5TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B) – 04TH FEBRUARY, 2018

Saturday, 03th February, 2018

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

JOB 7:1-4, 6-7

1 Is not human life on earth just conscript service? Do we not live a hireling's life?

2 Like a slave, sighing for the shade, or a hireling with no thought but for his wages,

3 I have months of futility assigned to me, nights of suffering to be my lot.

4 Lying in bed I wonder, 'When will it be day?' No sooner up than, 'When will evening come?' And crazy thoughts obsess me till twilight falls.

6 Swifter than a weaver's shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.

7 Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 147:1-6

1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh -- it is good to sing psalms to our God -- how pleasant to praise him.

2 Yahweh, Builder of Jerusalem! He gathers together the exiles of Israel,

3 healing the broken-hearted and binding up their wounds;

4 he counts out the number of the stars, and gives each one of them a name.

5 Our Lord is great, all-powerful, his wisdom beyond all telling.

6 Yahweh sustains the poor, and humbles the wicked to the ground.

Second Reading

First Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23

16 In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it.

17 If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me.

18 What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me.

19 So though I was not a slave to any human being, I put myself in slavery to all people, to win as many as I could.

22 To the weak, I made myself weak, to win the weak. I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation.

23 All this I do for the sake of the gospel, that I may share its benefits with others.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MARK 1:29-39

29 And at once on leaving the synagogue, he went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew.

30 Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed and feverish, and at once they told him about her.

31 He went in to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them.

32 That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils.

33 The whole town came crowding round the door,

34 and he cured many who were sick with diseases of one kind or another; he also drove out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.

35 In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.

36 Simon and his companions set out in search of him,

37 and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you.'

38 He answered, 'Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can proclaim the message there too, because that is why I came.'

39 And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out devils.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

4TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B) – 28TH JANUARY, 2018

Saturday, 27th January, 2018

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

DEUTERONOMY 18:15-20

15 Yahweh your God will raise up a prophet like me; you will listen to him.

16 This is exactly what you asked Yahweh your God to do -- at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, when you said, "Never let me hear the voice of Yahweh my God or see this great fire again, or I shall die."

17 Then Yahweh said to me,

18 "What they have said is well said. From their own brothers I shall raise up a prophet like yourself;

19 I shall put my words into his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him. Anyone who refuses to listen to my words, spoken by him in my name, will have to render an account to me.

20 But the prophet who presumes to say something in my name which I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."

“The Word of the Lord”

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

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

First Corinthians 7:32-35

32 I should like you to have your minds free from all worry. The unmarried man gives his mind to the Lord's affairs and to how he can please the Lord;

33 but the man who is married gives his mind to the affairs of this world and to how he can please his wife, and he is divided in mind.

34 So, too, the unmarried woman, and the virgin, gives her mind to the Lord's affairs and to being holy in body and spirit; but the married woman gives her mind to the affairs of this world and to how she can please her husband.

35 I am saying this only to help you, not to put a bridle on you, but so that everything is as it should be, and you are able to give your undivided attention to the Lord.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MARK 1:21-28

21 They went as far as Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach.

22 And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.

23 And at once in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted,

24 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.'

25 But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!'

26 And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.

27 The people were so astonished that they started asking one another what it all meant, saying, 'Here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.'

28 And his reputation at once spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

3RD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B) – 21ST JANUARY, 2018

Saturday, 20th January, 2018

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

JONAH 3:1-5, 10

1 The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah a second time.

2 'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it as I shall tell you.'

3 Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare; to cross it took three days.

4 Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city and then proclaimed, 'Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.'

5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least.

10 God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

4 DIRECT me in your ways, Yahweh, and teach me your paths.

5 ENCOURAGE me to walk in your truth and teach me since you are the God who saves me. FOR my hope is in you all day long -- such is your generosity, Yahweh.

