Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time

Book of Nehemiah

In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when the wine was in my charge, I took some and offered it to the king. As I had never before been sad in his presence,
the king asked me, "Why do you look sad? If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart." Though I was seized with great fear,
I answered the king: "May the king live forever! How could I not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been eaten out by fire?"
The king asked me, "What is it, then, that you wish?" I prayed to the God of heaven
and then answered the king: "If it please the king, and if your servant is deserving of your favor, send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors' graves, to rebuild it."
Then the king, and the queen seated beside him, asked me how long my journey would take and when I would return. I set a date that was acceptable to him, and the king agreed that I might go.
I asked the king further: "If it please the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of West-of-Euphrates, that they may afford me safe-conduct till I arrive in Judah;
also a letter for Asaph, the keeper of the royal park, that he may give me wood for timbering the gates of the temple-citadel and for the city wall and the house that I shall occupy." The king granted my requests, for the favoring hand of my God was upon me.

Psalms

By the rivers of Babylon
we sat mourning and weeping
when we remembered Zion.
On the poplars of that land
we hung up our harps.
There our captors asked us
for the words of a song;
Our tormentors, for a joyful song:
"Sing for us a song of Zion!"
But how could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand wither.
May my tongue stick to my palate
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem
beyond all my delights.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

As Jesus and His disciples were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."

St. Francis of Assisi (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, St. Francis 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 say: 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 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 2023 / Catholic Missal of october 2023