4TH SUNDAY OF LENT (YEAR A) - MARCH 30, 2014

Saturday, March 29, 2014

4th Sunday of LENT – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

1 SAMUEL 16:1, 6-7, 10-13

¹ Yahweh said to Samuel, 'How much longer do you mean to go on mourning over Saul, now that I myself have rejected him as ruler of Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have found myself a king from among his sons.'

⁶ When they arrived, he looked at Eliab and thought, 'This must be Yahweh's anointed now before him,'

⁷ but Yahweh said to Samuel, 'Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him; God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart.'

¹⁰ Jesse thus presented seven of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, 'Yahweh has not chosen these.'

¹¹ He then asked Jesse, 'Are these all the sons you have?' Jesse replied, 'There is still one left, the youngest; he is looking after the sheep.' Samuel then said to Jesse, 'Send for him, for we shall not sit down to eat until he arrives.'

¹² Jesse had him sent for; he had ruddy cheeks, with fine eyes and an attractive appearance. Yahweh said, 'Get up and anoint him: he is the one!'

¹³ At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, surrounded by his brothers; and the spirit of Yahweh seized on David from that day onwards. Samuel, for his part, set off and went to Ramah.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 22:1-6

¹ [For the choirmaster To 'the Doe of the Dawn' Psalm Of David] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me.

² My God, I call by day but you do not answer, at night, but I find no respite.

³ Yet you, the Holy One, who make your home in the praises of Israel,

⁴ in you our ancestors put their trust, they trusted and you set them free.

⁵ To you they called for help and were delivered; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶ But I am a worm, less than human, scorn of mankind, contempt of the people;

Second Reading

EPHESIANS 5:8-14

⁸ You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of light,

⁹ for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth.

¹⁰ Try to discover what the Lord wants of you,

¹¹ take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are.

¹² The things which are done in secret are shameful even to speak of;

¹³ but anything shown up by the light will be illuminated

¹⁴ and anything illuminated is itself a light. That is why it is said: Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

JOHN 9:1-41

¹ As he went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

² His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should have been born blind?'

³ 'Neither he nor his parents sinned,' Jesus answered, 'he was born blind so that the works of God might be revealed in him.

⁴ 'As long as day lasts we must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work.

⁵ As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.'

⁶ Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man,

⁷ and said to him, 'Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam' (the name means 'one who has been sent'). So he went off and washed and came back able to see.

⁸ His neighbours and the people who used to see him before (for he was a beggar) said, 'Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?'

⁹ Some said, 'Yes, it is the same one.' Others said, 'No, but he looks just like him.' The man himself said, 'Yes, I am the one.'

¹⁰ So they said to him, 'Then how is it that your eyes were opened?'

¹¹ He answered, 'The man called Jesus made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, "Go off and wash at Siloam"; so I went, and when I washed I gained my sight.'

¹² They asked, 'Where is he?' He answered, 'I don't know.'

¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.

¹⁴ It had been a Sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man's eyes,

¹⁵ so when the Pharisees asked him how he had gained his sight, he said, 'He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.'

¹⁶ Then some of the Pharisees said, 'That man cannot be from God: he does not keep the Sabbath.' Others said, 'How can a sinner produce signs like this?' And there was division among them.

¹⁷ So they spoke to the blind man again, 'What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?' The man answered, 'He is a prophet.'

¹⁸ However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind without first sending for the parents of the man who had gained his sight and

¹⁹ asking them, 'Is this man really the son of yours who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?'

²⁰ His parents answered, 'We know he is our son and we know he was born blind,

²¹ but how he can see, we don't know, nor who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.'

²² His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to ban from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ.

²³ This was why his parents said, 'He is old enough; ask him.'

²⁴ So the Jews sent for the man again and said to him, 'Give glory to God! We are satisfied that this man is a sinner.'

²⁵ The man answered, 'Whether he is a sinner I don't know; all I know is that I was blind and now I can see.'

²⁶ They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?'

²⁷ He replied, 'I have told you once and you wouldn't listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples yourselves?'

²⁸ At this they hurled abuse at him, 'It is you who are his disciple, we are disciples of Moses:

²⁹ we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from.'

³⁰ The man replied, 'That is just what is so amazing! You don't know where he comes from and he has opened my eyes!

³¹ We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but God does listen to people who are devout and do his will.

³² Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of someone born blind;

³³ if this man were not from God, he wouldn't have been able to do anything.'

