Twenty‑third Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17
Second Reading: Philemon 1:9-10, 12-17
Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

First Reading
Wisdom 9:13-18
What human being can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills? For the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail, for a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the mind full of thoughts. We can hardly guess at what is on earth, and what is at hand we find with labour; but who has traced out what is in the heavens? Who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus the paths of those on earth were set right, and people were taught what pleases you.

The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17
R. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.

You turn man back to dust, and say, “Return, O children of men.” To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, or like a watch in the night.
R. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.

You sweep them away like a dream, like grass which is fresh in the morning. In the morning it sprouts and is fresh; by evening it withers and fades.
R. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.

Then teach us to number our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Turn back, O Lord! How long? Show pity to your servants.
R. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.

At dawn, fill us with your merciful love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days. Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us; give success to the work of our hands. O give success to the work of our hands.
R. O Lord, you have been our refuge, from generation to generation.

Second Reading
Philemon 1:9-10, 12-17
Beloved:I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother— especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

The word of the Lord.

Gospel
Luke 14:25-33
At that time:Great crowds accompanied Jesus, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

The Gospel of the Lord.