Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection October 08, 2025
Wednesday – 27th Week in Ordinary Time
08th October 2025 (Wednesday)
Psalter: Week 3
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Jonah 4:1-11
It displeased Jonah exceedingly, [that God did not do the evil which he had said he would do to Nineveh], and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Psalm 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10 (R. see 15)
R/. You are slow to anger, O Lord, and abundant in mercy.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. You have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
R/. Alleluia
Gospel: Luke 11:1-4
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Wednesday – 27th Week in Ordinary Time
Main Point: True prayer is never confined to the spiritual domain alone but outflows into all the spheres of life and changes the whole person
1. Often prayer appears to intend to change God’s intention and action. I get sick and I pray that sickness is healed. I fail and I pray to taste success. I am discouraged and I pray to be encouraged. I feel to give up and I pray for perseverance. In all these, it is not so much changing God’s mind but for changing our own person and life- situation.
2. True prayer is deeply trusting and confiding in God being “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” as Jonah in the first reading acknowledges. God never intends evil as punishment. He allows evil either for our purification or sanctification. That is, suffering is a way of just reparation for our sins or is a way of holiness offering for the salvation of others.
3. True prayer, on one hand, purifies us and on the other hand, sanctifies us. In humility and repentance, we seek His forgiveness. And once forgiven and purified, we also strive to become like Him, in sanctity and similarity.
4. This fosters in us a spirit of one family of God’s children in the midst of a culture of disunity and dissension. It makes us commit ourselves to work to spread God’s kingdom by doing always His holy will in the midst of petty and ill-motivated kingdoms. It fills us with the spirit of contentment in the midst of greed and accumulation.
5. Further, in the midst of a culture of grudge and retaliation, true prayer helps us to become merciful and forgiving, just as God is infinitely merciful and just as we receive an abundance of forgiveness from God and from others. It also solidifies us to remain firm amidst all evil pressures and temptations.
My Practice: The great prayer “Our Father” does not teach us some formulations for reciting a prayer. Rather, it teaches us the spirit and end of all our prayers. It betters our person and life.
