Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection June 13, 2026
Saturday – 13th Week in Ordinary Time
13th June 2026 (Saturday)
Psalter: Week 2
Readings of the Day
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:19-21
In those days: Elijah departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
Psalm 16:1b-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10 (R.See 5a)
R/. It is you, O Lord, who are my portion.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. Bend my heart, O God, to your decrees grant me mercy by your law.
R/. Alleluia
Gospel: Matthew 5:27-32
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Daily Gospel Reflection
Saturday – 10th Week in Ordinary Time
Main Point: The day after we gazed at the Heart of Jesus, we turn to the heart that was closest to it. Mary did not always understand, but she treasured, pondered, and trusted. Hers is the heart that learned to keep God’s word even in the dark.
1. Yesterday we stood before the open Heart of Jesus. Today the Church gently turns us toward the heart that beat nearest to His for thirty years. It is fitting. You cannot look long at the Son’s love without being led to the mother who first received it.
2. But notice what the Gospel does not give us. It does not show Mary in a moment of glory. It shows her confused, anxious, and searching. Jesus, twelve years old, has gone missing in Jerusalem, and for three days His parents look for Him with aching hearts. Even she knew what it was to lose sight of her Son.
3. When they finally find Him in the temple, Mary asks the question any worried parent would. “Son, why have you treated us so? Your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” There is no pretending here. She does not understand, and she says so plainly.
4. And His answer must have stung. “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Luke tells us simply, “They did not understand what He said to them.” Even Mary, full of grace, did not grasp everything at once. Faith, even hers, walked partly in the dark.
5. Here is the heart of today’s feast, in one line. “His mother kept all these things in her heart.” She did not understand, so she did not demand answers or push them aside. She held them. She pondered them. She trusted that meaning would come, in God’s time, not hers.
6. That is what an immaculate heart looks like in practice. Not a heart that always understands, but a heart that always trusts. Mary teaches us what to do with the things in life we cannot make sense of. We do not throw them away. We keep them, and we wait, and we believe.
7. How different from us. When God’s ways confuse us, we so quickly grow bitter, or we walk away, or we demand He explain Himself on our terms. Mary shows the better way. She held her unanswered questions close, alongside her faith, and let God unfold them slowly.
8. The first reading gives us a heart that responds just as fully. Elijah throws his cloak over Elisha, and Elisha leaves everything. He slaughters his oxen, burns his plough, and follows. Like Mary’s quiet yes, his is a wholehearted yes, holding nothing back from the call of God.
My Practice: What is the unanswered question you have been letting turn into bitterness? The thing about your life you cannot understand and have started to resent? Do with it what Mary did. Stop demanding an explanation, and instead keep it in your heart, beside your trust, and wait on God. Her heart stayed soft and faithful through what she could not understand. Today, ask her to teach yours to do the same.
