Catholic Daily Mass Readings and Reflections February 8, 2022
Reading 1, First Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
22 Then, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood facing the altar of Yahweh and, stretching out his hands towards heaven,
23 said, ‘Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, as loyal to the covenant and faithful in love to your servants as long as they walk wholeheartedly in your way.
27 Yet will God really live with human beings on earth? Why, the heavens, the highest of the heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple built by me!
28 Even so, listen favourably to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Yahweh my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant makes to you today:
29 day and night may your eyes watch over this temple, over this place of which you have said, “My name will be there.” Listen to the prayer which your servant offers in this place.
30 ‘Listen to the entreaty of your servant and of your people Israel; whenever they pray in this place, listen from the place where you reside in heaven; and when you hear, forgive.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 84:3, 4, 5, 10, 11
3 Even the sparrow has found a home, the swallow a nest to place its young: your altars, Yahweh Sabaoth, my King and my God.
4 How blessed are those who live in your house; they shall praise you continually.
5 Blessed those who find their strength in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
10 Better one day in your courts than a thousand at my own devices, to stand on the threshold of God’s house than to live in the tents of the wicked.
11 For Yahweh God is a rampart and shield, he gives grace and glory; Yahweh refuses nothing good to those whose life is blameless.
1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round him,
2 and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, keep the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow;
4 and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes.
5 So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?’
6 He answered, ‘How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the passage of scripture: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.
7 Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments.
8 You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions.’
9 And he said to them, ‘How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition!
10 For Moses said: Honour your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death.
11 But you say, “If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is Korban (that is, dedicated to God),”
12 then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother.
13 In this way you make God’s word ineffective for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this.’
Watch Holy Mass Monday, February 7, 2022
