8 January 2026 (Thursday) / Thursday after Epiphany Sunday / Christmas Weekday / Thursday after Epiphany

8 January 2026 (Thursday)

Thursday after Epiphany Sunday.

Christmas Weekday / Thursday after Epiphany.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: First John 4: 19 – 5: 4

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 72: 1-2, 14 and 15, 17

Alleluia: Luke 4: 18

Gospel: Luke 4: 14-22

First Reading : 1 John 4:19‐5:4

We are to love, because God loved us first. Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets. We can be sure that we love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is – keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten by God has already overcome the world; this is the victory over the world –our faith.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 71(72):1‐2,14‐15,17

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

O God, give your judgement to the king,

  to a king’s son your justice,

that he may judge your people in justice

  and your poor in right judgement.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

From oppression he will rescue their lives,

  to him their blood is dear.

(Long may he live,

  may the gold of Sheba be given him.)

They shall pray for him without ceasing

  and bless him all the day.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

May his name be blessed for ever

  and endure like the sun.

Every tribe shall be blessed in him,

  all nations bless his name.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

Alleluia: Luke 4: 18
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
18 The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : Luke 4:14‐22

Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him. He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.

For our reflection today

This good news, which the Gospel says is addressed “to the poor” (v. 18). We often forget about them, yet they are the recipients explicitly mentioned, because they are God’s beloved. Let us remember them, and let us remember that, in order to welcome the Lord, each of us must make him— or herself “poor within.” It’s not sufficient like this, no: [you have to be] “poor within.” With that poverty that makes one say… “Lord, I am in need, I am in need of forgiveness, I am in need of help, I am in need of strength. This poverty that we all have: making oneself poor interiorly. You have to overcome any pretense of self-sufficiency in order to understand oneself to be in need of grace, and to always be in need of Him. If someone tells me, “Father, what is the shortest way to encounter Jesus?” Be needy. Be needy for grace, needy for forgiveness, be needy for joy. And He will draw near to you. (Pope Francis, General Audience, 25 January 2023)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)