1Thess 3:7-13; Matthew 24

The Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Readings on p.1206 and Antiphons on p 1192 of the Daily Missal.

Entrance Antiphon
Turn your ear, O Lord, and answer me; save the servant who trusts in you, my God. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long.

First Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:7-13

A reading from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians

Brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction
we have been comforted about you through your faith;
for now, we live,
if you stand fast in the Lord.
For what thanksgiving can we render to God for you,
for all the joy which we feel for your sake before our God,
praying earnestly night and day
that we may see you face to face
and supply what is lacking in your faith?

Now may our God and Father Himself,
and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you;
and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love
to one another and to all people,
as we do to you,
so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness
before our God and Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

The Word of the Lord

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-4.12-13.14 & 17 (R. 14)

Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:

R/. Fill us with your merciful love, O Lord,
and we shall exult.

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.

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/. Fill us with your merciful love, O Lord,
and we shall exult.

Please stand for the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.
Watch, therefore, and be ready;
the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Alleluia.

Gospel: Matthew 24:42-51

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew

At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Watch, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
But know this,
that if the householder had known
in what part of the night the thief was coming,
he would have watched
and would not have let his house be broken into.
Therefore you also must be ready;
for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant,
whom his master has set over his household,
to give them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant
whom his master when he comes will find so doing.
Truly, I say to you,
he will set him over all his possessions.
But if that wicked servant says to himself,
‘My master is delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eats and drinks with the drunken,
the master of that servant will come
on a day when he does not expect him
and at an hour he does not know,
and will punish him,
and put him with the hypocrites;
there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”

The Gospel of the Lord

Communion Antiphon
The earth is replete with the fruits of your work, O Lord; you bring forth bread from the earth, and wine to cheer the heart.