Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 14th February, 2026Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Saints of the Day; 14 Feb. – Ss Cyril, monk, 826—69 and Methodius,bishop 815—85 ad
Co-Patrons of Europe,
These were brothers from Thessalonica in Greece. They preached the Gospel in Moravia using their own translation of the Scriptures and the liturgy in the local language. These translations into Slavonic were in an alphabet, now called Cyrillic, which they devised. They are honoured as Apostles of the Slavic peoples.
C/f short history of today’s saints can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection
FIRST READING
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 13:46-49
We must turn to the pagans.
‘We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the pagans.
For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said:
I have made you a light for the nations, so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.’
It made the pagans very happy to hear this and they thanked the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers. Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside. The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116 R/v Mk16:15
Response Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good news.
Or Alleluia!
1. O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples! Response
2. Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever Response
Gospel Acclamation Lk 4:158
Alleluia, Alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 10:1-9 Glory to you, O Lord
The harvest is rich but the labourers are few.
The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit.
He said to them, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.
Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, “Peace to this house!”
And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you.
Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is set before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, “The kingdom of God is very near to you”.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection 14th Feb. Feast of Ss Cyril and Methodius, Co-Patrons of Europe Luke 10:1–9
Today we celebrate the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius. They were brothers from Macedonia in Greece who in the ninth century preached the gospel in Moravia, an area that corresponds to the modern day Czech Republic, Slovakia and parts of Hungary. In their efforts to convey the gospel message to this Slavic people, they translated the Scriptures and the liturgical texts into the local Slav language. They understood that only if the texts were in the vernacular could they communicate to the local people. In the process they invented a new alphabet, from which the present Slav alphabet is derived; it is still called Cyrillic to his day, after Saint Cyril. For that reason they are regarded as the founders of Slavonic literature. Because of opposition from Christian missionaries from Germany, who disapproved of their methods of evangelization, they had to leave Moravia and at the invitation of the Pope they travelled to Rome. Pope Adrian, however, gave his seal of approval to their work in Moravia and created the two brothers bishops. Cyril died in Rome in 869.
There is an Irish connection to Cyril; he is buried in the Irish Dominican Church of San Clemente, Via Labicana, Rome 95 where an ancient fresco depicts his funeral. Methodius returned to Moravia where he preached the gospel in spite of great opposition, including opposition from local bishops who continued to object to his use of the vernacular. Worn out by his labourers, he died in 885. Both brothers were wonderful examples of what today’s gospel reading calls labourers in the Lord’s harvest. Their basic message was the message Jesus asked the seventy two to proclaim in whatever town they entered, ‘The kingdom of God is very near to you’. That remains the gospel message for us today.
The kingdom of God, God’s loving reign, is very near to us, especially in and through the risen Lord and the Holy Spirit. There is an Irish saying, ‘God’s help is nearer than the door’. Cyril and Methodius travelled far from their homes to proclaim to the Slav peoples that God was not far from their home but was nearer to them than the door of their home. The Lord is near and he is always inviting us to draw near to him, so that we can draw life and strength from his loving presence to us and within us, and become his labourers in the harvest.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings Your word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
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Saints of the Day; 14 Feb. – Ss Cyril, monk, 826—69 and Methodius, bishop, missionaries 815—85 ad Co-Patrons of Europe,
Cyril: A monk who was born about 826 in Thessalonica (Greece); died at Rome in 869.
Methodius (his brother) : Born about 815; died in Velehrad (Czech Republic) in 885.
The success of their preaching aroused jealous Frankish opposition. Honoured as apostles of the Slavic peoples, for their contribution to Slavic culture, their missionary inculturation of the Christian faith, and for establishing links between East and West.
Fr John Murray PP tells the story of the two Greek monks who became evangelisers of the Slavic people and how Pope John Paul II made them co-patrons of Europe with St Benedict.
From the very beginning of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II frequently spoke of Europe as ‘breathing with two lungs‘. In that first decade from his election in 1978, Europe was still divided and people in the west had forgotten about the countries behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ as belonging to Europe.
Saint Benedict’s place as patron of Europe was never in question. So it must have given the Pope, the ‘man from a far country’, great pride to declare two co-patrons of Europe on 31 December 1980.
