Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

The First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church

Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings of the day: RB 23 Faults Which Deserve Excommunication

Mass: Lm 2:2, 10-14, 18-18; Resp Ps 74; Mt 8:5-17

Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.

We have times in our lives, sometimes daily, or days, even months, when we have need to lament, to pour out our troubles on the Lord, to express grief or sorrow. In a recent article in Worship journal (May 2018), H.L. Novello writes: ‘lament witnesses to a robust faith and worship, and, moreover, is the mode by which hope is reborn. A deep confidence in the pathos of God, who is vulnerable to the cries of the afflicted, motivates the cry raised to God from the depths of distress. God is not only abovethe fray (transcendence), but also immersed in the fray since God makes the suffering of his people his own (immanence)’, pp. 229-230. Remember, Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones (Ps 74:19b).

OUR HELP IS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.

(Ps 124:8)

When we are firmly united to the God who loves and sustains us,

we are able to withstand all life’s difficulties and challenges.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, June 30, 2018)