy ones and the widows, he presented her alive.
]This became known all over Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord.
Psalms
116(115),12-13.14-15.16-17.]How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
]The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
]My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
]Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
]I am your servant; the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
]To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John
6,60-69.]Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?"
]Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you?
]What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
]It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
]But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.
]And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father."
]As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.
]Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"
]Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
]We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
Bl. Anna Rosa Gattorno(Foundress (1831-1900))
BLESSED ANNA ROSA GATTORNO (1831-1900) "My love, what can I do to make the whole world love you? ... Make use once again of this instrument to renew the faith and the conversion of sinners." This generous outburst, uttered at the feet of her 'Supreme Good' who drew her ever closer to Him constituted the deepest yearning of Anna Rosa Gattorno's heart. Anna Rosa was born in Genoa on October 14, 1831, to an authentically Christian, well-to-do family. She was baptized the same day in the S. Donato parish and was named Anna Rosa Maria Benedetta. Anna Rosa and her five siblings received their first human and spiritual formation from their parents, Francesco and Adelaide Campanella. When Anna Rosa was 12 years old, she was confirmed at S. Maria delle Vigne by Cardinal Archbishop Tadini. As an adolescent, Anna Rosa was educated at home, which was customary for the wealthy. She had a serene and loveable character, and was pious and charitable. She was nonetheless firm and knew how to react to the confrontations of political and anticlerical ideologies. Some members of the Gattorno family were similarly affected. At 21 years old, Anna Rosa married her cousin Gerolamo Custo (November 5, 1852). They moved to Marseilles, but unplanned financial difficulties forced them to move to Genoa. Calamity struck when their first child Carlotta became deaf and dumb after a sudden illness. Gerolamo was unsuccessful abroad and succumbed to a fatal illness (March 9, 1858). The two younger children were deeply affected; and Anna Rosa lost her youngest son a few months later. The calamities marked a radical change in Anna Rosa's life, which she called a "conversion" to the total gift of herself to the Lord, to his love and to love of neighbor. Purified by her trials and strengthened in spirit, she understood the redemptive meaning of suffering. She also discerned a vocation. Under the guidance of her confessor, Fr. Giuseppe Firpo, Anna Rosa made private perpetual vows of chastity and obedience on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1858. She made vows of poverty as a Franciscan tertiary in 1861. She received daily communion since 1855. She was anchored to the source of grace and conducted a zealous apostolate. In 1862, she received the gift of hidden stigmata, perceived most intensely on Fridays. Anna Rosa wrote: "I dedicated myself with greater zeal to pious works and to visiting hospitals and the poor sick at home, helping them by meeting their needs as much as I could and serving them in all things." Progressing on this path, she was made president of the "Pious Union of the New Ursulines Daughters of Holy Mary Immaculate," founded by Frassinetti, and was entrusted with the revision of the Rule by Archbishop Charvaz.On that precise occasion (February 1864), she received the inspiration for a new Rule and her own specific Foundation. Anna Rosa's vision was supported by a lay Capuchin saint, Francis of Camporosso, her confessor, and the archbishop of Genoa. She sought confirmation from Pius IX, and was tempted by the thought of being denied and leading a comfortable life. During an audience with the pope on January 3, 1866, he said to begin the foundation and added: "This Institute will spread in all the parts of the world as swiftly as the flight of the dove." She wrote in her Memoirs: "I generously offered them (my children) to God and repeated to him Abraham's words: 'Here I am, ready to do your divine will'.... Having offered myself for his Work, I received immense consolations..." Anna Rosa departed Genoa and founded her new religious family in Piacenza. She named it, "Daughters of St. Anne, Mother of Mary Immaculate" (December 8, 1866). She was clothed on July 26, 1867, and on April 8, 1870, made her religious profession, together with twelve sisters. Fr. Tornatore, a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, collaborated with her in the Institute's development. He was requested to write the Rule and was the Institute's co-founder. Anna Rosa established services for the poor, the sick, the elderly and the abandoned. She provided training and integration for vulnerable girls and opened schools for the children of the poor. She called her daughters "Servants of the poor and ministers of mercy." She instructed them: "Be humble ... only think that you are the least of the Church's servants ... and have the grace to belong to her." Less than ten years after its foundation, the Institute obtained the Decree of Praise in 1876. It gained definitive approval in 1879, and its Rule was confirmed 1892. Mother Anna also worked in Piacenza with Bishop Scalabrini, now beatified, and in particular at the institute for deaf-mutes, which he founded. The Daughters of St. Anne spread rapidly in Italy and abroad. The following words, written by the Foundress, were fulfilled: "Oh my Love! How I feel myself burning with the desire to make you known and loved by all! I would like to attract all the world, to give to all, to appease all ... I would like to go everywhere and shout out for everybody to come and love you." In 1878, Anna Maria sent the first Daughters to Bolivia, then to Brazil, Chile, Peru, Eritrea, France and Spain. In Rome, where she began, she organised boys' and girls' schools for the poor, nursery schools, assistance for the new-born babies of workers in the tobacco factory, houses for former prostitutes, serving women, nurses for home care, etc. There she also had the Generalate built, with its adjacent church. In February 1900, Mother Anna Rosa caught a dangerous form of influenza; and her health rapidly deteriorated. On 4 May, she received the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Two days later, at 9.00 a.m., she died a holy death in the Generalate. Her fame of holiness, which surrounded her during life, increased after her death. At her passing, there were 368 houses and 3,500 sisters carrying out the work. In her roles as wife, mother, religious and Foundress, Rosa Gattorno brought great honor to the "feminine genius." She remained a mother to her own children, who she constantly followed, to the Sisters, and to all the needy, the suffering and the unhappy, in whose souls she saw the face of Christ, poor, wounded and crucified. Her charism present in her other institutes: Sisters of Contemplative Life, Religious Association of Priests, the Secular Institute and the Ecclesial Movement for the Laity, which are active in the Church in almost all the parts of the world. Mother Anna Rosa was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 9, 2000 in Rome.
St. Petronax()
Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2017 / Catholic Missal of may 2017
Published: 2026-07-14T18:16:17Z | Modified: 2026-07-14T18:16:17Z