Mass Readings For Sunday December 10, 2006

Second Sunday of Advent

FIRST READING: Baruch 5: 1 - 9

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1 Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.

2 Put on the robe of the righteousness from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting.

3 For God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.

4 For your name will for ever be called by God, "Peace of righteousness and glory of godliness."

5 Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height and look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.

6 For they went forth from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne.

7 For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.

8 The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God's command.

9 For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

PSALM: Psalms 126: 1 - 6

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1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.

2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."

3 The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.

4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb!

5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy!

6 He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

SECOND READING: Philippians 1: 4 - 6, 8 - 11

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4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

5 thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

6 And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

11 filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

GOSPEL: Luke 3: 1 - 6

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1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiber'i-us Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturae'a and Trachoni'tis, and Lysa'ni-as tetrarch of Abile'ne,

2 in the high-priesthood of Annas and Ca'iaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechari'ah in the wilderness;

3 and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

Mass Readings For Saturday December 9, 2006

St. Juan Diego, Hermit (Optional Memorial)

FIRST READING: Isaiah 30: 19 - 21, 23 - 26

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19 Yea, O people in Zion who dwell at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.

20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.

21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures;

24 and the oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat salted provender, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

25 And upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

PSALM: Psalms 147: 1 - 6

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1 Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is seemly.

2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

3 He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.

4 He determines the number of the stars, he gives to all of them their names.

5 Great is our LORD, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

6 The LORD lifts up the downtrodden, he casts the wicked to the ground.

GOSPEL: Matthew 9: 35 - 38 - 10: 1, 5 - 8

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35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity.

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

38 pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,

6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

7 And preach as you go, saying, `The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay.

Mass Readings For Tuesday December 5, 2006

Advent Weekday

FIRST READING: Isaiah 11: 1 - 10

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1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;

4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

7 The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

PSALM: Psalms 72: 1 - 2, 7 - 8, 12 - 13, 17

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1 Give the king thy justice, O God, and thy righteousness to the royal son!

2 May he judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with justice!

7 In his days may righteousness flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!

12 For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.

13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.

17 May his name endure for ever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May men bless themselves by him, all nations call him blessed!

GOSPEL: Luke 10: 21 - 24

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21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.

22 All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see what you see!

24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

Mass Readings For Monday December 4, 2006

Advent Weekday

FIRST READING: Isaiah 2: 1 - 5

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1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

3 and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

PSALM: Psalms 122: 1 - 9

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1 I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"

2 Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!

3 Jerusalem, built as a city which is bound firmly together,

4 to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

5 There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! "May they prosper who love you!

7 Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers!"

8 For my brethren and companions' sake I will say, "Peace be within you!"

9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

GOSPEL: Matthew 8: 5 - 11

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5 As he entered Caper'na-um, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him

6 and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress."

7 And he said to him, "I will come and heal him."

8 But the centurion answered him, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.

9 For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,' and he does it."

10 When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,