Saturday

18

September

St. Joseph of Cupertino

(1603 – 1663)

Green / White

Joseph of Cupertino was an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar who is honoured as a Christian mystic and saint. He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation and intense ecstatic visions that left him gaping.

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Sir 36: 18

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your prophets be found true. Hear the prayers of your servant, and of your people Israel.

Collect

Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First reading: 1 Timothy 6:13-16

Before God the source of all life and before Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate, I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no man has seen and no man is able to see: to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.

Responsorial Psalm : Psalm 99 (100)

R/     Come before the Lord, singing for joy.

1.     Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing for joy.

2.     Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock.

3. Go within his gates, giving thanks. Enter his courts with songs of praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.

4. Indeed, how good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love. He is faithful from age to age.

Gospel Acclamation: Ps118:18

Alleluia, alleluia! Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider the wonders of your law. Alleluia!

Gospel : Luke 8:4-15

With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, Jesus used this parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’ His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, ‘The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that they may see but not perceive, listen but not understand. This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity. As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’

Prayer over the Offerings

Look with favour on our supplications, O Lord, and in your kindness, accept these, your servants’ offerings, that what each has offered to the honour of your name may serve the salvation of all. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon: Cf. Ps 35: 8

How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men seek shelter in the shadow of your wings.

Prayer after Communion

May the working of this heavenly gift, O Lord, we pray, take possession of our minds and bodies, so that its effects, and not our own desires, may always prevail in us. Through Christ our Lord.

Meditation

One mistake we can make about the parable of the sower is to classify ourselves permanently as a particular kind of soil, producing a particular kind of result. This is not true. The spiritual journey is dynamic and we are never on one spot. At one point, we might be the rocky soil, and at another the edge of the path or the fruitful soil. We need to keep examining our relationship with God and how we respond to his love, striving every day to be the rich soil bearing a rich harvest.