Monday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater. Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure. This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering. We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 4-5 (R.3)
R. Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name. R.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds. R.
For great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
awesome is he, beyond all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are things of nought,
but the LORD made the heavens. 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.”
Featured Saints
Our Lady of Częstochowa. Patroness of Poland. See: The Miracle on the Vistula.
Bl. Dominic of the Mother of God Barberi, priest (+1849). He journeyed from Italy to work for the conversion of England.
St. Ninian, bishop (+432), the earliest known bishop to have visited Scotland.
Blessed Jacques Retouret, priest and martyr (†1794). Carmelite religious from the monastery of Limoges, who during the French Revolution was imprisoned on a galley, where he died of hypothermia.
St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars, virgin (†1897). Spanish religious; she founded the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly.
St. Joan Elizabeth Bichier des Âges, virgin (†1838). She founded the Congregation of the daughters of the Cross in Maillé, France, to educate children and care for the sick.
Blessed Laurentia Harasymiv, virgin and martyr (†1952). Religious from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, in Ukraine, she aided the faithful, in the absence of priests who had disappeared in Soviet concentration camps. She was arrested and deported to the concentration camp of Kharsk, Siberia, where she died of tuberculosis.
Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified Baouardy, virgin (†1878). Born in Galilee and educated in France, she entered the Discalced Carmelites and founded the convents of the Order in Mangalore (India) and Bethlehem (Palestine).
Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá, layman (†1905). Son of a Mapuche chieftain of Patagonia. He desired to become a missionary priest, dedicated to the conversion of his people, but died of tuberculosis at age 19, before his dream could be fulfilled.
St. Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High (cf. Gn 14: 18-20). His priesthood prefigures that of Christ (cf. Hb 5:6).
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