18TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR C) – JULY 31, 2016

Saturday, July 30, 2016

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

2 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile!

21 For here is one who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile too, and grossly unjust;

22 for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun-

23 since his days are full of sorrow, his work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is futile too.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

1 Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh, acclaim the rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, acclaim him with music.

6 Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us!

7 For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today!

8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert,

9 when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!

Second Reading

Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

1 Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.

2 Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,

3 because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.

4 But when Christ is revealed -- and he is your life-you, too, will be revealed with him in glory.

5 That is why you must kill everything in you that is earthly: sexual vice, impurity, uncontrolled passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god;

9 and do not lie to each other. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self,

10 and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator;

11 and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised and uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

Luke 12:13-21

13 A man in the crowd said to him, 'Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.'

14 He said to him, 'My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?'

15 Then he said to them, 'Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.'

16 Then he told them a parable, 'There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land,

17 thought to himself, "What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops."

18 Then he said, "This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them,

19 and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time."

20 But God said to him, "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?"

21 So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”

17TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR C) – JULY 24, 2016

Saturday, July 23, 2016

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

GENESIS 18:20-32

20 Then Yahweh said, 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grave,

21 that I shall go down and see whether or not their actions are at all as the outcry reaching me would suggest. Then I shall know.'

22 While the men left there and went to Sodom, Yahweh remained in Abraham's presence.

23 Abraham stepped forward and said, 'Will you really destroy the upright with the guilty?

24 Suppose there are fifty upright people in the city. Will you really destroy it? Will you not spare the place for the sake of the fifty upright in it?

25 Do not think of doing such a thing: to put the upright to death with the guilty, so that upright and guilty fare alike! Is the judge of the whole world not to act justly?'

26 Yahweh replied, 'If I find fifty upright people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place because of them.'

27 Abraham spoke up and said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord, I who am dust and ashes:

28 Suppose the fifty upright were five short? Would you destroy the whole city because of five?' 'No,' he replied, 'I shall not destroy it if I find forty-five there.'

29 Abraham persisted and said, 'Suppose there are forty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the forty.'

30 Abraham said, 'I hope the Lord will not be angry if I go on: Suppose there are only thirty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'if I find thirty there.'

31 He said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord: Suppose there are only twenty there?' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the twenty.'

32 He said, 'I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the ten.'

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 138:1-3, 6-8

1 [Of David] I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you,

2 I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame.

3 You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart.

6 Sublime as he is, Yahweh looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar.

7 Though I live surrounded by trouble you give me life -- to my enemies' fury! You stretch out your right hand and save me,

8 Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.

Second Reading

COLOSSIANS 2:12-14

12 You have been buried with him by your baptism; by which, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

13 You were dead, because you were sinners and uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us every one of our sins.

14 He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by nailing it to the cross;

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

LUKE 11:1-13

1 Now it happened that he was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'

2 He said to them, 'When you pray, this is what to say: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come;

3 give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,

4 for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.'

5 He also said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, "My friend, lend me three loaves,

6 because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him;"

7 and the man answers from inside the house, "Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you."

8 I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for friendship's sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

9 'So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened.

11 What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake?

12 Or if he asked for an egg, hand him a scorpion?

13 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

“The Gospel of the Lord”

16TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR C) – JULY 17, 2016

Saturday, July 16, 2016

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

GENESIS 18:1-10

1 Yahweh appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day.

2 He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowed to the ground.

3 'My lord,' he said, 'if I find favour with you, please do not pass your servant by.

4 Let me have a little water brought, and you can wash your feet and have a rest under the tree.

5 Let me fetch a little bread and you can refresh yourselves before going further, now that you have come in your servant's direction.' They replied, 'Do as you say.'

6 Abraham hurried to the tent and said to Sarah, 'Quick, knead three measures of best flour and make loaves.'

7 Then, running to the herd, Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.

8 Then taking curds, milk and the calf which had been prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree.

9 'Where is your wife Sarah?' they asked him. 'She is in the tent,' he replied.

10 Then his guest said, 'I shall come back to you next year, and then your wife Sarah will have a son.' Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 15:2-3, 3-4, 5

2 Whoever lives blamelessly, who acts uprightly, who speaks the truth from the heart,

3 who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade, who casts no discredit on a neighbour,

4 who looks with scorn on the vile, but honours those who fear Yahweh, who stands by an oath at any cost,

5 who asks no interest on loans, who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts can ever be shaken.

Second Reading

COLOSSIANS 1:24-28

24 It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church,

25 of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God's message,

26 the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people.

27 It was God's purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; it is Christ among you, your hope of glory:

28 this is the Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MARK 10:38-42

38 But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?'

39 They replied, 'We can.' Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I shall drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I shall be baptised you shall be baptised,

40 but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.'

41 When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John,

42 so Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

15TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR C) – JULY 10, 2016

Saturday, July 09, 2016

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

Deuteronomy 30:10-14

10 if you obey the voice of Yahweh your God, by keeping his commandments and decrees written in the book of this Law, and if you return to Yahweh your God with all your heart and soul.

11 'For this Law which I am laying down for you today is neither obscure for you nor beyond your reach.

12 It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, "Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we can hear and practise it?"

13 Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, "Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we can hear and practise it?"

14 No, the word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to put into practice.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37

14 Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.

17 do not turn away from your servant, be quick to answer me, for I am in trouble.

30 I will praise God's name in song, I will extol him by thanksgiving,

31 for this will please Yahweh more than an ox, than a bullock horned and hoofed.

32 The humble have seen and are glad. Let your courage revive, you who seek God.

33 For God listens to the poor, he has never scorned his captive people.

34 Let heaven and earth and seas, and all that stirs in them, acclaim him!

35 For God will save Zion, and rebuild the cities of Judah, and people will live there on their own land;

36 the descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.

Second Reading

Colossians 1:15-20

15 He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation,

16 for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers -- all things were created through him and for him.

17 He exists before all things and in him all things hold together,

18 and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way;

19 because God wanted all fullness to be found in him

20 and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

Luke 10:25-37

25 And now a lawyer stood up and, to test him, asked, 'Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

26 He said to him, 'What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?'

27 He replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.'

28 Jesus said to him, 'You have answered right, do this and life is yours.'

29 But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbour?'

30 In answer Jesus said, 'A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of bandits; they stripped him, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead.

31 Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

32 In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan traveller who came on him was moved with compassion when he saw him.

34 He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him.

35 Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper and said, "Look after him, and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have."

36 Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?'

37 He replied, 'The one who showed pity towards him.' Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do the same yourself.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”