Monday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

Book of Sirach

To the penitent God provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope
and has chosen for them the lot of truth. Return to the LORD and give up sin, pray to him and make your offenses few.
Turn again to the Most High and away from sin, hate intensely what he loathes; and know the justice and judgments of God, stand firm in the way set before you, in prayer to the Most High God.
Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High in place of the living who offer their praise? Dwell no longer in the error of the ungodly, but offer your praise before death.
No more can the dead give praise than those who have never lived; they glorify the LORD who are alive and well.
How great the mercy of the LORD, his forgiveness of those who return to him!

Psalms

Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
For this shall every faithful man pray to you
in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
they shall not reach him.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'"
He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through (the) eye of (a) needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."

St. Katharine Drexel(Religious (1858-1955))

St. Katharine DrexelReligious (1858-1955) Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, on November 26, 1858, Katharine Drexel was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Her father was a well-known banker and philanthropist. Both parents instilled their daughters with knowledge that wealth is simply loaned and should be shared. When the family took a trip to the Western part of the United States, Katharine saw the natives' plight and sought to alleviate their suffering. Her experience was the beginning of a lifelong personal and financial support of numerous missions and missionaries in the United States. The first school she established was St. Catherine Native American School in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1887). When visiting Pope Leo XIII in Rome, she requested for missionaries to staff some of the native missions that she was financing. She was surprised when the pope invited her to become a missionary. After consulting her spiritual director, Bishop James O'Connor, Katharine decided to give herself totally to God, along with her inheritance, through service to natives and blacks. Katharine's wealth was now her poverty of spirit amidst the bare necessities. On February 12, 1891, she professed vows as a religious. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to share the message of the Gospel and the life of the Eucharist among natives and blacks. Always a woman of intense prayer, Sr. Katharine experienced the Eucharist as the summit of Christian life. It was her source of courage and love for the oppressed. Knowing that many blacks lived as sharecroppers and underpaid laborers, and were denied educational and constitutional rights, Sr. Katharine felt the urgency to change racial attitudes in the United States. Founding and staffing schools for natives and blacks became Sr. Katherine's priority. During her lifetime, she opened, staffed and directly supported nearly sixty schools and missions, especially in the Western and Southwestern United States. Her crowning educational focus was the establishment of Xavier University of Louisiana in 1925, the only predominantly black Catholic university in the United States. Her ministry also included visiting homes, hospitals and prisons. In her quiet way, Sr. Katharine combined total dependence on Divine Providence with determined activism. Her joyous incisiveness, attuned to the Holy Spirit, penetrated obstacles and facilitated her advances for social justice. Through her initiatives, the Church in the United States became aware of the need for apostolate among natives and blacks. Sr. Katharine left a four-fold, dynamic legacy to her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament:– Love for the Eucharist, a spirit of prayer and a Eucharistic perspective on the unity of all peoples;– Courageous initiative in addressing social iniquities (one hundred years before the civil rights movement);– Belief in the importance of quality education for all;– Total giving of self to victims of injustice. For the last eighteen years of her life, Sr. Katharine was rendered almost completely immobile because of a serious illness. During these years, she gave herself to a life of adoration and contemplation, which she had desired since childhood. Sr. Katharine passed away on March 3, 1955. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 20, 1980.

St. Cunegundes(Empress († 1040))

SAINT CUNEGUNDESEmpress( 1040) St. Cunegundes was the daughter of Siegfried, the first Count of Luxembourg, and Hadeswige, a Nordgauian maiden. They raised Cunegundes to be pious and married her to St. Henry, the duke of Bavaria. When Emperor Otho III passed away, Henry became emperor; and was crowned on June 6, 1002. Cunegundes was crowned in Paderborn on St. Laurence's day. Cunegundes had consecrated her virginity prior to marrying Henry. Together, they received the imperial crown from Pope Benedict VIII on February 14, 1014. When Cunegundes was accused of infidelity, she walked unhurt over red-hot ploughshares, proved her innocence and was vindicated. Emperor Henry chastised his credulity; and from that time on, they lived in the strictest union of hearts. Queen Cunegundes fell dangerously ill on the way to a retreat in Hesse and vowed to found a monastery if she recovered. After recovering, she founded a monatery in Kaffungen, near Cassel, in the diocese of Paderborn, and gave it to Benedictine nuns. Before it was finished, King Henry passed away on July 13, 1024. She sought to join the Benedictine nuns after spending her wealth creating bishoprics and monasteries, and by relieving the poor. Queen Cunegundes embraced perfect poverty to serve God without obstacle. She was consecrated during her church's dedication in Kaffungen in 1025, on the anniversary of her husband's passing. She offered a piece of the True Cross on the altar, put off her imperial robes and clothed herself with a poor habit. She received a ring and a veil from the bishop as symbols of betrothal to Christ. After consecration, Sr. Cunegundes forgot her imperial dignity and behaved as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was so before God. She prayed and read, worked with her hands and comforted the sick. She thus passed fifteen years, until her mortifications exacerbated a final illness. After perceiving that her community was preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her after death, she insisted on being buried as a poor religious. She passed away on March 3, 1040, and was buried near her husband in Bamberg. She was canonized by Pope Innocent III in 1200. She is the patron saint of Luxembourg and Bamberg.

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