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Daily Readings - 20/09/2026

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Ordinary Time Week XXV Green

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.’