Monday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time

First Letter to the Corinthians

Brothers and sisters : It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans – a man living with his father's wife.
And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.
I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,
in the name of (our) Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus,
you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Psalms

For you, O God, delight not in wickedness;
No evil man remains with you;
The arrogant may not stand in your sight.
You hate all evildoers.
You destroy all who speak falsehood;
the bloodthirsty and the deceitful
the LORD abhors.
But let all who take refuge in you
Be glad and exult forever.
Protect them, that you may be the joy
Of those who love your name.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.
The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.
But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before us." And he rose and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?"
Looking around at them all, he then said to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored.
But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

St. Lawrence Justinian(Bishop († 1455))

SAINT LAWRENCE JUSTINIANBishop( 1455) St. Lawrence longed to be a saint from childhood. When he was nineteen, he was granted a vision of the Eternal Wisdom. All earthly things paled before this sight, and as it faded away, a void was left which none but God could fill. Refusing the offer of a brilliant marriage, he fled secretly from his home at Venice and joined the Canons Regular of St. George. One by one, St. Lawrence disciplined his natural instincts that could bar his union with God. When a nobleman once chided him on sacrificing earthly prospects, the young Lawrence pointed out the shortness of life, the temporality of earthly pleasures, and the greatness of the prize he was seeking, which is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the unending kingdom of Christ. The nobleman was speechless; and went on to leave the world and join St. Lawrence as a fellow-disciple and novitiate. The nobleman's holy death bore every mark that he had secured the treasures which never fail. As superior and general, St. Lawrence enlarged and strengthened his Order; and as bishop of his diocese, thoroughly reformed his see. His zeal led to his appointment as the first patriarch of Venice, but he remained ever in heart and soul a humble priest, thirsting for the sight of heaven. At length, the eternal vision began to dawn. "Are you laying a bed of feathers for me?Not so. My Lord was stretched on a hard and painful tree." Laid upon the straw, he exclaimed in rapture, "Good Jesus, behold I come." He passed away in 1455, aged seventy-four.

St. Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)()

Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta proclaimed God’s love of humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. “God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.” She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.” She was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest child of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. Following her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was kindled within her. Her father’s sudden death she was about eight left in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved. At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There, she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on, she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary’s and in 1944 became the school’s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and students, Mother Teresa’s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus in the midst of her companions with fidelity and joy. On September 10, 1946, during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her “inspiration,” her “call within a call.” On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor. After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21, she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students. On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba. In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a “little way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit. During the years of rapid growth, the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.” The whole of Mother Teresa’s life and labor bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, “the darkness.”The “painful night” of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness, she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor. During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997, she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On September 5, Mother Teresa’s earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus’ plea, “Come be My light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God. Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa’s widespread reputation of holiness and the favors being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On December 20, 2002, he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles. Mother Teresa was canonized September 4, 2016 by Pope Francis.

St. Bertin()

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