Mass Readings For Tomorrow (Readings, Gospel, and Reflection)
Liturgical Calendar
Thursday, December 18, 2025: Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
Readings and Gospel
Reading 1 :
Jeremiah 23:5-8
Alleluia:
Gospel :
Matthew 1:18-25
Liturgical vestments: Purple
Thursday, December 18, 2025: Readings & Responsorial Psalm & Gospel
Mass Readings for Tomorrow – Preparing Our Hearts
As we look ahead to tomorrow’s Mass Readings, we are invited to prepare our hearts to receive God’s word more deeply. Each reading, whether from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Epistles, or the Gospel, is a message of love, guidance, and encouragement for our journey of faith.
Tomorrow’s readings remind us that God is always speaking to us—through His prophets, His apostles, and above all, through His Son, Jesus Christ. As we anticipate the Gospel passage, we reflect on how Christ’s words continue to call us to conversion, to deeper trust, and to a more profound love for God and neighbor.
Taking time to meditate on the Mass Readings for Tomorrow helps us to enter the Eucharistic celebration with open hearts. It allows us to be more attentive, more receptive, and more transformed by His grace. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds and prepare our souls, so that when we hear God’s word proclaimed at Mass, we may not only listen but truly live it.
🙏 Lord, open our hearts to Your word, and let it bear fruit in our lives. Amen.
Reading 1
Jeremiah 23:5-8
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
“The LORD our justice.”
Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD,
when they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives,
who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt”;
but rather, "As the LORD lives,
who brought the descendants of the house of Israel
up from the land of the north”–
and from all the lands to which I banished them;
they shall again live on their own land.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Leader of the House of Israel,
giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai:
come to rescue us with your mighty power!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.
Reflection
“You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer. The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent” (Saint Bernard)
“Let us allow ourselves to be ‘filled’ with St Joseph's silence! We are in such deep need of it! During this season of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate inner recollection” (Benedict XVI)
“The Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility. ‘That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’, said the angel to Joseph about Mary his fiancée (Mt 1:20). The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son’ (Is 7:14)” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 497)
Saint of the Day
Lived between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. on returning from the Babylonian exile, he denounced the external religiosity of his countrymen, far from God and justice. He exhorts us to prepare for the meeting with the Lord and foretells the coming of the messenger of God, John the Baptist.
Sent in the 3rd century to evangelize the Roman province of Gaul, he was the first bishop of the city of Tours, where he met with great hostility, so much that he had to celebrate in the catacombs. There, with courage and perseverance, he preached the Gospel for 50 years.
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