Mass Readings - Sunday, 31st March, 2019

Liturgical Readings for : Sunday, 31st March, 2019
Today's Readings
Léachtaí Gaeilge


FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Joshua 5:9-12
The People of God kept the Passover on their entry into the promised land

The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away
from you’.
The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on
the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho. On the
morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country,
unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day. From that time,
from their first eating of the produce of that country, the manna stopped
falling. And having manna no longer, the Israelites fed from that year
onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.


The Word of the Lord


Responsorial Psalm Ps 33
Response : Taste and see that the Lord is good.

1. I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.                  Response

2. Glorify the Lord with me.
Together let us praise his name.
I sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me free.                   Response

3. Look towards him and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.
This poor man called; the Lord heard him

and rescued him from all his distress.              Response



SECOND READING
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 5:17-21
God reconciled us to himself through Christ

For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has
gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on
this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world
to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to
us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it
is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make
in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the
sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.


The Word of the Lord


Gospel Acclamation Lk 15:18
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

I will leave this place and go to my father and say:
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus! 



GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 13:1-9
Your brother here was dead and has come to life

The tax collectors and the sinners, meanwhile, were all seeking his
company to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes
complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them. So
he spoke this parable to them:
‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have
the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the
property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together
everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his
money on a life of debauchery.
‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and
now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local
inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly
have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered
him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my
father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying
of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have
sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called
your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and
went back to his father.
‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with
pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly.
Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I
no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his
servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his
finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and
kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine
was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they
began to celebrate.
‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew
near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the
servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied
the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he
has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in,
and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father,
“Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your
orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with
my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing
up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been
fattening.”
The father said,
“My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only
right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead
and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”


The Gospel of the Lord