6 GOODNESS and faithful love have been yours for ever, Yahweh, do not forget them.

7 HOLD not my youthful sins against me, but remember me as your faithful love dictates.

8 INTEGRITY and generosity are marks of Yahweh for he brings sinners back to the path.

9 JUDICIOUSLY he guides the humble, instructing the poor in his way.

Second Reading

First Corinthians 7:29-31

29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time has become limited, and from now on, those who have spouses should live as though they had none;

30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; those who enjoy life as though they did not enjoy it; those who have been buying property as though they had no possessions;

31 and those who are involved with the world as though they were people not engrossed in it. Because this world as we know it is passing away.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MARK 1:14-20

14 After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the gospel from God saying,

15 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.'

16 As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon's brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -- for they were fishermen.

17 And Jesus said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you into fishers of people.'

18 And at once they left their nets and followed him.

19 Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending the nets.

20 At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.

“The Gospel of the Lord”



REFLECTION FOR 3RD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME READINGS

Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Jonah 3:1-5, 10 and tells the story of Jonah's call from God to go to a pagan city and preach repentance to the sinful people there.

The second reading is from the first Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. St. Paul admonishes his converts to do what our Lord himself advised his follower—always to be ready for the judgment.

The Gospel is from Mark 1:14-20. Jesus came to announce to all men the good news of God's eternal plan for them. He spent his public life convincing the Jews of Palestine of the truth of this message, and he died on the cross because he claimed to be that he was God's divine Son, who had come in human nature to raise all men to the standing and status of adopted sons of God. That very death, cruel and unjust though it was, was part of the divine plan. He conquered death and was raised from the grave to prove that we too, if we accept his divine gospel and live by it, will be raised from the dead and reign with Christ in the kingdom of his Father forever. Christ preached this doctrine in Palestine. It is the doctrine for which he gave his human life and which he gave to his Apostles to hand down to all future generations. This is the self-same doctrine preached by Christ's Church to all men today. It is the good news of God's mercy and love toward us weak, mortal creatures. To some it seems too good to be true; it would indeed be so if God were a limited, finite being like us, but he is Being itself. He is without limit, his goodness and love are limitless as is his nature. What God can see in creatures has ever been a puzzle to thinking man. One of the psalm-writers said centuries ago: "What is man that you should spare a thought for him, the son of man that you should care for him" (Ps. 8 :4)? Many a saint too, has repeated this remark ever since.

We cannot hope to fathom the mind of God, nor do we need to. He has gone to such a length as the humiliation of his divine Son in the incarnation in order to give us a new standing in relation to himself and a new mode of eternal living after death. We are still God's creatures, "the work of his hands," but through accepting Christ and his gospel—his message of divine truth—we are no longer mere mortals. We shall die, but death is the beginning of the true life which God has arranged for us. It is no wonder that St. Paul could cry out: "O death where is your victory, O death, where is your sting?"

We Christians should be the happiest people on earth. We know why we are here, we know where we are going and we know how to get there. There are trials and troubles which beset us on our journey; there are rough parts of the road and weaknesses in our human nature which often lead us off the right road, but we are not left to our own human resources. We have help from above to strengthen and comfort us on our journey. We have divine aids in the Church which Christ set us and we have the guarantee of our Good Shepherd that he will keep us in his fold or bring us back should we foolishly wander from it (Jn. 10: 14; Lk. 1.5:4-7).

We Christians can indeed be the happiest people on earth, if we live according to the divine good news revealed to us through Christ. "Repent and believe in the gospel," Christ told the people of Galilee. The same call goes out from our loving Savior to each of us today: repent—change your outlook on life— and see it as God sees it to be for us, a short journey toward heaven. If we really believe in the gospel of Christ, the revelation of God's plan for our eternal happiness, our earthly troubles will look small, our trials and temptations will appear to us as they really are—a means of earning the eternal victory. Christ, the innocent victim for our salvation, has gone before us, carrying his heavy cross; can we refuse to carry the relatively lighter cross which he places on our shoulders as our means of making atonement for our own failings and for those of our fellowmen? God forbid that we should! If we have failed in the past, let us repent today and show our belief in the truth of the Christian gospel, by living as true Christians who are on their way to heaven.

— Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

2ND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B) – 14TH JANUARY, 2018

Saturday, 13th January, 2018

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year B

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass in English

First Reading

FIRST SAMUEL 3:3-10, 19

3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying in Yahweh's sanctuary, where the ark of God was,

4 when Yahweh called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' He answered, 'Here I am,'

5 and, running to Eli, he said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' Eli said, 'I did not call. Go back and lie down.' So he went and lay down.

