17TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – 30TH JULY, 2017

Saturday, 29th July, 2017

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

1 KINGS 3:5, 7-12

5 At Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream during the night. God said, 'Ask what you would like me to give you.'

7 Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership.

8 And here is your servant, surrounded with your people whom you have chosen, a people so numerous that its number cannot be counted or reckoned.

9 So give your servant a heart to understand how to govern your people, how to discern between good and evil, for how could one otherwise govern such a great people as yours?'

10 It pleased Yahweh that Solomon should have asked for this.

11 'Since you have asked for this,' God said, 'and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies but have asked for a discerning judgement for yourself,

12 here and now I do what you ask. I give you a heart wise and shrewd as no one has had before and no one will have after you.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130

57 My task, I have said, Yahweh, is to keep your word.

72 The Law you have uttered is more precious to me than all the wealth in the world.

76 Your faithful love must be my consolation, as you have promised your servant.

77 Treat me with tenderness and I shall live, for your Law is my delight.

127 So I love your commandments more than gold, purest gold.

128 So I rule my life by your precepts, I hate all deceptive paths.

129 Wonderful are your instructions, so I observe them.

130 As your word unfolds it gives light, and even the simple understand.

Second Reading

ROMANS 8:28-30

28 We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.

29 He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be moulded to the pattern of his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

30 it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MATTHEW 13:44-52

44 'The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off in his joy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.

45 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls;

46 when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.

47 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that is cast in the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish.

48 When it is full, the fishermen bring it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in baskets and throw away those that are no use.

49 This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the upright,

50 to throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

51 'Have you understood all these?' They said, 'Yes.'

52 And he said to them, 'Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom new things as well as old.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”

16TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – 23RD JULY, 2017

Saturday, 22nd July, 2017

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

WISDOM 12:13, 16-19

13 For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every one, to whom you have to prove that your sentences have been just.

16 For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.

17 You show your strength when people will not believe in your absolute power, and you confound any insolence in those who do know it.

18 But you, controlling your strength, are mild in judgement, and govern us with great lenience, for you have only to will, and your power is there.

19 By acting thus, you have taught your people that the upright must be kindly to his fellows, and you have given your children the good hope that after sins you will grant repentance.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16

5 Lord, you are kind and forgiving, rich in faithful love for all who call upon you.

6 Yahweh, hear my prayer, listen to the sound of my pleading.

9 All nations will come and adore you, Lord, and give glory to your name.

10 For you are great and do marvellous deeds, you, God, and none other.

15 But you, Lord, God of tenderness and mercy, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and loyalty,

16 turn to me and pity me. Give to your servant your strength, to the child of your servant your saving help,

Second Reading

ROMANS 8:26-27

26 And as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words;

27 and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MATTHEW 13:24-43

24 He put another parable before them, 'The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

25 While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off.

26 When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well.

27 The owner's labourers went to him and said, "Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?"

28 He said to them, "Some enemy has done this." And the labourers said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?"

29 But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it.

30 Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn." '

31 He put another parable before them, 'The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.

32 It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and shelter in its branches.'

33 He told them another parable, 'The kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'

34 In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables.

35 This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: I will speak to you in parables, unfold what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

36 Then, leaving the crowds, he went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, 'Explain to us the parable about the darnel in the field.'

37 He said in reply, 'The sower of the good seed is the Son of man.

38 The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the Evil One;

39 the enemy who sowed it, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels.

40 Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time.

41 The Son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of falling and all who do evil,

42 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

43 Then the upright will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!

“The Gospel of the Lord”

15TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – 16TH JULY, 2017

Saturday, 15th July, 2017

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

ISAIAH 55:10-11

10 For, as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilising it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,

11 so it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14

10 you water its furrows abundantly, level its ridges, soften it with showers and bless its shoots.

11 You crown the year with your generosity, richness seeps from your tracks,

12 the pastures of the desert grow moist, the hillsides are wrapped in joy,

13 the meadows are covered with flocks, the valleys clothed with wheat; they shout and sing for joy.

Second Reading

ROMANS 8:18-23

18 In my estimation, all that we suffer in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to be disclosed for us,

19 for the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed.

20 It was not for its own purposes that creation had frustration imposed on it, but for the purposes of him who imposed it-

21 with the intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God.

22 We are well aware that the whole creation, until this time, has been groaning in labour pains.

23 And not only that: we too, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we are groaning inside ourselves, waiting with eagerness for our bodies to be set free.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MATTHEW 13:1-23

1 That same day, Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside,

2 but such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the shore,

3 and he told them many things in parables. He said, 'Listen, a sower went out to sow.

4 As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up.

5 Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up at once, because there was no depth of earth;

6 but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away.

7 Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

8 Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

9 Anyone who has ears should listen!'

10 Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?'

11 In answer, he said, 'Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted.

12 Anyone who has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has.

13 The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.

14 So in their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!

15 This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me.

16 'But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!

17 In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.

18 'So pay attention to the parable of the sower.

19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the Evil One comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the seed sown on the edge of the path.

20 The seed sown on patches of rock is someone who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy.

21 But such a person has no root deep down and does not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once he falls away.

22 The seed sown in thorns is someone who hears the word, but the worry of the world and the lure of riches choke the word and so it produces nothing.

23 And the seed sown in rich soil is someone who hears the word and understands it; this is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”

14TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A) – 09TH JULY, 2017

Saturday, 08th July, 2017

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

Zechariah 9:9-10

9 Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem! Look, your king is approaching, he is vindicated and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

10 He will banish chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished. He will proclaim peace to the nations, his empire will stretch from sea to sea, from the River to the limits of the earth.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14

1 [Hymn of Praise Of David] I shall praise you to the heights, God my King, I shall bless your name for ever and ever.

2 Day after day I shall bless you, I shall praise your name for ever and ever.

8 Yahweh is tenderness and pity, slow to anger, full of faithful love.

9 Yahweh is generous to all, his tenderness embraces all his creatures.             

10 All your creatures shall thank you, Yahweh, and your faithful shall bless you.

11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingship and tell of your might,

13 Your kingship is a kingship for ever, your reign lasts from age to age. Yahweh is trustworthy in all his words, and upright in all his deeds.

14 Yahweh supports all who stumble, lifts up those who are bowed down.

Second Reading

Romans 8:9, 11-13

9 You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

11 and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

12 So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it.

13 If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

Matthew 11:25-30

25 At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.

26 Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.

27 Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.

29 Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”