Catholic Missal of the day: Thursday, October 4 2018

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time

1. Reading

Book of Job

19,21-27.

]Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me!
]Why do you hound me as though you were divine, and insatiably prey upon me?
]Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record:
]That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever!
]But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
]And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.
]Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another's, shall behold him,

Psalm

Psalms

27(26),7-8a.8b-9abc.13-14.

]Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
Have pity on me, and answer me.
]Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
]Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
]Hide not your face from me;
]do not in anger repel your servant.
]You are my helper: cast me not off.
]I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
]Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

Gospel

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

10,1-12.

]The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.
]He said to them, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.
]Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
]Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.
]Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this household.'
]If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.
]Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.
]Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you,
]cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'"
]Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say,
]'The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.' Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand.
]I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.

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St. Francis of Assisi(Founder (1182-1226))

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1182-1226)St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscans and is one of history's greatest mystics. He left home, riches and family to blaze a trail in serving the poor. In all creation, he saw the work of God. By literally imitating Jesus' life, he became the founder of evangelical poverty. He was so dead to self and his mind fixed in God that he received the stigmata. St. Francis' father was a cloth merchant. Zealous and thundering, St. Francis became a soldier. However, a vision of God turned him from a spirited youth without military potential into a man of prayer, recollection and profound humility. Praying with devotion to discern the will of God, he began to imitate the poor in order to minister to them. Like Jesus, "He took on our infirmities, and carried our diseases" (Is. 53:4). In what appeared to be an act of madness, St. Francis took his father's cloth and sold it to restore the Church of San Damiano. His father took him to court; and in full view of the bishop, St. Francis stripped off his garments, gave them to his father and declared he had no posessions. Literally imitating Jesus, St. Francis preached to the poor: going barefoot and "(taking) no gold, nor silver, nor money in his belt..." (Mt. 10:9). When he and his brethren founded a new religious order, they encountered opposition from Pope Innocent III. The pope consented only after seeing St. Francis in a vision. In the vision, St. Francis was holding up the Church of San Giovanni in Laterano. Satan retaliated by sending a band of robbers to beat St. Francis: the latter only gave small jumps and yelps of joy "because indignity was his only dignity" (G.K. Chesterton). The poverty and preaching of the Franciscans galvanized the Western world. Noblemen, zealous for the House of the Lord, raised altars where churches lay abandoned. One even donated an entire mountain to St. Francis. The order of Poor Clares and Franciscan lay movements stemmed from St. Francis' apostolate. His rule includes material poverty and self-denial to be with Christ. In 1224, while preparing for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, St. Francis prayed how to best please God. In that moment, St. Francis' biographer and those with him said: a vision filled the world, and a crucified seraph came down from heaven; who had two wings above his head, two outstretched in flight and two covering his body; whose face was beautiful beyond description, and who smiled gently at St. Francis. From the vision, St. Francis saw that he would conform to Christ by heart instead of physical martyrdom. The brilliance of that vision never left St. Francis; and neither did the ensuing stigmata, which lasted for the rest of his life. When St. Francis received Christ's stigmata, he was in bodily pain and near the end of his life. He sought to give more when he had reached his limit. Let us not create needs for ourselves, be humbled by others and bear it for Christ, reject hedonism and the near occasions of sin, and conform our will and intellect to the Divine.

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2018 / Catholic Missal of october 2018