Fifth Sunday in Lent

Invitation

May I draw your attention to:
the daily reading of the Gospel?

This invitation aims to share with you the joy of the Gospel.
Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.

Available every day.

Opening words:

For catechumens, Lent is a very special time.
They prepare intensely for Easter Vigil
and delve ever deeper into the meaning of their baptism.
In this Sunday’s readings, they discover Jesus’ power over death.
Just as Jesus calls his friend Lazarus out of the tomb,
so too will He call the catechumens out of the waters of baptism,
and they will enter into new life, reborn.
For us too, Lent is a time in which we rediscover our baptism.
Let us become disciples once more,
and open ourselves completely to Jesus’ words.
He also wants to call us to life and give us life.

FIRST READING                 Ezek. 37, 12-14
I will pour out my spirit upon you, and you shall live.

From the Book of Ezekiel

Thus says the Lord God:

“I will open your graves;
in great numbers I will bring you up from your graves
and bring you to the land of Israel.
“And when I have opened your graves
and brought you up in great numbers from your graves,
you will know that I am the Lord.
“I will pour out my Spirit upon you and you will live;
I will settle you in your own land;
and you shall know that I am the Lord:
What I say, I will do!”
Thus says the word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm                Ps . 130(129), 1-2, 3-4, 5-6ab, 7-8

Refrains
The Lord is ever merciful,
his mercy is boundless.

From the depths I cry out, Lord,
hear my voice.
Listen attentively
to my supplication.

If you keep track of sins,
Lord, who can stand?
But with you I find forgiveness,
therefore my heart seeks You.

I place my hope in the Lord,
I trust in his word.
I long for Him,
more than watchmen for the morning.

For the Lord is ever merciful,
his mercy is boundless.
He will deliver Israel
from its iniquity.

SECOND READING                 Rom. 8, 8-11
The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.

From the letter of the holy Apostle Paul to the Christians of Rome

Brothers and sisters,

Those who live selfishly
cannot please God.
But your lives are not governed
by self-indulgence,
but by the Spirit,
because the Spirit of God dwells in you.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
then he does not belong to Him.
If Christ is in you,
your body remains, through sin,
but your spirit lives,
thanks to righteousness.
And if the Spirit of God,
who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you,
He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies
through the power of His Spirit, who dwells in you.

Responsorial                      John 11,25a and 26

Praise and glory be to You, Lord Jesus.
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord,
whoever believes in Me shall never die.
Praise and glory be to You, Lord Jesus.

GOSPEL                  John 11, 1-45
I am the resurrection and the life.

From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

At that time,
there was a man who was ill, a certain Lazarus of Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the woman who had anointed the Lord with fragrant oil
and had wiped his feet with her hair.
The sick man, Lazarus, was her brother.

Lazarus’s sisters sent word to Jesus:
“Lord, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this, He said:
“This illness will not end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Jesus loved Martha, her sister and Lazarus dearly.
So when He heard that Lazarus was ill,
He stayed where He was for two more days,
but then He said to His disciples:
“Let us go back to Judea.”

The disciples said:
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone You,
and now You are going back there?”
Jesus replied:
“Does the day not have twelve hours?
“During the day, a person can walk without stumbling,
because he sees the light of this world.
“But if a person walks at night, he stumbles
because the light is not in him.”

So He spoke.
And He added:
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,
but I am going there to wake him.”
His disciples remarked:
“Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better.”
Jesus, however, had spoken of his death,
whilst they thought He was speaking of the rest of sleep.
So Jesus told them plainly:
“Lazarus has died,
and for your sake I am glad that I was not there,
so that you may believe.
“But let us go to him.”
Then Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples:
“Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

When Jesus arrived, He found
that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

Bethany was near Jerusalem,
about three kilometres away.
Many Jews had therefore come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them regarding the loss of their brother.

As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was on his way,
she went out to meet him;
Mary, however, stayed at home.
Martha said to Jesus:
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
“But even now I know
that whatever you ask of God,
God will give it to you.”
Jesus said to her:
“Your brother will rise again.”
Martha replied:
“I know that he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her:
“I am the resurrection and the life.
“Whoever believes in Me will live, even though they have died,
and everyone who lives by faith in Me,
shall never die.
“Do you believe this?”
She said to Him:
“Yes, Lord, I firmly believe that You are the Messiah,
the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
After these words, she went to call her sister Mary,
and said softly:
“The Master is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as Mary heard this,
she rose quickly and went to Him.
Jesus had not yet arrived in the village,
but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.
When the Jews who were in the house with Mary to comfort her
suddenly saw her get up and leave,
they followed her,
thinking she was going to the tomb to weep there.

When Mary came to the place where Jesus was,
she fell at His feet as soon as she saw Him and said:
“Lord, if You had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping,
and likewise the Jews who had come with her,
a shudder passed through Him,
and deeply moved, Jesus said:
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to Him:
“Come and see, Lord.”
Jesus began to weep,
so that the Jews said:
“See how He loved him.”
But some of them said:
“Could He who opened the eyes of a blind man
not have kept this man from dying?”
When He came to the tomb, Jesus was once again overcome with emotion.

It was a rock-hewn tomb, and a stone lay in front of it.
Jesus said:
“Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him:
“He is already beginning to smell, for it is the fourth day.”
Jesus replied to her:
“Did I not tell you that if you believe,
you will see the glory of God?”
Then they removed the stone.
Jesus looked up to heaven and said:
“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
“I knew that You always hear Me,
but for the sake of the people standing around Me
I said this,
so that they may believe that You have sent Me.”
After these words, He cried out in a loud voice:
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
his feet and hands bound with strips of linen,
and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them:
“Unbind him and let him go.”
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary,
and had seen what Jesus had done,
believed in Him.

________________________________________________________

Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCIS

On Care for Our Common Home

64. On the other hand, whilst this encyclical offers an opening for a dialogue with everyone to seek together paths of liberation, I wish to show from the outset how religious convictions provide Christians, and to some extent
other believers as well, provide important motivations for taking on the responsibility of caring for nature and our most vulnerable brothers and sisters. If the mere fact of being human moves people to care for the environment of which they are a part, “Christians in particular feel that their roles within creation and their duties towards nature
and the Creator are part of their faith”. It is therefore a blessing
for humanity and the world that we, as believers, increasingly recognise the ecological
obligations that flow from our convictions.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am