A reading from the Book of Wisdom 9:13-18
Who can divine the will of God?
‘What man indeed can know the intentions of God?
Who can divine the will of the Lord?
The reasonings of mortals are unsure and our intentions unstable;
for a perishable body presses down the soul,
and this tent of clay weighs down the teeming mind.
It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth,
laborious to know what lies within our reach;
who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?
As for your intention, who could have learnt it, had you not granted Wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from above?
Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened
and men been taught what pleases you, and saved, by Wisdom.’
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89
Response:
Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
1.
You turn men back into dust
and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.
Response
2.
You sweep men away like a dream,
like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.
Response
3.
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
Response
4.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands.
Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to Philomon 1:9-10. 12-17
Have him back, not as a slave anymore but as a dear brother.
This is Paul writing, an old man now and, what is more, still a prisoner of Christ
Jesus. I am appealing to you for a child of mine, whose father I became while
wearing these chains: I mean . He was of no use to you before, but he will be useful
to you now, as he has been to me. I am sending him back to you, and with him – I
could say – a part of my own self. I should have liked to keep him with me; he could
have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains that the Good
News has brought me. However, I did not want to do anything without your consent; it
would have been forcing your act of kindness, which should be spontaneous. I know
you have been deprived of Onesimus for a time, but it was only so that you could
have him back for ever, not as a slave any more, but something much better than a
slave, a dear brother; especially dear to me, but how much more to you, as a blood
brother as well as a brother in the Lord. So if all that we have in common means
anything to you, welcome him as you would me.
The Word of the Lord
Gospel Acclamation Jn 15: 15
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord, because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
Ps 118: 135
or
Alleluia, alleluia!
Let your face shine on your servant,
and teach me your decrees.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke 14:25-33
None of you can be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions.
Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them.
If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers,
sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple.
Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ‘And
indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and
work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the
foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all
start making fun of him and saying, “‘Here is a man who started to build and was
unable to finish”. Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not
first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the
other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other
king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same
way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.
The Gospel of the Lord
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