Readings for Thursday 1st Week in Ordinary Time

Year 1

First Reading
Heb 3:7-14

Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today.”

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews

The Holy Spirit says:
   Oh, that today you would hear his voice,
      “Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
      in the day of testing in the desert,
   where your ancestors tested and tried me
      and saw my works for forty years.
   Because of this I was provoked with that generation
      and I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,
      and they do not know my ways.’
   As I swore in my wrath,
      ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”

Take care, brothers and sisters,
   that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
   so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”
   so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
   if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11

R. :

℟. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
   let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
   and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

℟. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
   “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
   as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
   they tested me though they had seen my works.”

℟. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Forty years I was wearied of that generation;
   I said: “This people’s heart goes astray,
   they do not know my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my anger:
   “They shall never enter my rest.”

℟. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Year 2

First Reading
1 Sm 4:1-11

Israel was defeated and the ark of God was captured.

A reading from the first Book of Samuel

The Philistines gathered for an attack on Israel.
Israel went out to engage them in battle and camped at Ebenezer,
   while the Philistines camped at Aphek.
The Philistines then drew up in battle formation against Israel.
After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines,
   who slew about four thousand men on the battlefield.
When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said,
   “Why has the LORD permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines?
Let us fetch the ark of the LORD from Shiloh
   that it may go into battle among us
   and save us from the grasp of our enemies.”

So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there
   the ark of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim.
The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of God.
When the ark of the LORD arrived in the camp,
   all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth resounded.
The Philistines, hearing the noise of shouting, asked,
   “What can this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?”
On learning that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp,
   the Philistines were frightened.
They said, “Gods have come to their camp.”
They said also, “Woe to us! This has never happened before. Woe to us!
Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?
These are the gods that struck the Egyptians
   with various plagues and with pestilence.
Take courage and be manly, Philistines;
   otherwise you will become slaves to the Hebrews,
   as they were your slaves.
So fight manfully!”
The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated;
   every man fled to his own tent.
It was a disastrous defeat,
   in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.
The ark of God was captured,
   and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25

R. :

R. (27b) Redeem us, Lord, because of your mercy.

Yet now you have cast us off and put us in disgrace,
   and you go not forth with our armies.
You have let us be driven back by our foes;
   those who hated us plundered us at will.

R. Redeem us, Lord, because of your mercy.

You made us the reproach of our neighbors,
   the mockery and the scorn of those around us.
You made us a byword among the nations,
   a laughingstock among the peoples.

R. Redeem us, Lord, because of your mercy.

Why do you hide your face,
   forgetting our woe and our oppression?
For our souls are bowed down to the dust,
   our bodies are pressed to the earth.

R. Redeem us, Lord, because of your mercy.


Gospel Acclamation
See Mt 4:23

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
Mk 1:40-45

The leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
   “If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
   touched the leper, and said to him,
   “I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
   but go, show yourself to the priest
   and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
   that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
   so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
   and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

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






3 comments

Leave a Reply