Liturgical Readings
Friday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time
Optional memorial of St Davnet, virgin
FIRST READING
A reading from the first Book of Kings 19:9. 11-16
Stand on the mountain before your Lord God.
When Elijah reached Horeb, the mountain of God, he went into the cave and spent the night in it. Then he was told,
“Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord”.
Then the Lord himself went by.
There came a mighty wind, so strong it tore the mountains and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind came an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire there came the sound of a gentle breeze.
And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then a voice came to him, which said,
‘What are you doing here, Elijah?‘
He replied,
‘I am filled with jealous zeal for the Lord Sabaoth, because the sons of Israel have deserted you, broken down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and they want to kill me.’
‘Go,’ the Lord said ‘go back by the same way to the wilderness of Damascus.
You are to go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram.
You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel,
and to anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, as prophet to succeed you.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 26
Response It is your face, O Lord, that I seek.
1. O Lord, hear my voice when I call; have mercy and answer.
Of you my heart has spoken: ‘Seek his face.’ Response
2. It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face.
Dismiss not your servant in anger; you have been my help. Response
3. I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. .
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart. Hope in the Lord! Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 10: 27
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice, says the lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
or Phil 2: 15
Alleluia, alleluia!
You will shine in the world like bright stars
because you are offering it the word of life.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 5:27-32 Glory to you, O Lord
If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘You have learnt how it was said: You must not commit adultery.
But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.
‘It has also been said: Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal.
But I say this to you: Everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, makes her an adulteress;
and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Friday Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 5:27-32
Today’s responsorial psalm is the prayer of the seeker. ‘It is your face, O Lord, that I seek’. We can perhaps easily identify with that psalm, because we are all seekers, to some extent. What we are ultimately seeking and searching for is none other than the Lord. ‘Our hearts are restless until they rest in God’, according to Saint Augustine. It is the seeker in us that makes all of us pilgrims, people on a journey towards the Lord. Elijah, the prophet, in today’s first reading, was clearly such a seeker. He set out on a journey, on a pilgrimage, to the mountain of God, Mount Sinai, or Mount Horeb, as it was also called. When he reached that mountain, he met with the Lord, but not in the way he might have expected. Within that biblical culture, it was expected that God would reveal himself in the more extraordinary phenomena of nature, in fire or storm or earthquake.
However, on this occasion, God revealed himself to Elijah in a much more subtle and more humble way, in what the reading calls, ‘the sound of a gentle breeze’. Another well regarded modern translation of the bible expresses it somewhat differently, in a ‘sound of sheer silence’. I prefer that translation. ‘Sheer silence’ is not easy to come by in the times in which we live. Yet, it is there that the Lord often reveals himself to us most clearly. Because silence is not a feature of our culture, we often have to seek it out. To seek silence is, in a very real way, to seek the Lord, because it is in silence that we become most attuned to the Lord’s passing by. Our attentive listening to the Lord in the sound of sheer silence empowers us to live out the call of the Sermon on the Mount as expressed in today’s gospel reading.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
