Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot
St. Benedict of Nursia, abbot (†547). Founder of the Benedictine Order, which was the harbinger of the Middle Ages. From the Benedictines came the evangelizers of the barbarian peoples, which gave rise to European Christian civilization. He is thus hailed as the father of Western monasticism and patron of Europe. The maxim for his order was: Ora et labora.
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Mass Readings
First Reading – Is 6:1-8
In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.He touched my mouth with it and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5 (R.1a)
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength. R.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD. R.
TYour decrees are worthy of trust indeed:
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.R.
Gospel – Mt 10:24-33
Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!“Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Featured Saints
St. Olga of Kiev (†969). Russian princess and grandmother of King St. Vladimir. The first Russian sovereign to receive Baptism, her conversion opened the doors of Russia to Christianity. She died in Kiev, present-day Ukraine.
St. Leontius, bishop (†c. 570). He stood out in Bordeaux, France as a builder and restorer of places of worship, and an advocate of the poor.
St. Quetilus, priest (†1151). Augustinian religious in Denmark, he promoted evangelization and acted as a peacemaker in the dynastic disputes of his country.
St. Abundius, priest and martyr (†854). Killed in Cordoba, during the persecution of the Moors, for his fearless confession of the Faith.
St. Hidulphus, abbot (†707). He lived as a hermit in the dense forest of Vosges, France. For the sake of his many followers he founded and governed the monastery of Moyenmoutier.
Blessed Bertrand, abbot (†1149). Superior of the Monastery of Grandselve, outside Toulouse (France); he incorporated it into the Cistercian Order.
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