9 March 2026 (Monday) / Monday of the Third Week of Lent / Lenten Weekday/ Saint Frances of Rome, Married Woman, Religious Founder

9 March 2026 (Monday)

Monday of the Third Week of Lent.

Lenten Weekday/ Saint Frances of Rome, Married Woman, Religious Founder.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Second Kings 5: 1-15

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 42: 2, 3; 43: 3, 4

Verse Before the Gospel: Psalms 130: 5, 7

Gospel: Luke 4: 24-30

First Reading: Second Kings 5: 1-15

1 Naaman, general of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man and rich, but a leper.

2 Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman’s wife.

3 And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet, that is in Samaria: he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath.

4 Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus said tile girl from the land of Israel.

5 And the king of Syria sad to him: Go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and tell changes of raiment,

6 And brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman my servant, that thou mayest heal him of his leprosy.

7 And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me, to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me.

8 And when Eliseus the man of God had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.

9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus:

10 And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thee shalt be clean.

11 Naaman was angry and went away, saying: I thought he would hare come out to me, and standing would hare invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me.

12 Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation,

13 His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt he clean?

14 Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean.

15 And returning to the man of God with all his train, be came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 42: 2, 3; 43: 3, 4

R. (42:3) Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?

2 As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God.

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?

3 My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?

43:3 Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles.

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?

4 And I will go in to the altar of God: to God who giveth joy to my youth. To thee, O God my God, I will give praise upon the harp: why art thou sad, O my soul?

R. Athirst is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?

Verse Before the Gospel: Psalms 130: 5, 7

5, 7 I hope in the LORD, I trust in his word; with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.

Gospel: Luke 4: 24-30

24 And he said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country.

25 In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth.

26 And to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman.

27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.

28 And all they in the synagogue, hearing these things, were filled with anger.

29 And they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they brought him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

30 But he passing through the midst of them, went his way.

For our reflection today:

After Jesus, when he was about 30 years old, had left Nazareth and had already been travelling about preaching and working miracles of healing elsewhere, he once returned to his birthplace and started teaching in the synagogue. His fellow citizens “were astonished” by his wisdom, and knowing him as “the son of Mary”, as the carpenter who had lived in their midst, instead of welcoming him with faith were shocked and took offence (cf. Mk 6:2-3). This reaction is understandable because familiarity at the human level makes it difficult to go beyond this in order to be open to the divine dimension. That this son of a carpenter was the Son of God was hard for them to believe. Jesus actually takes as an example the experience of the prophets of Israel, who in their own homeland were an object of contempt, and identifies himself with them. Due to this spiritual closure Jesus “could do no mighty work there [Nazareth], except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them” (Mk 6:5). In fact Christ’s miracles are not a display of power but signs of the love of God that is brought into being wherever it encounters reciprocated human faith.(Benedict XVI - Angelus, 8 July 2012)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Pelayan Atasan Tertinggi / Most High Servant,
Yesus, Maria, Yusuf Pelayanan Kasih / Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love 
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)

My vocation is Blessed and Saints.

"I am the most humble of all the Saints in Heaven" Mary, Mother of God.

"I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me."

Mother Mary is the most humble Saint in Heaven and she is also the Mother of God for us all
(Luke 1:38)