Jesus the Saviour Secondary School resumes today@12pm, Elele, River States

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Office of Reading

OFFICE OF READINGS

FIRST READING

From the book of the prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 63:19b-64:11

God’s people plead for his coming

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
   with the mountains quaking before you,
As when brushwood is set ablaze,
   or fire makes the water boil!
Thus your name would be made known to your enemies
   and the nations would tremble before you,
While you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
   such as they had not heard of from of old.

No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
   any God but you
   doing such deeds for those who wait for him.

Would that you might meet us doing right,
   that we were mindful of you in our ways!
Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
   all of us have become like unclean men,
   all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
We have all withered like leaves,
   and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name,
   who rouses himself to cling to you;
For you have hidden your face from us
   and have delivered us up to our guilt.

Yet, O Lord, you are our father;
   we are the clay and you the potter:
   we are all the work of your hands.
Be not so very angry, Lord,
   keep not our guilt forever in mind;
   look upon us, who are all your people.
Your holy cities have become a desert,
   Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a waste.

Our holy and glorious temple
   in which our fathers praised you
Has been burned with fire;
   all that was dear to us is laid waste.
Can you hold back, O Lord, after all this?
   Can you remain silent, and afflict us so severely?

RESPONSORY
See Isaiah 56:1; Micah 4:9; Isaiah 43:3

Jerusalem, your salvation comes quickly:
why are you consumed by sorrow?
Has your pain returned since you have no counselors?
– I will save and deliver you, have no fear.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Redeemer.
– I will save and deliver you, have no fear.

SECOND READING

From a commentary on the Gospel of John by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop
(Lib. 5, Cap. 2: PG 73, 751-754)

The gift of the Holy Spirit to all mankind

In a plan of surpassing beauty the Creator of the universe decreed the renewal of all things in Christ. In his design for restoring human nature to its original condition, he gave a promise that he would pour out on it the Holy Spirit along with his other gifts, for otherwise our nature could not enter once more into the peaceful and secure possession of those gifts.

He therefore appointed a time for the Holy Spirit to come upon us: this was the time of Christ’s coming. He gave this promise when he said: In those days, that is, the days of the Savior, I will pour out a share of my Spirit on all mankind.

When the time came for this great act of unforced generosity, which revealed in our midst the only-begotten Son, clothed with flesh on this earth, a man born of woman, in accordance with Holy Scripture, God the Father gave the Spirit once again. Christ, as the first fruits of our restored nature, was the first to receive the Spirit. John the Baptist bore witness to this when he said: I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven, and it rested on him.

Christ “received the Spirit” in so far as he was man, and in so far as man could receive the Spirit. He did so in such a way that, though he is the Son of God the Father, begotten of his substance, even before the incarnation, indeed before all ages, yet he was not offended at hearing the Father say to him after he had become man: You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

The Father says of Christ, who was God, begotten of him before the ages, that he has been “begotten today,” for the Father is to accept us in Christ as his adopted children. The whole of our nature is present in Christ, in so far as he is man. So the Father can be said to give the Spirit again to the Son, though the Son possesses the Spirit as his own, in order that we may receive the Spirit in Christ. The Son therefore took to himself the seed of Abraham, as Scripture says, and became like his brothers in all things.

The only-begotten Son received the Spirit, but not for his own advantage, for the Spirit is his, and is given in him and through him, as we have already said. He receives it to renew our nature in its entirety and to make it whole again, for in becoming man he took our entire nature to himself. If we reason correctly, and use also the testimony of Scripture, we can see that Christ did not receive the Spirit for himself, but rather for us in him; for it is also through Christ that all gifts come down to us.

RESPONSORY
Ezekiel 37:27-28; Hebrews 8:8

I will be their God and they shall be my people.
– The nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Sanctifier of Israel,
when my holiness will be established in their midst for all eternity.

I shall bring to fulfillment my new convenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
– The nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Sanctifier of Israel,
when my holiness will be established in their midst for all eternity.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

God our Father,
through Christ your Son
the hope of eternal life dawned on our world.
Give to us the light of faith
that we may always acknowledge him as our Redeemer,
and come to the glory of his kingdom,
where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

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Mass Readings of Tomorrow

Monday, January 4 2016 Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious Lectionary: 212 Reading 1 1 Jn 3:22–4:6 Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us. Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them. We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. Responsorial Psalm Ps 2:7bc-8, 10-12a R. (8ab) I will give you all the nations for an inheritance. The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.” R. I will give you all the nations for an inheritance. And now, O kings, give heed; take warning, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice before him; with trembling rejoice. R. I will give you all the nations for an inheritance. Alleluia See Mt 4:23 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom and cured every disease among the people. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 4:12-17, 23-25 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.