Readings
- Mass Readingson February 13, 2025 at 8:56 am
Mass Readings Catholic IrelandLiturgical Readings for : Thursday, 13th February, 2025Léachtaí GaeilgeNext Sunday's ReadingsThursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle 1Woman is created as the equal of the man, their gender qualities complement each other. The development of God’s creation is now a joint enterprise with all women and men. All people are equally called by Jesus to the Kingdom of God. FIRST READING A reading from the Book of Genesis 2:18-25 The Lord God brought her to the man. They become one body. The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.’ So from the soil the Lord God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed: ‘This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.’ This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body. Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other. The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God Responsorial Psalm Ps 127: 1-5 R/v 1 Response O blessed are those who fear the Lord 1. O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! By the labour of your hands you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper. Response 2. Your wife like a fruitful vine in the heart of your house; your children like shoots of the olive around your table. Response 3. Indeed thus shall be blessed the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion all the days of your life! Response Gospel Acclamation Ps 127: 1-5 Alleluia, Alleluia! The Lord is faithful in all his works and loving in all his deeds. Alleluia! Or James 1:21 Alleluia, Alleluia! Accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. Alleluia! GOSPEL The Lord be with you. And with your spirit A reading from the Gospel according to Mark 7:24-30 Glory to you, O Lord The house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.Jesus left Gennesaret and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognised. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs’. But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,‘ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps’. And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter‘. So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone. The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. ******************** Gospel Reflection Thursday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Mark 7:24-30 Today’s gospel reading reminds us that Jesus was very much a Jew who saw his mission as directed initially to Jews. Jesus wanted to renew the people of Israel and it was a renewed Israel who would bring the gospel to pagans. It was indeed Jesus’ first Jewish followers who preached the gospel to non-Jews, under the inspiration of the Spirit of the risen Lord. This timetable helps to explain Jesus’ initial reluctance to respond to the pagan woman’s request on behalf of her seriously ill daughter. As he says to her, ‘The children should be fed first’, meaning, the children of God, the people of Israel. We all find a little disturbing what Jesus went on to say, ‘it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs’. Jesus was picking up a term that Jews often used with reference to pagans. Yet, Jesus was using an image here, like a little parable. He is not calling the woman a house-dog. He is simply saying that like the house-dogs who have to wait until the children are fed first, the pagans will have to wait a little longer before experiencing the fruits of the presence of God’s kingdom. However, this woman, this passionate mother, was not prepared to wait. She turns Jesus’ image to her advantage declaring that house-dogs often eat the crumbs that fall from the children’s table, with the result that children and house dogs end up eating together. Jesus recognized her wit and her faith and immediately responded to her request. The woman displays the kind of determined faith we all need, especially in these times. This is a faith that is not easily silenced or weakened, even in the face of the Lord’s apparent unwillingness to respond to us. __________________________________ The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/ The Scripture Reflection is available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings: Your word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/ _______________________________________________