Monday, June 8, 2026
Monday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 5:1-12
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
1 Kings 17:1-6
Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” Then the Lord’s word came to him, saying, “Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” So he went and did according to the Lord’s word; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 121:1-2,3-4,5-6,7-8
I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
Gospel
Matthew 5:1-12
Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. “Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Lectio
Elijah is sent into hiding, fed not by his own foresight but by ravens—creatures that, by their nature, scavenge rather than provide. There is something deliberate in this: the prophet who boldly declared God's word before a king must now learn dependence in a hidden ravine, drinking from a brook he did not dig, eating bread he did not earn. The psalmist names this same posture from the other side: lifting up the eyes to the hills, asking where help comes from, and answering not with a plan but with a Person. "The Lord is your keeper." The whole movement of the spiritual life seems to bend toward this discovery—that we are kept before we are capable.
This is why the Beatitudes do not read like a strategy for success. The poor in spirit, the mourning, the hungry, the persecuted—these are not people who have arranged their lives well. They are people who have run out of their own resources and found themselves, like Elijah by the Cherith, sustained anyway. Jesus calls them blessed not because their circumstances are enviable but because their emptiness has become a place where God can be the keeper, the shade, the bread. The Gospel does not ask us to manufacture poverty or persecution; it asks us to recognize where we are already standing at the end of ourselves, and to notice the ravens that have been coming all along.
What is the brook Cherith in your life right now—the hidden, narrowing place you would not have chosen, where you are being asked to depend on provision you cannot control?
Where have you been quietly fed by "ravens" you didn't expect—help from unlikely people or circumstances—and have you let yourself receive it as God keeping you, or have you brushed it off as coincidence?
Saint of the day
St. Medard, Bishop (c. 457-545)
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora