Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 26th January, 2026Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
01-26 Ss Timothy and Titus, bishops, Memorial
Instructions for the disciples of Jesus
Saints of the Day: 26 Jan; Ss Timothy and Titus were disciples and co-workers with St Paul .
Paul sent Timothy in the church at Ephesus and Titus at Crete.
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below todays’ Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to Timothy 1:1-8
I am reminded of the sincere faith which you have.
Night and day I thank God, keeping my conscience clear and remembering my duty to him as my ancestors did, and always I remember you in my prayers; I remember your tears and long to see you again to complete my happiness. Then I am reminded of the sincere faith which you have; it came first to live in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I have no doubt that it is the same faith in you as well.
That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
_______________________________________________
A reading from the letter of St Paul to Titus 1:1-5
To Titus, true child of mine in the faith that we share.
From Paul, servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ to bring those whom God has chosen to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to true religion; and to give them the hope of the eternal life that was promised so long ago by God. He does not lie and so, at the appointed time, he revealed his decision, and, by the command of God our saviour, I have been commissioned to proclaim it.
To Titus, true child of mine in the faith that we share, wishing you grace and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our saviour.
The reason I left you behind in Crete was for you to get everything organised there and appoint elders in every town, in the way that I told you.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
________________________________
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-3. 7-8.10 Rv v.3
Response Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
1. O sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name. Response
2. Proclaim his help day by day, tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples. Response
3. Give the Lord, you families of peoples, give the Lord glory and power,
give the Lord the glory of his name. Response
4. Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’ The world he made firm in its place;
he will judge the peoples in fairness. Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 15: 16
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 harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.
Start off now, but remember, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road.
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. Glory to you, O Lord
*****************************
Gospel Reflection Friday Jan. 26th Luke 10:1-9
I celebrated Mass in one of the parish primary schools, to which the grandparents of the pupils had been invited. There is a reference to a grandmother in today’s first reading. Paul is writing to his closest co-worker, Timothy. He tells Timothy that he is always being reminded of the sincere faith which he has, and Paul goes on to acknowledge that Timothy’s faith came first to live in his grandmother Lois, and then in his mother Eunice. We can all look back to the faith of our grandparents and, perhaps, to our parents as well. Grandparents continue to have a very important role today in passing on the faith to their grandchildren. They often do this by praying for their grandchildren, praying with them, taking them to church and pointing out the various images and symbols in the church and explaining their meaning. Grandparents are so often among the labourers in the harvest that Jesus mentions in the gospel reading.
As he sends out the seventy two labourers, he calls on them to keep praying to God to send more labourers into the harvest. We are all called to be labourers in the Lord’s harvest, in virtue of our baptism. The Lord needs each one of us to witness to him and his gospel in our world today. Timothy and Titus were co-workers of Paul. He had many other co-workers, woman as well as men. Paul knew that the Lord’s work could not get done without all these co-workers. The Lord’s need is as great today as it was at the beginning of the church, in the time of Paul. He needs every one of us to be a labourer in his harvest, just as he needed the seventy two and many more. The harvest of the Lord remains rich and the Lord needs all the co-workers he can get. We need to all work together to ensure that people today hear and experience the same good news that the seventy two were called by Jesus to preach, ‘The kingdom of God is very near to you’.
________________________________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications, c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
________________
Saints of the Day: 26 Jan; Ss Timothy and Titus were disciples and co-workers with St Paul
Timothy and Titus, bishops, two of St Paul’s most loyal disciples seem to have attended the Council of Jerusalem with him and both died toward the end of the first century. 
Timothy represented Saint Paul to various communities and, according to tradition, was eventually placed him in charge of the Church at Ephesus.
Titus was sent to organise the Church in Crete. They are honoured as leaders to whom St Paul sent pastoral letters in the New Testament.
Patrick Duffy traces what is known about them.
TITUS
At the Council of Jerusalem
According to tradition, Titus journeyed to Jerusalem and witnessed the preaching of Christ during the Lord’s ministry on earth. Only later, however – after the conversion of St. Paul and the beginning of his ministry – did Titus receive baptism from the apostle, who called the pagan convert his “true child in our common faith.”
Corinth
Titus appears again in Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 2:13, 7:13 and 8:6): he was probably the bearer of an angry letter from Paul to the Corinthians, but he acted quite successfully as Paul’s ambassador in Corinth in rather difficult circumstances, sorting out disputes in the Corinthian church and organising a collection for Jerusalem.
Crete and Dalmatia
Paul sent a letter to Titus whom he left in Crete (Tit 1:5; See Acts 24:7-12). The letter gives him instructions to ordain “elders” and control the Cretans, of whom Paul did not have a very high opinion (Tit 1:12). In 2 Tim 4:10 Paul says Titus had gone on a mission to Dalmatia and he is especially venerated in Croatia.
Influence
Later tradition venerated Titus as the first bishop of the Cretan city of Gortyna. In 1966 the head of Titus was returned from Venice where it had been venerated at St Mark’s since the 9th century to the church of St Titus at Heraklion in Crete.
TIMOTHY
Paul took Timothy on as an apostolic travelling companion probably on the occasion of his second visit to Timothy’s home town of Lystra. The Christian community spoke well of him. His mother was a Jewess, who had converted to Christianity, but his father was a Greek. Contrary to his stance in the case of Titus, Paul had Timothy circumcised “on account of the Jews in the locality”.
Paul’s companion to Macedonia and Greece
Timothy travelled with Paul and Silas to Macedonia and through Greece to Corinth, working with Paul and Silas to set up the churches in Corinth, Thessalonica and Philippi. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul commends Timothy to them as a faithful co-worker (1 Cor 4:17; 16:10).
At Ephesus
Timothy later accompanied Paul to Ephesus in Asia Minor (Acts 19:2, 1 Cor 16:10-11). As the presence of his name in the first verses of various epistles indicates (2 Corinthians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians), he was closely associated with Paul in all his work and probably with his imprisonment in Ephesus.
In the Pastoral Letters Timothy is the one in charge of the church at Ephesus. Paul calls him “my true son in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2). Paul is concerned about his health and writes: “You should give up drinking only water and have a little wine for the sake of your digestion and the frequent bouts of illness that you have.”
Paul’s Last Letter
In his last letter probably written just before his death, Paul reminisces about Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice whom Paul would have met when he first took on Timothy as a companion at Lystra (2 Tim 1:5).
Relics
In the 4th century, Timothy’s relics were transferred to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, which since 1461 has been replaced by the Fatih Mosque.
*******************************
Memorable Saying for today
True friends are never apart, Maybe in distance but never in heart.
~ Author Unknown ~
**********************************