27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 3
Saint Bruno
VERT
Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Est 4: 17
Within your will, O Lord, all things are established, and there is none that can resist your will. For you have made all things, the heaven and the earth, and all that is held within the circle of heaven; you are the Lord of all.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
First reading: Genesis 2:18–24
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 God 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.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 127:1-5
R/ May the Lord bless us all the days of our life.
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.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the heart of your house; your children like shoots of the olive, around your table.
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.
Second Reading : Hebrews 2:9-11
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.
Gospel Acclamation: Jn 17:17
Alleluia, alleluia! Your word is truth, O Lord, consecrate us in the truth. Alleluia!
Gospel : Mark 10:2-16
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 is guilty of adultery too.’ 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 blessing.
Prayer over the Offerings
Accept, O Lord, we pray, the sacrifices instituted by your commands, and, through the sacred mysteries which we celebrate with dutiful service, graciously complete the sanctifying work by which you are pleased to redeem us. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Lam 3: 25
The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.
Prayer after Communion
Grant us, almighty God, that we may be refreshed and nourished by the Sacrament which we have received, so as to be transformed into what we consume. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Generally, when young people are in school, they dream of completing their studies and getting a job. The sacrament of marriage offers another dimension in which one goes to school again, where they learn to love and forgive. Today, such authentic commitments are a hard-to-find treasure. Today’s readings allow us to relook at and rediscover the meaning of radical commitment in every human relationship, marriage being the relationship par excellence. The couple’s fidelity to each other symbolises and reflects the faithfulness of God to his people and the faithfulness of Christ to the Church. Marriage is not a matter of mere feelings. It is a gift of the whole person to the other: «it is not good that man should be alone.» God carefully founded this relationship and endowed it with his own initiative. Therefore, for it to be truly authentic, each relationship must be founded on the love God has bestowed. Thus, we must respect marriage as an institution which only God can break, and no man can split apart. The words of Jesus underline the seriousness of marriage, and anyone who tries to attack the institution of marriage is like attacking the bond of God’s commitment to us – God’s love for his people.