Saturday, 22 November 2025 Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time, Year I

Send us Fan MailSaturday, 22 November 2025Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time, Year ISt Cecilia, Virgin & MartyrAntiphons on page 1900 and readings on page 1480 of the Daily MissalEntrance Antiphon.Behold, now she follows the Lamb who was crucified for us, powerful in virginity, modesty her offering, a sacrifice on the altar of chastity.First Reading: 1 Maccabees 6: 1-13A reading from the Book of Maccabees.In those days: King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that Elymais in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold. Its temple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned over the Greeks. So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not, because his plan became known to the people of the city and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed from there to return to Babylon.Then someone came to him in Persia and reported that the armies which had gone into the land of Judah had been routed; that Lysias had gone first with a strong force, but had turned and fled before the Jews; that the Jews had grown strong from the arms, supplies, and abundant spoils which they had taken from the armies they had cut down; that they had torn down the abomination which he had erected upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded the sanctuary with high walls as before, and also Bethzur, his city.When the king heard this news, he was astounded and badly shaken. He took to his bed and became sick from grief because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. He lay there for many days because deep grief continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying. So he called all his friends and said to them, “Sleep departs from my eyes and I am downhearted with worry. I said to myself, ‘To what distress I have come! And into what a great flood I now am plunged! For I was kind and beloved in my power.’ But now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of silver and gold, and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good reason. I know that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me, and behold, I am perishing of deep grief in a strange land.”The Word of the Lord.Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 9:2-3.4 & 6.16 & 19 (R. see 15c)R/. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;all your wonders I will confess.I will rejoice in you and be glad,and sing psalms to your name, O Most High.See how my enemies turn back,how they stumble and perish before you.You have rebuked the nations, destroyed the wicked;you have wiped out their name forever and ever.The nations have fallen in the pit which they made;their feet have been caught in the snare they laid.for the needy shall not always be forgotten,nor the hopes of the poor ever perish.R/. I will rejoice in your salvation, O Lord.Alleluia, Alleluia.Our Saviour Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.Alleluia.Gospel: Luke 20:27-40A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.At that time: There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote f