Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 8th April, 2024
The Annunciation of the Lord, Solemnity
Mary gives her consent to God to work through her and with her.
She gave herself entirely to the person and work of Jesus without reservation,
inspired by the Spirit of God. She is a great inspiration to us.
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 7:10-14. 8:10
The maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.
The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said,
‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’
‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’
Then Isaiah said:
‘Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore, will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel. a name which means, ‘God is with us.‘“
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 39
Response Here I am Lord! I come to do your will.
I. You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings, but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim. Instead, here am I. Response
2. In the scroll of the book it stands written that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law in the depth of my heart. Response
3. Your justice I have proclaimed in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed; you know it, O Lord. Response
4. I have not hidden your justice in my heart but declared your faithful help.
I have not hidden your love and your truth from the great assembly. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews 10:4-10
I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to do your will.’
Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what he said, on coming into the world:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.
You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin; then I said, just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’
Notice that he says first: ‘You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them;’
and then he says: ‘Here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’
He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Gospel Acclamation Jn 1: 14
Praise to you O Christ, king of eternal glory!
The Word was made flesh, he lived among us and we saw his glory.
Praise to you O Christ, king of eternal glory!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 1:26-38 Glory to you, O Lord
You are to conceive and bear a Son.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her,
‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’
She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her,
‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour.
Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’
Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?‘
‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God. ‘
‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.‘
And the angel left her.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Reflection Feast of the Annunciation Luke 1:26-38
The question of Mary in today’s gospel reading ‘How can this come about?’ is a very human one. It is the kind of question that is asked by others in the gospels. When Jesus was with his disciples in the wilderness in the presence of a hungry crowd, they asked him, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ When we stand before a situation which seems beyond our resources to deal with, we all find ourselves asking the same kind of question, ‘How can this be?’ ‘How will I deal with this?’ The angel Gabriel’s answer to this question of Mary invited her to trust not in herself but in God. ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’. A lot was being asked of Mary and it would make great demands on her, but she was not being asked to take on this task of being mother to God’s Son in the strength of her own resources alone. With this reassurance, she surrendered to the demanding role that God was giving her, ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. Mary has often been described as a model disciple.
In today’s gospel reading, she models a faith that trusts in God’s power and, because it trusts in God’s power, stands ready to do what God asks. The question, ‘How can this be?’ ‘How will I get through this?’ can inhibit us, hold us back, but, as in the case of Mary, it can also open us up to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
