Fourth Sunday of Lent
10th March 2024 (Sunday)
Psalter: Week 4
Reading of the Day
| First Reading | 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 |
| Response | O let my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not. |
| Second Reading | Ephesians 2:4-10 |
| Gospel | John 3:14-21 |
First Reading
2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days: All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy. And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. The king of Chaldeans took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfil seventy years. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 (R. 6ab)
R/. O let my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not.
By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat and wept,
remembering Sion;
on the poplars that grew there
we hung up our harps. R/.
For it was there that they asked us,
our captors, for songs,
our oppressors, for joy.
“Sing to us,” they said,
“one of Sion’s songs.” R/.
O how could we sing
the song of the Lord
on foreign soil?
If I forgot you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither! R/.
O let my tongue
cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
if I prize not Jerusalem
as the first of my joys! R/.
Second Reading
Ephesians 2:4-10
Brethren: God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Verse Before The Gospel
John 3:16
V/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ
R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ
V/. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
R/.Glory and praise to you, O Christ.
Gospel
John 3:14-21
At that time: Jesus said to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
