Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 11th November, 2024
Monday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2
Memorial of St Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church, defended the faith and the unity of the Church under the See of Peter.
FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to Titus 1:1-9
Appoint elders in every town, in the way that I told you.
From Paul, servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ to bring those whom God has chosen to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to true religion; and to give them the hope of the eternal life that was promised so long ago by God. He does not lie and so, at the appointed time, he revealed his decision, and, by the command of God our saviour, I have been commissioned to proclaim it. To Titus, true child of mine in the faith that we share, wishing you grace and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our saviour.
Paul and Titus worked together among the first churches on the island of Crete.
The reason I left you behind in Crete was for you to get everything organised there and appoint elders in every town, in the way that I told you: that is, each of them must be a man of irreproachable character; he must not have been married more than once, and his children must be believers and not uncontrollable or liable to be charged with disorderly conduct. Since, as president, he will be God’s representative, he must be irreproachable: never an arrogant or hot-tempered man, nor a heavy drinker or violent, nor out to make money; but a man who is hospitable and a friend of all that is good; sensible, moral, devout and self-controlled; and he must have a firm grasp of the unchanging message of the tradition, so that he can be counted on for both expounding the sound doctrine and refuting those who argue against it.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-6
Response Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
1. The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm. Response
2. Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things. Response
3. He shall receive blessings from the Lord and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him, seek the face of the God of Jacob. Response
Gospel Acclamation Phil 2: 15-16
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 Luke 17:1-6 Glory to you, O Lord
‘If your brother comes back to you seven times and says, “I am sorry”, you must forgive him.‘
Jesus said to his disciples,
‘Obstacles are sure to come, but alas for the one who provides them! It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone put round his neck than that he should lead astray a single one of these little ones. Watch yourselves!
‘If your brother does something wrong, reprove him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, “I am sorry“, you must forgive him.’
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith‘.
The Lord replied,
‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree,
“Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
********************
Gospel Reflection Monday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time Luke 17:1-6
The prayer of the disciples in today’s gospel reading is probably one we could all make our own, ‘Increase our faith’. Jesus had just issued a very challenging call to his disciples, not to do anything that would lead a member of the church astray and to keep forgiving without reservation those who do them wrong repeatedly and who ask pardon repeatedly. On hearing this, the disciples may have felt that their faith was not strong enough to live up to these ideals. We can all feel from time to time that the call of the gospel is beyond us. It is too demanding for our fragile faith.
We pray to the Lord out of our need, asking him to increase our faith so that we can rise to the call of the gospel. Yet, in the gospel reading, Jesus wanted the disciples to recognize the potential of the faith they already had. He was suggesting that God can work powerfully through faith as small as a mustard seed. God only needs the tiniest of openings to enter our lives and work through us. We may think that our faith is weak, but as Saint Paul says in one of his letters, God’s power is often made perfect in weakness. The humble acknowledgement that our faith is not as deep or as strong as it could be gives the Lord space to work in and through us in ways that can surprise us. The gospel reading invites us to value the faith that we have, even though it may seem weak and fragile to us at times. All the Lord asks is that we keep seeking him, out of whatever faith we have, and if we do that he will see to it that our faith grows and deepens.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings 2024: The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications, c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
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FIRST READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to Titus 1:1-9
Theme: Appoint elders in every town, in the way that I told you.
From Paul, servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ to bring those whom God has chosen to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to true religion; and to give them the hope of the eternal life that was promised so long ago by God. He does not lie and so, at the appointed time, he revealed his decision, and, by the command of God our saviour, I have been commissioned to proclaim it. To Titus, true child of mine in the faith that we share, wishing you grace and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our saviour.
Paul and Titus worked together among the first churches on the island of Crete.
The reason I left you behind in Crete was for you to get everything organised there and appoint elders in every town, in the way that I told you: that is, each of them must be a man of irreproachable character; he must not have been married more than once, and his children must be believers and not uncontrollable or liable to be charged with disorderly conduct. Since, as president, he will be God’s representative, he must be irreproachable: never an arrogant or hot-tempered man, nor a heavy drinker or violent, nor out to make money; but a man who is hospitable and a friend of all that is good; sensible, moral, devout and self-controlled; and he must have a firm grasp of the unchanging message of the tradition, so that he can be counted on for both expounding the sound doctrine and refuting those who argue against it.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23
Response Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
1. The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm. Response
2. Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things. Response
3. He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob. Response
Gospel Acclamation Phil 2: 15-16
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 Luke 17:1-6 Glory to you, O Lord
Theme: ‘If your brother comes back to you seven times and says, “I am sorry”, you must forgive him.‘
Jesus said to his disciples,
‘Obstacles are sure to come, but alas for the one who provides them! It would be better for him to be thrown into the Sea with a millstone put round his neck than that he should lead astray a single one of these little ones. Watch yourselves!
‘If your brother does something wrong, reprove him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, “I am sorry”, you must forgive him.’
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith‘.
The Lord replied,
‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree,
“Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
********************
Gospel Reflection Monday Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time Luke 17:1-6
There is a certain realism about the opening words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘Obstacles are sure to come’. He is very aware that the world in which we live will present many an obstacle to living as his disciples. There will be temptations and pressures that will draw us in a different direction to the one that the Lord might want us to take. Given that obstacles to faith will come from the world in which we live, Jesus insists that such obstacles should not come from within the community of faith. Disciples are capable of leading other disciples astray. Believers can give scandal which makes the journey of faith more difficult for other believers. As members of Christ’s body, our calling is to support one another as we try to live our faith in the Lord in today’s world. Something of Paul’s support for Titus comes through in today’s first reading. Paul refers to Titus as ‘true child of mine in the faith, that we share’.
The rest of the gospel reading outlines two ways that we can support one another on the journey of faith. One way is by our willingness to forgive one another when we wrong each other: ‘If he wrongs you … and says, “I am sorry”, you must forgive him.’ The other way we can support one another is by living the faith we have to the full, even if, at times, our faith seems very weak and small to us. Yes, we can all pray, as the apostles do in the gospel reading, ‘Increase our faith’, but in response to our prayer, the Lord will remind us, as he reminded them, that even our little faith, a faith the size of a mustard seed, if lived generously, creates a space for the Lord to work powerfully through us.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, 1966/7/8 published 1966/7/8 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
