Daily Mass Readings

Monday, April 04, 2011

Mass Readings For Tuesday, April 5, 2011

FIRST READING: Ezekiel 47: 1 - 9, 12

1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar.

2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate, that faces toward the east; and the water was coming out on the south side.

3 Going on eastward with a line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep.

4 Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the loins.

5 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

6 And he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he led me back along the bank of the river.

7 As I went back, I saw upon the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other.

8 And he said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water will become fresh.

9 And wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.

12 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing."

PSALM: Psalms 46: 2 - 3, 5 - 6, 8 - 9

2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;

3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. [Selah]

5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her right early.

6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.

8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has wrought desolations in the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire!

GOSPEL: John 5: 1 - 16

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Beth-za'tha, which has five porticoes.

3 In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.

5 One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?"

7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me."

8 Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk."

9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the sabbath.

10 So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet."

11 But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, `Take up your pallet, and walk.'"

12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, `Take up your pallet, and walk'?"

13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

14 Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you."

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

16 And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the sabbath.

Steve Smith

I am a 68 year old single man from the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Mass Readings For Monday, April 4, 2011

FIRST READING: Isaiah 65: 17 - 21

17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

PSALM: Psalms 30: 2, 4 - 6, 11 - 13

2 O LORD my God, I cried to thee for help, and thou hast healed me.

4 take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge.

5 Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.

6 Thou hatest those who pay regard to vain idols; but I trust in the LORD.

11 I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.

12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.

13 Yea, I hear the whispering of many-- terror on every side!-- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.

GOSPEL: John 4: 43 - 54

43 After the two days he departed to Galilee.

44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast.

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.

47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48 Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe."

49 The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

50 Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way.

51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living.

52 So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live"; and he himself believed, and all his household.

54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Steve Smith

I am a 68 year old single man from the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Mass Readings For Sunday, April 3, 2011

"The Blind Man Washes in the Pool of Siloam" - James Tissot

FIRST READING: 1 Samuel 16: 1, 6 - 7, 10 - 13

1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons."

6 When they came, he looked on Eli'ab and thought, "Surely the LORD'S anointed is before him."

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."

10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these."

11 And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down till he comes here."

12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he."

13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

PSALM: Psalms 23: 1 - 6

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want;

2 he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters;

3 he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

SECOND READING: Ephesians 5: 8 - 14

8 for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

10 and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

12 For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret;

13 but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

14 Therefore it is said, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."

GOSPEL: John 9: 1 - 41 Or John 9: 1, 6 - 9, 13 - 17, 34 - 38

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

4 We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

6 As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay,

7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

9 Some said, "It is he"; others said, "No, but he is like him." He said, "I am the man."

10 They said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash'; so I went and washed and received my sight."

12 They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know." 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

15 The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see."

16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" There was a division among them.

17 So they again said to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight,

19 and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

20 His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;

21 but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself."

22 His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if any one should confess him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.

23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age, ask him."

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner."

25 He answered, "Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see."

26 They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

27 He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you too want to become his disciples?"

28 And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."

30 The man answered, "Why, this is a marvel! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.

31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

32 Never since the world began has it been heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind.

33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

34 They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out.

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of man?"

36 He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"

37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you."

38 He said, "Lord, I believe"; and he worshipped him.

39 Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."

40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to him, "Are we also blind?"

41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.

6 As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay,

7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Silo'am" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

9 Some said, "It is he"; others said, "No, but he is like him." He said, "I am the man."

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.