Mass Readings
Catholic Ireland
Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 6th December, 2025Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday's Readings
Saturday of the First Week of Advent
God, our Father, hears the cries of his needy people and feels compassion for those who have lost their way
Saint of the Day; December 6th; St Nicholas,
4th Century bishop of Myra, (modern Turkey). Patron of Russia, sailors, pawnbrokers and children.
c/f short history of today’s saint can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.
FIRST READING
A reading from the prophet Isaiah 30:19-21. 23-26
He will be gracious to you when he hears your cry.
Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel:
People of Zion, you will live in Jerusalem and weep no more. He will be gracious to you when he hears your cry; when he hears he will answer. When the Lord has given you the bread of suffering and the water of distress, he who is your teacher will hide no longer, and you will see your teacher with your own eyes. Whether you turn to right or left, your ears will hear these words behind you, ‘This is the way, follow it.’
He will send rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the bread that the ground provides will be rich and nourishing. Your cattle will graze that day, in wide pastures. Oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat a salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.
On every lofty mountain, on every high hill there will be streams and watercourses, on the day of the great slaughter when the strongholds fall. Then moonlight will be bright as sunlight and sunlight itself be seven times brighter – like the light of seven days in one –
on the day the Lord dresses the wound of his people and heals the bruises his blows have left.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps:146: 1-2. 3-4, R/v. Is: 13:18
Response Happy are all who hope in the Lord.
Or Alleluia!
1 Praise the Lord for he is good; sing to our God for he is loving: to him our praise is due.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem and brings back Israel’s exiles. Response
2 He heals the broken-hearted, he binds up all their wounds.
He fixes the number of the stars; he calls each one by its name. Response
3 Our Lord is great and almighty; his wisdom can never be measured.
The Lord raises the lowly; he humbles the wicked in the dust. Response
Gospel Acclamation Is 55:6
Alleluia, alleluia!
Seek the Lord while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.
Alleluia!
Or Is 33: 22
Alleluia, alleluia!
Look the Lord is our judge, the Lord our lawgiver,
the Lord our King and our saviour.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 9:35-10:1. 6-8 Glory to you, O Lord.
When he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them.
Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness. And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.’
He summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
‘Go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.’
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Saturday First Week of Advent Matthew 9:35-10.1, 6-8
The opening verse of the gospel reading gives us a sense of all the work Jesus did during his public ministry. He made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness. Jesus clearly did not spare himself in doing the work God had given him to do. Yet, he knew that even he could not do God’s work alone. When he saw crowds that were harassed and dejected, even after all the work he did, he didn’t respond by saying he had to work harder. He responded by asking his disciples to ask God to send labourers into God’s harvest. The harvest was so rich, the work to be done was so great, that Jesus alone could not do it. Many labourers were needed, through whom Jesus would work.
That is why he went on to send out his twelve closest disciples to do the same work he had been doing, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness. Yet, Jesus knew that even these twelve could not do all God’s work that needed doing. Many more labourers would be needed. The Lord needs each one of us to be a labourer in God’s harvest. Each of us has a combination of gifts and experiences which the Lord needs to continue God’s work in the world today. Each of us has a unique role to play in helping the risen Lord to bring more of the kingdom of God to earth. There is a corner of God’s harvest that needs our labour. The Lord wants to work through each of us to bring his healing and life-giving presence to bear more fully on the world. None of us, no matter where we are on our life’s journey, is surplus to his requirements.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from Martin Hogan’s book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is Near to You, on your lips and in your heart published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
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Saint of the day: December 6th; St Nicholas, bishop.
Nicholas died in the fourth century. He was the bishop of Myra (Turkey) but nothing more is known about his life. Since the tenth century, widely venerated and frequently claimed as a patron in both East and West, his cult in the West was further ensured when his relics were moved from Myra to Bari (Italy) in the eleventh century. His reputation for generosity led to the custom of giving children gifts on his feast day, and thus to the Christmas figure of Santa Claus.
There are many stories about St Nicholas, especially about how how he became the original ‘Father Christmas’ – ‘Santa‘. He is the patron of pawnbrokers and sea travellers. Nicholas wasn’t above getting into a fight; they say he slapped the Alexandrian priest Arius at the Council of Nicea for denying the divinity of Christ and wasn’t too bothered that the other bishops put him in prison for it .
Most Children the world over are familiar with the red costume and the white flowing beard, but few, perhaps, know the true origin of our modern-day ‘Santa Claus.’ (He most likely did have a white beard and was very generous but his famous ‘red suit’ is probably more attributable to Coca Cola Ltd!)