Tradition tells us that the two brothers, Methodius and Constantine (he did not take the name Cyril until just before his death), grew up in Thessaloniki (Greece) as sons of a prominent Christian family. We know that Constantine was born in 827. Both were highly intelligent men and while Methodius became an important civil official, his brother became a scholar and professor in the great city of Constantinople.
Because many Slays came to live in their area of Greece, the brothers had become proficient in the Slavic languages. Their first missionary journey was into Ukraine. Later Rastislav, a prince in Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic), invited them into his territory. The motive was not entirely spiritual; the prince was struggling for independence from German influence. He felt that Christian missionaries from the east, replacing the German missionaries, would help him to consolidate power in his own country, especially if they spoke the Slavonic language. Before they even left on their mission, Constantine constructed a script for Slavonic, a script which became the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet named after him.
The brothers were keen to help and were firm believers in translating the liturgy into the local language, whereas the custom in the west was to use Greek or Latin (as it was until Vatican II). When the brothers appealed to Rome – in the issue of having some Slavic candidates ordained for the priesthood – , the Pope – with his own reasons too – approved the use of Slavonic in services and ordained the men Methodius and Constantine had forwarded. The brothers also translated the New Testament and the Psalms into the Slavonic language.
Sadly, Constantine would never return to Moravia, and he died in Rome where he had assumed the monastic habit and taken on the name by which history remembers him. There is also an Irish slant to Cyril’s story. Cyril had laboured hard during his lifetime to return the relics of Saint Clement (the fourth bishop of Rome) to the city and this he did in 867. The martyred pope was interred in the church of his name on the street which runs from the Colosseum to St. John Lateran Basilica. Cyril died not long afterwards (14 February 869) and was buried also in the same church.
San Clemente Basilica in Rome holds the tombs of Ss Cyril and Methodius in an underground Basilica.
Ironically the tomb of Cyril was somehow ‘lost’ when the 12th century basilica was later built on top of the 4th century one. It wasn’t until Fr. Joseph Mullooly, the Irish Dominican prior of St. Clement’s, did some excavations in 1868-70 that the tomb of the Slav saint – as well as the 4th century church and 1st century buildings – was rediscovered. In 2007 the Irish Post Office honoured Fr. Mullooly, featuring him on a number of stamps.
Methodius meanwhile was grief-stricken with the death of his brother and he too, wanted to retire to a monastery but his brother’s dying wish was that he should return to his missionary endeavours. Cyril had said to him, ‘Listen, my brother, we have shared the same destiny, ploughing the same furrow… I know your love for your mountain (monastery) but do not for the sake of the mountain give up your work of teaching.’
Methodius continued to spread the gospel to other regions of Eastern Europe and seminaries were founded in Bulgaria and what is modern-day Belarus and Ukraine. Methodius himself was ordained as archbishop of Pannonia (modern Hungary) and became Papal legate for the Slavic peoples. However his life was not without difficulty, even to the point of spending two years in prison, only being set free by the personal intervention of Pope John VII. The work of inculcating the scriptures and the liturgy into the language of the people he served was continually being regarded with suspicion. In latter years he also translated further books of the Bible into the languages he and his brother loved so much.
In his encyclical, Slavorum Apostoli (‘the Apostles of the Slavs’, June 1985) Pope John Paul II spoke of the brothers as ideal examples of the true missionary spirit – faithful to the traditions which had formed them and yet endeavouring to understand the peoples to whom they were sent. They had endeavoured successfully to create an alphabet and a literature for the languages which they encountered. Yet constantly they submitted their work to the judgement of the Apostolic See which they saw as the visible sign of the Church’s unity. The prayer of Jesus, ‘that they may be one’, was indeed their motto.
‘Great God, One in Trinity,
I entrust to you the heritage of the faith of the Slav nations.
Preserve and bless this work of yours!
Grant to the whole of Europe, O most Holy Trinity – through the intercession of the two holy brothers – to feel the need for religious and Christian unity and for a communion of all its peoples. The Pope of Slav origin thanks you for calling the Slav nations into the communion of the faith. May it never fail!’
The feast of Ss Cyril and Methodius, co-patrons of Europe with St Benedict, is celebrated each year on 14 February.
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Memorable Scripture text for today
We are (brothers, sisters and) partners with Christ
if we hold firmly to the end
the confidence we had at the beginning.
~Hebrews 3:14 ~
(inclusive translation!)
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This article first appeared in The Messenger (February 2008), a publication of the Irish Jesuits. www.messenger.ie/bookshop/