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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Mass Readings for Sunday 12/13/2009


FIRST READING: Zephaniah 3: 14 - 18


14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!

15 The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast out your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear evil no more.

16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.

17 The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing

18 as on a day of festival. "I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it.

PSALM: Isaiah 12: 2 - 6


2 "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

4 And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name; make known his deeds among the nations, proclaim that his name is exalted.

5 "Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth.

6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."

SECOND READING: Philippians 4: 4 – 7


4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

5 Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand.

6 Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

GOSPEL: Luke 3: 10 - 18


10 And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?"

11 And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise."

12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?"

13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you."

14 Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."

15 As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ,

16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

18 So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.
















Mass Readings for Saturday 12/12/2009


FIRST READING: Zechariah 2: 14 - 17 or Revelation 11: 19 ; 12: 1 - 6, 10


14 Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.

15 Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.

16 The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land, and he will again choose Jerusalem.

17 Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD! For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.

Or

19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

1 And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;

2 she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.

3 And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.

4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth;

5 she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,

6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

PSALM: Judith 13: 18 – 19


18 And Uzziah said to her, "O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the head of the leader of our enemies.

19 Your hope will never depart from the hearts of men, as they remember the power of God.

GOSPEL: Luke 1: 26 – 38 or Luke 1 : 39 - 47


26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28 And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"

29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.

30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end."

34 And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"

Or

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah,

40 and she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth.

41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit

42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.

45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

46 And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,














Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Mass Readings for Friday 12/11/2009


FIRST READING: Isaiah 48: 17 - 19


17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.

18 O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me."

PSALM: Psalms 1: 1 – 4, 6


1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.

6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

GOSPEL: Matthew 11: 16 - 19


16 "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates,

17 'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.'

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, `He has a demon';

19 the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds."













Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Mass Readings for Thursday 12/10/2009


FIRST READING: Isaiah 41: 13 - 20


13 For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you."

14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15 Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;

16 You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together;

20 that men may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

PSALM: Psalms 145: 1 , 9 - 13


1 I will extol thee, my God and King, and bless thy name for ever and ever.

9 The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

10 All thy works shall give thanks to thee, O LORD, and all thy saints shall bless thee!

11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and tell of thy power,

12 to make known to the sons of men thy mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of thy kingdom.

13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.

GOSPEL: Matthew 11: 11 - 15


11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.

13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John;

14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli'jah who is to come.

15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.