Monday in the 4th Week of Easter
Optional memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. Pope Pius XII instituted this commemoration in 1955, in order to provide a model and protector of laborers, and to highlight the Christian value of work.
Mass Readings
First Reading – Acts 11:1-18
The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him, saying, ‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.” Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying, “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me. Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky. I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’ But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’ This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky. Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying, ‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 42:2-3; 43:3, 4 (R. see 3a)
R.Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for You, O God.
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God? R.
Send forth Your light and Your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to Your holy mountain,
to Your dwelling-place. R.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give You thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God! R.
Gospel – Jn 10:11-18
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”
Featured Saints
St. Amator, bishop (†418). Acclaimed Bishop of Auxerre, France, he dedicated himself to rooting out pagan superstitions and encouraging veneration of the holy martyrs.
St. Peregrine Laziosi, priest (†1345). After a rebellious adolescence, he entered the Servites, in Siena, and founded a monastery of the Order in Forli, his birthplace.
St. Augustine Schoeffler, priest and martyr (†1851). Priest of the Foreign Missions Society, beheaded in Vietnam.
St. Jeremiah, prophet. He foretold the destruction of the Holy City and the deportation of the Jewish people. He endured many tribulations, for which the Church considers him a figure of the suffering Christ.
St. Richard Pampuri, religious (†1928). Italian doctor who worked with heroic Christian charity during the First World War. He joined the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God.
St. Sigismund of Burgundy, king (†524). A convert from the Arian heresy, he sought to repair the faults committed against the Faith with good works. He built the Abbey of Saint-Maurice-enValais, Switzerland.
Blessed Clement Sheptytsky, priest and martyr (†1951). Archimandrite from the Monastery of Univ of Studite monks; deported by the Soviet regime, he died in prison in Vladimir, Russia.
Blessed Mafalda, virgin (†1257). Daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal, she took the habit in the Abbey of Arouca, where she introduced the cistercian reform.
In Canada: Optional Memorial of St. Pius V. A Dominican religious, bishop and cardinal, he held offices of high responsibility in the Church. Elected Pope, he dedicated himself with energy to the propagation of the Faith and to divine worship. He brought together the Holy League, whose squadron was victorious in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. See also:The Holy Rosary – Aid in Times of Trial. (Celebrated April 30 in the General Calendar.)
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