Catholic Ireland
Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 26th August, 2024
Monday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle B
FIRST READING
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12
The name of our Lord will be glorified in you and you in him.
From Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church in Thessalonika which is in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; wishing you grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We feel we must be continually thanking God for you, brothers; quite rightly, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love that you have for one another never stops increasing; and among the churches of God we can take special pride in you for your constancy and faith under all the persecutions and troubles you have to bear. It all shows that God’s judgement is just, and the purpose of it is that you may be found worthy of the kingdom of God; it is for the sake of this that you are suffering now.
Knowing this, we pray continually that our God will make you worthy of his call, and by his power fulfil all your desires for goodness and complete all that you have been doing through faith; because in this way the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you and you in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95
Response Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.
1. O sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord all the earth.
a sing to the Lord, bless his name. Response
2. Proclaim his help day by day, tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples. Response
3. The Lord is great and worthy of praise, to be feared above all gods;
the gods of the heathens are naught. Response
Gospel Acclamation Jn 17: 17
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord, consecrate us in the truth .
Alleluia !
or 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 !
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you And with your spirit.
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 23:13-22 Glory to you, O Lord
Alas for you, blind guides
Jesus said:
‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces,
neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to.
‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you have him you make him twice as fit for hell as you are.
‘Alas for you, blind guides! You who say, “If a man swears by the Temple, it has no force; but if a man swears by the gold of the Temple, he is bound”. Fools and blind! For which is of greater worth, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?
Or else “If a man swears by the altar it has no force; but if a man swears by the offering that is on the altar, he is bound”. You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred?
Therefore, when a man swears by the altar he is swearing by that and by everything on it.
And when a man swears by the Temple he is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it.
And when a man swears by heaven he is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Monday Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 23:13-22
One of the ways we connect with each other is by praying for each other. If we were to look at our prayer, we would probably find that a lot of it is prayer for others, intercessory prayer. We pray for each other all the time, especially when we go to places of pilgrimage, like Lourdes. At the end of today’s first reading, Paul declares that he prays for the church in Thessalonica. I am struck by the content of that prayer, ‘We pray continually that our God will fulfil all your desires for goodness and complete all that you have been doing through faith’. We all have what Paul refers to in that prayer, ‘desires for goodness’. We desire to be good; we want to become all that God is calling us to be. That desire is crucial; it is something God can work with. As Paul says in that prayer, ‘God will fulfil all your desires for goodness’. God needs our desire. Our desire gives God an opening to work in our lives. No matter how many times we fall short, as long as we retain our desire for goodness, our desire to walk in the way of God’s Son, God can work powerfully within us, and, in the words of that first reading, will be able to complete all that we have been doing through faith. A good prayer to make for ourselves is to pray that our desire for goodness would never weaken. If we remain true to our desire for goodness, we will be ‘found worthy of the kingdom of God’, in the words of Paul in the first reading.
In contrast, those Jesus refers to in the gospel reading as shutting up ‘the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces’ will not be found worthy of that kingdom. Jesus was always very critical of those who are an obstacle to others reaching all that God desires for them.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd.