6 And again Yahweh called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' He got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' He replied, 'I did not call, my son; go back and lie down.'

7 As yet, Samuel had no knowledge of Yahweh and the word of Yahweh had not yet been revealed to him.

8 Again Yahweh called, the third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' Eli then understood that Yahweh was calling the child,

9 and he said to Samuel, 'Go and lie down, and if someone calls say, "Speak, Yahweh; for your servant is listening." ' So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 Yahweh then came and stood by, calling as he had done before, 'Samuel! Samuel!' Samuel answered, 'Speak, Yahweh; for your servant is listening.'

19 Samuel grew up. Yahweh was with him and did not let a single word fall to the ground of all that he had told him.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

2 He pulled me up from the seething chasm, from the mud of the mire. He set my feet on rock, and made my footsteps firm.

4 How blessed are those who put their trust in Yahweh, who have not sided with rebels and those who have gone astray in falsehood.

7 then I said, 'Here I am, I am coming.' In the scroll of the book it is written of me,

8 my delight is to do your will; your law, my God, is deep in my heart.

9 I proclaimed the saving justice of Yahweh in the great assembly. See, I will not hold my tongue, as you well know.

10 I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart, but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love, in the great assembly.

Second Reading

First Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20

13 Foods are for the stomach, and the stomach is for foods; and God will destroy them both. But the body is not for sexual immorality;

14 it is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God raised up the Lord and he will raise us up too by his power.

15 Do you not realise that your bodies are members of Christ's body; do you think one can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Out of the question!

17 But anyone who attaches himself to the Lord is one spirit with him.

18 Keep away from sexual immorality. All other sins that people may commit are done outside the body; but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

19 Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God?

20 You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

JOHN 1:35-42

35 The next day as John stood there again with two of his disciples, Jesus went past,

36 and John looked towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God.'

37 And the two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

38 Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, 'What do you want?' They answered, 'Rabbi' -- which means Teacher -- 'where do you live?'

39 He replied, 'Come and see'; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.

40 One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.

41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and say to him, 'We have found the Messiah' -- which means the Christ-

42 and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas' -- which means Rock.

“The Gospel of the Lord”

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD – JANUARY 07, 2018

Saturday, January 06, 2018

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

5:00 pm  Novena to Our Lady

5:30 pm  Sunset Mass

First Reading

ISAIAH 42:1-4, 6-7

1 Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have sent my spirit upon him, he will bring fair judgement to the nations.

2 He does not cry out or raise his voice, his voice is not heard in the street;

3 he does not break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick. Faithfully he presents fair judgement;

4 he will not grow faint, he will not be crushed until he has established fair judgement on earth, and the coasts and islands are waiting for his instruction.

6 I, Yahweh, have called you in saving justice, I have grasped you by the hand and shaped you; I have made you a covenant of the people and light to the nations,

7 to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.

“The Word of the Lord”

PSALMS 29:1-2, 3-4, 9-10

1 [Psalm Of David] Give Yahweh his due, sons of God, give Yahweh his due of glory and strength,

2 give Yahweh the glory due to his name, adore Yahweh in the splendour of holiness.

3 Yahweh's voice over the waters, the God of glory thunders; Yahweh over countless waters,

4 Yahweh's voice in power, Yahweh's voice in splendour;

9 Yahweh's voice convulses terebinths, strips forests bare. In his palace all cry, 'Glory!'

10 Yahweh was enthroned for the flood, Yahweh is enthroned as king for ever.

Second Reading

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 10:34-38

34 Then Peter addressed them, 'I now really understand', he said, 'that God has no favourites,

35 but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

36 'God sent his word to the people of Israel, and it was to them that the good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ -- he is the Lord of all.

37 You know what happened all over Judaea, how Jesus of Nazareth began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism.

38 God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.

“The Word of the Lord”

Gospel Reading

MARK 1:7-11

7 In the course of his preaching he said, 'After me is coming someone who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.

8 I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.'

9 It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John.

10 And at once, as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him.

11 And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.'

“The Gospel of the Lord”