Saturday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time

Book of Job

Job answered the LORD and said:
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.
I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.
I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you.
Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.
Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.
And he had seven sons and three daughters,
of whom he called the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.
In all the land no other women were as beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brethren.
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren.
Then Job died, old and full of years.

Psalms

Teach me wisdom and knowledge,
for in your commands I trust.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
that I may learn your statutes.
I know, O LORD, that your ordinances are just,
and in your faithfulness you have afflicted me.
According to your ordinances they still stand firm:
all things serve you.
I am your servant; give me discernment
that I may know your decrees.
The revelation of your words sheds light,
giving understanding to the simple.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name."
Jesus said, "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven."
At that very moment he rejoiced (in) the holy Spirit and said, "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."
Turning to the disciples in private he said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos(Priest (1819-1867))

Bl. Francis Xavier SeelosPriest(1819-1867) Bl. Francis Seelos was born in Füssen, Bavaria, Germany, on January 11, 1819. He was baptized that day at the parish church. He was one of 12 children born to Mang and Frances Schwarzenbach Seelos. From his earliest years, he expressed a desire for the priesthood. As an adult, he studied philosophy and theology in Munich. In Munich, Bl. Francis Seelos was touched by letters that were published in the Catholic newspaper Sion, which described the lack of spiritual care for German-speaking immigrants. After visiting the Redemptorists in Altötting, he decided to enter the Congregation and asked to be allowed to work as a missionary in the United States. On December 22, 1844, Bl. Francis Seelos was ordained a priest in Baltimore, Maryland. He was assigned for six years to St. Philomena’s Parish in Pittsburgh as an assistant to St. John Neumann. Regarding their relationship, Bl. Francis said, "He has introduced me to the active life" and "has guided me as a spiritual director and confessor." Along with several years of parish ministry in Maryland, Bl. Francis Seelos trained Redemptorist students. His availability and innate kindness in understanding and responding to the needs of the faithful made him a well-known confessor and spiritual director. People sought him out from neighboring towns. His confessional was open to all: "I hear confessions in German, English, French, of Whites and of Blacks." He practiced a simple lifestyle and a simple manner of expressing himself. The themes of his preaching, rich in Biblical content, were always understood by his varied listeners. Bl. Francis Seelos was described as a man with a constant smile and a generous heart, especially toward the marginalized. For several years, he preached in English and German throughout the Midwest and in the Middle Atlantic states. Assigned to St. Mary of the Assumption Church community in New Orleans, he zealously served his Redemptorist confreres and parishioners. In 1867, he passed away from yellow fever, which he contracted while visiting the sick.

St. Mary Faustina Kowalska(Virgin (1905-1938))

