The 30th of January, 2023 is Monday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time. The Holy Bible verses for the mass readings for this day came from the Liturgical Calendar of the Year 2023.
Reading 1: HEB 11:32-40
The first reading from The Letter to the Hebrews.
What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets-who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.
Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated-of whom the world was not worthy-wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
These all, having been commended for their faith, didn’t receive the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Responsorial Psalm: PS 31:19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Response: Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.
Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of men!
R: Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.
In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.
R: Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.
Praise be to Yahweh, for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.
R: Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.
As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
R: Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.
Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
R: Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.
Gospel of the Day: MK 5:1-20
From the gospel scripture according to Mark.
They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs.
He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him anymore, not even with chains, because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him.
Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.”
For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
He asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding.
All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”
At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.
Those who fed the pigs fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened.
They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.
Those who saw it declared to them what happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs.
They began to beg him to depart from their region.
As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him.
He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.”
He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
