Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

READINGS (Year 1)

Reading GN 11:1-9

The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
While the people were migrating in the east,
they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another,
“Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.”
They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”

The LORD came down to see the city and the tower
that they had built.
Then the LORD said: “If now, while they are one people,
all speaking the same language,
they have started to do this,
nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.
Let us then go down and there confuse their language,
so that one will not understand what another says.”
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel,
because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world.
It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
Responsorial Psalm PS 33:10-11, 12-13, 14-15

1. (12)Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
   The LORD brings to nought the plans of nations;
   he foils the designs of peoples.
   But the plan of the LORD stands forever;
   the design of his heart, through all generations.
   R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
   Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
   the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
   From heaven the LORD looks down;
   he sees all mankind.
   R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
   From his fixed throne he beholds
   all who dwell on the earth,
   He who fashioned the heart of each,
   he who knows all their works.
   R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Alleluia JN 15:15B

1. Alleluia, alleluia.
   I call you my friends, says the Lord,
   for I have made known to you all that the Father has told me.
   R.Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:34—9:1

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
What could one give in exchange for his life?
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

He also said to them,
“Amen, I say to you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.”

Back to: Friday of the 6th Week of the Year

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

READINGS (Year 1)

Reading 1 GN 9:1-13

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them:
“Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth
and all the birds of the air,
upon all the creatures that move about on the ground
and all the fishes of the sea;
into your power they are delivered.
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat;
I give them all to you as I did the green plants.
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting:
from every animal I will demand it,
and from one man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life.

If anyone sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
For in the image of God
has man been made.

Be fertile, then, and multiply;
abound on earth and subdue it.”

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
“See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.”
God added:
“This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.”
Responsorial Psalm PS 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 AND 22-23

1. (20b)From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
   The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
   and all the kings of the earth your glory,
   When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
   and appeared in his glory;
   When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
   and not despised their prayer.
   R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
   Let this be written for the generation to come,
   and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
   “The LORD looked down from his holy height,
   from heaven he beheld the earth,
   To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
   to release those doomed to die.”
   R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
   The children of your servants shall abide,
   and their posterity shall continue in your presence,
   That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,
   and his praise, in Jerusalem,
   When the peoples gather together,
   and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
   R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.

Alleluia JN 6:63C, 68C

1. Alleluia, alleluia.
   Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
   you have the words of everlasting life.
   R.Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:27-33

Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Back to: Thursday of the 6th Week of the Year

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 GN 8:6-13, 20-22

At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,
and he sent out a raven,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
But the dove could find no place to alight and perch,
and it returned to him in the ark,
for there was water all over the earth.
Putting out his hand, he caught the dove
and drew it back to him inside the ark.
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.
In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
He waited still another seven days
and then released the dove once more;
and this time it did not come back.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life,
in the first month, on the first day of the month,
the water began to dry up on the earth.
Noah then removed the covering of the ark
and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.

Noah built an altar to the LORD,
and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird,
he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:
“Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.
As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease.”
Responsorial Psalm PS 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

1. (17a)To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
   or:
   R.Alleluia.
   How shall I make a return to the LORD
   for all the good he has done for me?
   The cup of salvation I will take up,
   and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
   R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
   or:
   R. Alleluia.
   My vows to the LORD I will pay
   in the presence of all his people.
   Precious in the eyes of the LORD
   is the death of his faithful ones.
   R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
   or:
   R. Alleluia.
   My vows to the LORD I will pay
   in the presence of all his people,
   In the courts of the house of the LORD,
   in your midst, O Jerusalem.
   R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
   or:
   R. Alleluia.

Alleluia EPH 1:17-18

1. Alleluia, alleluia.
   May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
   enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
   that we may know what is the hope
   that belongs to his call.
   R.Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:22-26

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”

Back to: Wednesday of the 6th Week of the Year

HOMILY OF THE DAY

FEBRUARY, 2017          CYCLE A, YEAR I
SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28

PREVIOUS HOMILIES 

HOMILY OF THE DAY

JANUARY, 2017          CYCLE A, YEAR I
SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15/15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

PREVIOUS HOMILIES 

December 23

Readings (Year 1)

Reading 1 Mal 3:1-4, 23-24

Thus says the Lord GOD:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.
Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner’s fire,
or like the fuller’s lye.
He will sit refining and purifying silver,
and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver
that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.
Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem
will please the LORD,
as in the days of old, as in years gone by.

Lo, I will send you
Elijah, the prophet,
Before the day of the LORD comes,
the great and terrible day,
To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children,
and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike
the land with doom.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5ab, 8-9, 10 and 14

1. (see Luke 21:28) Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
   Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
   teach me your paths,
   Guide me in your truth and teach me,
   for you are God my savior.
   R. Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
   Good and upright is the LORD;
   thus he shows sinners the way.
   He guides the humble to justice,
   he teaches the humble his way.
   R. Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
   All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
   toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
   The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
   and his covenant, for their instruction.
   R. Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.

Gospel Lk 1:57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

Back to: December 23

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

Reading 1 IS 56:1-3A, 6-8

Thus says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this,
the son of man who holds to it;
Who keeps the sabbath free from profanation,
and his hand from any evildoing.
Let not the foreigner say,
when he would join himself to the LORD,
“The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”

The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
Loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants–
All who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
Them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
For my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord GOD,
who gathers the dispersed of Israel:
Others will I gather to him
besides those already gathered.

Responsorial Psalm PS 67:2-3, 5, 7-8

1. (4)O God, let all the nations praise you!
   May God have pity on us and bless us;
   may he let his face shine upon us.
   So may your way be known upon earth;
   among all nations, your salvation.
   R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
   May the nations be glad and exult
   because you rule the peoples in equity;
   the nations on the earth you guide.
   R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
   The earth has yielded its fruits;
   God, our God, has blessed us.
   May God bless us,
   and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
   R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

Alleluia 

1. Alleluia, alleluia.
   Come, Lord, bring us your peace
   that we may rejoice before you with a perfect heart.
   R.Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel JN 5:33-36

Jesus said to the Jews:
“You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept testimony from a human being,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
John was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.”

Back to: Friday of the 3rd Week of Advent