Monday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Vincent, deacon and martyr. He was the deacon of St. Valerius, Bishop of Zaragoza, and was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian in Valencia in the year 304, becoming the protomartyr of Spain.
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Sm 5:1-7, 10
All the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said: “Here we are, your bone and your flesh. In days past, when Saul was our king, it was you who led the children of Israel out and brought them back. And the LORD said to you, ‘You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.'” When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron, King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD, and they anointed him king of Israel. David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned for forty years: seven years and six months in Hebron over Judah, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah. Then the king and his men set out for Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the region. David was told, “You cannot enter here: the blind and the lame will drive you away!” which was their way of saying, “David cannot enter here.” But David did take the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David. David grew steadily more powerful, for the LORD of hosts was with him.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 89:20, 21-22, 25-26 (25a)
R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with Him.
Once you spoke in a vision,
and to your faithful ones you said:
“On a champion I have placed a crown;
over the people I have set a youth.” R.
“I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
That my hand may be always with him,
and that my arm may make him strong.” R.
“My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him,
and through my name shall his horn be exalted.
I will set his hand upon the sea,
his right hand upon the rivers.” R.
Gospel – Mk 3:22-30
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Summoning them, He began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Featured Saints
St. Valerius, Bishop (†305/315). He was expelled from his Diocese of Zaragoza, Spain, during the persecution of Diocletian and died in exile. He is honoured as the Patron of Zaragoza.
St. Gaudentius, bishop (†circa 418). Converted by St. Eusebius of Vercelli, he became his disciple and companion in exile. He returned to Italy and became Bishop of Novara.
St. Bernard, bishop (†842). He left the army of Charlemagne, distributed his goods among the poor, joined the militia of Christ and was named Bishop of Vienne, France. He built the monasteries of Ambronay and Romans.
St. Vincent Pallotti, priest (†1850). He founded the Society of Catholic Apostolate. Through his work and writings, he promoted the vocation of all the baptized to generously labour for the Church.
Sts. Francis Gil of Federich and Matthew Alphonse of Leziniana, priests and martyrs (†1745). Dominican priests put to death by sword in Vietnam, after a period of imprisonment, for preaching the Gospel.
Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, priest (†1850). To attract the laity to devotion to Our Lady and to promote the missions, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate and the Society of Mary, in Bordeaux, France.
St. Dominic of Sora, abbot(†1031). He founded and reformed many monasteries in the region of Latium, in central Italy.
Blessed Giuseppe Nascimbeni, priest (†1922). He founded the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in Castelletto del Garda, Italy.
Blessed Ladislaus Batthyány Strattmann, father of family (†1931). Doctor from a Hungarian noble family, he generously cared for the poor and indigent in the hospital he founded in Vienna, Austria.
Blessed Laura Vicuña, virgin (†1904). Chilean girl educated by the Salesian Sisters in Argentina. Of firm faith and ardent piety, she endured great moral sufferings and died at 13 years of age, after offering herself as a victim for the conversion of her mother.
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