Daily Mass Readings For Monday, March 31, 2025
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Reading I:
Isaiah 65:17-21
Verse before the Gospel:
Amos 5:14
Gospel:
John 4:43-54
Liturgical vestments: Purple
Monday, March 31, 2025: Readings & Responsorial Psalm & Gospel
Each day, the Mass readings invite us into a deeper encounter with God. Through Scripture, we hear His voice speaking to our hearts, guiding us, comforting us, and calling us to a life of holiness. The Word of God is not just a story from the past; it is alive, relevant, and transformative.
Every reading is an opportunity for grace. Some days, the words challenge us to grow; other days, they console us in our struggles. But always, they nourish our souls, strengthening our faith and drawing us closer to Christ.
Let us open our hearts to the Word of God daily. May we not just hear it but live it, allowing it to shape our actions and deepen our love for Him. Lord, speak to us today, and help us to follow You more faithfully. Amen.
Reading I
Isaiah 65:17-21
Thus says the LORD:
Lo, I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
The things of the past shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness
in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.
No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,
or the sound of crying;
No longer shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;
He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,
and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
They shall live in the houses they build,
and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.
Verse before the Gospel
Amos 5:14
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and the LORD will be with you.
At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.
Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.
Reflection
“In the case of the centurion faith had been perfected, and therefore He undertook to go, that we might learn the rightmindedness of the man; but here the nobleman's faith was imperfect and he knew not yet clearly that even when absent He could heal. He shows that this man might gain faith from Jesus not going.” (Saint John Chrysostom)
“Do you think that God will not listen to us if we pray to him with insistence? He is always listening and he knows everything about us lovingly. We battle with him beside us, and our weapon is prayer which makes us feel his presence beside us.” (Francis)
“The Gospels were written by men who were among the first to have the faith and wanted to share it with others. Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see and make others see the traces of his mystery in all his earthly life (…). His deeds, miracles and words all revealed that ‘in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily’ (Col 2:9) (…) What was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine sonship and redemptive mission.” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 515)
Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe”. The official, instead of remaining silent, goes forward and says to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies”. And Jesus answers, “Go, your son will live”. It takes three things to make a true prayer. The first is faith: “If you have no faith…” And very often, prayer is merely oral, made using the mouth, but it does not come from the faith of the heart; or it is a weak faith… The second condition that Jesus teaches us is perseverance. Some ask, but grace does not come: they do not have this perseverance, because in the end they do not need it, or they do not have faith. Take prayer seriously, not like parrots: blah blah blah and nothing more. Jesus Himself rebukes us: “Do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words” (see Mt 6:7-8). No, it is perseverance, there. It is faith. And the third thing that God wants in prayer is courage. Someone might think: does it take courage to pray and to stay before the Lord? It does. The courage to stay there asking and going ahead. This virtue of courage is so necessary. Not only for apostolic action but also for prayer. (Santa Marta, 23 March 2020)
Saint of the Day
According to tradition, St. Balbina was the daughter of St. Quirinus, a Roman tribune. Father and daughter were baptized by Pope St. Alexander I. Under the Emperor Hadrian, they were arrested, tortured, and ultimately beheaded, probably around the year 130. Saint Balbina was buried on the Via Appia.
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