Friday, April 02, 2021

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Friday, April 2, 2021: Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Friday, April 2, 2021: Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

Lectionary: 40


Reading I

Is 52:13—53:12

See, my servant shall prosper,

    he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.

Even as many were amazed at him --

    so marred was his look beyond human semblance

    and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man--

so shall he startle many nations,

    because of him kings shall stand speechless;

for those who have not been told shall see,

    those who have not heard shall ponder it.


Who would believe what we have heard?

    To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up like a sapling before him,

    like a shoot from the parched earth;

there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,

    nor appearance that would attract us to him.

He was spurned and avoided by people,

    a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,

one of those from whom people hide their faces,

    spurned, and we held him in no esteem.


Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,

    our sufferings that he endured,

while we thought of him as stricken,

    as one smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our offenses,

    crushed for our sins;

upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,

    by his stripes we were healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep,

    each following his own way;

but the LORD laid upon him

    the guilt of us all.


Though he was harshly treated, he submitted

    and opened not his mouth;

like a lamb led to the slaughter

    or a sheep before the shearers,

    he was silent and opened not his mouth.

Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,

    and who would have thought any more of his destiny?

When he was cut off from the land of the living,

    and smitten for the sin of his people,

a grave was assigned him among the wicked

    and a burial place with evildoers,

though he had done no wrong

    nor spoken any falsehood.

But the LORD was pleased

    to crush him in infirmity.


If he gives his life as an offering for sin,

    he shall see his descendants in a long life,

    and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.


Because of his affliction

    he shall see the light in fullness of days;

through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,

    and their guilt he shall bear.

Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,

    and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,

because he surrendered himself to death

    and was counted among the wicked;

and he shall take away the sins of many,

    and win pardon for their offenses.


Responsorial Psalm

31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25

R.   (Lk 23:46) Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

    let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me.

Into your hands I commend my spirit;

    you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.

R.   Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

For all my foes I am an object of reproach,

    a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;

    they who see me abroad flee from me.

I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;

    I am like a dish that is broken.

R.  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

But my trust is in you, O LORD;

    I say, “You are my God.

In your hands is my destiny; rescue me

    from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”

R.  Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Let your face shine upon your servant;

    save me in your kindness.

Take courage and be stouthearted,

    all you who hope in the LORD.

R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.


Reading II

Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Brothers and sisters:

Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, 

Jesus, the Son of God, 

let us hold fast to our confession.

For we do not have a high priest

who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, 

but one who has similarly been tested in every way,

yet without sin.

So let us confidently approach the throne of grace 

to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.


In the days when Christ was in the flesh, 

he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears 

to the one who was able to save him from death, 

and he was heard because of his reverence.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; 

and when he was made perfect,

he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.


Verse Before the Gospel

Phil 2:8-9

Christ became obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.


Gospel

Jn 18:1—19:42

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley 

to where there was a garden, 

into which he and his disciples entered.

Judas his betrayer also knew the place, 

because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.

So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards 

from the chief priests and the Pharisees 

and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, 

went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”

They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”

He said to them, “I AM.”

Judas his betrayer was also with them.

When he said to them, “I AM, “ 

they turned away and fell to the ground.

So he again asked them,

“Whom are you looking for?”

They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”

Jesus answered,

“I told you that I AM.

So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”

This was to fulfill what he had said, 

“I have not lost any of those you gave me.”

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, 

struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear.

The slave’s name was Malchus.

Jesus said to Peter,

“Put your sword into its scabbard.

Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”


So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,

bound him, and brought him to Annas first.

He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, 

who was high priest that year.

It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews 

that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.


Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.

Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, 

and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.

But Peter stood at the gate outside.

So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, 

went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.

Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, 

“You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”

He said, “I am not.”

Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire

that they had made, because it was cold,

and were warming themselves.

Peter was also standing there keeping warm.


The high priest questioned Jesus 

about his disciples and about his doctrine.

Jesus answered him,

“I have spoken publicly to the world.

I have always taught in a synagogue 

or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, 

and in secret I have said nothing.  Why ask me?

Ask those who heard me what I said to them.

They know what I said.”

When he had said this, 

one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, 

“Is this the way you answer the high priest?”

Jesus answered him,

“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; 

but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”

Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.


Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.

And they said to him,

“You are not one of his disciples, are you?”

He denied it and said,

“I am not.”

One of the slaves of the high priest, 

a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, 

“Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”

Again Peter denied it.

And immediately the cock crowed.


Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.

It was morning.

And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, 

in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.

So Pilate came out to them and said, 

“What charge do you bring against this man?”

They answered and said to him,

“If he were not a criminal, 

we would not have handed him over to you.”

