First Reading

Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 13: 1-8)

Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment,
and of the ill-treated as of yourselves,
for you also are in the body.
Let marriage be honored among all
and the marriage bed be kept undefiled,
for God will judge the immoral and adulterers.
Let your life be free from love of money
but be content with what you have,
for he has said,

I will never forsake you or abandon you.

Thus we may say with confidence:

The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?

Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm (Ps 27: 1, 3, 5, 8b-9abc)

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.

For he will hide me in his abode
in the day of trouble;
He will conceal me in the shelter of his tent,
he will set me high upon a rock.

Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper: cast me not off.

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart,
and yield a harvest through perseverance.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (Mk 6: 14-29)

John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.

King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread,
and people were saying,

“John the Baptist has been raised from the dead;
That is why mighty powers are at work in him.”

Others were saying,

“He is Elijah”;

still others,

“He is a prophet like any of the prophets.”

But when Herod learned of it, he said,

“It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.”

Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,

“It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.”

Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
Herodias had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday,
gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers,
and the leading men of Galilee.
His own daughter came in and performed a dance
that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,

“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”

He even swore many things to her,

“I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
even to half of my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother,

“What shall I ask for?”

Her mother replied,

“The head of John the Baptist.”

The girl hurried back to the king's presence and made her request,

“I want you to give me at once on a platter
the head of John the Baptist.”

The king was deeply distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner
with orders to bring back his head.
He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
He brought in the head on a platter
and gave it to the girl.
The girl in turn gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard about it,
they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 12: 18-19, 21-24)

You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God.

Brothers and sisters:
You have not approached that which could be touched
and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
and storm and a trumpet blast
and a voice speaking words such that those who heard
begged that no message be further addressed to them.
Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said,

“I am terrified and trembling.”

No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently
than that of Abel.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm (Ps 48: 2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11)

O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, fairest of heights,
is the joy of all the earth.

Mount Zion, “the recesses of the North,”
the city of the great King.
God is with her castles;
renowned is he as a stronghold.

As we had heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts,
In the city of our God;
God makes it firm forever.

O God, we ponder your mercy
within your temple.
As your name, O God, so also your praise
reaches to the ends of the earth.
Of justice your right hand is full.

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

The Kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the Gospel.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (Mk 6: 7-13)

He began to send them out.

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
– no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them,

“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”

So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 12: 4-7, 11-15)

The Lord disciplines him whom he loves.

Brothers and sisters:
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:

My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.

Endure your trials as “discipline”;
God treats you as his sons.
For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.

Strive for peace with everyone,
and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God,
that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble,
through which many may become defiled.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm (Ps 103: 1-2, 13-14, 17-18a)

The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him,
For he knows how we are formed;
he remembers that we are dust.

But the kindness of the LORD is from eternity
to eternity toward those who fear him,
And his justice toward children’s children
among those who keep his covenant.

Gospel

Alleluia. Alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (Mk 6: 1-6)

A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country.

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said,

“Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,

“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”

So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.

— The Gospel of the Lord.