Opening Prayer
Holy God, from the heights You come to dwell among us. Thank you for staking Your tent in our human experience. It is so comforting to know that You are with us on all journeys and in all places we are. You are faithful Emmanuel! Help us to see clouds, not as confusing and fearful, but as signs of Your presence, revealing and speaking to us. Refine us to see Your fire sparkling within the clouds — and in us! Humble us to listen to the parables of Jesus as he explains Your reign. Gather us among the just, Good God, as You haul forth all peoples in the seas of our human experience. Thank you for being our God, this day! May we tent down with You in peace!
On this day in 1897, St. Therese was given her last rites.
Was this a sign that you were preparing for your final journey to God? The grace of this sacrament must have helped you in those final dark weeks. Did you know that God was still present even though you experienced His absence? Give us your faith, Therese, to believe even when all seems dark and empty.
Reading 1 Jeremiah 18:1-6
This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 146:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6ab
R. (5a) Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Put not your trust in princes,
in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.
When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;
on that day his plans perish.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God.
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia Acts 16:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our heart, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Matthew 13:47-53
Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.