At this, Pilate said to them, 

“Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”

The Jews answered him, 

“We do not have the right to execute anyone,“ 

in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled

that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.

So Pilate went back into the praetorium 

and summoned Jesus and said to him, 

“Are you the King of the Jews?”

Jesus answered,

“Do you say this on your own 

or have others told you about me?”

Pilate answered,

“I am not a Jew, am I?

Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.

What have you done?”

Jesus answered,

“My kingdom does not belong to this world.

If my kingdom did belong to this world, 

my attendants would be fighting 

to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.

But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”

So Pilate said to him,

“Then you are a king?”

Jesus answered,

“You say I am a king.

For this I was born and for this I came into the world, 

to testify to the truth.

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”


When he had said this,

he again went out to the Jews and said to them,

“I find no guilt in him.

But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.

Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

They cried out again,

“Not this one but Barabbas!”

Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.


Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.

And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, 

and clothed him in a purple cloak, 

and they came to him and said,

“Hail, King of the Jews!”

And they struck him repeatedly.

Once more Pilate went out and said to them, 

“Look, I am bringing him out to you, 

so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”

So Jesus came out, 

wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.

And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”

When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, 

“Crucify him, crucify him!”


Pilate said to them,

“Take him yourselves and crucify him.

I find no guilt in him.”

The Jews answered, 

“We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, 

because he made himself the Son of God.”

Now when Pilate heard this statement,

he became even more afraid, 

and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, 

“Where are you from?”

Jesus did not answer him.

So Pilate said to him,

“Do you not speak to me?

Do you not know that I have power to release you 

and I have power to crucify you?”

Jesus answered him,

“You would have no power over me 

if it had not been given to you from above.

For this reason the one who handed me over to you

has the greater sin.”

Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, 

“If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.

Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”


When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out 

and seated him on the judge’s bench 

in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.

And he said to the Jews,

“Behold, your king!”

They cried out,

“Take him away, take him away!  Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them,

“Shall I crucify your king?”

The chief priests answered,

“We have no king but Caesar.”

Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.


So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, 

he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, 

in Hebrew, Golgotha.

There they crucified him, and with him two others, 

one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.

It read,

“Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”

Now many of the Jews read this inscription, 

because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; 

and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, 

“Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’

but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”

Pilate answered,

“What I have written, I have written.”


When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, 

they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, 

a share for each soldier.

They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, 

woven in one piece from the top down.

So they said to one another, 

“Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “ 

in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:

    They divided my garments among them,

        and for my vesture they cast lots.

This is what the soldiers did.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother

and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,

and Mary of Magdala.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved

he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”

Then he said to the disciple,

“Behold, your mother.”

And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.


After this, aware that everything was now finished, 

in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 

Jesus said, “I thirst.”

There was a vessel filled with common wine.

So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop 

and put it up to his mouth.

When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,

“It is finished.”

And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.


        Here all kneel and pause for a short time.


Now since it was preparation day,

in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,

for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, 

the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken 

and that they be taken down.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first 

and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, 

they did not break his legs, 

but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, 

and immediately blood and water flowed out.

An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; 

he knows that he is speaking the truth, 

so that you also may come to believe.

For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:

    Not a bone of it will be broken.

And again another passage says:

    They will look upon him whom they have pierced.


After this, Joseph of Arimathea, 

secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, 

asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.

And Pilate permitted it.

So he came and took his body.

Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, 

also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes 

weighing about one hundred pounds.

They took the body of Jesus 

and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, 

according to the Jewish burial custom.

Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, 

and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.

So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; 

for the tomb was close by.

Thursday, April 01, 2021

Happy Holy Thursday

 


Catholic Church Mass Readings for Thursday, April 1, 2021: Holy Thursday

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Thursday, April 1, 2021: Holy Thursday

Lectionary: 39


Reading I

Ex 12:1-8, 11-14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 

“This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; 

you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

Tell the whole community of Israel: 

On the tenth of this month every one of your families

must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.

If a family is too small for a whole lamb, 

it shall join the nearest household in procuring one 

and shall share in the lamb 

in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.

You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, 

and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, 

it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

They shall take some of its blood 

and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel 

of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh 

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.


“This is how you are to eat it: 

with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,

you shall eat like those who are in flight.

It is the Passover of the LORD.

For on this same night I will go through Egypt, 

striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,

and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!

But the blood will mark the houses where you are.

Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; 

thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, 

no destructive blow will come upon you.


“This day shall be a memorial feast for you, 

which all your generations shall celebrate 

with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”


Responsorial Psalm

116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18

R. (cf. 1 Cor 10:16)  Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

How shall I make a return to the LORD

    for all the good he has done for me?

The cup of salvation I will take up,

    and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD

    is the death of his faithful ones.

