Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 26th July, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Saturday of the Sixteenth week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
God reveals himself as a caring protective, loving, faithful,kind defender and leader to his people.
Saints of the Day; 26 July: Ss Joachim and Anne, parents of The Blessed Virgin Mary
(Readings: Eccles 44:1. Ps 49:-2,5-6, 14-15, R/v 14. Mt 13:24-30)
C/f A short life of these saints can be found below todays’ Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Exodus 24:3-8
This is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you.
Moses put all the commands of the Lord into writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed certain young Israelites to offer holocausts and to immolate bullocks to the Lord as communion sacrifices.
Half of the blood Moses took up and put into basins, the other half he cast on the altar.
And taking the Book of the Covenant he read it to the listening people, and they said,
‘We will observe all that the Lord has decreed; we will obey.’
Then Moses took the blood and cast it towards the people.
‘This’ he said ‘is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you, containing all these rules.‘
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 49: 1-2, 5-6, 14-15, R/v 14
Response Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
1. The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion’s perfect beauty he shines. Response
2. ‘Summon before me my people who made covenant with me by sacrifice.’
The heavens proclaim his justice, for he, God, is the judge. Response
3. Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and render him your votive offerings.
‘Call on me in the day of distress. I will free you and you shall honour me Response
Gospel Acclamation Heb 4: 12
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
Or Jms 1: 21
Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept and submit to the word,
which has been planted in you and can save your souls.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 13:24-30 Glory to you, O Lord.
Let them both grow till the harvest.
Jesus put another parable before the crowds,
‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody 
The owner’s servants went to him and said,
“Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?“
“Some enemy has done this” he answered.
And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?“
But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers:
First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”
Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 13:24–30
We are all familiar with weeds in our gardens. We have a tendency to root them out immediately. However, sometimes the weeds are so close to the shrub or flower that to take out the weed risks disturbing the plant. We sometimes have to let the weeds be for the sake of the shrub or flower. We are also aware in recent times that the blossoms which weeds generate can be great pollinators for our bees. We are now being told not to be rooting out our dandelions so quickly and ruthlessly. Weeds are making a comeback!
In the parable Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading, the servants of the landowner wanted to pull up the weeds that had appeared among the wheat. However, the landowner himself was a more patient man. He was aware that pulling up the weeds could pull up some wheat as well and he advised letting both weed and wheat grow until harvest time, and then they could be separated. There is always a deeper meaning to Jesus’ parables. He wasn’t primarily talking about gardens or fields of wheat. After all, he began the parable with the words, ‘the kingdom of God may be compared to…’. Jesus was really talking about God and how God relates to us.
He is suggesting that God can be patient with our weaknesses because God recognises that they are often closely aligned with our strengths. An angry person may have a passion for justice; a lazy person may be a great listener; an overly anxious person may be very dutiful and conscientious.
God recognizes that we are all a mixture of wheat and weed, of good and evil, of strength and weakness and he is patient with our mixture. We need to be patient too, with ourselves and with others. In striving after a perfect garden, a gardener risks doing harm as well as good. In striving too hard to make ourselves perfect or, more worryingly still, to make others perfect, we risk doing as much harm as good. We need to learn to live with the mixture we and others are, while celebrating and working to enhance all that is good there.
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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 is available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings : You have the Words of Eternal life by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
Saints of the Day: July 26; Ss Joachim and Anne
Ss Joachim and Anne, traditionally named parents of Our Lady and grandparents of the Lord is a late second century attribution. Churches dedicated to St Ann are found in Jerusalem and Constantinople from the middle of the sixth century. The feast of Saint Anne was kept in Rome by the eighth century, that of St Joachim from the fifteenth.
Patrick Duffy looks at the background to this feast.
Scripture or apocryphal?
Neither Joachim nor Anne is mentioned in Scripture. The 2nd century non-canonical Gospel of James (the author presents himself as a son of Joseph from a previous marriage, and so a stepbrother of Jesus) tells the story of the birth of Mary in a way that has some resemblances with the story of the birth of Samuel (1 Kings 1), whose mother Hannah had also been childless. According to this story, Anne and her husband Joachim, after years of childlessness, were visited by an angel who told them that they would conceive a child. Anne promises to dedicate the child to God’s service.
Dedication of churches at Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome
Devotion to St Anne is evidenced from the fact that at Constantinople in the middle of the sixth century the Emperor Justinian I dedicated a church to her and relics were taken from it to Jerusalem and Rome where there are pictures of St Anne at S. Maria Antiqua (8th century).
Feasts of the Birth and Presentation of Mary
Official Recognition
The Roman Church has had some hesitancy in giving official recognition to a feast of St Joachim (authorised by Julius II, suppressed by Pius V , later restored by Gregory XV). The joint feast of Ss Joachim and Anne was recognised by the General Roman Calendar 1969 which contains only those celebrations that are intended to be observed in the Roman Rite in every country of the world.
Artists
One of the most famous paintings (right) of late medieval painter Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337 AD) depicts the meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate.
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Memorable Sayings for Today
“Grandparents hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever.”
“Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories, and love.”
“To be a grandparent is to experience the joy of unconditional love, the blessing of wisdom,
and the warmth of precious memories.
~ unattributed quote ~
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