21 August 2025 (Thursday) / Saint Pius X, Pope on Thursday of week 20 in Ordinary Time / Saint Pius X, Pope Obligatory Memorial

21 August 2025 (Thursday)

Saint Pius X, Pope on Thursday of week 20 in Ordinary Time.

Saint Pius X, Pope Obligatory Memorial.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Judges 11: 29-39a
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 40: 5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10
Alleluia: Psalms 95: 8
Gospel: Matthew 22: 1-14

First Reading : Judges 11:29‐39

The spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, who crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through to Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead made his way to the rear of the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, ‘If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, then the first person to meet me from the door of my house when I return in triumph from fighting the Ammonites shall belong to the Lord, and I will offer him up as a holocaust. Jephthah marched against the Ammonites to attack them, and the Lord delivered them into his power. He harassed them from Aroer almost to Minnith (twenty towns) and to Abel‐keramim. It was a very severe defeat, and the Ammonites were humbled before the Israelites.
  As Jephthah returned to his house at Mizpah, his daughter came out from it to meet him; she was dancing to the sound of timbrels. This was his only child; apart from her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and exclaimed, ‘Oh my daughter, what sorrow you are bringing me! Must it be you, the cause of my ill‐fortune! I have given a promise to the Lord, and I cannot unsay what I have said.’ She answered him, ‘My father, you have given a promise to the Lord; treat me as the vow you took binds you to, since the Lord has given you vengeance on your enemies the Ammonites.’ Then she said to her father, ‘Grant me one request. Let me be free for two months. I shall go and wander in the mountains, and with my companions bewail my virginity.’ He answered, ‘Go’, and let her depart for two months. So she went away with her companions and bewailed her virginity in the mountains. When the two months were over, she returned to her father, and he treated her as the vow that he had uttered bound him. She had never known a man.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 39(40):5,7‐10

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord and has not gone over to the rebels who follow false gods.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings, but an open ear. You do not ask for holocaust and victim. Instead, here am I.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

In the scroll of the book it stands written that I should do your will. My God, I delight in your law in the depth of my heart.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Your justice I have proclaimed in the great assembly. My lips I have not sealed; you know it, O Lord.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Alleluia: Psalms 95: 8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
8 Harden not yours hearts today, but listen to the voice of the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : Matthew 22:1‐14

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’

For our reflection today:

The goodness of God has no bounds and does not discriminate against anyone. For this reason the banquet of the Lord’s gifts is universal, for everyone. Everyone is given the opportunity to respond to the invitation, to his call; no one has the right to feel privileged or to claim an exclusive right. All of this induces us to break the habit of conveniently placing ourselves at the centre, as did the High Priests and the Pharisees. One must not do this; we must open ourselves to the peripheries, also acknowledging that, at the margins too, even one who is cast aside and scorned by society is the object of God’s generosity. We are all called not to reduce the Kingdom of God to the confines of the “little church” — our “tiny little church” — but to enlarge the Church to the dimensions of the Kingdom of God. However, there is one condition: wedding attire must be worn, that is, charity toward God and neighbour must be shown. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 12 October 2014)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)