Harvest Festival

COLLECT

Eternal God, you crown the year with your goodness and you give us the fruits of the earth in due season: Grant that we may use them to your glory, for the relief of those in need, and for our own well-being. We ask this through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. AMEN.

SECOND READING (Philippians 4: 4-9)

A reading from the letter to the Philippians.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Response: Shout for joy to the Lord.

1. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness,
come before him with joyful songs. R.

2. Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. R.

3. Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name. R.

4. For the Lord is good,
his love endures for ever;
his faithfulness through all generations. R.

HOLY GOSPEL (Matthew 6: 25-33)

Jesus said: ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.