Sister Faustina
Green/White
Sister Faustina was a young, uneducated, nun in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland during the 1930’s. She received extraordinary revelations on God’s loving message of Divine Mercy. Saint Faustina’s revelations are a constant reminder of the message to trust in Jesus’ endless mercy, and to live life mercifully toward others.
Entrance Antiphon: Dn 3: 31, 29, 30, 43, 42
All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done with true judgement, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments. But give glory to your name and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy.
Collect
O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17
This was the answer Job gave to the Lord: I know that you are all-powerful: what you conceive, you can perform. I am the man who obscured your designs with my empty-headed words. I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand, on marvels beyond me and my knowledge. I knew you then only by hearsay; but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract all I have said, and in dust and ashes I repent. The Lord blessed Job’s new fortune even more than his first one. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters; his first daughter he called ‘Turtledove’, the second ‘Cassia’ and the third ‘Mascara.’ Throughout the land there were no women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance rights like their brothers. After his trials, Job lived on until he was a hundred and forty years old, and saw his children and his children’s children up to the fourth generation. Then Job died, an old man and full of days.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
118(119):66,71,75,91,125,130
R/ Let your face shine on your servant, O Lord.
Teach me discernment and knowledge for I trust in your commands. It was good for me to be afflicted, to learn your statutes.
Lord, I know that your decrees are right, that you afflicted me justly. By your decree it endures to this day; for all things serve you.
I am your servant, give me knowledge; then I shall know your will. The unfolding of your word gives light and teaches the simple.
Gospel Acclamation: Matthew 11:25
Alleluia, alleluia. Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel : Luke 10:17-24
The seventy-two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the devils submit to us when we use your name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’ It was then that, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Grant us, O merciful God, that this our offering may find acceptance with you and that through it the wellspring of all blessing may be laid open before us. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Cf. Ps 118: 49-50
Remember your word to your servant, O Lord, by which you have given me hope. This is my comfort when I am brought low.
Prayer after Communion
May this heavenly mystery, O Lord, restore us in mind and body, that we may be coheirs in glory with Christ, to whose suffering we are united whenever we proclaim his Death. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Meditation
At the beginning of chapter 10 of the Gospel, according to Luke, we saw how Jesus had sent his 72 disciples out to all the places where he would visit. Today, we see them returning full of joy and satisfaction. “Lord, even the devils submit to us when we use your name.” They discovered that, in his name, they could do the same things that Jesus did. The power of the evil one is being reversed, and he assures them: “I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions … nothing shall ever hurt you”. Nothing, as Paul says, can separate us from the love of God, that is, the love that God extends to us at every moment of every day. Jesus tells his disciples the real reason why they should be happy. It is not because they have special powers over evil spirits but because their names are written in heaven. They have been chosen as the instruments for God to do his work, to make the Kingdom a reality. That blessedness granted to the apostles is granted to us today, also. Let us, therefore, count our blessings daily as we continue to receive such uncountable blessings from our God.