I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;

    you have loosed my bonds.

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,

    and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

My vows to the LORD I will pay

    in the presence of all his people.

R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.


Reading II

1 Cor 11:23-26

Brothers and sisters:

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, 

that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, 

took bread, and, after he had given thanks,

broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 

you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.


Verse Before the Gospel

Jn 13:34

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:

love one another as I have loved you.


Gospel

Jn 13:1-15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come

to pass from this world to the Father.

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.

So, during supper, 

fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power 

and that he had come from God and was returning to God, 

he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.

He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin 

and began to wash the disciples’ feet 

and dry them with the towel around his waist.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, 

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered and said to him,

“What I am doing, you do not understand now,

but you will understand later.”

Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered him, 

“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Simon Peter said to him, 

“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

Jesus said to him, 

“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,

     for he is clean all over; 

so you are clean, but not all.”

For he knew who would betray him;

for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”


So when he had washed their feet 

and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, 

he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?

You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’  and rightly so, for indeed I am.

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, 

you ought to wash one another’s feet.

I have given you a model to follow, 

so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Happy 500th Anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines!

Happy 500 Year Anniversary of the first Catholic Mass in the Philippines.

Apparently there is some debate as to where precisely the Mass took place. The government seems firmly convinced that the location was Limasawa, and this seems to be the majority opinion. Others believe the site to be Masao in Butuan as the location.

Either way, everyone agrees it was celebrated for the first time on March 31, 1521 and today is the 500th anniversary. It was actually Easter Sunday on which it was celebrated.

Magellan and the sovereign ruler of the island Rajah Kolambu made a blood pact. I was surprised to discover this involved each person cutting their wrists and pour the blood into a drink such as wine to both drink. Wow. They did this and exchanged gifts.

The first Mass was celebrated by Father Pedro Valderrama. After Mass, they planted a large cross known as Magellan's Cross. This cross still exists to this day, but some claim the original has been lost. Others say the original is encased in a larger cross as people were chipping away pieces of it. Why would someone chip away a piece of such a cross? Do they not realize the damage they are doing?

In any event, the Philippines has become a very Christian country, and is one of the great successes of Christianity in Asia!

Here is a video published today, March 31, 2021 marking the event:









Funny: Reports of Mass Luting!

Funny: Reports of Mass Luting!





 

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Wednesday, March 31, 2021: Wednesday of Holy Week

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Wednesday, March 31, 2021: Wednesday of Holy Week

Lectionary: 259


Reading I

Is 50:4-9a

The Lord GOD has given me 

    a well-trained tongue,

That I might know how to speak to the weary

    a word that will rouse them.

Morning after morning

    he opens my ear that I may hear;

And I have not rebelled,

    have not turned back.

I gave my back to those who beat me,

    my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;

My face I did not shield

    from buffets and spitting.


The Lord GOD is my help,

    therefore I am not disgraced;

I have set my face like flint,

    knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

He is near who upholds my right;

    if anyone wishes to oppose me,

    let us appear together.

Who disputes my right?

    Let him confront me.

See, the Lord GOD is my help;

    who will prove me wrong?


Responsorial Psalm

69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34

R.    (14c)  Lord, in your great love, answer me.

For your sake I bear insult,

    and shame covers my face.

I have become an outcast to my brothers,

    a stranger to my mother’s sons,

because zeal for your house consumes me,

    and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.

R.    Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,

    I looked for sympathy, but there was none;

    for consolers, not one could I find.

Rather they put gall in my food,

    and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

R.    Lord, in your great love, answer me.

I will praise the name of God in song,

    and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;

    you who seek God, may your hearts revive!

For the LORD hears the poor,

    and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

R.    Lord, in your great love, answer me.


Verse before the Gospel

Hail to you, our King;

you alone are compassionate with our errors.


OR:

Hail to you, our King, obedient to the Father;

you were led to your crucifixion like a gentle lamb to the slaughter.


Gospel

Mt 26:14-25

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, 

went to the chief priests and said,

“What are you willing to give me

if I hand him over to you?”

They paid him thirty pieces of silver,

and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.


On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,

the disciples approached Jesus and said,

“Where do you want us to prepare

for you to eat the Passover?”

He said,

“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,

‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near; 

in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘“

The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,

and prepared the Passover.


When it was evening,

he reclined at table with the Twelve.

And while they were eating, he said, 

“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

Deeply distressed at this,

they began to say to him one after another,

“Surely it is not I, Lord?”

He said in reply,

“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me

is the one who will betray me.

The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,

but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”

Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,

“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”

He answered, “You have said so.”

