Catholic Missal of the day: Wednesday, September 5 2018
Wednesday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
Wednesday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
1. ReadingFirst Letter to the Corinthians
3,1-9.]Brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ.
]I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now,
]for you are still of the flesh. While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving in an ordinary human way?
]Whenever someone says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?
]What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one.
]I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.
]Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth.
]The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor.
]For we are God's co-workers; you are God's field, God's building.
Psalms
33(32),12-13.14-15.20-21.]Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
]From heaven the LORD looks down;
He sees all mankind.
]From his fixed throne he beholds
All who dwell on the earth,
]He who fashioned the heart of each,
He who knows all their works.
]Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield,
]For in him our hearts rejoice;
In his holy name we trust.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
4,38-44.]After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her.
]He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.
]At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
]And demons also came out from many, shouting, "You are the Son of God." But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Messiah.
]At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
]But he said to them, "To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent."
]And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
St. Lawrence Justinian(Bishop († 1455))
SAINT LAWRENCE JUSTINIANBishop( 1455) St. Lawrence wanted to be a saint since childhood. When he was 19 years old, he was granted a vision of the Eternal Wisdom. All earthly things paled before this sight; and as it faded away, a void was left that no one except God could fill. He refused the offer of a brilliant marriage, fled secretly from his home in Venice and joined the Canons Regular of St. George. St. Lawrence disciplined the natural instincts barring his union with God. When a nobleman once chided him for sacrificing earthly prospects, St. Lawrence pointed out the shortness of life, the temporality of earthly pleasures and the greatness of the prize he was seeking. The speechless nobleman then joined St. Lawrence as a fellow-disciple and novitiate. The nobleman's holy death bore every mark that he secured eternal life. As superior and general, St. Lawrence enlarged and strengthened his Order. As bishop, he thoroughly reformed his see. He was then appointed Venice's first patriarch. His writings about the Holy Virgin Mary as the Mediatrix of the human race continue the great tradition: the writers including St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and many others. St. Lawrence Justinian's writings say that the Holy Virgin is "the hope of malefactors; since she alone is the one who obtains them pardon from God." Alban Butler's account of the Saint's passing is as follows: "At length, the eternal vision began to dawn. 'Are you laying a bed of feathers for me,'he asked.'Not so. My Lord was stretched on a hard and painful tree.'Laid upon straw, he exclaimed in rapture, 'Good Jesus, behold I come.'He passed away at 74 years old in 1455.
St. Teresa of Calcutta(Foundress (1910-1997))
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta proclaimed God’s love of humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. “God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.”Her soul filled with the grace of Christ; and she burned with one desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.” She was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, a city at the crossroads of Balkan history. She was the youngest child of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu. She was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received First Communion at the age of 5 and was confirmed in November 1916. Following her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was kindled within her. Her father’s sudden death when she was 8 left the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, which greatly influenced her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart where she was much involved. At the age of 18, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There, she received the name Sister Mary Teresa, after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India and arrived in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on, she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary’s and in 1944 became the school’s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and students, Mother Teresa’s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus in the midst of her companions with fidelity and joy. On September 10, 1946, during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her “inspiration,” her “call within a call.” On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor. After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21, she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students. On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba. In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa as well as the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, which comprises people of many faiths and nationalities. The Workers' spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and works of love later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement in 1981 as a “little way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit. During the years of rapid growth, the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.” The whole of Mother Teresa’s life and labor bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, “the darkness.”The “painful night” of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led her to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness, she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and in the interior desolation of the poor. During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations, in 123 countries. In March 1997, she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On September 5, Mother Teresa’s earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus’ plea, “Come be My light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God. Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa’s widespread reputation of holiness and the favors being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On December 20, 2002, he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles. Mother Teresa was canonized on September 4, 2016, by Pope Francis.
St. Bertin()
Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2018 / Catholic Missal of september 2018
Published: 2026-07-14T18:16:30Z | Modified: 2026-07-14T18:16:30Z