Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Friday, 16th January, 2026Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Saint of the Day; Jan 16; St Fursa ; abbot and missionary
C/f A short life of this saint can be found below todays’ Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the first book of Samuel. 8: 4-7,10-22a
You will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God will not answer you.’
It displeased Samuel that they should say,
‘Let us have a king to rule us’, so he prayed to the Lord.
But the Lord said to Samuel,
‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is not you they have rejected; they have rejected me from ruling over them.’
All that the Lord had said Samuel repeated to the people who were asking him for a king He said,
‘These will be the rights of the king who is to reign over you.
He will take your sons and assign them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot. He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty;
He will make them plough his ploughland and harvest his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.
He will also take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers.
He will take the best of your fields, of your vineyards and olive groves and give them to his officials.
He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his eunuchs and his officials.
He will take the best of your man servants and maidservants, of your cattle and your donkeys,
and make them work for him.
He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves,
but on that day God will not answer you.’
The people refused to listen to the words of Samuel. They said,
‘No! We want a king, so that we in our turn can be like the other nations;
our king shall rule us and be our leader and fight our battles.‘
Samuel listened to all that the people had to say and repeated it in the ears of the Lord.
The Lord then said to Samuel, ‘Obey their voice and give them a king‘.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 88: 16-17, 18-19 R/v 2
Response I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.
1. Happy the people who acclaim such a king, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
who find their joy every day in your name, who make your justice the source of their bliss. Response
2. For it is you, O Lord, who are the glory of their strength; it is by your favour that our might is exalted:
for our ruler is in the keeping of the Lord;
our king in the keeping of the Holy One of Israel. Response
Gospel Acclamation Eph 1: 17. 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
or Mt 4: 23
Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 2: 1-12 Glory to you, O Lord.
The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum some time later, word went round that he was back; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door.
Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves,
‘How can this man talk like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God?’
Jesus, inwardly aware that this was what they were thinking, said to them,
‘Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic,
“Your sins are forgiven” or to say, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk“?
But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he said to the paralytic –
I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.’
And the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astounded and praised God saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this’.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time Mark 2:1-12
We often pray that eternal rest would be granted to those who have died. ‘Rest’ in that sense is not just the absence of activity, but a renewal of our spirit. The psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, says of the Lord, ‘near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit’, The Lord wants us to experience such ‘rest’ not just beyond this earthly life but during our earthly lives. He is always at work to revive our drooping spirits and he wants to work through us to revive the drooping spirits of others.
In today’s gospel reading, a very concerned group stop at nothing to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus, even going as far as making a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching. They wanted their friend to reach a place of rest; they brought him to Jesus so that he would revive their friend’s drooping spirits by healing him of his paralysis. A group of men making a hole in the roof above would normally be experienced by a teacher as an unwelcome interruption to a lesson. However, Jesus saw the faith which drove these men to take such desperate measures and he immediately responds to the plight of the paralytic. He not only heals him physically, but assures him that he is loved by God, by declaring his sins forgiven. Jesus heals the whole person, physically and spiritually. He brings him to a place of rest. The Lord works in the same healing way in all our lives. He also wants to work through us for the holistic healing of others. The Lord needs us to play the role of the paralytic’s friends today, so that the broken in body, mind and spirit can experience his healing power to the full.
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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/
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Saint of the Day; Jan 16; St Fursa ; abbot and missionary
Fursa was born in Ireland, he went first with his brothers Foillan and Ultan to live the monastic life in East Anglia. But as large numbers continued to visit him there he left his brother Foillan as abbot, and sought refuge in France around 644. A patron gave him a hermitage at Lagny on the Marne. He died about 650 at Mezerolles while on a journey. His body was buried in Peronne, which became a centre of devotion to him.
Patrick Duffy tells what is known about him.
In Norfolk (East Anglia): Relations with the Roman Mission?
