Catholic Missal of the day: Monday, July 23 2018
Monday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time
Monday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time
1. ReadingBook of Micah
6,1-4.6-8.]Hear what the LORD says: Arise, present your plea before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice!
]Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD, pay attention, O foundations of the earth! For the LORD has a plea against his people, and he enters into trial with Israel.
]O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
]For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I released you; And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
]With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow before God most high? Shall I come before him with holocausts, with calves a year old?
]Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
]You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Psalms
50(49),5-6.8-9.16bc-17.21.23.]"Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
]And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
]"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 Matthew
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."
St. Bridget of Sweden(Co-patron of Europe (1304-1373))
SAINT BRIDGET OF SWEDEN Patron saint of Sweden and co-patron of Europe (1304-1373) St. Bridget was born to the Swedish royal family in 1304. In obedience to her father, she married Prince Ulpho of Sweden. She had eight children: one of whom, Catherine, is a saint. After many years, Bridget's husband entered the Cistercian Order. Bridget then founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior at the Abbey of Wastein. Raising a family, attending to court affairs and founding an Order reflects Bridget's zealousness. In 1344, Bridget became a widow. She received visions and personal revelations that she submitted to her confessor. Her mystical experiences led her on pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Amidst the places of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection, she received further instruction in sacred mysteries. Bridget's ministries included caring for the marginalized together with St. Catherine of Sweden. She honored Our Lord's designation of a leader for His flock and worked tirelessly to support the pope and return him to Rome. Sheis the Patron Saint of Sweden.
Bl. Vasil' Hopko(Bishop and martyr († 1976))
Blessed Vasiľ Hopko(1904-1976)Bishop and martyr Vasil' Hopko was born on April 21, 1904, in Hrabské, a small village in eastern Slovakia. His father died when he was 1 year old and his mother was left to care for him. Vasil's mother left for the United States in 1908 to find work and placed him in his grandfather's care. When Vasil' was 7, he went to live with his uncle, Demeter Petrenko, a Greek-Catholic priest. His uncle's example awakened a call to the priesthood. In 1923, Vasil' entered the Greek-Catholic Seminary of Presov. He was ordained a priest on February 3, 1929, and was entrustedwiththe pastoral care of the Greek-Catholic faithful in Prague. He was involved in many different activities: work with youth, the elderly, the unemployed and orphans. Fr. Vasil' founded the MovementofGreek-Catholic Students and the Greek-Catholic Youth Unionand contributed to the building of the city's Greek-Catholic parish. It was also in Prague that, after 22 years, the young priest met his mother who had returned from the United States. In 1936, Fr. Vasil' returned to Slovakia and served as a spiritual father at the Greek-Catholic Seminary of Presov. In 1941, he was appointed as secretary of the Bishop's Curia. He became professor of moral and pastoral theology at the Theological Faculty in Presov in 1943. He also made time to write, published various works and became the first editor of the magazine Blahovistnik (The Gospel Messenger). After World War II, the Czechoslovakian Republic fell under a growing Soviet Bolshevik and atheist influence. Foreseeing a systematic "Sovietization" along with its totalitarian, atheistic Marxism, Bishop Gojdic of Presov asked the Holy See for an auxiliary bishop to help him defend against attacks on the Greek-Catholic faithful. Fr. Vasil' became the newly-appointed auxiliary bishop and was consecrated on May 11, 1947. He helped Bp. Gojdic immensely and strengthened others against the encroaching darkness. Little by little, the Czechoslovakian Communist Party prepared for the violent elimination of the Greek-Catholic Church. On April 28, 1950, the Communists carried out their work of "liquidation" during the so-called "Council of Presov," which they held without the presence of bishops. They declared that the Greek-Catholic Church of Czechoslovakia no longer existed and that all its priests, faithful and churches were to be transferred over to the Orthodox Church. Bishops Gojdic and Hopko were arrested. Following the arrests, Bp. Hopko underwent interrogation and torture. It was aimed at coercing him to deny his faith and confessing to false accusations. On October 24, 1951, after more than a year of cruel and diabolical interrogation, he was condemned by the State Court to 15 years in prison and a loss of all civil rights for 10 years. While in prison, he was tortured and given small doses of arsenic, which caused chronic poisoning and was later verified by an analysis of his bones. On May 12, 1964, Bp. Hopko was released from prison for health reasons. After years of maltreatment, the Bishop suffered from grave physical ailments and mental depression. Notwithstanding all this, he continued to contribute actively to the resurgence of the Greek-Catholic Church. On June 13, 1968, the renewal of the Greek-Catholic Church of Czechoslovakia was reestablished after 18 years of open persecution. From 1968 onward, Bp. Hopko began living in Presov. On December 20, 1968, Pope Paul VI confirmed his appointment as auxiliary bishop for all Greek-Catholic faithful in Czechoslovakia. Bp. Hopko passed away on July 23, 1976, in Presov. He made for his own the words of his friend, Bp. Gojdic: "For me, it is not important if I die in the Bishop's Palace or in prison; what matters is entering into Paradise." Bp. Vasil' Hopko was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 14, 2003, in Bratislava.
Category: Mass by Year / Catholic Missal 2018 / Catholic Missal of july 2018
Published: 2026-07-14T18:16:25Z | Modified: 2026-07-14T18:16:25Z