Sunday, Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

Send us Fan MailSunday, 7 September 2025Sunday, Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Antiphons on p. 1235 and Readings on  p. 1239  of the Daily Missal and on p. 960 of the Sunday Missal.First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18bResponsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 & 17 (R. 1)R/. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.You turn man back to dust, and say, “Return, O children of men.” To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, or like a watch in the night.You sweep them away like a dream, like grass which is fresh in the morning. In the morning it sprouts and is fresh; by evening it withers and fades.Then teach us to number our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Turn back, O Lord! How long? Show pity to your servants.At dawn, fill us with your merciful love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days. Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us; give success to the work of our hands. O give success to the work of our hands.R/. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.Second Reading: Philemon 9b-10.12.17Brothers and Sisters: I, Paul, an ambassador  and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,  whose father I have become in my imprisonment. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.  I would have been glad to keep him with me,  in order that he might serve me on your behalf  during my imprisonment for the Gospel;  but I preferred to do nothing without your consent  in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion  but of your own free will. Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while,  that you might have him back forever,  no longer as a slave but more than a slave,  as a beloved brother,  especially to me but how much more to you,  both in the flesh and in the Lord.  So if you consider me your partner,  receive him as you would receive me.Gospel: Luke 14:25-33At that time:  Great multitudes accompanied Jesus;  and he turned and said to them,  “If anyone comes to me  and does not hate his own father and mother  and wife and children and brothers and sisters,  yes, and even his own life,  he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me,  cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower,  does not first sit down and count the cost,  whether they have enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when they have laid a foundation  and is not able to finish,  all who see it begin to mock him, saying,  ‘This person began to build,  and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going to encounter another king in war,  will not sit down first and take counsel  whether he is able with ten thousand  to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off,  he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace.  So, therefore,  whoever of you does not renounce all that they have  cannot be my disciple.