23

Friday, May 23

Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

12:05 pm Mass

Daily Mass

12:05 pm -

Today's Readings

Reading I

Jas 5:9-12

Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing before the gates. Take as an example of hardship and patience, brothers and sisters, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, because the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your “Yes” mean “Yes” and your “No” mean “No,” that you may not incur condemnation.

Responsorial Psalm

103:1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12

R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful. Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever. R. The Lord is kind and merciful. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Gospel

Mk 10:1-12

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached him and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Saint Jane Antide Thouret

1765 - 1828

May 23

Daughter of a tanner. Her mother died when Jane was 16 years old, leaving the girl to manage the family and help her father raise her younger siblings. Joined the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1787 at Paris, and worked in various hospitals over the next five years. During the suppression of religious orders in the French Revolution, she was ordered to return home to a secular life. Jane refused, and tried to escape the authorities; she was beaten so badly that it took months to recover.

She finally returned on foot to Sancey where she cared for the sick, and opened a small school for girls. In the late 1790's, the government repression forced her to flee to Switzerland. There she teamed up with other exiled religious and clergy to minister to the sick. However, due to anti-Catholic prejudice, the group was forced to move on to Germany.

Jane later returned to Landeron, Switzerland where she met with her order's Vicar-General of Besançon. He asked her to found a school and hospital for her Order, and in 1799 the school opened in Besançon. The congregation Jane founded to run these institutions was the Institute of the Daughters of Saint Vincent de Paul. Her people soon began to expand, to operate other schools and hospitals in France, Switzerland, and Italy, and moved into prison ministry. The Institute received papal approval in 1819.