On January 26, 2021, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus into the General Roman Calendar, to replace the existing celebration of Saint Martha alone. Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are celebrated each year as an Obligatory Memorial on July 29. In its 2021 decree on combining veneration of Mary and Lazarus with Martha, the Congregation
Year II. We hear the prayer of the people – a prayer probably composed by Jeremiah himself – appealing to God in time of war and famine. It is like a penitential celebration expressing trust in the Lord and the hope of being spared. Gospel. Jesus explains the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Good and evil will
Year II. God’s love made his people as close to God as a loincloth is close to the human body. Jeremiah’s symbolic action tells the people that by embracing the idolatry of Babylonia, they have given up God’s tenderness and become like rotten fruit. Gospel. A tiny seed becomes a tree. At the beginning, when
Greeting (See Second Reading) God chose us especially long ago and destined us to become true images of his Son, so that Jesus might be the eldest of many brothers and sisters. May our brother Jesus be always with you. R/ And also with you. Introduction by the Celebrant 1. What Do We Treasure Most?
James became a disciple of Jesus together with his brother John. He was, with Peter and John, among the apostles closest to Jesus, witnessing the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter, the Lord’s transfiguration and agony. A “son of thunder” in his zeal for the kingdom, he proposed a hard line against those who did not accept
Year II. Jeremiah asks the people to repent and not to rely on false securities. They have to return to God, under the leadership of good shepherds. Gospel. When he began to tell the parable of the sower, Jesus said, “Listen.” When Matthew explains it and adapts it to his community, we are told again:
Year II. Jeremiah reminds God’s people that in their youth, after God had made a covenant with them, they had been faithful and fervent. But since then, they have abandoned God; even the priests and the prophets had done so. Gospel. Jesus complains that some close their hearts to his message of life. His message
Contrary to popular belief, based on a rather late “tradition” in the West alone, Mary Magdalene is not the sinful woman described in Luke 7. We know that she was from Magdala and had been cured by the Lord. She became an eager and loving witness to the Lord’s resurrection. Opening Prayer Lord our God,
Year II. The Prophet Micah assures God’s people that God forgives them their infidelity. The people answer with a hymn of praise and trust. Gospel. Jesus assures us that what brings us close to God and makes us his relatives is doing the Father’s will. This is all that matters, more than ties of blood.
After a rather turbulent youth and a military career, Camillus of Lellis had to stay in a Roman hospital for a prolonged treatment. There, he discovered for himself the incompetence and lack of dedication of the nurses of his time. He became a priest and founded a congregation of helpers of the sick, especially the
