Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 12th December, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Even after all of John the Baptist’s preaching, not everybody in Jesus’ time responded to Him
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Feasts of the Day: Dec 12. 1 Our Lady of Guadalupe. 2. St Finnian
1. The apparitions of Our Lady of Guadaloupe
2. St Finnian, the bishop who settled and established a famous School in Clonard
in preparation for the great monastic expansion in Ireland. d.549
c/f short history of today’s Feasts and saints can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Isaiah 48:17-19
If only you had been alert to my commandments.
Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,
I lead you in the way that you must go.
If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand,
your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1: 1-4. 6. Rv Jn 8:12
Response Anyone who follows you, Lord, will have the light of life.
1. Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. Response
2. He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper. Response
3. Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind.
For the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom. Response
Gospel Acclamation Is 45:8:8
Alleluia, alleluia!
See, the king, the lord of the world, will come. He will free us from the yoke of out bondage.
Alleluia!
Or
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord will come, go out to meet him.
Great is his beginning and his reign will have no end.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 11:16-19 Glory to you, O Lord.
They heed neither John nor the Son of Man.
Jesus spoke to the crowds:
‘What description can I find for this generation?
It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place:
“We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn’t be mourners”.
‘For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed”.
The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say,
“Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”.
Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.‘
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday Second Week of Advent Matthew 11:16-19
There are several passages in the gospels where Jesus either relates directly to children or speaks of them. All of the passages suggest the warmth of his relationship with them. Today’s gospel reading suggest that Jesus is a keen observer of how children behave.
We have to imagine two groups of children in the market place. One group tries to engage the other group in their games.
They first pretend to be the musicians at a wedding, but the other group are unmoved, ‘you wouldn’t dance’.
They then change tact and play at being the singers of dirges at a funeral, but the other group is equally unmoved, ‘you wouldn’t be mourners’.
Jesus reads this scene as a commentary on what is happening in the adult world. His contemporaries were unmoved by the somewhat mournful message of John the Baptist, and they were equally unmoved by Jesus’ own joyful message, his proclamation of the good news of God’s loving reign.
They dismissed John the Baptist as possessed, and Jesus as a glutton and drunkard. ‘We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance’. We don’t often think of Jesus as a piper, playing a tune that invites people to dance. In a sense, the music of God is played through the life and message of Jesus, as well as through his death and resurrection. We are invited to tune into this celebratory music, to be moved by it and to allow it to shape our lives.
We show we are the Lord’s followers by dancing to his tune, moving to the promptings of his Spirit.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from Fr Martin Hogan’s book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is Near to You, on your lips and in your heart published by Messenger Publications 2022/23, c/f www.messenger.ie/boofinniankshop/
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Feasts of the Day: December 12.
1. Optional Memorial of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadaloupe to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin near Mexico city in 1531 and the building of a shrine there which encouraged the conversion of the indigenous Mexicans to Christianity.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and is associated with a series of apparitions to Juan
The Marian Image at Guadalupe
The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress.
She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be “born” again among the peoples of the New World, and is a message as relevant to the “New World” today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego.
According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a man of Aztec descent who had converted to Christianity, on December 9, 1531. She asked Juan Diego to build a shrine on the spot where she had appeared, Tepeyac Hill, now in a suburb of Mexico City.
Juan Diego returned to the hill, where roses were blooming, it was (almost) winter. He picked some of the flowers and brought them in his cloak to the bishop. When he opened his cloak, the flowers fell out and an image of the Blessed Mother was imprinted on it.
This marks the date in 1531 when the Virgin Mary appeared to an indigenous Mexican, in the last of several apparitions. To the present day, Our Lady of Guadalupe remains a powerful symbol of Mexican identity and faith, and her image is associated with everything from motherhood to feminism to social justice.
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Saint of the Day: December 12th: 2. St Finnian, bishop
St Finnian, bishop studied in Idrone (County Carlow) and later in Wales, and on his return to Ireland he settled in Clonard, County Meath, around 520, where he established a famous school. His pupils were the initiators of the indigenous monastic expansion in Ireland. H is remembered as the tutor of the saints of Ireland. .He died in 549.
The image (left) shows St. Finnian and his pupils in a stain glass window at the Church of St. Finian in Clonard. Clonard became a highly influential monastic centre until the diocesan structure was set up in the 12th century.
Patrick Duffy tells his story.
Early Life
Finnian was born in the latter part of the fifth century at Myshal in County Carlow, on the slopes of Mount Leinster. His father was Rudraigh, an Ulsterman of noble lineage. His mother was a Leinster woman called Telach. Finnian was educated first locally by Bishop Fortchernn. He soon travelled to monasteries in south Wales and may also have been at Tours in France.
Monastic Formation in France and Wales
The monastery at Tours is noted for its austerity, for its sacrifice of physical comfort for spiritual gain. Finnian here is said to have befriended and studied under an elder called Caemen. In Wales he was in contact with the early British saints – Cadog at Llancarfan in Glamorganshire, David and Gildas.
Return to Ireland
Although he may have intended to go to Rome, Finnian returned instead to Ireland, first to Aghowle near Shillelagh in County Wicklow, where King Oengus of Leinster gave him a site to build a church. From here he went north to Dunmanogue on the river Barrow, in County Kildare, and established another church. From here, he went to the town of Kildare, studying and teaching at St Brigid’s monastery. Finnian was held in high regard by Brigid, who presented him with a gold ring on his departure.
Clonard 
Finally, around the year 520 Finnian arrived at Clonard, “Erard’s Meadow”, between the kingdoms of Meath and Leinster. Here he got a large tract of land to set up his own ascetic community, where there were up to 3,000 monks. These included the so-called “twelve apostles of Ireland”, who are variously listed. Normally however they include:
St Brendan of Birr, St Brendan of Clonfert,
St Canice, St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise,
St Ciarán of Saighir, St Colmán of Terryglass,
St Colmcille of Iona, St Mobhí of Glasnevin, St Molaise of Devenishand,
St Ruan of Lorrha and St Finnian of Clonard,
Finnian had a great reputation for his knowledge of the Scriptures and Clonard became a centre of Biblical studies. Clonard Monastery, Belfast preserves the name of Finian’s Foundation today”(C/f Picture left)
The Penitential of Finnian
The Penitential of Finnian prescribes penances for sins with a view to correcting sinful tendencies and cultivating the contrary virtue. The document shows wide learning and draws on the teaching of St John Cassian on overcoming the eight evil tendencies – gluttony, fornication, covetousness, anger, dejection, vainglory accidie (laziness) and pride. (The Institutes, Books 5-12).
Death and Influence of Clonard
Clonard today
Today the site of the former monastic centre is located in the grounds of the Church of Ireland at Clonard.
Recently the local Catholic Church of St Finian at Clonard has been renovated with artistic reminiscences of St Finian and the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
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Memorable Saying for Today
The best things in life are:
the people we love,
the places we have been
and the memories we have made along the way.
~ Old Irish Proverb ~
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