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Mass Readings

Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 26, 2006

(Mass Readings from the New Calendar)
To read the homily on these Mass Readings, click here.

1st Reading (2 Chr. 36:14–16, 19–23)

A reading from the Second Book of Chronicles

  1. At that time all the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

  2. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling–place;

  3. but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.

  4. Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldéans, whose army burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels.

  5. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,

  6. to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

  7. In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfilment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom and also declared in a written edict:

  8. ‘Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up.’

Short Pause

V. The Word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps. 137:1–6)

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

  1. By the rivers of Babylon—
    there we sat down and there we wept
    when we remembered Zion.

  2. On the willows there
    we hung up our harps.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

  1. For there our captors
    asked us for songs,
    and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
    ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

  1. How could we sing the Lord’s song
    in a foreign land?

  2. If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand wither!

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

  1. Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
    if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

2nd Reading—Epistle (Eph. 2:4–10)

A reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians.

  1. Brothers and Sisters,
    But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us

  2. even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

  3. and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

  4. so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

  5. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—

  6. not the result of works, so that no man may boast.

  7. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Short Pause

V. The Word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.

Gospel (Jn. 3:14–21)

V. The Lord be with you.
R. And also with you.
V. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John.
R. Glory to you, O Lord.

  1. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

  2. that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

  3. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

  4. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

  5. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

  6. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

  7. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

  8. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been done in God.”

Short Pause

V. The Word of the Lord.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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