Daily Readings - 06/12/2025
SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT or SAINT NICHOLAS
First Reading : Isa 30, 19-21. 23-26
The coming prosperity
30:19 Yes, 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.
30:20 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.
30:21 Whether you turn to right or left, your ears will hear these words behind you, ‘This is the way, follow it’.
30:23 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.
30:24 Oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat a salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.
30:25 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.
30:26 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 Yahweh dresses the wound of his people and heals the bruises his blows have left.
Psalm : Ps 146
R. Blessed are those who hope in the Lord
Hymn to the God of help
146:1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, my soul!
146:2 I mean to praise Yahweh all my life, I mean to sing to my God as long as I live.
146:3 Do not put your trust in men in power, or in any mortal man – he cannot save,
146:4 he yields his breath and goes back to the earth he came from, and on that day all his schemes perish.
146:5 Happy the man who has the God of Jacob to help him, whose hope is fixed on Yahweh his God,
146:6 maker of heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that these hold! Yahweh, forever faithful,
146:7 gives justice to those denied it, gives food to the hungry, gives liberty to prisoners.
146:9c and frustrates the wicked.
146:10 Yahweh reigns for ever, your God, Zion, from age to age.
Gospel : Mt 9, 35 — 10, 1. 5a. 6-8.
The distress of the crowds
9:35 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.
9:36 And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.
9:37 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’.
The mission of the Twelve
10:1 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.
10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
10:4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him.
10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: ‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town;
10:6 go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
10:7 And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.
10:8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.
10:9 Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with a few coppers for your purses,
10:10 with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the workman deserves his keep.
10:11 ‘Whatever town or village you go into, ask for someone trustworthy and stay with him until you leave.
10:12 As you enter his house, salute it,
10:13 and if the house deserves it, let your peace descend upon it; if it does not, let your peace come back to you.
10:14 And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet.
10:15 I tell you solemnly, on the day of Judgement it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom and Gomorrah as with that town.
10:16 Remember, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as serpents and yet as harmless as doves.
The missionaries will be persecuted[*a]
10:17 ‘Beware of men: they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues.
10:18 You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the pagans.
10:19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes;
10:20 because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.
10:21 ‘Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.
10:22 You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved.
10:23 If they persecute you in one town, take refuge in the next; and if they persecute you in that, take refuge in another. I tell you solemnly, you will not have gone the round of the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
10:24 ‘The disciple is not superior to his teacher, nor the slave to his master.
10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he should grow to be like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, what will they not say of his household?
Open and fearless speech
10:26 ‘Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.
10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.
10:28 ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
10:29 Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing.
10:30 Why, every hair on your head has been counted.
10:31 So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.
10:32 ‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.
10:33 But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.
Jesus, the cause of dissension
10:34 ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
10:36 A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.[*b]
Renouncing self to follow Jesus
10:37 ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me.
10:38 Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.
10:39 Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
Conclusion
10:40 Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me.
10:41 Anyone who welcomes a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes a holy man will have a holy man’s reward.
10:42 ‘If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.’