Monday of the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorials: St. Fabian, Pope and martyr. According to the historian Eusebius, he was elected Pope by divine inspiration when he was but a simple layman. It is said that a dove descended over his head during the conclave assembled to elect the successor of Pope Anterus. He died as a victim of the persecution of Decius, in 250; St. Sebastian, martyr († fourth century). As a Praetorian guard in the Imperial palace and friend of Emperor Maximian, he made use of his position to aid Christians and to evangelize among the other soldiers, aiding in their conversion. Accused before the emperor, he was condemned to being bound to a tree trunk and shot with arrows.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Heb 5:1-10
Brothers and sisters: Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to him: You are my Son: this day I have begotten you; just as he says in another place, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days when he was in the Flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4 (R.4b)
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool.” R.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies.” R.
“Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.” R.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” R.
Gospel – Mk 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Featured Saints
St. Wulfstan , Bishop (†1095). Benedictine religious appointed as Bishop of Worcester by recommendation of King St. Edward III. He opposed the trafficking of slaves and supported the Gregorian reforms.
St. Henry of Uppsala, bishop and martyr (†c. 1157). Of English origin, he was appointed Bishop of Uppsala, Sweden. He was cruelly assassinated in Finland by a man whom he had reproached.
St. Asclas, martyr (†fourth century). He was subjected to cruel tortures and finally thrown into the Nile River in Antinoopolis,Egypt.
St. Stephen Min Kuk-ka, martyr (†1840). Catechist beheaded in prison in Seoul, Korea, for defending the Catholic Faith.
St. Eustochia Calafato, abbess (†1485). Daughter of a wealthy merchant from Messina (Italy), she entered the Clarist Order and founded the Monastery of Montevergine, where she worked at restoring the primitive discipline of regular life.
St. Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception, virgin (†1906). She dedicated her life to the Christian formation of children in Casoria, Italy, and founded the Congregation of Sisters, Expiatory Victims of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, dedicated to Perpetual Adoration and to teaching children.
Blessed Cyprian Michael Tansi, presbítero (†1964). Cistercian religious born in the region of Onitsha, Nigeria. Once baptized as a schoolboy, he dedicated himself to the catechizing others. He became a priest and then a Trappist monk, and was later sent to Mount St. Bernard in England where he lived for the last 14 years of his life.
Image gallery
Image gallery
St. Gildas of Ryhs