Comes from a Norman and Germanic family, Thomas d'Aquin was born toward the end of 1224. Son of Landulph, Count of Aquinas and Countess Theodora Caracciolo Rossi.

The church celebrates on this January 27 the memory of Sainte Angela of Merici, founders of Ursulines. Born in 1474 in Desenzano, near Lake Garda. Her parents, devout Christians, wishing that their children can live the beatitudes in the Glory of God.

First Reading

Book of Genesis (Gen 3: 9-24)

The Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground.

The LORD God called to Adam and asked him,

“Where are you?”

He answered,

“I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”

Then he asked,

“Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”

The man replied,

“The woman whom you put here with me —
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”

The LORD God then asked the woman,

“Why did you do such a thing?”

The woman answered,

“The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”

Then the LORD God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
On your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.”

To the woman he said:

“I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing;
in pain shall you bring forth children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall be your master.”

To the man he said:

“Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,
Cursed be the ground because of you!
In toil shall you eat its yield
all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you,
as you eat of the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground,
from which you were taken;
For you are dirt,
and to dirt you shall return.”

The man called his wife Eve,
because she became the mother of all the living.

For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments,
with which he clothed them.
Then the LORD God said:

“See! The man has become like one of us,
knowing what is good and what is evil!
Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand
to take fruit from the tree of life also,
and thus eat of it and live forever.”

The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground from which he had been taken.
When he expelled the man,
he settled him east of the garden of Eden;
and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword,
to guard the way to the tree of life.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm (Ps 90: 2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13)

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

Before the mountains were begotten
and the earth and the world were brought forth,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn man back to dust,
saying, "Return, O children of men."
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.

You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (Mk 8: 1-10)

They ate, and were satisfied.

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,

“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”

His disciples answered him,

“Where can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”

Still he asked them,

“How many loaves do you have?”

They replied,

“Seven.”

He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish.
He said the blessing over them
and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.

He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Genesis (Gn 3: 1-8)

You will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,

“Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the garden?”

The woman answered the serpent:

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden that God said,
‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’”

But the serpent said to the woman:

“You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil.”

The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.

When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden
at the breezy time of the day,
the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God
among the trees of the garden.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm (Ps 32: 1-2, 5, 6, 7)

Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.

Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.

For this shall every faithful man pray to you
in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
they shall not reach him.

You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (Mk 7: 31-37)

He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man's ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,

“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)

And immediately the man's ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,

“He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

— The Gospel of the Lord.

The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth

At the end of its second General Assembly, held from 15 to 18 October 2024, the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace sent a message to government officials at all levels, as well as to all Malagasy and all people of goodwill.

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Love and Salvation

Christmas is a great joy, because it is the love of God that has come to us, proclaims Fr. Bizimana Innocent, Provincial Superior of the Salesians Don Bosco of Madagascar and Mauritius, presenting his Christmas greetings. Salvation is accomplished, so life is not in danger of disappearing. It is this love and this salvation that we wish to fill our life so that we have peace.

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Zatti, our brother

The short film "Zatti, our brother" (Argentina, 2020) focuses on one of the most difficult episodes of his life. We are in Viedma, in 1941: at the age of 60, Zatti is forced to leave the hospital he has attended for decades. His faith and strength are tested.

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