Readings at Mass, Wednesday 4th October 2017 ~ CookingFood.Org

Readings at Mass, Wednesday 4th October 2017

Readings at Mass,

Wednesday 4th October 2017

Wednesday of week 26 in Ordinary Time

(Saint Francis of Assisi)

First reading

Nehemiah 2:1-8

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, the wine being my concern, I took up the wine and offered it to the king. Now I had never been downcast before. So the king said, ‘Why is your face so sad? You are not sick, surely? This must be a sadness of the heart.’ A great fear came over me and I said to the king, ‘May the king live for ever! How could my face be other than sad when the city where the tombs of my ancestors are lies in ruins, and its gates have been burnt down?’ ‘What’ the king asked ‘is your request?’ I called on the God of heaven and made this reply to the king, ‘If it pleases the king, and if you are satisfied with your servant, give me leave to go to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ tombs, and rebuild it.’ The king, with the queen sitting there beside him, said, ‘How long will your journey take, and when will you return?’ So I named a date that seemed acceptable to the king and he gave me leave to go. I spoke to the king once more, ‘If it please the king, could letters be given me for the governors of Transeuphrates to allow me to pass through to Judah? And also a letter for Asaph, keeper of the king’s park, to supply me with timber for the gates of the citadel of the Temple, for the city walls and for the house I am to occupy?’ This the king granted me, for the kindly favour of my God was with me.

________

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 136:1-6

Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you! (R.)

By the rivers of Babylon

there we sat and wept,

remembering Zion;

on the poplars that grew there

we hung up our harps. (R.)

For it was there that they asked us,

our captors, for songs,

our oppressors, for joy.

‘Sing to us,’ they said,

‘one of Zion’s songs.’ (R.)

O how could we sing

the song of the Lord

on alien soil?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

let my right hand wither! (R.)

O let my tongue

cleave to my mouth

if I remember you not,

if I prize not Jerusalem

above all my joys! (R.)

________

Gospel Acclamation

Phil3:8-9

Alleluia, alleluia!

I count all things worthless but this:

to gain Jesus Christ and to be found in him.

Alleluia!

________

Gospel

Luke 9:57-62

As Jesus and his disciples travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’

Another to whom he said, ‘Follow me’, replied, ‘Let me go and bury my father first.’ But he answered, ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’

Another said, ‘I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

________