DAILY READINGS

SUNDAY MASS READINGS

Sunday 10 May 2026

6th Sunday of Easter

Liturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).

Readings at Mass

*If the Ascension of the Lord is going to be celebrated next Sunday, the alternative Second Reading and Gospel shown here (which would otherwise have been read on that Sunday) may be used today*

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*First reading*
*Acts 8:5-8,14-17*

They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit

Philip went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, and they went down there, and prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

*Commentary*

*The story of Acts is the spread of the Gospel to ‘the ends of the earth’. The first few chapters described the ideal Church at Jerusalem. All that was shattered by the persecution which erupted into Stephen’s martyrdom. The effect of things getting too hot in Jerusalem is that the Word of the Lord begins to spread beyond the city, and first to Samaria, the country region just north of Jerusalem. The peace of God’s Kingdom comes to the Samaritans in the form of liberation from sickness and the torment of various diseases. Luke notes for us the joy which this brings, a joy which is the sign of the Kingship of God. It is notable that the distinction between the gift of faith and the fuller gift of the Spirit is already marked in the same way as the distinction in the modern Church between baptism and confirmation. The apostles come to administer the sacrament, just as nowadays the bishop comes, marking the unity of the Church and the special position of the successors of the apostles*

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*Responsorial Psalm*
*Psalm 65(66):1-7,16,20*

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!

Cry out with joy to God all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: ‘How tremendous your deeds!

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!

‘Before you all the earth shall bow;
shall sing to you, sing to your name!’
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among men.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!

He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the river dry-shod.
Let our joy then be in him;
he rules for ever by his might.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!

Come and hear, all who fear God.
I will tell what he did for my soul:
Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer
nor withhold his love from me.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!

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*Second reading*
*1 Peter 3:15-18*

In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life

Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander you when you are living a good life in Christ may be proved wrong in the accusations that they bring. And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.
Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life.

*Commentary*

*This final reading from the first Letter of Peter gives a heartening model for defence in persecution. In modern society any persecution faced is more likely to be verbal mockery or contempt than blood-shedding. A Christian stance on moral issues can so easily incur charges of narrow-mindedness or blindness. It is not always easy to keep one’s temper and give a fair and helpful reply ‘with courtesy and respect’, expressing the consequences of the Christian hope. Such a reply just might strike a chord deep down, rather than an explosive or sarcastic riposte, which merely deepens the divide. This can be a real and important Christian witness. The final sentences of the reading are helpful here, for the accounts of Jesus’ trial stress that Jesus himself was silent ‘like a lamb before its shearers’ as the Suffering Servant of the Lord, in fulfilment of the scriptures. The passion account is full of irony and mockery, from the High Priest, from Pilate, from the soldiers; but if Jesus himself did not explode at the false accusations and mockery, but retained his dignified silence, we too should keep our cool and reply with courtesy*

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*Gospel Acclamation*
*Jn14:23*

Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him.’
Alleluia!

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*EITHER: ——–*

*Gospel*
*John 14:15-21*

I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you for ever,
that Spirit of truth
whom the world can never receive
since it neither sees nor knows him;
but you know him,
because he is with you, he is in you.
I will not leave you orphans;
I will come back to you.
In a short time the world will no longer see me;
but you will see me,
because I live and you will live.
On that day you will understand that I am in my Father
and you in me and I in you.
Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them
will be one who loves me;
and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I shall love him and show myself to him.’

*Commentary*

*Only in John is the Spirit whom the Father will send called ‘the Advocate’ or ‘the Paraclete’. Both names have the same derivation and the same meaning, but the former is from the Latin words, the latter from the Greek. It means someone ‘called to one’s side’ as a helper, principally as a defender in a lawsuit. The word ‘Paraclete’ also suggests comfort and strength, as implied in the quality paraclesis or perseverance. In the discourse after the Last Supper, when Jesus is preparing his disciples for their future task, there are four separate sayings about the Paraclete. The Paraclete is sent both by Jesus and by the Father, but always from the Father’s side. The Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, will teach the disciples everything and lead them into all truth, witnessing to the Father. The Paraclete is ‘another Paraclete’, that is, other than Jesus, who will make Jesus present when Jesus is no longer physically with them. The close link and interplay between these three figures gives us not only the beginnings of the theology of the Trinity, but also a lasting confidence that Jesus is never absent from his Church. With the guidance and patronage of the Paraclete the Church enters more and more deeply into the understanding of the divine mystery*

*OR: ——–*

*Gospel*
*John 17:1-11*

Father, it is time for you to glorify me

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

‘Father, the hour has come:
glorify your Son
so that your Son may glorify you;
and, through the power over all mankind that you have given him,
let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.
And eternal life is this:
to know you,
the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
I have glorified you on earth
and finished the work that you gave me to do.
Now, Father, it is time for you to glorify me
with that glory I had with you
before ever the world was.
I have made your name known
to the men you took from the world to give me.
They were yours and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now at last they know
that all you have given me comes indeed from you;
for I have given them the teaching you gave to me,
and they have truly accepted this, that I came from you,
and have believed that it was you who sent me.
I pray for them;
I am not praying for the world
but for those you have given me,
because they belong to you:
all I have is yours
and all you have is mine,
and in them I am glorified.
I am not in the world any longer,
but they are in the world,
and I am coming to you.’

*Commentary*

*The final chapter of the discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper sums up the life and purpose of Jesus. It is strikingly modelled on the ‘Our Father’. It is shot through with the warmth of the relationship of Jesus to his Father, with six invocations of the ‘Father’, and with the fact that Jesus came to do the will of the Father. ‘Thy Kingdom come’ is represented by the typical Johannine emphasis of knowing the Father. But most striking of all is the stress on the glorification of Jesus. The earliest kerygma about the Resurrection, as we have it in Paul’s writings, is not about the empty tomb, but is about the glory of the risen Christ, that Christ is lifted up to his full participation in the divine glory of the Father. The hymn in Colossians puts him as first-born in creation and now first-born from the dead, so that he can be first in every way. In Philippians declares that he must receive the homage of bending the knee in the worship due only to God. This is not blasphemy, for it is ‘to the glory of the Father’ that the Risen Christ should share in this glory. In a way this gospel reading is a meditation on the effects or the culmination of the Ascension for the Risen Christ*
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