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Blog Design Update

You'll notice the blog is updated. I noticed the previous format didn't give a lot of options to search through previous posts or to subscribe or make a donation. I hope you like this design better. Comment below if you have any suggestions!

Funny: Joe Biden’s “Palmist” Dilemma

Funny: Joe Biden’s “Palmist” Dilemma


 

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Tuesday, March 30, 2021: Tuesday of Holy Week

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Tuesday, March 30, 2021: Tuesday of Holy Week

Lectionary: 258


Reading I

Is 49:1-6

Hear me, O islands,

    listen, O distant peoples.

The LORD called me from birth,

    from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.

He made of me a sharp-edged sword

    and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.

He made me a polished arrow,

    in his quiver he hid me.

You are my servant, he said to me,

    Israel, through whom I show my glory.


Though I thought I had toiled in vain,

    and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,

Yet my reward is with the LORD,

    my recompense is with my God.

For now the LORD has spoken

    who formed me as his servant from the womb,

That Jacob may be brought back to him

    and Israel gathered to him;

And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,

    and my God is now my strength!

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,

    to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

    and restore the survivors of Israel;

I will make you a light to the nations,

    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.


Responsorial Psalm

71:1-2, 3-4a, 5ab-6ab, 15 and 17

R.    (see 15ab)  I will sing of your salvation.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

    let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;

    incline your ear to me, and save me.

R.    I will sing of your salvation.

Be my rock of refuge,

    a stronghold to give me safety,

    for you are my rock and my fortress.

O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.

R.    I will sing of your salvation.

For you are my hope, O LORD;

    my trust, O God, from my youth.

On you I depend from birth;

    from my mother’s womb you are my strength.

R.    I will sing of your salvation.

My mouth shall declare your justice,

    day by day your salvation.

O God, you have taught me from my youth,

    and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.

R.    I will sing of your salvation.


Verse before the Gospel

Hail to you, our King, obedient to the Father;

you were led to your crucifixion like a gentle lamb to the slaughter.


Gospel

Jn 13:21-33, 36-38

Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,

was reclining at Jesus’ side.

So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.

He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,

“Master, who is it?”

Jesus answered,

“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”

So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,

son of Simon the Iscariot.

After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.

So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.

Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,

“Buy what we need for the feast,”

or to give something to the poor.

So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.


When he had left, Jesus said,

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,

and he will glorify him at once.

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.

You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,

‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”


Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”

Jesus answered him,

“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,

though you will follow later.”

Peter said to him,

“Master, why can I not follow you now? 

I will lay down my life for you.”

Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?

Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow

before you deny me three times.”

Monday, March 29, 2021

Funny: Don't be a Heretic

Funny: Don't be a Heretic



 

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Monday, March 29, 2021: Monday of Holy Week

Catholic Church Mass Readings for Monday, March 29, 2021: Monday of Holy Week

Lectionary: 257


Reading I

Is 42:1-7

Here is my servant whom I uphold,

    my chosen one with whom I am pleased,

Upon whom I have put my Spirit;

    he shall bring forth justice to the nations,

Not crying out, not shouting,

    not making his voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed he shall not break,

    and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,

Until he establishes justice on the earth;

    the coastlands will wait for his teaching.


Thus says God, the LORD,

    who created the heavens and stretched them out,

    who spreads out the earth with its crops,

Who gives breath to its people

    and spirit to those who walk on it:

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,

    I have grasped you by the hand;

I formed you, and set you

    as a covenant of the people,

    a light for the nations,

To open the eyes of the blind,

    to bring out prisoners from confinement,

    and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.


Responsorial Psalm

27:1, 2, 3, 13-14

R.    (1a)  The Lord is my light and my salvation.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;

    whom should I fear?

The LORD is my life’s refuge;

    of whom should I be afraid?

R.    The Lord is my light and my salvation.

When evildoers come at me

    to devour my flesh,

My foes and my enemies

    themselves stumble and fall.

R.    The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Though an army encamp against me,

    my heart will not fear;

Though war be waged upon me,

    even then will I trust. 

R.    The Lord is my light and my salvation.

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD

    in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD with courage;

    be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

R.    The Lord is my light and my salvation.

 


Verse before the Gospel

Hail to you, our King;

you alone are compassionate with our faults.


Gospel

Jn 12:1-11

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,

where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,

while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. 

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil

made from genuine aromatic nard

and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;

the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,

and the one who would betray him, said,

“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages

and given to the poor?”

He said this not because he cared about the poor

but because he was a thief and held the money bag

and used to steal the contributions.

So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.

Let her keep this for the day of my burial.

You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”


The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came,

not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus,

whom he had raised from the dead.

And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,

because many of the Jews were turning away

and believing in Jesus because of him.