Monday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, priest and Doctor of the Church (+1619). Capuchin monk from Italy, who governed various provinces of his Order and acted as Papal legate on numerous diplomatic missions. Sent to Austria and Bohemia where he was an untiring preacher against the errors of Protestantism, he was appointed as the head chaplain of the imperial army, in battle against the invading Turks. He is hailed as “Doctor Apostolicus”.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Ex 14:5-18
When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds about them. They exclaimed, “What have we done! Why, we have released Israel from our service!” So Pharaoh made his chariots ready and mustered his soldiers — six hundred first-class chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, with warriors on them all. So obstinate had the LORD made Pharaoh that he pursued the children of Israel even while they were marching away in triumph. The Egyptians, then, pursued them; Pharaoh’s whole army, his horses, chariots and charioteers, caught up with them as they lay encamped by the sea, at Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. Pharaoh was already near when the children of Israel looked up and saw that the Egyptians were on the march in pursuit of them. In great fright they cried out to the LORD. And they complained to Moses, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you had to bring us out here to die in the desert? Why did you do this to us? Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians’? Far better for us to be the slaves of the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” But Moses answered the people, “Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the LORD will win for you today. These Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea, split the sea in two, that the children of Israel may pass through it on dry land. But I will make the Egyptians so obstinate that they will go in after them. Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army,
his chariots and charioteers. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I receive glory through Pharaoh and his chariots and charioteers.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ex 15:1bc-2, 3-4, 5-6 (R.1b)
R. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
He is my God, I praise him;
the God of my father, I extol him. R.
The LORD is a warrior,
LORD is his name!
Pharaoh’s chariots and army he hurled into the sea;
the elite of his officers were submerged in the Red Sea. R.
The flood waters covered them,
they sank into the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, O LORD, magnificent in power,
your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy. R.
Gospel – Mt 12:38-42
Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”
Featured Saints
St. Simeon Salos, hermit († fourth century). While on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, he felt called to abandon the world and withdraw to a hermitic solitude.
Blessed Gabriel Pergaud, priest and martyr (†1794). Canon Regular of St. Augustine; he was taken from the Abbey of Beaulieu during the French Revolution and imprisoned in a galley in Rochefort, where he died in inhumane conditions.
St. Alberic Crescitelli, priest and martyr (†190 0). Member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, cruelty killed close to Yangxian, in the Province of Shaanxi (China).
St. Joseph Wang Yumei, martyr (†1900). Imprisoned, beaten and beheaded for proclaiming his Faith, during the Boxer persecution in China.
St. Praxedes, virgin (†circa 491). Said to be the daughter of the Roman Senator Pudens, who was converted by St. Peter. The Basilica in Esquilino is named after her.
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