Saint Maria Goretti
(1890 – 1902)
Green/Red
Maria Goretti was an 11years old girl from a poor peasant family in Italy. She was naturally pious, kind, helpful and beautiful. In 1902 an eighteen-year-old neighbor, Alexander, tried to rape her. When Maria resisted, Alexander stabbed her 14 times. She forgave her murderer on her dead bed and died in the afternoon of 6th July, 1902.
Entrance Antiphon : Ps 46: 2
All peoples, clap your hands. Cry to God with shouts of joy!
Collect
O God, who through the grace of adoption, chose us to be children of light; grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. 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 : Amos 9:11-15
It is the Lord who speaks: ‘That day I will re-erect the tottering hut of David, make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins and rebuild it as it was in the days of old, so that they can conquer the remnant of Edom and all the nations that belonged to me.’ It is the Lord who speaks, and he will carry this out. ‘The days are coming now – it is the Lord who speaks – when harvest will follow directly after ploughing, the treading of grapes soon after sowing, when the mountains will run with new wine and the hills all flow with it. I mean to restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, plant vineyards and drink their wine, dig gardens and eat their produce. I will plant them in their own country, never to be rooted up again out of the land I have given them, says the Lord, your God.’
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
84(85): 9,11-14
R/ The Lord speaks peace to his people.
I will hear what the Lord God has to say, a voice that speaks of peace, peace for his people and his friends and those who turn to him in their hearts.
Mercy and faithfulness have met; justice and peace have embraced. Faithfulness shall spring from the earth and justice look down from heaven.
The Lord will make us prosper and our earth shall yield its fruit. Justice shall march before him and peace shall follow his steps.
Gospel Acclamation : Ps118:135
Alleluia, alleluia! Let your face shine on your servant, and teach me your decrees. Alleluia!
Gospel : Matthew 9:14-17
John’s disciples came to him and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on to an old cloak, because the patch pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine into fresh skins and both are preserved.’
Prayer over the Offerings
O God, who graciously accomplish the effects of your mysteries, grant, we pray, that the deeds by which we serve you may be worthy of these sacred gifts. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Cf. Ps 102: 1
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all within me, his holy name.
Prayer after Communion
May this divine sacrifice we have offered and received fill us with life, O Lord, we pray, so that, bound to you in lasting charity, we may bear fruit that lasts for ever. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Fasting is one of the most powerful spiritual disciplines. Through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit can transform our life. It is one of the many acts of penance by which one pays for the debts of one’s own sins and for those of others and enters into a closer relationship with God. Pharisees had lost sense of it and merely kept it as a show unto men, whereas the disciples of John sincerely followed it as a preparation to welcome the Redeemer. Jesus’ disciples were not following it because they were with the Redeemer who was compassionate and merciful and who was the one who could purify them of all their sins and make them one with him; hence they were clean. Therefore, they were as thou at a wedding feast and being with the Bridegroom, they could not think of fasting. What kind of relationship is ours with Jesus?