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Mass Readings Catholic IrelandLiturgical Readings for : Saturday, 23rd September, 2023Léachtaí GaeilgeNext Sunday's ReadingsSaturday of the 24th week in Ordinary Time, Year 1 Memorial of St Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), priest St Eunan, (Adomnán), abbot FIRST READING A reading from the first letter of St Paul to Timothy            6:13-16 Do all that you have been told, with no faults or failures until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before God the source of all life and before Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate, I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,  who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no man has seen and no man is able to see: to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen. The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God. Responsorial Psalm           Ps  99 Response                                  Come before the Lord, singing for joy. 1. Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing for joy.                                                                      Response 2. Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock.                                                          Response 3. Go within his gates, giving thanks. Enter his courts with songs of praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.                                                            Response 4. Indeed, how good is the Lord,eternal his merciful love. He is faithful from age to age.                                                                             Response Gospel  Acclamation        Ps 118:18 Alleluia, Alleluia! Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider the wonders of your law. Alleluia! Or                                            Lk 8: 15 Alleluia, Alleluia! Blessed are those who; with a noble and generous heart, take the word of God to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance. Alleluia! GOSPEL The Lord be with you.          And with your spirit A reading from the Gospel according to Luke      8: 4-15       Glory to you, O Lord. Take the word of God to yourselves and yield a harvest through your perseverance. With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, he used this parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’ His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that they may see but not perceive, listen but not understand. ‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity. As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’ The Gospel of the Lord         Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Gospel Reflection     Saturday,      Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time           Luke 8:4-15 Today’s first reading from the first letter of Paul to Timothy says of Jesus that he ‘spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate’. There is a recognition there that when Jesus’ faith in God, and his mission that flowed from it, was put to the test by the ominous presence of Pontius Pilate, Jesus remained faithful to God and to his God-given mission. He continued to be a ‘witness for the truth’, even though it would result in his being crucified, the cruellest and most shameful form of death the Romans could devise. In the gospel reading, the seed that fell on rock and then withered when it came up, having no moisture, represents those who ‘when they hear it, welcome the word with joy’, but because ‘they have no root’, they only believe for a while, ‘and in time of trial they give up’. Unlike Jesus, they lack the perseverance to remain a witness for the truth when it becomes costly. There will be times in all our lives when, for various reasons, our faith will be put to the test. When the disciples were in a boat in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus rebuked them for their little faith. Our faith can weaken when we are buffeted by the trials of life, or when remaining faithful to the values of the gospel is going to cost us a great deal. The seed that fell on rock withered in time because it had no moisture. We need spiritual moisture if our faith is to endure in the bad times as well as the good. Our spiritual moisture can be understood as the Holy Spirit whom God has poured into our hearts. God stands ready to grant us a fresh outpouring of the Spirit when we sense our own weakness, when we need a persevering faith. When our faith is put to the test, we need to recall that God ‘is faithful from age to age’, in the words of today’s psalm. Paul assures us in his first letter to the Corinthians that ‘God is faithful and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it’. _________________ The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/ The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings 2022-2023: Your word is a lamp for my feet and light for my path by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications 2022, c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/ __________________________________