Readings for Friday 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Year 2

First Reading
Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8

I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

When Hezekiah was mortally ill,
   the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him:
   “Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order,
   for you are about to die; you shall not recover.”
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord:

   “O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly
   I conducted myself in your presence,
   doing what was pleasing to you!”
And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah:
   Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David:
   I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.
I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the Lord’s temple;
   I will add fifteen years to your life.
I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria;
   I will be a shield to this city.”

Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken
   and applied to the boil, that he might recover.
Then Hezekiah asked,
   “What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?”

Isaiah answered:
   “This will be the sign for you from the LORD
   that he will do what he has promised:
   See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun
   on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz
   go back the ten steps it has advanced.”
So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.


Responsorial Psalm
Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16

R. :

R. (see 17b) You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

Once I said,
   “In the noontime of life I must depart!
To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned
   for the rest of my years.”

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

I said, “I shall see the LORD no more
   in the land of the living.
No longer shall I behold my fellow men
   among those who dwell in the world.”

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent,
   is struck down and borne away from me;
You have folded up my life, like a weaver
   who severs the last thread.

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

Those live whom the LORD protects;
   yours is the life of my spirit.
You have given me health and life.

R. You saved my life, O Lord; I shall not die.

Year 1

First Reading
Ex 11:10-12:14

It shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. Seeing the blood I will pass over you.

A reading from the Book of Exodus

Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders
   in Pharaoh’s presence,
   the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate,
   and he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.

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.
It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole,
   with its head and shanks and inner organs.
None of it must be kept beyond the next morning;
   whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

“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 first born 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
Ps 116:12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18

R. :

R. (13) I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

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. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

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. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

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. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.


Gospel Acclamation
Jn 10:27

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them and they follow me.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
Mt 12:1-8

The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
   and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
   “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”
He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did
   when he and his companions were hungry,
   how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
   which neither he nor his companions
   but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
   the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
   and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
   you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Then he kisses the book, saying quietly:

Through the words of the Gospel
may our sins be wiped away.


Homilies / Gospel Reflections





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