Mass Readings
Catholic Ireland
Liturgical Readings for : Sunday, 6th October, 2024Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday's Readings
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Year 2
Marriage is a divine creation not a human option.
Jesus’ prohibition of divorce is one of the most widely attested sayings in the tradition.
FIRST READING
A reading from the Book of Genesis 2:18-24
They become one body.
The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.’
So from the soil the Lord fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him.
So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The 
Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
The man exclaimed:
‘This at last is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!
This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.’
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife,
and they become one body.
The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 127
Response May the Lord bless us all the days of our life.
1. O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways!
by the labour of your hands you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper. Response
2 .Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the heart of your house;
your children like shoots of the olive, around your table. Response
3. Indeed thus shall be blessed the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion in a happy Jerusalem all the days of your life!
May you see your children’s children. On Israel, peace! Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews 2:9-11
The one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock. 
We see in Jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God’s grace he had to experience death for all mankind.
As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation. For the one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock that is why he openly calls them brothers.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation Jn 17: 17
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord, consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!
or 1Jn 4:12
Alleluia, alleluia!
As long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 10:2-16 Glory to you, O Lord.
What God has united, man must not divide.
Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?‘ They were testing him.
He answered them,
‘What did Moses command you?‘
‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’
Then Jesus said to them,
‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you.
But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. 
This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body.
They are no longer two, therefore, but one body.
So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’
Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them,
‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.
And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she too is guilty of adultery.’
People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away,
but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them,
‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’
Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessings.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Alternatve shorter GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 10:2-12
What God has united, man must not divide.
Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’ They were testing him.
He answered them,
‘What did Moses command you?’
‘Moses allowed us‘ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.‘
Then Jesus said to them,
‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you.
But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female.
This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body.
They are no longer two, therefore, but one body.
So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’
Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them,
‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.
And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she too is guilty of adultery.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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For homily resources for this Sunday’s Gospel click here: https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/
Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyrighted 1966, by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.
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