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Vatican hopes new Mass prayers will renew care for God’s creation
Posted on 07/3/2025 16:18 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Jul 3, 2025 / 12:18 pm (CNA).
The Vatican on Thursday presented new Mass prayers and biblical readings to be used to support the Church’s appreciation for God’s creation.
The “Mass for the Care of Creation,” inspired by Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’, has prayers and Mass readings designed “to ask God for the ability to care for creation,” Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, said at a July 3 presentation.
“With this Mass, the Church is offering liturgical, spiritual, and communal support for the care we all need to exercise of nature, our common home. Such service is indeed a great act of faith, hope, and charity,” the cardinal added.
The “Mass for the Care of Creation” is part of the Catholic Church’s Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions. It can be celebrated on a weekday when other liturgical celebrations do not take precedence.
The Vatican published the “formulary” of the Mass, which includes options for biblical readings and the formulas of prayers recited by the priest: the entrance antiphon, collect, prayer over the offerings, Communion antiphon, and prayer after Communion.
Czerny said Pope Leo XIV will celebrate a private Mass using the new prayer formulas in Castel Gandolfo on July 9. The Mass will be for employees of the Borgo Laudato Si’ initiative, which aims to put into practice the principles for integral development outlined in Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.
The formulary of the “Mass of Care for Creation” is part of a group of Masses that can be said for various civil needs, such as for the country, for the blessing of human labor, for planting and for harvest time, in time of war, and after a natural disaster.
According to Bishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, OFM, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, bishops’ conferences can indicate a day for the Mass to be celebrated if they wish.
Viola also noted that “the theme of creation is already present in the liturgy,” but the Mass for the Care of Creation helps emphasize what Pope Francis wrote in paragraph 66 of Laudato Si’, that “human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor, and with the earth itself.”
The Vatican’s liturgy dicastery was responsible for the new Mass formulary, requested by Francis and approved by Leo, but Czerny said the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity were also happy to collaborate on the project.
“Sacred Scripture exhorts humankind to contemplate the mystery of creation and to give endless thanks to the Holy Trinity for this sign of his benevolence, which, like a precious treasure, is to be loved, cherished, and simultaneously advanced as well as handed down from generation to generation,” the divine worship dicastery’s decree states.
“At this time it is evident that the work of creation is seriously threatened because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods God has endowed to our care,” it continues. “This is why it is considered appropriate to add a Mass formulary ‘pro custodia creationis’” to the Roman Missal.
Appeals court revives Catholic’s lawsuit against Federal Reserve over vaccine policy
Posted on 07/3/2025 15:48 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Jul 3, 2025 / 11:48 am (CNA).
A federal appeals court has revived a Catholic worker’s lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the bank’s having fired her for refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in its Wednesday ruling partially reversed the findings of a district court, which had dismissed former Federal Reserve executive assistant Jeanette Diaz’s lawsuit against the bank over her 2022 dismissal.
Diaz had argued that the bank’s policy requiring vaccination against COVID-19 would violate her Catholic faith, citing her opposition to vaccines “created using human cell lines derived from abortion.”
The worker had asked her pastor in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, to sign a letter on her behalf affirming her refusal on religious grounds, though her pastor “refused” to do so, citing Church teaching. The Vatican in 2020 said that it is “morally acceptable” to receive COVID-19 vaccines produced using cell lines from aborted fetuses when no alternative is available.
Diaz nevertheless sought an exemption as a Catholic on grounds of an objection of conscience. Yet the district court ruled against her, claiming that she had failed to show her objection “was based in sincerely held religious beliefs” and pointing to alleged evidence that her opposition was motivated by secular and not religious concerns.
The court had also held that Diaz at times acted inconsistently in her religious belief, such as in taking medication in other cases without first affirming that it was made without using aborted fetal cells.
In reversing the lower court’s order, the appeals court said a jury could infer that Diaz “has both secular and religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccines.” Such distinctions should be made by a jury and not a court, the appeals ruling said.
Regarding Diaz’s alleged inconsistency, the appeals court cited precedent holding that “a sincere religious believer doesn’t forfeit his religious rights merely because he is not scrupulous in his observance.” The court again stipulated that a jury should be allowed to determine the plaintiff’s motivations.
The evidence the lower court relied on “at best” calls into question Diaz’s credibility without ultimately determining it, the appeals court said.
The ruling vacated the lower court’s order regarding Diaz and remanded it for further proceedings.
