Memorial of Saint Monica

Reading 1 and//www.usccb.org/bible/1thessalonians/3and7 1 THES 3and7-13 We have been reassured about you, brothers and sisters,in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in personand to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesusdirect our way to you, and may the Lord make you increaseand abound in love for one another and for all,just as we have for you,so as to strengthen your hearts,to be blameless in holiness before our God and Fatherat the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen. Responsorial Psalm and//www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/90and3 PS 90and3-5A, 12-13, 14 AND 17 R. (14)Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy! You turn man back to dust,saying, Return, O children of men.”For a thousand years in your sightare as yesterday, now that it is past,or as a watch of the night. R.Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy! Teach us to number our days aright,that we may gain wisdom of heart.Return, O LORD! How long?Have pity on your servants! R.Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy! Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be oursprosper the work of our hands for us!Prosper the work of our hands! R.Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy! Alleluia and//www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/24:42 MT 24:42A, 44 R.Alleluia, alleluia.Stay awake!For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.R.Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel and//www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/24:42 MT 24:42-51 Jesus said to his disciplesand Stay awake!For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.Be sure of thisand if the master of the househad known the hour of night when the thief was coming,he would have stayed awakeand not let his house be broken into.So too, you also must be prepared,for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,whom the master has put in charge of his householdto distribute to them their food at the proper time?Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’and begins to beat his fellow servants,and eat and drink with drunkards,the servant’s master will come on an unexpected dayand at an unknown hour and will punish him severelyand assign him a place with the hypocrites,where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”