Psalter: Week 1
Saint Alphonsus Mary de Liguori,
Bishop, Doctor (1696 – 1787)
White
He was a Neapolitan lawyer who became a priest. He preached in the rural districts around Naples. His bishop asked him to establish an order of missionaries to work in the countryside, and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) was formally established in 1749. Alphonsus lived an exceptionally holy life.
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Sir 15: 5
In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth, and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and clothed him in a robe of glory.
Collect
O God, who constantly raise up in your Church new examples of virtue, grant that we may follow so closely in the footsteps of the Bishop Saint Alphonsus in his zeal for souls
as to attain the same rewards that are his in 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.
First reading : Jeremiah 18:1-6
The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘Get up and make your way down to the potter’s house; there I shall let you hear what I have to say.’ So I went down to the potter’s house; and there he was, working at the wheel. And whenever the vessel he was making came out wrong, as happens with the clay handled by potters, he would start afresh and work it into another vessel, as potters do. Then this word of the Lord was addressed to me, ‘House of Israel, can not I do to you what this potter does? – it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.’
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:2-6
R/ He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God.
My soul, give praise to the Lord. I will praise the Lord all my days, make music to my God while I live.
Put no trust in princes, In mortal men in whom there is no help. Take their breath, they return to clay and their plans that day come to nothing.
He is happy who is helped by Jacob’s God, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who alone made heaven and earth, the seas and all they contain.
Gospel Acclamation : Jn15:15
Alleluia, alleluia! I call you friends, says the Lord, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. Alleluia!
Gospel : Matthew 13:47-53
Jesus said to the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. ‘Have you understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every Scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’
Prayer over the Offerings
Be pleased, O Lord, to enkindle our hearts with the celestial fire of your Spirit, just as you granted that Saint Alphonsus should celebrate these mysteries and by them offer himself to you as a holy sacrifice. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Cf. Lk 12: 42
Behold a faithful and prudent steward to give them their allowance of food at the proper time.
Prayer after Communion
O God, who gave us Saint Alphonsus to be a faithful steward and preacher of this great mystery, grant that your faithful may receive it often and, receiving it, praise you without end. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
A fishermen’s net is designed to take advantage of fish’s unawareness of the trap. However, God’s net is not designed to trap. It is rather, a gratuitous Divine support system gracefully lowered into the stormy sea of life in order to save us. It is meant to help His children to hold on to in order to reach back to Him. What is not guaranteed is whether we as God’s children can consciously and consistently choose to receive and hold on to His net of Grace. As God’s people, we have been intentionally casted by the Divine Potter into the sea of life. Being divinely casted, we are as well intentionally endowed with the gratuitous gifts of knowledge, discernment and volition. These gifts help us in choosing to hold on to the straps of the values of the Kingdom of God. Yet, we are also free to choose that which is morally bad. The gracious gift of free-choice is not free from the responsibility of being accountable. The choices we make today will reveal the underlying foundation of our value system. May we be able to separate the good from the bad and choose that which is good for our very selves, for others and for God.