DAILY MASS READING - FRIDAY JULY 29th, 2016

Friday of week 17 in Ordinary Time

  (Saint Martha )

Liturgical Colour: White.

Readings at Mass

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Entrance Antiphon	Cf. Lk 10: 38

Jesus entered a village,

where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

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Collect

Almighty ever-living God,

whose Son was pleased to be welcomed

in Saint Martha’s house as a guest,

grant, we pray,

that through her intercession,

serving Christ faithfully in our brothers and sisters,

we may merit to be received by you

in the halls of heaven.

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	Jeremiah 26:1-9

At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘The Lord says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of the Lord. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of the Lord you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable. Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds. Say to them, “The Lord says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you, by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them, I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”’

  The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die! Why have you made this prophecy in the name of the Lord, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.

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Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 68:5,8-10,14

In your great love, answer me, O God.

More numerous than the hairs on my head

  are those who hate me without cause.

Those who attack me with lies

  are too much for my strength.

How can I restore

  what I have never stolen?

In your great love, answer me, O God.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,

  that shame covers my face,

that I have become a stranger to my brothers,

  an alien to my own mother’s sons.

I burn with zeal for your house

  and taunts against you fall on me.

In your great love, answer me, O God.

This is my prayer to you,

  my prayer for your favour.

In your great love, answer me, O God,

  with your help that never fails.

In your great love, answer me, O God.

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Gospel Acclamation	cf.1Th2:13

Alleluia, alleluia!

Accept God’s message for what it really is:

God’s message, and not some human thinking.

Alleluia!

Or	1P1:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

The word of the Lord remains for ever:

What is this word?

It is the Good News that has been brought to you.

Alleluia!

EITHER:

Gospel	John 11:19-27

Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life.

If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’

OR:

Alternative Gospel	Luke 10:38-42

Jesus came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha who was distracted with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered: ‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’

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Prayer over the Offerings

As we proclaim your wonders in Saint Martha, O Lord,

we humbly implore your majesty,

that, as her homage of love was pleasing to you,

so, too, our dutiful service may find favour in your sight.

Through Christ our Lord.

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Communion Antiphon	Jn 11: 27

Martha said to Jesus:

You are the Christ, the Son of God,

who is coming into this world.

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Prayer after Communion

May the holy reception of the Body and Blood

of your Only Begotten Son, O Lord,

turn us away from the cares of this fallen world,

so that, following the example of Saint Martha,

we may grow in sincere love for you on earth

and rejoice to behold you for eternity in heaven.

Through Christ our Lord.