³⁴ They retorted, 'Are you trying to teach us, and you a sinner through and through ever since you were born!' And they ejected him.

³⁵ Jesus heard they had ejected him, and when he found him he said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of man?'

³⁶ 'Sir,' the man replied, 'tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.'

³⁷ Jesus said, 'You have seen him; he is speaking to you.'

³⁸ The man said, 'Lord, I believe,' and worshipped him.

³⁹ Jesus said: It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see and those with sight may become blind.

⁴⁰ Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, 'So we are blind, are we?'

⁴¹ Jesus replied: If you were blind, you would not be guilty, but since you say, 'We can see,' your guilt remains.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

3RD SUNDAY OF LENT (YEAR A) - MARCH 23, 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014

 3rd Sunday of LENT – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

 5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading 

EXODUS 17:3-7

³  But tormented by thirst, the people complained to Moses. 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt,' they said, 'only to make us, our children and our livestock, die of thirst?'

⁴  Moses appealed to Yahweh for help. 'How am I to deal with this people?' he said. 'Any moment now they will stone me!'

⁵  Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Go on ahead of the people, taking some of the elders of Israel with you; in your hand take the staff with which you struck the River, and go.

⁶  I shall be waiting for you there on the rock (at Horeb). Strike the rock, and water will come out for the people to drink.' This was what Moses did, with the elders of Israel looking on.

⁷  He gave the place the names Massah and Meribah because of the Israelites' contentiousness and because they put Yahweh to the test by saying, 'Is Yahweh with us, or not?'

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 94:1-2, 6-9

¹  God of vengeance, Yahweh, God of vengeance, shine forth!

²  Arise, judge of the world, give back the proud what they deserve!

⁶  they murder the widow and the stranger, bring the orphan to a violent death.

⁷  They say, 'Yahweh is not looking, the God of Jacob is taking no notice.'

⁸  Take notice yourselves, you coarsest of people! Fools, when will you learn some sense?

⁹  Shall he who implanted the ear not hear, he who fashioned the eye not see?

Second Reading 

ROMANS 5:1-2, 5-8

¹  So then, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

²  it is through him, by faith, that we have been admitted into God's favour in which we are living, and look forward exultantly to God's glory.

⁵  and a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

⁶  When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless.

⁷  You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die.

⁸  So it is proof of God's own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading 

JOHN 4:5-42

⁵  On the way he came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

⁶  Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷  When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.'

⁸  His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

⁹  The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?' -- Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans.

¹⁰  Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.

¹¹  'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered, 'and the well is deep: how do you get this living water?

¹²  Are you a greater man than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?'

¹³  Jesus replied: Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again;

¹⁴  but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life.

¹⁵  'Sir,' said the woman, 'give me some of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.'

¹⁶  'Go and call your husband,' said Jesus to her, 'and come back here.'

¹⁷  The woman answered, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right to say, "I have no husband";

¹⁸  for although you have had five, the one you now have is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.'

¹⁹  'I see you are a prophet, sir,' said the woman.

²⁰  'Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, though you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.'

²¹  Jesus said: Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

²²  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews.

²³  But the hour is coming -- indeed is already here -- when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks.

²⁴  God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.

²⁵  The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah -- that is, Christ -- is coming; and when he comes he will explain everything.'

²⁶  Jesus said, 'That is who I am, I who speak to you.'

²⁷  At this point his disciples returned and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, 'What do you want from her?' or, 'What are you talking to her about?'

²⁸  The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people,

²⁹  'Come and see a man who has told me everything I have done; could this be the Christ?'

³⁰  This brought people out of the town and they made their way towards him.

³¹  Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, do have something to eat';

³²  but he said, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.'

³³  So the disciples said to one another, 'Has someone brought him food?'

³⁴  But Jesus said: My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.

³⁵  Do you not have a saying: Four months and then the harvest? Well, I tell you, look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest!

³⁶  Already the reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, so that sower and reaper can rejoice together.

³⁷  For here the proverb holds true: one sows, another reaps;

³⁸  I sent you to reap a harvest you have not laboured for. Others have laboured for it; and you have come into the rewards of their labour.

³⁹  Many Samaritans of that town believed in him on the strength of the woman's words of testimony, 'He told me everything I have done.'

⁴⁰  So, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and

⁴¹  many more came to believe on the strength of the words he spoke to them;

⁴²  and they said to the woman, 'Now we believe no longer because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he is indeed the Saviour of the world.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”