Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time – Year 1
Readings on p. 780 and Antiphons on p. 773 of the Daily Missal.

First Reading: Hebrews 11:32-40

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Hebrews.

Brothers and sisters:

What more should I say?
For time would fail me
to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets—
who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice,
received promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
won strength out of weakness,
became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Women received their dead by resurrection.
Some were tortured, refusing to accept release,
that they might rise again to a better life.
Others suffered mocking and scourging,
and even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two,
they were killed with the sword;
they went about in skins of sheep and goats,
destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—
of whom the world was not worthy—
wandering over deserts and mountains,
and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though well attested by their faith,
did not receive what was promised,
since God had foreseen something better for us,
that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

The Word of the Lord.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24 (R. 25)

Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:

R/. Be strong let your heart take courage,
all who hope in the Lord.

How great is the goodness, Lord,
that you keep for those who fear you,
that you show to those who trust you
in the sight of the children of men.

You hide them in the shelter of your presence,
secure from human scheming;
you keep them safe within your tent
from disputing tongues.

Blest be the Lord for he has wondrously shown me
his merciful love in a fortified city!

“I am far removed from your sight,”
I said in my alarm.
Yet you heard the voice of my plea
when I cried to you for help.

Love the Lord, all you his saints.
The Lord guards the faithful.
But the Lord will repay to the full
the one who acts with pride.

R/. Be strong let your heart take courage,
all who hope in the Lord.

Alleluia, Alleluia.
A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people.
Alleluia.

Gospel: Mark 5:1-20

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark.

At that time:
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the country of the Gerasenes.
And when he had come out of the boat,
there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
who lived among the tombs;
and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain;
for he had often been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains he wrenched apart,
and the shackles he broke in pieces;
and no one had the strength to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains
he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones.
And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him;
and crying out with a loud voice, he said,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God?
I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”
For he had said to him,
“Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country.
Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside;
and they begged him,
“Send us to the swine, let us enter them.”
So he gave them leave.
And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine;
and the herd, numbering about two thousand,
rushed down the steep bank into the sea,
and were drowned in the sea.

The herdsmen fled,
and told it in the city and in the country.
And people came to see what it was that had happened.
And they came to Jesus,
and saw the demoniac sitting there,
clothed and in his right mind,
the man who had had the legion;
and they were afraid.
And those who had seen it
told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine.
And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood.
And as he was getting into the boat,
the man who had been possessed with demons
begged him that he might be with him.
But he refused, and said to him,
“Go home to your friends,
and tell them how much the Lord has done for you,
and how he has had mercy on you.”
And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis
how much Jesus had done for him;
and all people marveled.

The Gospel of the Lord.