FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

FRIDAY

FIRST READING: Jeremiah 20:10-13

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 5-6, 7

GOSPEL READING : John 10:31-42

In the beginning, when St. Francis was still wearing the clothes of a layman, although he had already renounced the world, he went about Assisi for a long time looking wretched and so emaciated by penance that many thought he had turned simple-minded. They laughed at him as though he were mad, and relatives and strangers alike drove him away with insults and stones and mud. But he was already seasoned with a divine salt and rooted in peace of soul by the Holy Spirit, so he bore patiently all their insults and scorn with a joyful countenance, as if he were deaf and mute.

Little Flowers of St. Francis – Chapter 2


Someone I know was in the Spirit and saw many men had picked up stones from the ground to throw at Jesus and kill him. Suddenly, the earth began to shake. The ground trembled madly. Stones, dirt and dust all vibrated away from the spot where Jesus had just stood. Then the ground suddenly split open. Just a little bit at first. Then the earth shook more violently and the corner of a large rock began to appear from the crack. As the earth became more and more violent, the more the rock grew and protruded from out of the ever widening crack.

"Gazing upon this massive rock, I saw that it had grown to the size of a house, wide at the base and slender at the top, coming almost to a point.

"In fear, the men threw down their rocks. They were useless to throw against that gigantic rock!

"The giant rock became a foundation for all that there was to come. Nothing in this world could harm that rock. It was far too formidable.

"I threw myself onto it and began kissing it. It gave me strength. It gave me hope. It was my salvation."


A brother