Friday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time

Book of Job

The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said :
Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place
For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface?
The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment;
But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered.
Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss?
Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all:
Which is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the abode of darkness,
That you may take them to their boundaries and set them on their homeward paths?
You know, because you were born before them, and the number of your years is great!
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.
Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.

Psalms

O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
Where can I go from your spirit?
from your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother's womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'"
Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

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, 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 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 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.

misalcatolico.com

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