Though the appeals court found in Diaz’s favor, it upheld another ruling against former Federal Reserve employee Lori Gardner-Alfred.
Gardener-Alfred had cited her decades-long membership in the Temple of the Healing Spirit. But she “could give almost no details” about her participation in that temple, the appeals court noted, and much of the information she gave was “often contradicted” by other elements of her testimony.
The “evidence of Gardner-Alfred’s religious beliefs is so wholly contradictory, incomplete, and incredible that no reasonable jury could accept her professed beliefs as sincerely held,” the appeals court held.
Though it ruled in Diaz’s favor, the appeals court ruling upheld the lower court’s order imposing sanctions on both women for “discovery misconduct.”
The plaintiffs “acted intentionally and in bad faith when they repeatedly flouted the district court’s orders, neglected their discovery obligations under the federal rules, and withheld relevant documents that were potentially damaging to their case,” the appeals court noted.
In November 2024 a jury awarded a Catholic Michigan woman $12.7 million after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan refused to give her a religious exemption from the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and fired her.
The Vatican repeatedly affirmed its support for the COVID vaccines amid the height of the COVID-19 crisis. In 2024 Pope Francis named biochemist Katalin Karikó to the Pontifical Academy for Life; the scientist helped develop the mRNA technology used to create the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
Notre Dame Law School recognizes scholars for religious liberty work
Posted on 07/3/2025 13:45 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 3, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).
During its recently concluded fifth annual Religious Liberty Summit, Notre Dame Law School recognized two scholars for their contributions to the promotion and protection of religious liberty around the world.
The Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty, which is awarded to one person each year for his or her achievements in preserving religious liberty, was presented at last week’s summit to former federal judge and constitutional scholar Professor Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School.
Meanwhile, professor and author Dr. Russell Hittinger of The Catholic University of America (CUA) received the Religious Liberty Scholarship Award, which is given annually to an individual for accomplishments in advancing the understanding of how law protects freedom of religion.

Hittinger is executive director of CUA’s Institute for Human Ecology and a research professor in the School of Philosophy. He has also taught at Princeton, Fordham, and the University of Chicago and has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
McConnell sees welcome course correction
“When I look back, things are so much better now… in constitutional law, freedom of religion, we’re doing a whole lot better today than we were before,” McConnell said at the event.
McConnell is director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional history, the First Amendment, and interpretive theory.
From 2002 to 2009, he served as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. As an author, his most recent work, co-authored with Nathan Chapman, is “Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience.”
For his part, Hittinger has published more than 100 articles and books, including “Political Pluralism and Religious Liberty: The Teaching of Dignitatis Humanae” and his 2024 book “On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law.”
Vatican downplays leaked documents on Latin Mass
Posted on 07/3/2025 13:15 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Jul 3, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).
A Vatican spokesman has played down the significance of recently leaked Vatican documents that appear to cast doubt on Pope Francis’ rationale for restricting the Latin Mass, calling the documents “partial and incomplete.”
The documents appear to show that bishops had a more favorable outlook on the Traditional Latin Mass than Pope Francis suggested when he issued controversial restrictions on its celebration in 2021.
Vatican journalist Diane Montagna published two excerpts from an internal Vatican report on a global consultation of bishops in a Substack newsletter July 1. The publication of the texts has sparked renewed controversy over Francis’ decision to restrict the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass at a time when some liturgical traditionalists are voicing hopes that Pope Leo will reverse or moderate his predecessor’s action.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said July 3 the leaked information “presumably concerns part of one of the documents on which the decision [to restrict the Latin Mass] is based.”
Answering a question from CNA during a press conference on another topic, Bruni called published reports “a very partial and incomplete reconstruction of the decision-making process.” At the same time, he refused to confirm the documents’ authenticity.
The spokesman added that “other documentation, other reports, also the result of further consultations” were also taken into consideration with regard to restrictions on the Latin Mass.
An official at the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the department responsible for the application of Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis’ July 2021 decree restricting the Mass, told CNA on July 3 that the dicastery “has nothing further to add” to Bruni’s response.
The leaked texts, which summarize consultation results and selected quotations from bishops, have been hailed by critics of Traditionis Custodes as evidence that Pope Francis was misleading when stating his reasons for placing strict restrictions on the celebration of the Latin Mass.
Francis’ decree revoked the permissions granted by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 decree Summorum Pontificum.
“The claim that a majority of bishops around the world wanted restrictions on the ancient Mass [Traditional Latin Mass] was always dubious, but this document shows for all to see that it is completely false,” Joseph Shaw, president of the Latin Mass federation Una Voce International, wrote in a newsletter on July 2.
