Catholic Missal of the day: Saturday, November 23 2019

Saturday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time

Saturday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time

1. Reading

1st book of Maccabees

6,1-13.

]As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, famous for its wealth in silver and gold,
]and that its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.
]He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city. But he could not do so, because his plan became known to the people of the city
]who rose up in battle against him. So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there to return to Babylon.
]While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight;
]that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back by the Israelites; that they had grown strong by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions taken from the armies they had destroyed;
]that they had pulled down the Abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.
]When the king heard this news, he was struck with fear and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.
]There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow, for he knew he was going to die.
]So he called in all his Friends and said to them: "Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking with anxiety.
]I said to myself: 'Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now!
]Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.' But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed.
]I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land."

Psalm

Psalms

9(9A),2-3.4.6.16b.19.

]I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart;
I will declare all your wondrous deeds.
]I will delight and exult in your name;
I will sing hymns to your name, Most High.
]For my enemies turn back;
they stumble and perish before you.
]You rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
their name you blotted out forever and ever.
]The nations are sunk in the pit they have made;
in the snare they set, their foot is caught.
]The needy will never be forgotten,
nor will the hope of the afflicted ever fade.

Gospel

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

20,27-40.

]Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus,
]saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, 'If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.'
]Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless.
]Then the second
]and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless.
]Finally the woman also died.
]Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her."
]Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry;
]but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
]They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.
]That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
]and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
]Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well."
]And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

---

St. Clement I(Pope and martyr († 100))

SAINT CLEMENT I POPE AND MARTYR( 100)Dear Brothers and Sisters, Let us devote our attention to the Apostolic Fathers, that is, to the first and second generations in the Church subsequent to the Apostles. Thus, we can see where the Church's journey begins in history.St. Clement, Bishop of Rome during the last years of the first century, was the Successor of Peter after Linus and Anacletus. The most important testimony concerning his life comes from St. Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons until 202. He attests that Clement "had seen the blessed Apostles," "had been conversant with them," and "might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing , and their traditions before his eyes" (Adversus Haer. 3, 3, 3).The authority and prestige of St. Clement were such that various writings were attributed to him, but the only one that is certainly his is the Letter to the Corinthians. Eusebius of Caesarea, the great "archivist" of Christian beginnings, presents it in these terms: "There is extant an Epistle of this Clement which is acknowledged to be genuine and is of considerable length and of remarkable merit. He wrote it in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth, when a sedition had arisen in the latter Church. We know that this Epistle also has been publicly used in a great many Churches both in former times and in our own" (Hist. Eccl. 3, 16).An almost canonical character was attributed to this Letter. At the beginning of this text - written in Greek - Clement expressed his regret that "the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves" had prevented him from intervening sooner (1, 1). These "calamitous events" can be identified with Domitian's persecution. Therefore, the Letter must have been written just after the Emperor's death and at the end of the persecution: immediately after the year 96.Clement's intervention was prompted by the serious problems besetting the Church in Corinth. The elders of the community had been deposed by some young contestants. The sorrowful event was recalled once again by St. Irenaeus who wrote: "In the time of this Clement, no small dissension having occurred among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome dispatched a most powerful Letter to the Corinthians exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the Apostles" (Adv. Haer. 3, 3, 3).Thus, we could say that this Letter was a first exercise of the Roman primacy after St. Peter's death. Clement's Letter touches on topics that were dear to St. Paul, who had written two important Letters to the Corinthians, in particular the theological dialectic, perennially current, between the indicative of salvation and the imperative of moral commitment.First of all came the joyful proclamation of saving grace. The Lord forewarns us and gives us his forgiveness, gives us his love and the grace to be Christians: his brothers and sisters. It is a proclamation that fills our life with joy and gives certainty to our action. The Lord always forewarns us with his goodness and the Lord's goodness is always greater than all our sins. However, we must commit ourselves in a way that is consistent with the gift received and respond to the proclamation of salvation with a generous and courageous journey of conversion.The Letter's immediate circumstances provided the Bishop of Rome with ample room for an intervention on the Church's identity and mission. If there were abuses in Corinth, Clement observed, the reason should be sought in the weakening of charity and of the other indispensable Christian virtues. He therefore calls the faithful to humility and fraternal love, two truly constitutive virtues of being in the Church: "Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One," he warned, "let us do all those things which pertain to holiness" (30, 1)."The Lord (delegated) peculiar services (Baptism, Last Supper, etc.) to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministries devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen" (40, 1-5). It can be noted that here, in this early first-century Letter, the Greek word "laikós" appears for the first time in Christian literature, meaning "a member of the laos"(that is, "of the People of God"). ... Each one (in the Church) ... exercises his ministry in accordance with the vocation he has received.The Father sent Jesus Christ, who in turn sent the Apostles. They then sent the first heads of communities and established that they would be succeeded by other worthy men. Everything, therefore, was made "in an orderly way, according to the will of God" (42). With these words, St. Clement underlined that the Church's structure was sacramental and not political. The action of God who comes to meet us in the liturgy precedes our decisions and our ideas. The Church is above all a gift of God and not something we ourselves created. Consequently, this sacramental structure not only guarantees the common order, but also this precedence of God's gift which we all need.Finally, the "great prayer" confers a cosmic breath to the previous reasoning. ... The prayer for rulers and governors acquires special importance. Subsequent to the New Testament texts, it is the oldest prayer extant for political institutions. Thus, in the period following their persecution, Christians, well aware that the persecutions would continue, never ceased to pray for the very authorities who had unjustly condemned them. The reason is primarily Christological: it is necessary to pray for one's persecutors as Jesus did on the Cross. But this prayer also contains a teaching that guides the attitude of Christians towards politics and the State down the centuries. In praying for the Authorities, Clement recognized the legitimacy of political institutions in the order established by God; ... and expressed his concern that the Authorities would be docile to God, "devoutly in peace and meekness exercising the power given them by " (61, 2).Another sovereignty emerges whose origins and essence are not of this world but of "the heavens above": it is that of Truth, which also claims a right to be heard by the State. ... Let us make our own the invocations of the "great prayer" in which the Bishop of Rome made himself the voice of the entire world: "O Lord, make your face to shine upon us for good in peace, that we may be shielded by your mighty hand ... through the High Priest and Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and majesty to you both now and from generation to generation, for evermore" (60-61).BENEDICT XVI General audience (March 7, 2007)

Oración

All-powerful and ever-living God,
we praise your power and glory revealed to us in the lives of all your saints.
Give us joy on this feast of Saint Clement,
the priest and martyr who bore witness with his blood
to the love he proclaimed and the gospel he preached.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

---

St. Columban(Abbot († 615))

SAINT COLUMBAN Abbot( 615) St. Columban was born in Ireland during the seventh century. He discerned a religious vocation early in life. For leisure, he read spiritual and theological books. After being ordained, St. Columban went to France and founded several monasteries. He denounced the immoral practices of royal and clerical persons and was exiled. He then went to Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio. St. Columban reformed clerical organizations and evangelized Europe like many Irish saints. The institutes he founded preserved Western literature and disseminated Christendom. He is the patron saint of the Columban Missionaries.

Oración

Lord,
you called Saint Columban to live the monastic life
and to preach the gospel with zeal.
May his prayers and his example
help to us to seek you above all things
and to work with all our hearts
for the spread of the faith.
Grantthis through Christ our Lord. Amen.

misalcatolico.com

---

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