Churches of the Day

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

We are reminded not to have other gods before Him and no god of our own making.

FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Hosea             14:2-10
We will not say any more, 'Our God' to what our own hands have made.

The Lord says this:
Israel, come back to the Lord your God; your iniquity was the cause of your downfall.
Provide yourself with words and come back to the Lord.
Say to him, 'Take all iniquity away so that we may have happiness again and offer you our words of praise. Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more"
or say, "Our God!" to what our own hands have made, for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.

- I will heal their disloyalty, I will love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned from them.
I will fall like dew on Israel. He shall bloom like the lily, and thrust out roots like the poplar, his shoots will spread far;
he will have the beauty of the olive and the fragrance of Lebanon.
They will come back to live in my shade;
they will grow corn that flourishes, they will cultivate vines as renowned as the wine of Helbon.

What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when it is I who hear his prayer and care for him?
I am like a cypress ever green, all your fruitfulness comes from me.
Let the wise man understand these words. Let the intelligent man grasp their meaning.
For the ways of the Lord are straight, and virtuous men walk in them, but sinners stumble.

The Word of the Lord.            Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm          Ps 80: 6. 8-11. 14. 17. R/vv 9.11
Response                                I am the Lord your God; listen to my warning.

1. A voice I did not know said to me: 'I freed your shoulder from the burden;
your hands were freed from the load. You called in distress and I saved you.     Response

2. 'I answered, concealed in the storm cloud, at the waters of  Meribah I tested you.
Listen, my people, to my warning, O Israel, if only you would heed!                     Response
3.  'Let there be no foreign god among you, no worship of an alien god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt.                        Response

4.  'O that my people would heed me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
But Israel I would feed with finest wheat and fill them with honey from the rock.'                                                                                    Response                                                                                        

Gospel  Acclamation                         Ps 94:8
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

or                                                           Mt 4: 17
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Repent, says the Lord,  for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you                         And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 12:28-34          Glory to you, O Lord
You must love the Lord your God with all your heart.

 One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him,
'Which is the first of all the commandments?'
Jesus replied,
'This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.'

The scribe said to him,
'Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other.
To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength,
and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.'
Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.'
And after that no one dared to question him any more.

The Gospel of the Lord              Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.


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Gospel Reflection       Friday         Third Week of Lent  Mark 12:28-34

Today’s first reading is very striking in many ways. The Lord speaking through the prophet Hosea calls on his people to come back to him and if they do the Lord promises them to love them with all his heart. The Lord goes on to say to his people, ‘I am like a cypress ever green, all your fruitfulness comes from me’. Because the Lord alone loves us with all his heart, he alone is the source of true life for us. The Lord calls out to us in love, pleading with us to keep turning to him as the one who can allow our lives to bear rich fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. God’s life-giving love for us is the basis of Jesus’ call to us in the gospel reading to love the Lord all our heart, soul, mind and strength. If we can open ourselves to the Lord’s love for us, then we will be moved to love the Lord in return. God always loves us first and our love for God is a response to this love for us.

The good news of God’s faithful, unconditional, love for us is the foundation of what Jesus calls the first commandment, to love the Lord your God with all our being, with a love that is worthy of his love for us. Our loving relationship with God in turn is the foundation of what Jesus calls the second commandment, to love our neighbour as ourselves. The more we open ourselves to God’s love for us and respond to his love by loving him, the more we will be empowered to love others with God’s own love. At the heart of our life as people of faith is love, God’s love for us, our love for God in return and the outpouring of God’s love through us onto others. When love becomes central to our lives in that sense, Jesus will say to us what he said to the scribe in today’s gospel reading, ‘you are not far from the Kingdom of God’.

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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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Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare, (Rejoicing Sunday)
(- Rose or Violet Sunday-)

The healing of the blind man by Jesus is a sign of our baptism, we begin to see things differently. Like never before you begin to see the light of Jesus, his vision for us and our mission to follow him.

This is the day of the Second Scrutiny of the adult baptism candidates.

First Reading                 1Samuel 16:1. 6-7, 10-13
David is anointed king of Israel.

