Readings for the Memorial of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Priest and Martyr Reading 1 Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63 The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem:By origin and birth you are of the land of Canaan;your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.As for your birth, the day you were born your navel cord was not cut;you were neither washed with water nor anointed,nor were you rubbed with salt, nor swathed in swaddling clothes.No one looked on you with pity or compassionto do any of these things for you.Rather, you were thrown out on the ground as something loathsome,the day you were born.Then I passed by and saw you weltering in your blood.I said to you: Live in your blood and grow like a plant in the field.You grew and developed, you came to the age of puberty;your breasts were formed, your hair had grown,but you were still stark naked.Again I passed by you and saw that you we

Reading 1 Ezekiel 9:1-7; 10:18-22 The LORD cried loud for me to hear:Come, you scourges of the city!With that I saw six men coming from the directionof the upper gate which faces the north,each with a destroying weapon in his hand.In their midst was a man dressed in linen,with a writer’s case at his waist.They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.Then he called to the man dressed in linenwith the writer’s case at his waist, saying to him:Pass through the city, through Jerusalem,and mark a “Thau” on the foreheads of those who moan and groanover all the abominations that are practiced within it.To the others I heard the LORD say:Pass through the city after him and strike!Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!Old men, youths and maidens, women and children–wipe them out!But do not touch any marked with the “Thau”; begin at my sanctuary.So they began with the men, the elders, who were in front of the temple.Defi