Daily Readings - 19/09/2026
SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading : 1 Cor 15, 35-37. 42-49
The manner of the resurrection
15:35 Someone may ask, ‘How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come back?’
15:36 They are stupid questions. Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life
15:37 and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of wheat or something like that,
15:42 It is the same with the resurrection of the dead: the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable;
15:43 the thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; the thing that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful;
15:44 when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit. If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own embodiment.
15:45 The first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit.
15:46 That is, first the one with the soul, not the spirit, and after that, the one with the spirit.
15:47 The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven.
15:48 As this earthly man was, so are we on earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are we in heaven.
15:49 And we, who have been modelled on the earthly man, will be modelled on the heavenly man.
Psalm : Ps 56 (55)
R// I will walk in the presence of God.
When the Philistines held him in Gath
56:1 Take pity on me, God, as they harry me, pressing their attacks home all day.
56:2 All day my opponents harry me, hordes coming in to the attack. Raise me up
56:3 when I am most afraid, I put my trust in you;
56:4 in God, whose word[*a] I praise, in God I put my trust, fearing nothing; what can men do to me?
56:5 All day long they twist what I say, all they think of is how to harm me,
56:6 they conspire, lurk, spy on my movements, determined to take my life.
56:7 Are they to go unpunished for such a crime? God, in fury bring the nations down!
56:8 You have noted my agitation, now collect my tears in your wineskin!
56:9 Then my enemies will have to fall back as soon as I call for help. This I know: that God is on my side.
56:10 In God whose word I praise, in Yahweh, whose word I praise,
56:11 in God I put my trust, fearing nothing; what can man do to me?
56:12 I must fulfil the vows I made you, God; I shall pay you my thank-offerings,
56:13 for you have rescued me from Death to walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.
Gospel : Lk 8, 4-15
Parable of the sower
8:4 With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, he used this parable:
8:5 ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up.
8:6 Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture.
8:7 Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
8:8 And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’
Why Jesus speaks in parables
8:9 His disciples asked him what this parable might mean,
8:10 and he said, The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that they may see but not perceive, listen but not understand[*a]
The parable of the sower explained
8:11 ‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God.
8:12 Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved.
8:13 Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up.
8:14 As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity.
8:15 As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Evening Mass of the Twenty-Fifth Sunday
First Reading : Isa 55, 6-9
The nearness and remoteness of Yahweh
55:6 Seek Yahweh while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.
55:7 Let the wicked man abandon his way, the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn back to Yahweh who will take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving;
55:8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways – it is Yahweh who speaks.
55:9 Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
Psalm : Ps 145 (144)
R// The Lord is near.
Aleph
145:1 I sing your praises, God my King, I bless your name for ever and ever,
Beth
145:2 blessing you day after day, and praising your name for ever and ever.
Ghimel
145:3 Can anyone measure the magnificence of Yahweh the great, and his inexpressible grandeur?
Daleth
145:4 Celebrating your acts of power, one age shall praise your doings to another.
He
145:5 Oh, the splendour of your glory, your renown! I tell myself the story of your marvellous deeds.
Waw
145:6 Men will proclaim your fearful power and I shall assert your greatness;
Zain
145:7 they will celebrate your generous kindness and joyfully acclaim your righteousness.
Heth
145:8 He, Yahweh, is merciful, tenderhearted, slow to anger, very loving,
Teth
145:9 and universally kind; Yahweh’s tenderness embraces all his creatures.
Yod
145:10 Yahweh, all your creatures thank you, and your faithful bless you.
Kaph
145:11 Kingly and glorious they proclaim you, they affirm your might.
Lamed
145:12 Let mankind learn your acts of power, and the majestic glory of your sovereignty!
Mem
145:13 Your sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty, your empire lasts from age to age.
Samek
145:14 Only stumble, and Yahweh at once supports you, if others bow you down, he will raise you up.
Ain
145:15 Patiently all creatures look to you to feed them throughout the year;
Pe
145:16 quick to satisfy every need, you feed them all with a generous hand.
Sade
145:17 Righteous in all that he does, Yahweh acts only out of love,
Qoph
145:18 standing close to all who invoke him, close to all who invoke Yahweh faithfully.
Resh
145:19 Those who fear him need only to ask to be answered; he hears their cries for help and saves them.
Shin
145:20 Under his protection the pious are safe, but Yahweh is destruction to the wicked.
Tau
145:21 Yahweh’s praise be ever in my mouth, and let every creature bless his holy name for ever and ever!
Second Reading : Phil 1, 20c-24. 27a
1:20 My one hope and trust is that I shall never have to admit defeat, but that now as always I shall have the courage for Christ to be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my death.
1:21 Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more;
1:22 but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results-I do not know what I should choose.
1:23 I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better,
1:24 but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake.
Fight for the faith
1:27 Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come to you and see for myself, or stay at a distance and only hear about you, I shall know that you are unanimous in meeting the attack with firm resistance, united by your love for the faith of the gospel
Gospel : Mt 20, 1-16
Parable of the vineyard labourers
20:1 ‘Now the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard.
20:2 He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard.
20:3 Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place
20:4 and said to them, “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage”.
20:5 So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same.
20:6 Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?”
20:7 “Because no one has hired us” they answered. He said to them, “You go into my vineyard too”.
20:8 In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first”.
20:9 So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each.
20:10 When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each.
20:11 They took it, but grumbled at the landowner.
20:12 “The men who came last” they said “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat.”
20:13 He answered one of them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius?
20:14 Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you.
20:15 Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?”
20:16 Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.’