Monday of the Second week in Ordinary Time

1st book of Samuel

15,16-23.

Samuel said to Saul: "Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." Saul replied, "Speak!"
Samuel then said: "Though little in your own esteem, are you not leader of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king of Israel
and sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them.'
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD? You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD."
Saul answered Samuel: "I did indeed obey the LORD and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal."
But Samuel said: "Does the LORD so delight in holocausts and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the command of the LORD, he, too, has rejected you as ruler."

Psalms

50(49),8-9.16bc-17.21.23.

"Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold."
"Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?"
"When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.?

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

2,18-22.

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."

---

St. Anthony the Abbot((251-356))

SAINT ANTONY Patriarch of Monks (251-356) St. Antony was born in the year 251 in Upper Egypt. Hearing at Mass the words, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor," he gave away all his vast possessions. He then begged an aged hermit to teach him the spiritual life. He also visited various solitaries, emulating the principal virtue of each. To serve God more perfectly, Antony entered the desert and immured himself in a ruin, building up the door so that none could enter. Here the fallen angels tempted and assailed him, appearing as various monsters, and even wounding him; but his courage never flagged, and he overcame them by the sign of the Cross. One night, whilst Antony was in solitude, many demons assailed him. A friend found him, and believing him dead, carried him home. But when Antony came to himself, he returned to his solitude. There, prostrate from weakness, Antony defied the demons, saying, "I fear you not; you cannot separate me from the love of Christ." After more vain assaults, the devils fled, and Christ appeared to Antony in glory. Antony's only food was bread and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and sometimes only once in two, three, or four days. He wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and often knelt in prayer from sunset to sunrise. Many souls flocked to Antony for advice; and after twenty years of solitude, he consented to guide them in holiness - thus founding the first monastery. Antony's numerous miracles attracted such multitudes that he fled again into solitude, where he lived by manual labor. St. Antony passed away in the peace of the Holy Family. St. Athanasius, his biographer, says knowing how he lived is a good guide to virtue.

misalcatolico.com

---

Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2022 / Catholic Missal of january 2022