The lord said to Samuel,
‘Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem,
for I have chosen myself a king among his sons.'
When Samuel arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought,
'Surely the Lord’s anointed one stands there before him',
but the Lord said to Samuel, 'Take no notice of his appearance or his height for I have rejected him; God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.'
Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen these.'
He then asked Jesse, 'Are these all the sons you have?'
He answered, 'There is still one left, the youngest; he is out looking after the sheep.'

Then Samuel said to Jesse, 'Send for him; we will not sit down to eat until he comes.'
Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing. The Lord said, 'Come, anoint him, for this is the one.' At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from that day on.

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm  Ps 32: 1-3, 3-4, 5-6. R/v 1.
Response                       The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

1. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
    Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose.
    Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit.                                Response

2. He guides me along the right path; he is true to his name.
    If I should walk in the valley of darkness no evil would I fear.
    You are there with your crook and your staff; with these you give me comfort.    Response

3. You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil; my cup is overflowing.                                       Response                           

4. Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life.
    In the Lord's own house shall I dwell for ever and ever.                                          Response

Second Reading 

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Ephesians    5:8-14
Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth. Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast. The things which are done in secret are things that people are ashamed even to speak of; but anything exposed by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated turns into light. This is why it is said: 'Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, Christ will shine on you.'

The Word of the Lord           Thanks be to God.


Gospel  Acclamation        Jn 8:12
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have eternal life.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !

Gospel                    

The Lord be with you.          And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John  9:1-41         Glory to you, O Lord
He went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?'
'Neither he nor his parents sinned,' Jesus answered 'he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.' As long as the day lasts I must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.'

Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man. and said to him,
'Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam (a name that means 'sent').
So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, 'Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?'
Some said, 'Yes, it is the same one'. Others said, 'No, he only looks like him'. The man himself said, 'I am the man'. So they said to him, 'Then how do your eyes come to be open?' 'The man called Jesus', he answered 'made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me,
"Go and wash at Siloam"; so I went, and when I washed I could see.'
They asked, 'Where is he?' 'I don't know' he answered.

They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man's eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, 'He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see'. Then some of the Pharisees said, 'This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the sabbath'.
Others said, 'How could a sinner produce signs like this?' And there was disagreement among them.

So they spoke to the blind man again, 'What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?'
'He is a prophet' replied the man. However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind and had gained his sight, without first sending for his parents and asking them, 'Is this man really your son who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?'
His parents answered, 'We know he is our son and we know he was born blind, but we don't know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.'
His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. This was why his parents said, 'He is old enough; ask him'.

So the Jews again sent for the man and said to him,
'Give glory to God! For our part, we know that this man is a sinner.'
The man answered, 'I don't know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see'.
They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?'
He replied, 'I have told you once and you wouldn't listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too?'
At this they hurled abuse at him: 'You can be his disciple,' they said 'we are disciples of Moses: we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from'.
The man replied, 'Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don't know where he comes from! We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn't do a thing.'
'Are you trying to teach us,' they replied 'and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!' And they drove him away.

Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him,
'Do you believe in the Son of Man?'
'Sir,' the man replied 'tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.'
Jesus said, 'You are looking at him; he is speaking to you'.
The man said, 'Lord, I believe', and worshipped him.
Jesus said: 'It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see  and those with sight turn blind'.

Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, 'We are not blind, surely?'
Jesus replied: 'Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty,  but since you say, "We see",  your guilt remains.

The Gospel of the Lord    Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Shorter Form

Gospel 

The Lord be with you.                                     And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John  9:1. 6-9. 13-17..34-38        Glory to you, O Lord
He went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. He spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man. and said to him, 'Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam (a name that means 'sent'). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, 'Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?' Some said, 'Yes, it is the same one'. Others said, 'No, he only looks like him'. The man himself said, 'I am the man'. 

 They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man's eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, 'He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see'. Then some of the Pharisees said, 'This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the sabbath'. Others said, 'How could a sinner produce signs like this?' And there was disagreement among them. So they spoke to the blind man again, 'What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?'
'He is a prophet' replied the man.
'Are you trying to teach us,' they replied 'and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!' And they drove him away.

Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' 'Sir,' the man replied 'tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.'
Jesus said, 'You are looking at him; he is speaking to you'. The man said, 'Lord, I believe', and worshipped him.
Jesus said: 'It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see  and those with sight turn blind'.

Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, 'We are not blind, surely?'
Jesus replied: 'Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty,  but since you say, "We see",  your guilt remains.




Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.