Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Dt 18:15-20
Moses spoke to all the people, saying: “A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘This was well said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9 (R.8)
R. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to Him. R.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For He is our God,
and we are the people He shepherds, the flock He guides. R.
Oh, that today you would hear His voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.” R.
Second Reading – 1 Cor 7:32-35
Brothers and sisters: I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
Gospel – Mk 1:21-28
Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
Featured Saints
Sunday takes precedence this year over the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas (†1274). Friar of the Dominican Order, a theology pupil of St. Albert the Great at the beginning of his studies in the University of Paris. Endowed with extraordinary intellectual gifts, St. Thomas is a luminary of the Church.
St. Julian of Cuenca, Bispo (†1207). Bishop and patron of this Spanish city. He applied himself to the growth and glorification of Christ’s Church. He supported the poor of his diocese with his own labours.
St. Joseph Freinademetz, priest (†1908). Religious of the Society of the Divine Word, sent to the missions in China where he worked tirelessly in the evangelization of those people.
St. James, anchorite (†554). A hermit in Palestine. Por penance, he made his abode in a tomb.
St. Agatha Lin Zao, virgin, St. Jerome Lu Ting mei and St. Laurence Wang Bing, catechists and martyrs (†1858). Beheaded in Macau, China, after being denounced as Christians.
Blessed Julian Maunoir, priest (†1683). Priest of the Company of Jesus who dedicated himself to popular missions in the region of Plévin, France.
Blessed Olympia Bida, virgin and martyr (†1952). Ukrainian religious from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, she was sent to a concentration camp in Siberia where she endured grievous suffering for the love of Christ.
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