First Reading
Liturgy Of The Word
Reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses . God sets the time for birth and death , the time for planting and the time for pulling up , God sets the time for sorrow and joy , the time for searching and the time for losing , the time for saving and the time for throwing away ; the time for silence and the time for talking . God sets the time for love and the time not to love , and He sets the time for peace . What do we gain from all our work ? I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us . God has set the right time for everything . He has given us desire to know the future , but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what He does . So I realise that all we can do is to be happy and to the best we can while we are still alive .
The word of the Lord . All : Thanks be to God .
Responsorial Psalm ( Sung ) ‘ The Lord Is My Shepherd ’ ( Boniwell )
Second Reading
Reading from the First Letter of St . Paul to the Thessalonians 4:13-18
We want you to be quite certain brothers and sisters , about those who have died , to make sure that you do not grieve about them , like the other people who have no hope . We believe that Jesus died and rose again , and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus : God will bring them with him . We can tell you this from the Lord ’ s own teaching , that any of us who are left alive until the Lord ’ s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died . At the trumpet of God , the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven ; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise , and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds , together with them , to meet the Lord in the air . So we shall stay with the Lord for ever . With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another .
The word of the Lord . All : Thanks be to God .