• Reading I 2 Maccabees 6:18-31 Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork.  But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he spat out the meat, and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of […]
  • Readings for the Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious Reading 1 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63 [From the descendants of Alexander's officers] there sprang a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome. He became king in the year one hundred and thirty seven of the kingdom of […]
  • Reading 1 Malachi 3:19-20a Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,  when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,  and the day that is coming will set them on fire,  leaving them neither root nor branch,  says the LORD of hosts.  But for you who fear my name, there will arise […]
  • Reading I Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9 When peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree. And as he alighted, he filled every place with death; he still […]
  • Reading 1 Wisdom 13:1-9 All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan; But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the […]
  • Readings for the Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin [In the Dioceses of the United States] Reading 1 Wisdom 7:22b–8:1 In Wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, Manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, Not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, Firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, And pervading all spirits, though they […]