SAINT MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Virgin (1905-1938) Sister Mary Faustina, an apostle of the Divine Mercy, belongs today to the group of the most popular and well-known saints. Through her, the Lord Jesus communicates the great message of God's mercy and reveals the pattern of Christian perfection based on trust in God and on the attitude of mercy toward one's neighbors. She was born on August 25, 1905, in Głogowiec, Poland, to a poor and religious farming family, the third of ten children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish Church of Świnice Warckich. From a very tender age, she stood out for her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of 9, she made her first Holy Communion: living this moment very profoundly in her awareness of the presence of the Divine Guest within her soul. She attended school for three years. At 16, she left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Łodzi i Ostrówek, to find the means of supporting herself and helping her parents. She had already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation at age 7. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent, but her parents disagreed. After receiving a vision of the Suffering Christ, on August 1, 1925, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and took the name Sister Mary Faustina. She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years and lived in several religious houses. She spent time in Kraków, Płock and Vilnius, where she worked as a cook, gardener and porter. Externally, nothing revealed Sr. Mary Faustina's rich interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected and at the same time very natural, serene and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbors. Although her life was apparently ordinary, she hid within herself an extraordinary union with God. She contemplated the mystery of God's Mercy in the Word of God as well as in the everyday activities of her life, which formed the basis of her spirituality. The process of contemplating and getting to know the mystery of God's mercy helped develop her attitude of child-like trust in God as well as mercy toward neighbors. "O my Jesus, each of Your saints reflects one of Your virtues; I desire to reflect Your compassionate heart, full of mercy; I want to glorify it. Let Your mercy, O Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul like a seal, and this will be my badge in this and the future life" (Diary 1242). Sr. Mary Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church, which she loved like a mother as the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. Conscious of her role in the Church, she cooperated with God's mercy in the task of saving lost souls. At the specific request of the Lord, and following His example, she sacrificed her own life for this very goal. In her spiritual life, she also distinguished herself with a love of the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of Mercy. Her years at the convent were filled with extraordinary gifts, including revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Passion of the Lord, the gift of bilocation, the reading of human souls, the gift of prophecy, and the rare gift of mystical engagement and marriage. The living relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the Angels, the Saints, the souls in Purgatory - with the entire supernatural world - was as equally real for her as the world she perceived with her senses. In spite of being so richly endowed with extraordinary graces, Sr. Mary Faustina knew that they do not in fact constitute sanctity. In her Diary, she wrote: "Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God" (Diary 1107). The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Mary Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message. "In the Old Covenant (He said to her), I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today, I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart" (Diary 1588). Sister Mary Faustina's mission consists of 3 tasks:- Reminding the world of the truth revealed in Holy Scripture about the merciful love of God toward every human being.- Entreating God's mercy for the whole world and particularly for sinners through devotions: Venerating the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription, "Jesus, I Trust in You," the feast of the Divine Mercy celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter, chaplet to the Divine Mercy, and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3 p.m.). The Lord Jesus attached great promises to the above forms of devotion, provided one entrusted one's life to God and practiced active love of one's neighbor.- Initiating the apostolic movement of the Divine Mercy, which undertakes the task of proclaiming and entreating God's mercy for the world and strives for Christian perfection. St. Faustina's precepts require the faithful to display an attitude of child-like trust in God, which expresses itself in fulfilling His will as well as in the attitude of mercy toward one's neighbors. Today, this movement within the Church involves millions of people throughout the world; it comprises religious congregations, lay institutes, religious, brotherhoods, associations, various communities of apostles of the Divine Mercy, as well as individual people who take up the tasks that the Lord Jesus communicates to them. Sr. Mary Faustina's mission was recorded in her diary, which she kept at the specific request of the Lord Jesus and her confessors. In it, she recorded faithfully all of the Lord's wishes, and also described the encounters between Him and her soul. The Lord said to her, "Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who, by reading these things, will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me" (Diary 1693). In an extraordinary way, Sr. Mary Faustina's work sheds light on the mystery of the Divine Mercy. It delights not only the simple and uneducated, but also scholars who look upon it as an additional source of theological research. The Diary has been translated into many languages, among others, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak. Sister Mary Faustina was afflicted with tuberculosis and physical suffering, which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners. On October 5, 1938, she passed away in Krakow at the age of 33. Her reputation for spiritual maturity, mystical union with God and holiness grew, along with the cult to the Divine Mercy and the graces obtained from God through her intercession. From 1965 to 1967, the investigative process into her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Kraków. In 1968, the Beatification Process was initiated in Rome, and completed on December 1992. On April 18, 1993, Pope John Paul II declared St. Faustina's holiness. Her canonization took place on April 4, 2000. Her resting place is in the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki.

St. Placid(Martyr (6th century))

SAINT PLACID Martyr(6th century) St. Placid was born in Rome to a patrician family in 515. When he was 7, his father brought him to the monastery of Subiaco. At 13 years old, he followed St. Benedict to the new foundation in Monte Casino. There, he grew up in the practice of piety and innocence of life. St. Placid had scarcely turned 21 when he was selected to establish a monastery on Sicilian estates that his father had given to St. Benedict. He spent four years building the monastery, and a fifth had not elapsed when a horde of barbarians burned everything to the ground. St. Placid was martyred together with thirty monks and his two brothers, Eutychius and Victorinus, and his holy sister Flavia. The monastery was eventually rebuilt with St. Placid as its patron. As we celebrate their lives and sacrifice, let us reflect on their heroic virtues and unfailing intercession: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever" (Ps. 107:1).

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