Friday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time

Letter to the Colossians

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross (through him), whether those on earth or those in heaven.

Psalms

Sing joyfully to the Lord all you lands,
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
give thanks to him; bless his name.
The LORD is good:
his kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, "The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same ; but yours eat and drink."
Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."
And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"

St. Lawrence Justinian(Bishop († 1455))

SAINT LAWRENCE JUSTINIANBishop( 1455) St. Lawrence longed to be a saint since childhood. When he was 19, 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. Refusing the offer of a brilliant marriage, he fled secretly from his home in Venice and joined the Canons Regular of St. George. One by one, Lawrence disciplined his natural instincts that could bar his union with God. When a nobleman once chided him for sacrificing earthly prospects, he pointed out the shortness of life, the temporality of earthly pleasures and the greatness of the prize he was seeking. The nobleman was speechless: He went on to leave the world and joined Lawrence as a fellow-disciple and novitiate. The nobleman's holy death bore every mark that he secured eternal life. As superior and general, Lawrence enlarged and strengthened his Order. As bishop, he thoroughly reformed his see. His zealousness led to him to be appointed as the first patriarch of Venice, but he remained ever in heart and soul a humble priest thirsting for the sight of heaven. At length, the eternal vision began to dawn. "Are you laying a bed of feathers for me?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()

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Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2025 / Catholic Missal of september 2025