According to Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English nation, Fursey founded a monastery at Rathmat, probably in Ireland, and then went with two companions St Foillan and St Ultan as a pilgrim for Christ (peregrinus pro Christo) to East Anglia. King Sigbert II of the East Anglians, who had been an exile in Gaul, received the pilgrims courteously and gave them land at Burgh Castle, near modern Yarmouth, where Fursey founded a monastery.
Felix of Felixstowe
This would have been around the same time as the Roman mission to England under St Augustine arrived in Kent (597). However, neither the Roman mission nor the mission from Lindisfarne seems to have reached East Anglia by the time Fursey arrived. King Sigbert must have been aware of the differences between Celtic and Roman practices, because he also welcomed a Burgundian bishop named Felix, who died in 647. Felix established a Roman diocese named Dunwich, but this has now disappeared under the North Sea as a result of coastal erosion. All the records were lost, and the only remaining
trace of his mission is the name of the port of Felixstowe. Sigbert seems to have thought that there was room for both Celtic and Roman missioners in his large, predominantly pagan, kingdom.
Famed f
Fursey and his community stayed around Yarmouth for about twelve years, following the Celtic Rite. Felix was a faithful missionary, and evidently tolerant of the Celtic monks and their ways. The Roman clergy who came to the area respected Fursey for his devotion and his visions: he was given to sitting out in the biting East Anglian winds wearing only a thin shirt, and sweating with the power of his spiritual experiences.
Bede the Venerable writes of Fursey: There came out of Ireland a holy man called Fursa, renowned both for his words and actions, and remarkable for his singular virtues, being desirous to live like a stranger for our Lord, wherever an opportunity should offer… he saw the angels chanting in heaven, and a vision of hell in which he saw four fires – the fire of falsehood, the fire of covetousness, the fire of discord and the fire of iniquity.
To the Frankish Kingdom of Neustria
When Sigbert was killed by the pagan Penda of Mercia, Fursey and some of his monks went to the Frankish kingdom of Neustria. He left one of his brothers, Foillan, in charge of the Norfolk monastery, and at least one other Irish monk, Ultan (not Ultan of Arbraccan), went with him to Gaul.
Here King Clovis II ( 636-657) authorised Fursey to found a monastery east of Paris at Lagny-sur-Marne (Latinacium or Lagny-en-Brie) in the territory of Neustria (648). In the monastery he created three chapels. He was protected here by Echinoald, the administrator of Clovis II.
Death and Influence
After Fursey’s death while on a journey at Mezerolles in 650, Echinoald had his body translated to Péronne, which became known as Perrona Scottorum (Péronne of the Irish). His tomb became a place of pilgrimage and the monastery became an Irish centre. Ultan went there, and became abbot. Fursey’s shrine is said to have been the work of St Eloi (Eligius, c. 588-660), a celebrated metalworker who also made the shrines of St Denys of Paris and St Martin of Tours.
The entry for Fursey in the Félire of St Oengus seems to make reference to his friendship with kings:
‘Cráibdig i féil Fursai
fris-rocabsat ríge,
nói míli, méit búadae,
for fichit már míle.’
Fursey’s Companions in England
Two other companions of Fursey were said to have accompanied him to England, Dicul and Maeldubh. Dicul went on to evangelise the South Saxons, and founded a monastery at Bosham, near Chichester, with five or six monks. Later Wilfrid of Ripon, during his travels, discovered this small group of Celtic monks still keeping to their old ways in what by then was solidly Romanized territory. Maeldubh went to Wessex, and founded a monastery at Malmesbury, where St Aldhelm (639-709) is said to have studied for a time.
Though little seems to be known about the work of these small Celtic groups in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, their existence does suggest that there was a significant movement of evangelising from Ireland into England in the early seventh century, and that the Roman clergy in England may have encountered Celtic monks quite early in their own mission.
The name of ‘Fursa‘ is a translation of the old irish words ‘model of virtue’.
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Memorable Proverb for today
To live a life of virtue,
one must match up your thoughts, words, and deeds.
~ Epictetus ~
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