Friday of the First Week of Lent

Lent
Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church optional memorial

Selected Mass Reading

First Reading — Ezekiel 18:21-28

But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live. Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? But if the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man useth to work, shall he live? all his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: in the prevarication, by which he hath prevaricated, and in his sin, which he hath committed, in them he shall die. And you have said: The way of the Lord is not right. Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel: Is it my way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just turneth himself away from his justice, and comitteth iniquity, he shall die therein: in the injustice that he hath wrought he shall die. And when the wicked turneth himself away from his wickedness, which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment, and justice: he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth and turneth away himself from all his iniquities which he hath wrought, he shall surely live, and not die.

Feast Days

Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows Passionist seminarian, Religious (Passionist) 1838–1862

Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was born Francesco Possenti on March 1, 1838, in Assisi, Italy, into a large family. Raised amid repeated sorrows—including the early death of his mother and several siblings—he grew into a gifted, sociable young man in Spoleto, admired for his charm and generosity, yet drawn to worldly ambitions. After serious illnesses and close calls that stirred his conscience, a decisive grace came during a procession with an ancient image of the Virgin Mary: he felt an inner call asking why he remained in the world. With perseverance—despite his father’s initial resistance—he entered the Passionists in 1856, receiving the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. Though his monastic life seemed outwardly ordinary, Gabriel lived the Passionist Rule with remarkable fidelity, radiating joy, humility, and tender devotion to Mary’s sorrows. Stricken with tuberculosis, he embraced his suffering as preparation for heaven and died peacefully at Isola del Gran Sasso on February 27, 1862, before priestly ordination. Canonized in 1920, he is honored as patron of Abruzzo and Martinsicuro. His feast day is February 27.