Wisdom 9:13-18b; Luke 14

Sunday, 4 September 2022

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
Readings on p. 1239 and Antiphons on p. 1235 of the Daily Missal and on p. 960 of the Sunday Missal.

Entrance Antiphon.

You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is right; treat your servant
in accord with your merciful love.

First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18b

A reading from the Book of Wisdom.

Who can learn the counsel of God?
Or who can discern what the Lord wills?
For the reasoning of mortals is worthless,
and our designs are likely to fail,
for a perishable body weighs down the soul,
and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind.

We can hardly guess at what is on earth,
and what is at hand we find with labour;
but who has traced out what is in the heavens?
Who has learned thy counsel, unless thou hast given wisdom
and sent thy holy Spirit from on high?
And thus the paths of those on earth were set right,
and people were taught what pleases you.

The Word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 & 17 (R. 1)

Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:

R/. O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.

You turn man back to dust,
and say, “Return, O children of men.”
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
or like a watch in the night.
You sweep them away like a dream,
like grass which is fresh in the morning.

In the morning it sprouts and is fresh;
by evening it withers and fades.
Then teach us to number our days,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Turn back, O Lord! How long?
Show pity to your servants.

At dawn, fill us with your merciful love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us;
give success to the work of our hands.
O give success to the work of our hands.

R/. O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.

Second Reading: Philemon 9b-10.12.17

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to Philemon.

Brothers and Sisters:
I, Paul, an ambassador
and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—
I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment.
I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.
I would have been glad to keep him with me,
in order that he might serve me on your behalf
during my imprisonment for the Gospel;

but I preferred to do nothing without your consent
in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion
but of your own free will.
Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while,
that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave but more than a slave,
as a beloved brother,

especially to me but how much more to you,
both in the flesh and in the Lord.
So if you consider me your partner,
receive him as you would receive me.
The Word of the Lord.

Alleluia, Alleluia.
Let your face shine forth on your servant, and teach me your decrees.
Alleluia.

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

At that time:

Great multitudes accompanied Jesus;
and he turned and said to them,
“If anyone comes to me
and does not hate his own father and mother
and wife and children and brothers and sisters,
yes, and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me,
cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower,
does not first sit down and count the cost,
whether they have enough to complete it?
Otherwise, when they have laid a foundation
and is not able to finish,
all who see it begin to mock him, saying,
‘This person began to build,
and was not able to finish.’

Or what king, going to encounter another king in war,
will not sit down first and take counsel
whether he is able with ten thousand
to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
And if not, while the other is yet a great way off,
he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace.
So, therefore,
whoever of you does not renounce all that they have
cannot be my disciple.

The Gospel of the Lord.