Sunday, 27th February 2022, EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year C, Catholic Holy Mass

FIRST READING A reading from the first book of Ecclesiasticus In a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a man appear in his talk. The kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a man is in his conversation. The orchard where a tree grows is judged on the quality of its fruit, similarly a man’s words betray what he feels. Do not praise a man before he has spoken, since this is the test of men. The Word of the Lord. RESPONSORIAL PSALM R/ It is good to give you thanks, O Lord. It is good to give thanks to the Lord to make music to your name, O Most high, to proclaim your love in the morning and your truth in the watches of the night. R/ R/ It is good to give you thanks, O Lord. The just will flourish like the palm-tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar. R/ R/ It is good to give you thanks, O Lord. Planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of our God, still bearing fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green, to proclaim that the Lord is just. In him, my rock, there is no wrong. R/ R/ It is good to give you thanks, O Lord. SECOND READING A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Never give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain. The Word of the Lord. GOSPEL ACCLAMATION Alleluia, alleluia! Open our heart, O Lord, to accept the words of your Son. Alleluia! GOSPEL A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke Jesus told a parable to his disciples: ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye. ‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.’ The Gospel of the Lord. *** Prayer to St. Anthony O glorious Saint Anthony, we have gathered around you in this time in which the viral infection of Coronavirus is afflicting the entire world, the countries from which we come and in which we live. O beloved Saint Anthony we are in a debt of gratitude to you, for the good which you have worked in our favour for the health of souls and bodies. For all this we render humble thanks to God, and to you who intercede for us. O dear Patron of ours, continue to shower upon us those blessings which you draw from the most loving Heart of the Child Jesus, whom you lovingly hold in your arms. O glorious Saint Anthony, friend of God and protector of men, through your intercession we beseech the Merciful Father to dispel fear, heal the sick and deliver us from every danger. O great Saint, with all the gratitude of our heart, we entrust ourselves once again to your powerful protection. Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us. Amen.