Shaw said the leaked documents show “only the views of the minority of bishops who really disliked the TLM were being acted upon. The majority view was ignored.”
Traditionis Custodes placed significant restrictions on the celebration of the Mass according to missals from before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In the decree, Pope Francis said he had taken into consideration “the wishes expressed by the episcopate” and “the opinion of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Pope Francis explained in a letter accompanying the decree that in 2020 he had asked the now-Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to carry out a survey of bishops around the world about the results of the implementation of the 2007 norms on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
“The responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene,” Francis wrote in the letter. He added that the intention of his predecessors, to foster unity among Catholics with diverse liturgical sensibilities, “has often been seriously disregarded” and the opportunity “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
According to one of the leaked documents, a five-page “overall assessment” that according to Montagna was part of a never-published report more than 200 pages long on the results of the 2020 questionnaire, the consultation found “the majority of bishops who responded … and who have generously and intelligently implemented the MP [motu proprio] Summorum Pontificum, ultimately express satisfaction with it." But “some bishops state that the MP Summorum Pontificum has failed in its aim of fostering reconciliation and therefore request its suppression.”
The leaked assessment said some bishops stated they would prefer to return to the pre-2007 rules for the Traditional Latin Mass, when its celebration required permission from the local bishop, “in order to have greater control and management of the situation.”
“However,” the text continued, “the majority of bishops who responded to the questionnaire state that making legislative changes to the MP Summorum Pontificum would cause more harm than good.”
40 new priests ordained in Vietnam
Posted on 07/3/2025 10:00 AM (CNA Daily News)

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 3, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The Catholic Church in Vietnam welcomed with great joy and hope the ordination of 40 new priests during June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
According to the Vatican news agency Fides, the Diocese of Da Nang welcomed six new priests, “consecrated to be each an ‘alter Christus’ [‘another Christ’], to become pastors of the people of God, not to live for themselves but to be all things to all people,” said Archbishop Joseph Dang Duc Ngan, archbishop of Huế and apostolic administrator of Da Nang, in his homily at the ordination Mass on June 24 in the local cathedral before numerous faithful.
“A priest does not become perfect from the day of his ordination. The priesthood is a journey of daily growth in Christ and constant strengthening in the Holy Spirit to fulfill the mission of God and the Church with joy and true love,” the prelate emphasized.
Bishop Peter Le Tan Loi celebrated the ordination Mass of 13 new priests on June 25 at the Soc Trang Cathedral in the Diocese of Can Tho.
During the Eucharist, the prelate invited the faithful present to “unite in prayer and accompany the new priests, so that they may always lead a life faithful to their pastoral identity: humble, holy, and dedicated to the flock.”
On June 27, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Day for the Sanctification of Priests, 21 new priests were ordained for the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).
Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang said in his homily that “the priest is not like a robot of the modern age. In his ministry, the priest takes God’s will seriously so that, in every action — liturgical, pastoral, and charitable — he may transmit the good news.”
Fides also reported that at the Shrine of Our Lady of Bai Dau in the Diocese of Ba Ria, Bishop Emmanuel Nguyen Hong Son ordained six new deacons, also on June 27.
Pope Leo XIV’s meets with country’s vice president
On Monday, June 30, Pope Leo XIV received the vice president of Vietnam, Vo Thi Anh Xuan, in an audience at the Vatican, a gesture that confirms the positive development of relations between the southeast Asian country and the Holy See.

A statement from the Vatican press office reported that “great appreciation was expressed for the positive development of relations between the Holy See and Vietnam.”
In particular, the implementation of the historic 2023 agreement on the pontifical representative resident in Vietnam was highlighted, which allowed the Holy See to once again have a representative in the country, something that had not happened since 1975, when the communist government expelled the apostolic delegate.
Vietnam has nearly 93 million inhabitants. Of these, approximately 6.8 million, or 7.4% of the population, are Catholics, according to statistics published by the Holy See.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
Posted on 07/3/2025 08:30 AM ()
Reading 1 Ephesians 2:19-22
Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 117:1bc, 2
R. (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
For steadfast is his kindness for us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Alleluia John 20:29
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;
blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel John 20:24-29
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But Thomas said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Posted on 07/2/2025 08:30 AM ()
Reading 1 Genesis 21:5, 8-20a
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Isaac grew, and on the day of the child's weaning
Abraham held a great feast.
Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian
had borne to Abraham
playing with her son Isaac;
so she demanded of Abraham:
"Drive out that slave and her son!
No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance
with my son Isaac!"
Abraham was greatly distressed,
especially on account of his son Ishmael.
But God said to Abraham: "Do not be distressed about the boy
or about your slave woman.
Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you;
for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.
As for the son of the slave woman,
I will make a great nation of him also,
since he too is your offspring."
Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water
and gave them to Hagar.
Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away.
As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba,
the water in the skin was used up.
So she put the child down under a shrub,
and then went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away;
for she said to herself, "Let me not watch to see the child die."
As she sat opposite Ishmael, he began to cry.
God heard the boy's cry,
and God's messenger called to Hagar from heaven:
"What is the matter, Hagar?
Don't be afraid; God has heard the boy's cry in this plight of his.
Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand;
for I will make of him a great nation."
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.
She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink.
God was with the boy as he grew up.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 34:7-8, 10-11, 12-13
R. (7a) The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Fear the LORD, you his holy ones,
for nought is lacking to those who fear him.
The great grow poor and hungry;
but those who seek the LORD want for no good thing.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Come, children, hear me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Which of you desires life,
and takes delight in prosperous days?
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Alleluia James 1:18
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Matthew 8:28-34
When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes,
two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him.
They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.
They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?"
Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding.
The demons pleaded with him,
"If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine."
And he said to them, "Go then!"
They came out and entered the swine,
and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea
where they drowned.
The swineherds ran away,
and when they came to the town they reported everything,
including what had happened to the demoniacs.
Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus,
and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Posted on 07/1/2025 08:30 AM ()
Reading 1 Genesis 19:15-29
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way!
Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here,
or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom."
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD's mercy,
seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters
and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told:
"Flee for your life!
Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain.
Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."
"Oh, no, my lord!" Lot replied,
"You have already thought enough of your servant
to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life.
But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me,
and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.
It's only a small place.
Let me flee there–it's a small place, is it not?–
that my life may be saved."
"Well, then," he replied,
"I will also grant you the favor you now ask.
I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there!
I cannot do anything until you arrive there."
That is why the town is called Zoar.
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire
upon Sodom and Gomorrah
from the LORD out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain,
together with the inhabitants of the cities
and the produce of the soil.
But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place
where he had stood in the LORD's presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and the whole region of the Plain,
he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain,
he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval
by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 26:2-3, 9-10, 11-12
R.(3a) O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Search me, O LORD, and try me;
test my soul and my heart.
For your mercy is before my eyes,
and I walk in your truth.
R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Gather not my soul with those of sinners,
nor with men of blood my life.
On their hands are crimes,
and their right hands are full of bribes.
R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
But I walk in integrity;
redeem me, and have mercy on me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.
R. O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.
Alleluia Psalm 130:5
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Matthew 8:23-27
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;
but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying,
"Lord, save us! We are perishing!"
He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?"
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?"
- Readings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Junipero Serra, Priest [In the Dioceses of the United States]
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Posted on 06/30/2025 08:30 AM ()
Reading 1 Genesis 18:16-33
Abraham and the men who had visited him by the Terebinth of Mamre
set out from there and looked down toward Sodom;
Abraham was walking with them, to see them on their way.
The LORD reflected: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
now that he is to become a great and populous nation,
and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?
Indeed, I have singled him out
that he may direct his children and his household after him
to keep the way of the LORD
by doing what is right and just,
so that the LORD may carry into effect for Abraham
the promises he made about him."
Then the LORD said:
"The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out."
While the two men walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer to him and said:
"Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty,
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?"
The LORD replied,
"If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Abraham spoke up again:
"See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?"
He answered, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there."
But Abraham persisted, saying, "What if only forty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it for the sake of forty."
Then Abraham said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there."
Still Abraham went on,
"Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?"
He answered, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty."
But he still persisted:
"Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?"
He replied, "For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it."
The LORD departed as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham,
and Abraham returned home.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 103:1b-2, 3-4, 8-9, 10-11
R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Alleluia Psalm 95:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Matthew 8:18-22
When Jesus saw a crowd around him,
he gave orders to cross to the other shore.
A scribe approached and said to him,
“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Another of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But Jesus answered him, “Follow me,
and let the dead bury their dead.”
- Readings for the Optional Memorial of the First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Ordination to the Priesthood 2025
Posted on 05/27/2025 07:57 AM (Diocese of Orlando, Florida)