Mass Readings for : Thursday, 18th July, 2024

Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 18th July, 2024

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle 2

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah 26:7-9. 12. 16-19
Awake, exult, all you who lie in the dust.

The path of the upright man is straight, you smooth the way of the upright.
Following the path of your judgements, we hoped in you,
Lord, your name, your memory are all my soul desires.

At night my soul longs for you and my spirit in me seeks for you;
when your judgements appear on earth the inhabitants of the world learn the meaning
of integrity.
Lord, you are giving us peace, since you treat us as our deeds deserve.

Distressed, we search for you, Lord; the misery of oppression was your punishment for us.
As a woman with child near her time writhes and cries out in her pangs,
So are we, O Lord, in your presence: we have conceived, we writhe as if we were giving birth; we have not given the spirit of salvation to the earth, no more inhabitants of the world are born.

Your dead will come to life, their corpses will rise; awake, exult, all you who lie in the dust,
for your dew is a radiant dew and the land of ghosts will give birth.

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 101
Response The Lord looked down from heaven to the earth.

1. You, O Lord, will endure for ever and your name from age to age.
You will arise and have mercy on Zion: for this is the time to have mercy,
for your servants love her very stones, are moved with pity even for her dust. Response

2. The nations shall fear the name of the Lord and all the earth’s kings your glory,
when the Lord shall build up Zion again and appear in all his glory.
Then he will turn to the prayers of the helpless; he will not despise their prayers. Response

3. Let this be written for ages to come that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord;
for the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high. He looked down from heaven to the earth
that he might hear the groans of the prisoners and free those condemned to die. Response

Gospel Acclamation Ps 129: 5
Alleluia, Alleluia!
My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on his word.
Alleluia!

Or Mt 11: 28-30
Alleluia, alleluia!
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
Alleluia

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 11:28-30 Glory to you, O Lord
I am gentle and humble in heart.

Jesus exclaimed:
‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
Shoulder my yoke and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.‘

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

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Gospel Reflection Thursday Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 11:28-30

The human longing for God is eloquently expressed in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, ‘At night my soul longs for you and my spirit in me seeks for you… Distressed, we search for you, Lord’. It is often in times of distress that the deep longing in our hearts for God comes to the surface of our lives. In the gospel reading, Jesus responds to our longing for God, calling out to the distressed, to those who labour and are overburdened, to come to him, to learn from him. It is a very personal invitation, ‘Come to me’. Jesus speaks here as Emmanuel, God with us. He alone can begin to satisfy our deep longing for God.

In the setting of the ministry of Jesus, those who labour and are overburdened are bulk of the people who have been burdened by the over rigorous interpretation of the Jewish Law of the religious experts, the theologians of the day, ‘They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them’ (Mt 23:9). The one who is ‘gentle and humble in heart’ is not in the business of burdening an already burdened people. Those who respond to his invitation to come to him will experience the ‘rest’ for which our restless hearts are longing. Saint Augustine declared that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We will only enter upon this rest to the full in the kingdom of heaven. However, here and now, in and through the Lord’s personal relationship with each of us as members of the community of disciples, we will begin to taste something of this ‘rest’, this fullness of life which alone can satisfy our human longing for God