July 21, 2025
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Matthew 12:38-42
Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
July 21, 2025
Saint Who?
Saints Who Championed the Eucharist
Blessed Innocent de Berzo
Priest and religious († 1890) Feast: March 3
Giovanni Scalvinoni was born in Niardo, Italy. He was a baby when his father died, so he was raised by an uncle. He received excellent grades and became a diocesan priest, but he was so shy that he found it difficult to assert his authority as a priest. Recognizing that God was calling him to a life of solitude and penance, he entered the Capuchin Franciscan order at the age of thirty, taking the name Innocent.
Although he was occasionally asked to preach retreats, Innocent spent most of his religious life living quietly among his brothers. Some of them mistook his willingness to laugh at his own mistakes for an inferiority complex. Others recognized that the young man was simply seeking ways to mortify his pride and to practice complete abandonment to God’s will.
For Innocent, the Body and Blood of Christ was true food for the soul. He spent many hours praying before the Blessed Sacrament and studied in the friary’s library so that he would be in the room immediately next to the tabernacle. During his celebration of the Mass, he became so lost in meditation that Mass would last far longer than normal. His altar servers often tried to bring him back to earth by tugging at his chasuble. Innocent died in a Franciscan friary in Bergamo.
Loving God, draw us ever closer to you
in the celebration of the Mass.
Our newsletter for Sunday Mass
Sign up to receive resources every Wednesday to help you prepare for Sunday Mass:
- Insight into the day’s liturgical theme
- The Gospel
- A Meditation
- Suggested Prayer of the Faithful
Magnificat
Rosary for a Eucharistic Revival
- All twenty mysteries, with introductions, focus on Eucharistic revival.
- Splendid artwork helps prepare us to contemplate Jesus and Mary more devoutly.
- Mary, Jesus’ first tabernacle, leads us to adore and follow him in all the joys, lights, and sorrows of this earth to the unending glory of reigning with him in heaven.
48 p – 4,5 x 6,75 in – US $5.99 – Price per copy available as low as US $1.99
©Image : Christ on the Lake of Galilee, Jacopo Tintoretto (circle, 1518-1594), NGA, Washington D.C., USA. Photo Courtesy NGA Washington.
