MASS READING - SATURDAY AUGUST 13TH, 2016

Saturday of week 19 in Ordinary Time 

  or Saints Pontian, Pope, and Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs 

  or Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

Liturgical Colour: Green.

Readings at Mass

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Entrance Antiphon
Cf. Ps 73: 20, 19, 22, 23

Look to your covenant, O Lord,

and forget not the life of your poor ones for ever.

Arise, O God, and defend your cause,

and forget not the cries of those who seek you.

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Collect

Almighty ever-living God,

whom, taught by the Holy Spirit,

we dare to call our Father,

bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts

the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters,

that we may merit to enter into the inheritance

which you have promised.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

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First reading
Ezekiel 18:1-10,13,30-32

The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows:

  ‘Why do you keep repeating this proverb in the land of Israel: “The fathers have eaten unripe grapes; and the children’s teeth are set on edge”?

  ‘As I live – it is the Lord who speaks – there will no longer be any reason to repeat this proverb in Israel. See now: all life belongs to me; the father’s life and the son’s life, both alike belong to me. The man who has sinned, he is the one who shall die.

  ‘The upright man is law-abiding and honest; he does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the idols of the House of Israel, does not seduce his neighbour’s wife or sleep with a woman during her periods. He oppresses no one, returns pledges, never steals, gives his own bread to the hungry, his clothes to the naked. He never charges usury on loans, takes no interest, abstains from evil, gives honest judgement between man and man, keeps my laws and sincerely respects my observances–such a man is truly upright. It is the Lord who speaks.

  ‘But if anyone has a son prone to violence and bloodshed, then this son shall certainly not live; having committed all these appalling crimes he will have to die, and his blood be on his own head.

  House of Israel, in future I mean to judge each of you by what he does–it is the Lord who speaks. Repent, renounce all your sins, avoid all occasions of sin! Shake off all the sins you have committed against me, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why are you so anxious to die, House of Israel? I take no pleasure in the death of anyone–it is the Lord who speaks. Repent and live!’

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Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 50:12-15,18-19

A pure heart create for me, O God.

A pure heart create for me, O God,

  put a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

  nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

Give me again the joy of your help;

  with a spirit of fervour sustain me,

that I may teach transgressors your ways

  and sinners may return to you.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

For in sacrifice you take no delight,

  burnt offering from me you would refuse,

my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.

  A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.

A pure heart create for me, O God.

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Gospel Acclamation	cf.Col3:16a,17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Let the message of Christ, in all its richness,

find a home with you;

through him give thanks to God the Father.

Alleluia!

Or	Mt11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father,

Lord of heaven and earth,

for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom

to mere children.

Alleluia!

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Gospel
Matthew 19:13-15

People brought little children to Jesus, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

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Prayer over the Offerings

Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church,

for in your mercy you have given them to be offered

and by your power you transform them

into the mystery of our salvation.

Through Christ our Lord.

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Communion Antiphon	Ps 147: 12, 14

O Jerusalem, glorify the Lord,

who gives you your fill of finest wheat.

Or	Cf. Jn 6: 51

The bread that I will give, says the Lord,

is my flesh for the life of the world.

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Prayer after Communion

May the communion in your Sacrament

that we have consumed, save us, O Lord,

and confirm us in the light of your truth.

Through Christ our Lord.