Entrance Antiphon
To you, I lift up my soul, O my God.
In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame.
Nor let my enemies exult over me;
and let none who hope in you be put to shame.
First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5. A reading from the prophet Isaiah
The Lord will gather all nations in eternal peace in the kingdom of God.
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days to come
the mountain of the Temple of the Lord
shall tower above the mountains
and be lifted higher than the hills.
All the nations will stream to it,
peoples without number will come to it; and they will say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Temple of the God of Jacob
that he may teach us his ways
so that we may walk in his paths;
since the Law will go out from Zion,
and the oracle of the Lord from Jerusalem.’
He will wield authority over the nations
and adjudicate between many peoples;
these will hammer their swords into ploughshares,
their spears into sickles.
Nation will not lift sword against nation,
there will be no more training for war.
O House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm: Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
- I rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem. (R.)
- It is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it is,
there to praise the Lord’s name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
of the house of David. (R.)
- For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
‘Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!’ (R.)
- For love of my brethren and friends
I say: ‘Peace upon you!’
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good. (R.)
Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14. A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans
The time has come, our salvation is near.
You know ‘the time’ has come: you must wake up now: our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted. The night is almost over, it will be daylight soon – let us give up all the things we prefer to do under the cover of the dark; let us arm ourselves and appear in the light. Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia, alleluia! Lord, show us your mercy and love, and grant us your salvation. Alleluia!
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44. A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Stay awake, you must be ready.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left; of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left.
‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
Reflection
REFLECTION by Nick Brodie (Leo’s Lens)
Pope Leo wants us to rediscover the urgency of the Church’s vocation to care for the poor and fight against all forms of poverty.
We have a duty, the Pope says, to ‘stand at their side and work actively for their integral development.’ In short, it is not enough to give to the poor. We have to lift them up.
‘Charity has the power to change reality’, he affirms, adding that ‘it is a genuine force for change in history.’
This aspect of the Christian life cannot be postponed. As the Pope says, ‘the dignity of every human person must be respected today, not tomorrow.’
Moreover, he continues, ‘the extreme poverty of all those to whom this dignity is denied should constantly weigh upon our consciences.’ There is no room in authentic Christian discipleship for ‘theoretical excuses’ that become obstacles to action ‘to resolve the concrete problems of those who suffer.’
Dogmatic belief in the efficacy of trickle-down economics and unregulated capitalism, the Church teaches, is misguided belief. We should never fall prey to the delusion that injustice is somehow a product of the natural economic order. We Christians are called to challenge such misplaced assumptions.
‘We need to be increasingly committed’, the Pope emphatically declares, ‘to resolving the structural causes of poverty.’
[Quotes from Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, 4 October 2025: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20251004-dilexi-te.html]