DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

OCTOBER 30, 2025

THURSDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

FIRST READING

ROMANS 8:31-39

31 What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; 34 who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 108(109):21-22, 26-27, 30-31

Response: Save me, O Lord, in thy mercy.

But thou, O God my LORD,
deal on my behalf for thy name's sake;
because thy steadfast love is good, deliver me!
For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.

R. Save me, O Lord, in thy mercy.

Help me, O LORD my God!
Save me according to thy steadfast love!
Let them know that this is thy hand;
thou, O LORD, hast done it!

R. Save me, O Lord, in thy mercy.

R. Save me, O Lord, in thy mercy.
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GOSPEL

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

LUKE 13:31-35

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came, and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32 And he said to them, "Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.' 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

Jesus foreshadows his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"'And I tell you,' he says, 'you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.' What does this mean? The Lord withdrew from Jerusalem and left as unworthy of his presence those who said, 'Get away from here.' And after he had walked about Judea and saved many and performed miracles which no words can adequately describe, he returned again to Jerusalem. It was then that he sat upon a colt of a donkey, while vast multitudes and young children, holding up branches of palm trees, went before him, praising him and saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' (Matthew 21:9). Having left them, therefore, as being unworthy, he says that when the time of his passion has arrived, he will then barely be seen by them. Then again he went up to Jerusalem and entered amidst praises, and at that very time endured his saving passion on our behalf, that by suffering he might save and renew to in-corruption the inhabitants of the earth. God the Father has saved us by Christ."

(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 100)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.