ADVENT MASS READINGS & SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Saturday - December 03, 2022

Saturday - December 03, 2022

Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man. 

-- Saint Pope Pius X

December 3, 2022

Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

Lectionary: 180

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    IS 30:19-21, 23-26

 

Thus says the Lord GOD,

the Holy One of Israel:

O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem,

no more will you weep;

He will be gracious to you when you cry out,

as soon as he hears he will answer you.

The Lord will give you the bread you need

and the water for which you thirst.

No longer will your Teacher hide himself,

but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,

While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:

“This is the way; walk in it,”

when you would turn to the right or to the left.

 

He will give rain for the seed

that you sow in the ground,

And the wheat that the soil produces

will be rich and abundant.

On that day your flock will be given pasture

and the lamb will graze in spacious meadows;

The oxen and the asses that till the ground

will eat silage tossed to them

with shovel and pitchfork.

Upon every high mountain and lofty hill

there will be streams of running water.

On the day of the great slaughter,

when the towers fall,

The light of the moon will be like that of the sun

and the light of the sun will be seven times greater

like the light of seven days.

On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people,

he will heal the bruises left by his blows.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  PS 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

 

R. (see Isaiah 30:18d)  Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

 

Praise the LORD, for he is good;

sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;

it is fitting to praise him.

The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;

the dispersed of Israel he gathers.

R. Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

He heals the brokenhearted

and binds up their wounds.

He tells the number of the stars;

he calls each by name.

R. Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

Great is our LORD and mighty in power:

to his wisdom there is no limit.

The LORD sustains the lowly;

the wicked he casts to the ground.

R. Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2:8         

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The LORD is our Judge, our Lawgiver, our King;

he it is who will save us.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           MT 9:35–10:1, 5A, 6-8

 

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,

teaching in their synagogues,

proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,

and curing every disease and illness.

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them

because they were troubled and abandoned,

like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples,

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;

so ask the master of the harvest

to send out laborers for his harvest.”

 

Then he summoned his Twelve disciples

and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out

and to cure every disease and every illness.

 

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,

“Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Cure the sick, raise the dead,

cleanse lepers, drive out demons.

Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

 

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St. Francis Xavier

This saint, one of the Church's most illustrious missionaries, came from a noble Basque family in Spain. He studied at the University of Paris, where he taught philosophy after obtaining his degree of master of arts. Here he met Ignatius of Loyola and was enrolled as one of the first seven Jesuits. They decided to go to the Holy Land, but the war between the Turks and Venice prevented this, so for a time Francis labored at Padua, Bologna, and Rome.

In 1540 Ignatius chose him as the first missionary to the Portuguese East Indies. Francis sailed from Lisbon armed with four papal briefs making him nuncio with full powers and recommending him to the Eastern princes. He landed at Goa in India and began a vast apostolate lasting over ten years. Here he instructed the adults, gathered the children by ringing a bell in the streets, catechized them, and also visited the hospitals and prisons. He then turned to the native Indians, teaching the simple folk by versifying Catholic doctrine and fitting the verses to popular tunes. He then went on to Cape Comorin and began the conversion of the Paravas, some days baptizing so many that at night he could not raise his arm from fatigue. Then to Travencore where he founded forty-five churches in various villages. Then to Malacca in Malaya, and for eighteen months from island to island, preaching, instructing, baptizing.

On his return to Goa he heard of the vast harvest of souls awaiting the laborers in Japan and he set out for this field with several companions, arriving at Kagoshima in 1549. He set himself to learn the language and started to preach and teach with such success that twelve years later his converts were found still retaining their first fervor. In 1551 he returned to Malacca to revisit his converts in India. Now a new goal loomed up before his eyes—pagan China, but he was not to reach it.

Arriving on the island of Sancian at the mouth of the Canton river, he became ill of a fever and would have died abandoned on the burning sands of the shore if a poor man named Alvarez had not taken him to his hut. Here he lingered for two weeks, praying between spells of delirium, and finally died, his eyes fixed with great tenderness on his crucifix. He was buried in a shallow grave and his body covered with quicklime, but when exhumed three months later it was found fresh and incorrupt. It was taken to Goa where it is still enshrined. St. Francis Xavier was proclaimed patron of foreign missions and of all missionary works by Pope St. Pius X.

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God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”