Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 28th July, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle 1
People sin by making for themselves idols made of gold. (bitcoin or cash)
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Exodus 32:15-24. 30-34
This people has committed a grave sin making themselves an idol of gold.
Moses made his way back down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, tablets inscribed on both sides, inscribed on the front and on the back. These tablets were the work of God, and the writing on them was God’s writing engraved on the tablets. Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting. ‘There is the sound of battle in the camp,’ he told Moses.
Moses answered him: ‘No song of victory is this sound, no wailing for defeat this sound; it is the sound of chanting that I hear.’
To Aaron Moses said,
‘What has this people done to you, for you to bring such a great sin on them?’
‘Let not my lord’s anger blaze like this’ Aaron answered.
‘You know yourself how prone this people is to evil. They said to me, “Make us a god to go at our head; this Moses, the man who brought us up from Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
So I said to them, “Who has gold?,” and they took it off and brought it to me. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.’
On the following day Moses said to the people,
‘You have committed a grave sin. But now I shall go up to the Lord: perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’
And Moses returned to the Lord.
‘I am grieved,’ he cried ‘this people has committed a grave sin making themselves a god of gold.
And yet, if it pleased you to forgive this sin of theirs…!
But if not, then blot me out from the book that you have written.’
The Lord answered Moses,
‘It is the man who has sinned against me that I shall blot out from my book. Go now, lead the people to the place of which I told you. My angel shall go before you but, on the day of my visitation I shall punish them for their sin.’
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 105: 19-23, R/v1
Response O give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
Or Alleluia!
1. They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory for the image of a bull that eats grass. Response
2. They forgot the God who was their saviour, who had done such great things in Egypt
such portents in the land of Ham, such marvels at the Red Sea. Response
3. For this he said he would destroy them, but Moses, the man he had chosen,
stood in the breach before him, to turn back his anger from destruction. Response
Gospel Acclamation 2 Thess 2: 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
Through the Good News God called us to share
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!
Or Jms 1: 18
Alleluia, alleluia!
By his own choice the Father makes us his children by the message of the truth,
so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all that he created.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 13:31-35 Glory to you, O Lord.
A mustard seed becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches.
Jesus put a parable before them,
He told them another parable,
‘The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.’
In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables. This was to fulfil the prophecy: I will speak to you in parables and expound things hidden since the foundation of the world.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Reflection, Monday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Matthew 13:31-35
In both parables in today’s gospel reading, Jesus draws a contrast between the tiny beginnings and the large scale of the final result. The mustard seed is the smallest of the seeds but within a year it has grown into a shrub large enough to provide a place for birds to nest. A tiny piece of yeast can leaven a huge amount of flour, three measures, enough to feed a hundred people. The yeast is not only tiny but it is powerful.
It goes about its work silently and unobtrusively until it produces a result out of proportion to its size. The same could be said of the ministry of Jesus. He goes about his work as someone who is humble and gentle of heart, quietly and unobtrusively, and, yet, the final outcome of his work will be out of proportion to those humble beginnings. The same can be true of our own lives. The good work we do, quietly and unobtrusively, can bear fruit in a way that will surprise us.
The Lord can work powerfully through our good efforts, even though they may seem of little significance to us. There is some good we can all do, no matter how small, that no one else can do, and that can make a difference for the better in the lives of others. St John Henry Newman wrote, ‘God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another’. Regardless of where we are on our life’s journey, the Lord can work powerfully through even the smallest service we render to one another.
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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 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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