John Murray PP tells some of his story here.
Stories and fables
In the Middle Ages, St. Nicholas was very popular. His cult was particularly strong in Russia, where he became the national patron, and several of the Tsars were called after him. He is also patron of Greece and Sicily and Lorraine in France. He also became known as the patron of travellers, since it was claimed that in his early life he had travelled to Egypt and the Holy Land. It was for his kindness and charity, however, that Nicholas became well known, and these in turn gave rise to the modern stories and fables.
Acts of charity
His parents had died when he was young, and Nicholas determined to devote his inheritance to works of charity, for he had been left fairly comfortably off. An opportunity arose, for a citizen of the local area had three daughters. This man was unable to raise the necessary dowries in order to marry them off, for he was extremely poor. The danger was that they would be sold off into the world of prostitution.
Nicholas heard of this and at night he threw a bag of coins in the open window of the man’s house. The eldest girl was soon married. At intervals, when the time came, he did the same for the second and third daughters. It was on the last occasion that the father spotted his benefactor, and overwhelmed him with his gratitude. (Interestingly, the story of the three bags of gold or money gave rise to the tradition of the three gold balls signs outside old pawnbroker’s shops!)
Message of Christmas
The real Nicholas was indeed generous with the goods of this world, as we have seen, and so, in time, his name became legitimately associated with the whole Christmas tradition of gifts and giving. He contributed to defending the great message of Christmas, however, in another, totally different, way.
The story is that Nicholas was present at the great Council of Nicea, which debated the issue of the nature of Christ. A priest of that era, Arius, had denied the divinity of Christ. Jesus was not God in the same way as the Father was God, he said, but was created by him. Nicholas saw that the message of Bethlehem and Calvary was being diluted. He called the heresy of Arius, which had given rise to the Council, ‘death-dealing poison‘. It is said that he even slapped Arius in the face, so strong was his feeling about this dogma!
The Council Fathers temporarily deprived Nicholas of his Episcopal insignia and placed him in prison for many years, but Our Lord and Our Lady appeared to him there. He felt vindicated, and would have regarded the imprisonment as a minor privation for having been able to save the true message of Christ and the doctrine of God becoming truly a man.
Resting Place
Nicholas died and was buried in his episcopal city of Myra, and by the middle of the fourth century there was a magnificent cathedral in his honour at Constantinople. When Myra and its great shrine passed into the hands of the Saracens, however, several Italian cities saw it as an opportunity to acquire the relics of the saint for themselves.
There was great competition between Venice and Bari, and the latter won. On 9 May 1087, the remains of St. Nicholas came to rest in this Italian city, which had a large Greek colony. A new church was built to shelter them, and Pope Urban II was present at their enshrining.
Story of Persecution
A thousand years later, and another Pope was visiting Bari. Pope Benedict XVI elected on 19 April 2005, chose Bari – and the Italian National Eucharistic Congress – as the opportunity for his first trip outside the Vatican since his election. The day was 29 May, and the feast was Corpus Christi. Pope Benedict chose the occasion to talk about a story from the early Church, when Christians were often persecuted for practising their faith.
The year was AD 304, and the persecution under the Emperor was at its height. In the town of Abitene – in modern-day Tunisia a group of forty-nine Christians were interrogated about their practice of celebrating the Eucharist. The local magistrate asked Emeritus, in whose house the Mass was celebrated, why he allowed this to happen. The latter replied, ‘Because they are my brothers and sisters, and I was not able to prohibit them‘. The magistrate continued, ‘But that would have been your duty according to the law‘. Then Emeritus responded with a phrase that rings true even after seventeen centuries: ‘I could not, because without Sunday we cannot live‘. Emeritus and his friends paid for their fidelity with their lives.
Nicholas’ Reflection : The greatest gift of all time
Nicholas knew that when God gives us himself it is always a total gift. The baby in Bethlehem and the man on the cross on Calvary were truly Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And when he said, ‘This is my body… This is my blood,‘ he was offering us nothing less than the life of God himself. The man who gave generously to others, the bishop who opposed Arius, the saint who celebrated the Eucharist, knew that every Sunday is a gift of God.
As Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome also said on that 29 May, ‘to participate in the Sunday celebration and eat of the Eucharistic bread is a need for every Christian who can so find there the energy he needs for the journey of life’. St Nicholas realised so well that God gave the very first Christmas present, and that he gives it over and over again in every Mass.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (December 2005), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
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Memorable Reminder for Today
They err who think Santa Claus enters through the chimney. – He enters through our heart!
~ Charles Howard ~
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