Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 10th January, 2026Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St John 5:14-21
Whatever we may ask, he hears us.
We are quite confident that if we ask him for anything,
and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us;
and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us,
we know that we have already been granted what we asked of him.
If anybody sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin,
he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner –
not those who commit a deadly sin; for there is a sin that is death,
and I will not say that you must pray about that.
Every kind of wrong-doing is sin, but not all sin is deadly.
We know that anyone who has been begotten by God does not sin,
because the begotten Son of God protects him, and the Evil One does not touch him.
We know that we belong to God, but the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One.
We know, too, that the Son of God has come, and has given us the power to know the true God.
We are in the true God, as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God, this is eternal life.
Children, be on your guard against false gods.
The Word of the Lord
Responsorial Psalm Ps 149: 1-6, 9. R/v 4
Response The Lord takes delight in his people.
Or Alleluia!
1 Sing a new song to the Lord, his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker, let Zion’s sons exult in their king. Response
2 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes delight in his people. He crowns the poor with salvation. Response
3 Let the faithful rejoice in-their glory, shout for joy and take their rest.
Let the praise of God be on their lips; this honour is for all his faithful. Response
Gospel Acclamation Lk 5:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
Or Mt 4:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light;
on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 3:22-30
The bridegroom’s friend is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.
Jesus went with his disciples into the Judaean countryside and stayed with them there and baptised. At the same time John was baptising at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water, and people were going there to be baptised. This was before John had been put in prison.
Now some of John’s disciples had opened a discussion with a Jew about purification, so they went to John and said, ‘Rabbi, the man who was with you on the far side of the Jordan, the man to whom you bore witness, is baptising now; and everyone is going to him’.
John replied: ‘A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven.
‘You yourselves can bear me out: I said: I myself am not the Christ;
I am the one who has been sent in front of him.’
‘The bride is only for the bridegroom; and yet the bridegroom’s friend, who stands there and listens,
is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.
This same joy I feel, and now it is complete.
He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O lord Jesus Christ
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Gospel Reflection Saturday after Epiphany 12 January, John 3:22–30
There is a striking contrast in today’s gospel reading between the attitude of John the Baptist’s disciples towards Jesus and the attitude of John the Baptist himself towards Jesus. John’s disciples view Jesus as unwelcome competition, declaring that Jesus ‘is baptising now, and everyone is going to him’. The implication of what they say is that everyone is not going to John the Baptist. John himself, however, has a totally different response to this emerging situation. John recognises that Jesus is the bridegroom, the earthly representative of the heavenly bridegroom. The bride, God’s people, belongs to him. John is happy to be the friend of the bridegroom and he rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. He is very clear that he, the friend of the bridegroom, should grow smaller and that the bridegroom should grow greater. In the Fourth Gospel, John the Baptist is a model for all believers. Like John, we are all called into friendship with Jesus; we are all friends of the bridegroom.
At the Last Supper in this gospel, Jesus will say to his disciples, ‘I do not call you servants any longer … I have called you friends.’ We show ourselves to be friends of Jesus by loving one another as he has loved us, by allowing his love to be in us, or, in the words of John the Baptist in today’s gospel reading, by allowing Jesus to grow greater in us and allowing our own selfish and competitive selves to grow less. Such growth of Jesus within us is, ultimately, the work of the Holy Spirit to which we are invited to surrender. When Jesus grows within us, then, with Saint Paul, we will be able to say, ‘It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me’.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Gospel reflection comes from: Weekday Reflections for the Liturgical Year ; I Want to Know Christ by Martin Hogan, published by The Messenger c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
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