Mass Readings for : Sunday, 18th August, 2024

Liturgical Readings for : Sunday, 18th August, 2024

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Wisdom invites us to eat her bread and drink her wine.
Christ, the true Wisdom, invites us to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
The life that the Father communicates to the Son comes to the faithful through the Eucharist.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Book of Proverbs 9:1-6
Eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared for you.

Wisdom has built herself a house,
she has erected her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beasts, prepared her wine,
she has laid her table. She has despatched her maidservants
and proclaimed from the city’s heights:
‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.’

To the fool she says,
‘Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared!
Leave your folly and you will live, walk in the ways of perception.’

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:2-3. 10-15.
Response Taste and see that the Lord is good.

1. I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast. The humble shall hear and be glad. Response

2. Revere the Lord, you his saints. They lack nothing, those who revere him.
Strong lions suffer want and go hungry but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing. Response

3. Come, children, and hear me that I may teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is he who longs for life and many days, to enjoy his prosperity? Response

4. Then keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek and strive after peace. Response

SECOND READING
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Ephesians 5:15-2O
Recognise what is the will of the Lord.

Be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people. This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it. And do not be thoughtless but recognise what is the will of the Lord.

Do not drug yourselves with wine, this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit. Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and everywhere you are giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation Jn 1: 12. 14
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word was made flesh, and lived among us;
to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!

or Jn 6: 56
Alleluia, alleluia!
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to John 6:51-58 Glory to you, O Lord
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another:
‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said.

Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and 1 shall raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.

This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’