Hebrews 12.25-26, 13.22-25 (Epistle)

25See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, 26whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”

22But I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. 23Know that our brother Timothy has been freed, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.

24Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. The Italians greet you.

25Grace be with you all. Amen.

Mark 10.2-12 (Gospel)

2Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

3He answered, “What did Moses command you?”

4They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”

5But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. 6But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. 7For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

10In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12If a woman herself divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Holy Martyr Tatiana (ca. 230)

She was the daughter of a wealthy Roman consul. She became a deaconess in Rome, and was seized as a Christian during the reign of Alexander Severus. Before the tribunal she fearlessly confessed Christ and, when she was taken to the temple in an effort to force her to make sacrifice, she cast down the idols by the power of her prayer. At this, the soldiers seized her and subjected her to many indignities and tortures, finally throwing her into a raging furnace. When this did not harm her, she was thrown to the wild beasts, but they refused to harm her. At last she was beheaded and thus gained her crown.

Venerable Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth (689-690)

He came from a noble Northumbrian family in Britain, and was tonsured a monk in 653 at Lerins in Gaul. In 669 he was made Abbot of the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury. He traveled to Rome in 671 to be instructed in monastic practice according to the Rule of Saint Benedict (of Nursia). Returning to Northumbria he established two new monasteries, the first to follow St Benedict’s Rule in the British Isles. He went to Rome once again in 678-679, this time bringing back the archcantor of St Peter’s, who taught the monks of St Benedict’s monasteries the chant and liturgical practices used in Rome.

Under the holy abbot’s guidance, these monasteries became flourishing centers of Christian worship, scholarship and art. The Venerable Bede (May 26) was one of his disciples. Saint Benedict reposed in peace in 689 or 690, having greatly strengthened the Church and the Christian faith in Britain.