Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Tuesday, 9th December, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
Isaiah the prophet utters encouraging words to the formally enslaved Jewish nations that they were liberated. God was about to lead his people in a new Exodus and the need for a suitable road to be prepared for God to travel on.
Saint of the Day; December 9. St Juan Diego Cuahtlatoatzin, hermit at Guadeloupe, Mexico
c/f A short history of today’s saint can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Isaiah 40:1-11
God consoles his people.
Console my people, console them’ says your God.
A voice cries,
‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord
Make a straight highway for our God across the desert.
Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low,
let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges a valley;
then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
A voice commands:
‘All flesh is grass and its beauty like the wild flower’s.
The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on them. (The grass is without doubt the people.)
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains for ever.’
Go up on a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion.
Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem.
Shout without fear, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God’.
Here is the Lord coming with power, his arm subduing all things to him.
The prize of his victory is with him, his trophies all go before him.
He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps:95: 1-2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13,
Response Here is our God coming with power.
1. O sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim his help day by day. Response
2. Tell among the nations his glory and his wonders among all the peoples.
Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’ He will judge the peoples in fairness. Response
3. Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad, let the sea and all within it thunder praise,
let the land and all it bears rejoice, all the trees of the wood shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes, he comes to rule the earth. Response
4. With justice he will rule the world, he will judge the peoples with his truth. Response
Gospel Acclamation Is 35:4
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come Lord ! Do not delay. Forgive the sins of your people.
Alleluia!
Or
Alleluia, alleluia!
The day of the Lord is near; Look he comes to save us.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 18:12-14 Glory to you, O Lord
God does not wish the little ones to be lost.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays;
will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray?
I tell you solemnly, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all.
Similarly, it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Tuesday, Second Week of Advent Matthew 18:12-14
In the gospel reading Jesus tells a parable about a shepherd who notices when one sheep out of a flock of one hundred goes astray, and who is concerned enough about that one sheep to go searching for it, even though it means leaving the ninety nine unattended. The one, and not just the many, matter to this shepherd. The shepherd is an image of Jesus who is always portrayed in the gospels as engaging not just with crowds but with individuals. In the language of John’s gospel, he is the good shepherd who knows his own by name. The risen Lord relates to us not just as anonymous members of a group but as individuals. He calls each of us by name.
In Matthew’s gospel the parable is not just an image of how Jesus relates to us, but also an image of how we are called to relate to each other. We are to call each other by name; we are to respect the uniqueness of each other, relating to one another as unique and irreplaceable images of God. Meeting with one person has potentially as much value as meeting with a large group. The parable suggests that one individual is as deserving of our attention as a gathering of many.
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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 c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
Saint of the Day: December 9th, St Juan Diego, Cuauhtlatoatzin (“talking eagle”)
St Juan Diego was a devout childless widower, who was converted by the first Spanish Franciscans who had arrived in Mexico. He had a vision of Our Lady on 9th December 1531 and had a shrine set up there which encouraged the conversion of the indigenous Mexicans to Christianity.
Patrick Duffy tells his story.
Baptised at 50
Juan Diego was born in 1474 near Mexico City . He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. When he was about 50 years old he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries.
who told him she was the Virgin Mary. She asked him to go to the Spanish Franciscan bishop-elect, Juan de Zumárraga, and tell him she wanted a church built 
On the 12th December, Juan Diego was again passing by Tepeyac on the way to see his uncle who was sick. Here, the young woman appeared to him again and told him his uncle was cured. She also told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He did, and although it was winter time, he found flowering roses. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his tilma or mantle and told him to take them to the bishop-elect, tell him what he had seen, explain how his uncle was cured, and that she was ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe.’ When he opened his tilma in the presence of the bishop-elect, the flowers fell on the ground and an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac, was impressed on the tilma.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Jardin del Tepeyac or Garden del Tepeyac. Basilica de Guadalupe. Mexico City
This origin of this title has been a matter of controversy. The more reliable opinion would see it as a Spanish mistranslation of the word “Coatlallope” of the Nahuatl language, meaning “one who treads on snakes” indicating that this young woman would bring an end to the human sacrifice culture of which the snake was symbolic!
Our Lady of Guadalupe has become Mexico’s most popular image.
The Shrine
Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. He dedicated his life to prayer, the practice of love of God and neighbour. He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on 6 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City and canonised on 31st July 2002.
The Marian Image at Guadalupe
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Spiritual Wisdom of the Day
‘Do whatever he tells you,’
These are Mary’s last spoken words in scripture and can provide for us an entire lifetime of reflection.
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