Monday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Featured Saints
St. Rose of Lima, virgin (†1617 Lima – Peru). Optional Memorial. Originally named Isabel, for her beauty and charm, she became known as Rose. She entered the Dominican Third Order and lived a life of extraordinary austerity and mysticism. First canonized saint born in the Americas.
St. Eugene, bishop (†sixth century). First Bishop of Ardstraw, Ireland.
Blessed Juan María de la Cruz, priest and martyr (†1936). Imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War, he was killed after a month of fruitful apostolate in prison.
Blesseds Rosary Quintana Argos and Seraphina Fernández Ibero, virgins and martyrs (†1936). Third Order Capuchins of the Holy Family Killed for refusing to renounce their Faith in Puzol, Valencia during the Spanish Civil War.
Blessed John Bourdon, priest and martyr (†1794). Capuchin priest detained in an over-crowded prison-galley Rochefort as part of the religious persecutions of the French Revolution, he died as a result of illness contracted there.
St. Zacchaeus, bishop (†second century). According to tradition, he was the fourth Bishop to head the Church of Jerusalem after the Apostle St. James.
Sts. Astericus, Claudius, and Neon, martyrs (†303). Brothers denounced by their stepmother for being Christian, they were beheaded in the time of the Emperor Diocletian.
Blessed Francis Dachtera, priest and martyr (†1944). Arrested in his parish of Inowroclaw, Poland, he was sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he was submitted to the barbarity of medical experimentation which caused his death.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen. For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction. You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. In every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b (R.cf.4a)
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. R.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory. R.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia. R.
Gospel – Mt 23:13-22
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You traverse sea and land to make one convert,
and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna
twice as much as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,
or the temple that made the gold sacred?
And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’
You blind ones, which is greater, the gift,
or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it
and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God
and by him who is seated on it.”
