Saturday, 6th Week of Easter

FIRST READING

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles     18:23-28
Apollos demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Paul came down to Antioch where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers.

An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet, though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual earnestness and was accurate in all the details he taught about Jesus, he had only experienced the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak boldly in the synagogue, they took an interest in him and gave him further instruction about the Way.

When Apollos thought of crossing over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote asking the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived there he was able by God's grace to help the believers considerably by the energetic way he refuted the Jews in public and demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm  Ps 46:2-3,8-10. Rv 8
Response                        God is king of all the earth.
Or                                     Alleluia!

1. All peoples, clap your hands,
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all the earth.               Response

2. God is king of all the earth.
Sing praise with all your skill.
God is king over the nations:
God reigns on his holy throne.           Response

3. The princes of the peoples are assembled
with the people of Abraham's God.
The rulers of the earth belong to God,
to God who reigns over all.                  Response

Gospel Acclamation              Jn 14:66
Alleluia, alleluia!
I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you forever. Alleluia!

or                                                    Jn 16: 28
Alleluia, alleluia!
'I came from the Father and have come into the world
and now I leave the world to go to the Father.'
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John    16:23-28
Glory to you, O Lord
The Father loves you for loving me and believing.

Jesus said to his disciples:

'I tell you most solemnly,
anything you ask for from the Father
he will grant in my name.

'Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.
Ask and you will receive,
and so your joy will be complete.
I have been telling you all this in metaphors,
the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in metaphors;
but tell you about the Father in plain words.
When that day comes you will ask in my name;
and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you,
because the Father himself loves you
for loving me and believing that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world
and now I leave the world to go to the Father.'

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.




Gospel Reflection             Saturday,               Sixth Week of Easter            John 16:23-28

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is very clear about his identity, where he has come from and where he is going. He declares, ‘I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I leave the world to go to the Father’. There is a wonderful sweep in that statement. Jesus speaks of a great sweeping journey from God and back to God. There is a sense in which what Jesus says of himself can be said of every human person. We have all come from the Father and we are on a lifelong journey towards the Father. This is the essential truth about human life that Jesus has come to reveal to us. Jesus’ journey to the Father helps us to travel our journey to the Father well. He shows us the way to the Father. Indeed, he says of himself, ‘I am the way’. The way he travelled to the Father was the way of love. He gave himself in love to all, even to the point of giving his life for all. This is the way he sets before all of us, ‘love one another as I have loved you’. Jesus not only shows us the way to the Father, but he also empowers us to take that way. He has sent us the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to lead us to the complete truth, to lead us to God who is Truth. The Spirit leads us to God by empowering us to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We have an example of such love in action in the first reading, when a married couple, Priscilla and Aquila, gave further instruction about Jesus to a young convert, Apollo. They helped him to grow in his relationship with the Lord. Bringing each other closer to the Lord is one of the greatest loving services we can render each to each other.  We do that by revealing the Lord’s love to one another. Helping to bring each other to the Lord is a privileged expression of that way of love which leads us to the Father.
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The scripture readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/
The Gospel reflection is available with our thanks from Reflections on the Weekday Readings 2020-2021:  You have the Words of Eternal life: by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications  c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Scripture Themes
‘The Ascension of Christ means our own salvation as well; where the glorious Head has gone before, the body is called to follow in hope. Let us therefore exult, beloved, as is fitting, and let us rejoice in devout thanksgiving. For on this day not only have we been confirmed in our possession of paradise, but we have even entered heaven in the person of Christ; through his grace we have regained far more than we had lost through the devil’s hatred’ (St Leo the Great, Sermon 73:4). No other celebrations not even funeral Masses, are permitted today (see Lit. Note 8) The week of prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit recalls the waiting in prayer of the disciples with Mary.

FIRST READING

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles      1:1-11
He was lifted up while they looked on.   

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and I taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is' he had said 'what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, notmany days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.'

   Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.'

As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, 'Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.'

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 46
Response                             God goes up with shouts of joy;
the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
or                                            Alleluia!

1. All peoples, clap your hands,
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all the earth.                Response

2. God goes up with shouts of joy;
the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
Sing praise for God, sing praise,
sing praise to our king, sing praise.     Response

3. God is king of all the earth.
Sing praise with all your skill.
God is king over the nations;
God reigns on his holy throne.             Response

SECOND READING   

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Ephesians      1:17-23
He made him sit at his right hand, in heaven.


May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him.

May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers. This you can tell from the strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be named not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things under his feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God

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Optional  Second Reading, for Year B        Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Fully mature with the fullness of Christ.

I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.
Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it. It was said that he would:
When he ascended to the height, he captured prisoners,
he gave gifts to men.

When it says, ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended. And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God


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Shorter form Second Reading for Year B        Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13 
Fully mature with the fullness of Christ.

I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it. The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended. And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God

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Gospel acclamation         Mt 28: 19
Alleluia, alleluia!
Go, make disciples of all the nations;
I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL       

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark         16:15-20
Glory to you, O Lord
He was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place.


Jesus showed himself to the Eleven, and said to them, 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.'

And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.




Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.