*MARCH 2ND 2025.* *EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C.* *LITURGICAL COLOUR: GREEN 💚.* *THEME OF THE SUNDAY:* ```BE CAREFUL OF SO-CALLED ‘MASTERS’!``` *_The first reading gives us wise counsel. To ascertain what is in the heart of a person we should let them speak and we should listen carefully to what they say. The gospel gives us a series of “sayings” of Jesus about the “masters” of the Christian community. We should listen to what they say to see the store from which they draw their words, from the store of the Master or from the rubbish heap of their passions? The second reading is about our imperishable and immoral body. In the world to come we will have a new language, used only for praising the Lord. Here on earth we use it, at times, to cause harm to others._* *ENTRANCE ANTIPHON:* Psalm 17: 19 - 20 _The Lord became my protector. He brought me out to a place of freedom; he saved me because he delighted in me._ *COLLECT* ```Grant us, O Lord, we pray, that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and that your Church may rejoice, untroubled in her devotion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.``` _*FIRST READING*_ _“Do not praise a man before you hear him speak.”_ _*A reading from the Book of Sirach (SIRACH 27: 4 - 7)*_ When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains; so a man’s filth remains in his thoughts. The kiln tests the potter’s vessels; so the test of just men is in tribulation. The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so the expression of a thought discloses the cultivation of a man’s mind. Do not praise a man before you hear him speak, for this is the test of men. _*The Word of the Lord....*_ _*Thanks be to God.*_ _*RESPONSORIAL PSALM*_ _Psalm 92: 1 - 2, 12 - 13, 14 - 15 (R.) 1a_ _*R/. It is good to give thanks to you, O Lord.*_ It is good to give thanks to you, O Lord. to make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your loving mercy in the morning, and your truth in the watches of the night. *R/.* The just will flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a Lebanon cedar. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. *R/.* They will still bear fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green, to proclaim that the Lord is upright. In him, my rock, there is no wrong. *R/.* _*SECOND READING*_ _“He gave the victory to us through Jesus Christ.”_ _*A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (1ST CORINTHIANS 15: 54 - 58)*_ Brethren: When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. _*The Word of the Lord.....*_ _*Thanks be to God.*_ _*GOSPEL ACCLAMATION*_ Philippians 2: 15d - 16a *Alleluia. Alleluia.* _You will shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life._ *Alleluia* _*GOSPEL*_ _“Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. ”_ *A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (LUKE 6: 39 - 45)* At that time: Jesus told his disciples a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” _*The Gospel of the Lord.....*_ _*Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.*_