Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 20th January, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Monday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle 1
Jesus grew in suffering and in obeying his Father’s will. He is always with us.
Optional Memorial of St Fabian, pope, martyred under Decius in the year 250,
and St Sabastian, martyred by Diocletian in 288
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews 5:1-10
Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering.
Eve
You are my son, today I have become your father, and in another text: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever.
During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard.
Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 109
Response You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
I will put your foes beneath your feet.’ Response
2. The Lord will send from Zion your sceptre of power:
rule in the midst of all your foes. Response
3. A prince from the day of your birth on the holy mountains;
from the womb before the daybreak I begot you. Response
4. The Lord has sworn an oath he will not change.
‘You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.’ Response
Gospel Acclamation 1 Thess 2:13
Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept God’s message it for what it really is, God’s message and not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
Or Heb 4; 12
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and active: it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 2:18-22 Glory to you, O Lord
The bridegroom is with them.
One day when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came and said to him,
‘Why is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?‘
Jesus replied,
‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not think of fasting.
But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine into old wine skins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too.
No! New wine, fresh skins!’
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Monday Second Week in Ordinary Time Mark 2:18-22
In the time of Jesus, a wedding in a village could go on for several days and it would involve the whole village. It was a real communal celebration. It would be very inappropriate for someone in the village to fast while a village wedding was in progress. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus declares to his critics that his disciples are not fasting because there is a wedding feast taking place. Jesus has come to bind people to himself and to God, as a husband and wife are bound together in marriage. His ministry is a time of celebration. Jesus proclaims the good news that God is powerfully at work through his ministry as the divine bridegroom drawing all people to himself. It is not really a time for fasting, because something new and wonderful is happening. Jesus says that his ministry is like new wine, and it cannot be contained by old wineskins, such as the fasting practices that had become customary.
The risen Lord is alive among us today as good news. Every day he invites us to the wedding feast of God’s hospitable love. Yet, in this time, the time of the church, there is a place for fasting. As Jesus says to his critics, ‘the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast’, alluding to his coming death. Yet, because Jesus’ death gave way to his resurrection, the time in which we live, the time of the church, is much more like a wedding feast than a funeral. The Lord is powerfully at work among us. His presence is like new wine that cannot be held by old wineskins. His dynamic presence requires the church to be constantly renewing its way of life, how it organizes itself, its structures and practices The Lord is always calling on us to give expression to his life-giving presence in new ways. We need to be always open to the new paths the Lord keeps asking us to take, ready to make new wineskins to contain his new wine.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published in 1966 by 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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