About Today
Sunday 25 January 2026
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday of the Word of God)
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the God who saves us, alleluia.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: Green.
Sunday of the Word of God
‘…At the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I proposed setting aside “a Sunday given over entirely to the word of God, so as to appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people”. Devoting a specific Sunday of the liturgical year to the word of God can enable the Church to experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world…
‘Consequently, I hereby declare that the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God. This Sunday of the Word of God will thus be a fitting part of that time of the year when we are encouraged to strengthen our bonds with the Jewish people and to pray for Christian unity. This is more than a temporal coincidence: the celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God has ecumenical value, since the Scriptures point out, for those who listen, the path to authentic and firm unity.
‘The various communities will find their own ways to mark this Sunday with a certain solemnity. It is important, however, that in the Eucharistic celebration the sacred text be enthroned, in order to focus the attention of the assembly on the normative value of God’s word. On this Sunday, it would be particularly appropriate to highlight the proclamation of the word of the Lord and to emphasize in the homily the honour that it is due. Bishops could celebrate the Rite of Installation of Lectors or a similar commissioning of readers, in order to bring out the importance of the proclamation of God’s word in the liturgy. In this regard, renewed efforts should be made to provide members of the faithful with the training needed to be genuine proclaimers of the word, as is already the practice in the case of acolytes or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Pastors can also find ways of giving a Bible, or one of its books, to the entire assembly as a way of showing the importance of learning how to read, appreciate and pray daily with sacred Scripture, especially through the practice of lectio divina.’
In other years: The Conversion of Saint Paul
Saul, the young man who looked after the cloaks of the men who were stoning St Stephen, grew into a dedicated and efficient persecutor of Christians. Today’s feast celebrates the day that Christ appeared to him in a vision as he was on the way to Damascus, reproached him for his persecutions and converted him to the true faith.
On them a light has dawned
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-17
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Reflection on the painting
Matthew presents the opening of Jesus’ public life as a sudden explosion of light into a shadowed world. He recognises in it the fulfilment of an ancient promise in Isaiah: a people long accustomed to darkness now find themselves illuminated; those living under the shadow of death discover that light has reached them. And what was this light?: Jesus himself.
The effect was immediate and magnetic. People began to stream towards him from every direction — from Galilee and beyond, from Syria, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea, and across the Jordan. Above all, those who were weary, wounded, and burdened were drawn to him. Matthew captures something electric in those early days: a sense of explosion of expectation, joy, and new possibility. That first surge of light, however, was not confined to the past. It has not faded with time. The same Jesus, now risen and living, remains powerfully present among us. Matthew ends his Gospel with the words 'he is with us always', meaning that the Light is til with us, always.
That sudden breaking-in of God’s light could be imagined as fireworks: a dark sky held in suspense, then, without warning, an eruption of brilliance that transforms darkness into beauty. It is precisely this moment that we see captured in Fireworks at the Castel Sant’Angelo by Joseph Wright of Derby. Wright, active in Rome during the mid-1770s as part of the Grand Tour, was fascinated by light, whether scientific, artificial, or celestial. He became famous for painting dramatic nocturnal scenes illuminated by a single, powerful source. Here, painted between 1774 and 1778, the night sky over Castel Sant’Angelo (with St Peters in the background) is suddenly pierced by an explosion of colour and radiant light. For a moment, everything is changed: stone, river, and crowd are caught up in the glow. When Christ entered history, his light burst into a darkened work, but unlike fireworks that glow only momentarily, His light is eternal.
Fireworks at the Castel Sant’Angelo,
Painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797),
Painted between 1774–1778,
Oil on canvas
© Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Trust
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday of the Word of God)
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the God who saves us, alleluia.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: Green.
Sunday of the Word of God
‘…At the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I proposed setting aside “a Sunday given over entirely to the word of God, so as to appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people”. Devoting a specific Sunday of the liturgical year to the word of God can enable the Church to experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world…
‘Consequently, I hereby declare that the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God. This Sunday of the Word of God will thus be a fitting part of that time of the year when we are encouraged to strengthen our bonds with the Jewish people and to pray for Christian unity. This is more than a temporal coincidence: the celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God has ecumenical value, since the Scriptures point out, for those who listen, the path to authentic and firm unity.
‘The various communities will find their own ways to mark this Sunday with a certain solemnity. It is important, however, that in the Eucharistic celebration the sacred text be enthroned, in order to focus the attention of the assembly on the normative value of God’s word. On this Sunday, it would be particularly appropriate to highlight the proclamation of the word of the Lord and to emphasize in the homily the honour that it is due. Bishops could celebrate the Rite of Installation of Lectors or a similar commissioning of readers, in order to bring out the importance of the proclamation of God’s word in the liturgy. In this regard, renewed efforts should be made to provide members of the faithful with the training needed to be genuine proclaimers of the word, as is already the practice in the case of acolytes or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Pastors can also find ways of giving a Bible, or one of its books, to the entire assembly as a way of showing the importance of learning how to read, appreciate and pray daily with sacred Scripture, especially through the practice of lectio divina.’
| The Apostolic Letter "Aperuit Illis" of Pope Francis |
In other years: The Conversion of Saint Paul
Saul, the young man who looked after the cloaks of the men who were stoning St Stephen, grew into a dedicated and efficient persecutor of Christians. Today’s feast celebrates the day that Christ appeared to him in a vision as he was on the way to Damascus, reproached him for his persecutions and converted him to the true faith.
On them a light has dawned
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-17
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Reflection on the painting
Matthew presents the opening of Jesus’ public life as a sudden explosion of light into a shadowed world. He recognises in it the fulfilment of an ancient promise in Isaiah: a people long accustomed to darkness now find themselves illuminated; those living under the shadow of death discover that light has reached them. And what was this light?: Jesus himself.
The effect was immediate and magnetic. People began to stream towards him from every direction — from Galilee and beyond, from Syria, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea, and across the Jordan. Above all, those who were weary, wounded, and burdened were drawn to him. Matthew captures something electric in those early days: a sense of explosion of expectation, joy, and new possibility. That first surge of light, however, was not confined to the past. It has not faded with time. The same Jesus, now risen and living, remains powerfully present among us. Matthew ends his Gospel with the words 'he is with us always', meaning that the Light is til with us, always.
That sudden breaking-in of God’s light could be imagined as fireworks: a dark sky held in suspense, then, without warning, an eruption of brilliance that transforms darkness into beauty. It is precisely this moment that we see captured in Fireworks at the Castel Sant’Angelo by Joseph Wright of Derby. Wright, active in Rome during the mid-1770s as part of the Grand Tour, was fascinated by light, whether scientific, artificial, or celestial. He became famous for painting dramatic nocturnal scenes illuminated by a single, powerful source. Here, painted between 1774 and 1778, the night sky over Castel Sant’Angelo (with St Peters in the background) is suddenly pierced by an explosion of colour and radiant light. For a moment, everything is changed: stone, river, and crowd are caught up in the glow. When Christ entered history, his light burst into a darkened work, but unlike fireworks that glow only momentarily, His light is eternal.
Fireworks at the Castel Sant’Angelo,
Painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797),
Painted between 1774–1778,
Oil on canvas
© Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Trust