Monday in the 4th Week of Easter
Mass Readings
First Reading – Acts 11:1-18
The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, ‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying, “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me. Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky. I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’ But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’ This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky. Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying, ‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 42:2-3; 43:3, 4 (R. cf.3a)
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in You.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant His praises. R.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all His works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full. R.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear Him,
upon those who hope for His kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine. R.
Gospel – Jn 10:1-10
Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Featured Saints
St. Oportuna of Montreuil , abbess (†c. 770). Sister of St. Godegrand, the bishop of Séez. As abbess, St. Oportuna was considered a true mother to all of her nuns and was famed for her personal abstinence and austerity.
St. Caius, Pope (†296). Escaped the Diocletian Persecution and died as a confessor of the Faith.
St. Soter, Pope (†175). He stood out for his admirable charity toward needy pilgrims, the indigent and those condemned to forced labour.
St. Agapitus I, Pope (†536). He steadfastly worked so that the Bishop of Rome would be freely chosen by the clergy of the city and that everywhere the dignity of the Church would be preserved. He died in Constantinople, where he went to meet with Emperor Justinian.
St. Theodore of Sykeon, bishop and abbot (†613). As an anchorite, he founded a monastery to accommodate his numerous disciples. After being elected Bishop of Anastasiopolis, he asked to return to hermetic life. He died in Sykeon, present-day Turkey.
St. Leonides, martyr (†204). Father of Origen of Alexandria, put to death by the sword in that Egyptian city during the persecution of Septimius Severus, when his son was but a young boy.
St. Maryahb, martyr (†341). Persian archdeacon martyred during the persecution of King Shapur II. His name means: “The Lord disposes.”
St. Senorina, abbess (†circa 980). Descendent of a noble family of Braga, Portugal. She took the habit in the convent of St. John of Venaria, of which she became abbess.
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